Buffet horror stories, recovery and support group

I finally hit rock bottom with all you can eat buffet's. I've been trying to swear them off for years, which means instead of eating at them once a week, I only treaded a couple of times a year. Never again.

I finally hit rock bottom on Thursday last week. Wife was out of town, I'm left to my own devices and I'm hungry. I can do whatever I want and no one will be the wiser. No one has to know except me.

So I join the trough line at Golden Corral and strap on the feed bag.

I always like to start out with a sensible nacho/taco plate as an appetizer and then go from there. So I build my ultimate nacho's and slather on copious amounts of nacho cheese sauce like I always do. I get back to my seat and start eating. I noticed that the cheese was a little cold but paid no mind to it. I will say it was the worst nacho experience ever in the history of me eating at buffets. However even bad nacho's are kind of good, like other things in life. The nacho sauce was definantly "no bueno".

So after eating other crap and thoroughly stuffing my face, I start to leave. There was a manager in front of the nacho/taco bar and, upon my way out I let him know how dismal the nacho cheese was (but I did it in a polite way). He then points at it and asked "is this what you thought was cheese sauce?" I said yes. Then he informed me that it wasn't cheese sauce...it was eggs for omelettes! My response was "you gotta be kidding me" as I'm turning green. I pointed out that there was no label AND WTF is it doing in the middle of the taco bar and right next to the taco meat and chips?

I then started dry heaving and I abruptly made my way out the door. On my way out I was heaving and kakking and I puked twice.

I wanted to be mad at the establishment for stupidly placing omelette eggs in a taco bar area... never seen that in all my years. Not what I would call "best practice". Besides there was someone in front of me that used it as nacho cheese sauce as well. So I wasn't the only crazy one.

Instead of being mad at Golden Corral, I'm mad at myself for going to Golden Corral in the first place. Now I'm cured of ever wanting to think about going back to any buffet.

 

"Instead of being mad at Golden Corral, I'm mad at myself for going to Golden Corral in the first place."

Yep.

 

I got the meat sweats from golden corral from overdoing it on there steak there!

 

I once walked into a Pizza Ranch in a small town in Minnesota and it could have been an ad for if it fits it ships. The gluttony in that place was amazing

 

I don't frequent those establishments anymore, as I tend to glut out on the idea of "all you can eat". The only decent ones in my opinion were in casinos back in the day. However they are not the deal they used to be and are just as expensive or more than the other restaurants. Plus kids with snot hanging off their nose coughing and sneezing all over the fine cuisine, or scraping it back into the trough because they want something else

 

I probably needed this to happen to never go back. It drives me nuts when people waste food. I'm part of the "eat everything on your plate" generation.

The formula of misery for me is:

Eyes bigger than stomach + eat everything on my plate = overeating

I know it's the end of it for me when I can't differentiate between liquid eggs and nacho sauce.

 

Eating liquid eggs would give me nightmares.

 

I feel for you. Good thing about hitting rock bottom, if it doesnt kill you, is the only way to go is up.

 

Damn dude, that sucks! I’d be toying with the idea of a phone call to the local health dept. You could’ve gotten really sick! At the very least, their employees need to be retrained. It’s scary when you think about the caliber of employees that handle our food. Seriously though, think about it, they usually pay minimum wage. Not the best way to attract employees who might give a shit about doing their job.

 

They need to put cattle guards in front of the doors on these places. I think this would benefit humanity.

 

I was told that the eggs are pasteurized at least...this was right before I started dry heaving.

After I felt like driving out of the parking lot I didn't get any sicker. I guess I paid short term rent and left it all there when I puked it all out.

I consider it a close call and a "sign" that these places are not where to be. And they aren't cheap at all. It's false economy.

 

I have had better luck with Asian buffets. They are usually much, much cleaner. I typically avoid buffets like the plague though. I get sick thinking about everyone touching the same serving utensils then proceeding to eat finger foods without washing their hands. Also, seeing unattended children playing with food on the buffet carts.... No thanks. Fortunately, I have never contracted anything worse than a case of catastrophic diarrhea from one of these places.

 

I remember when this happened:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Rajneeshee_bioterror_attack

 

If most people only knew what the back of your typical asian restaurant kitchen looks like. Just ask the local refrigeration, hood cleaner, pest control, appliance repair, fire protection, beer, food distributor guy.

 

The only reason to eat at Pizza Ranch is tight fittin jeans. I have not gone there in three years, but most of the ones in MN/ND hire younger gals that wear tight fittin jeans. So tight that Conway himself would be proud

 

Oh man... don't tell me this I was blissfully ignorant.

Sounds like the patrons have tight fitting jeans too haha, assuming they can still fit into them.

 

man I like Golden Corral. Never had problem, this wont stop me.

 

good story and thanks for the warning...did the manager at least do something?

yep... I saw a kid put a big bunch of nacho cheese on his mac an cheese there...I was thinking that this was him...

 

The manager tried to offer me coupons over the phone...I said no thanks. I'd never use them. I told him to do something special for the nice server lady that waited on me.

I called them when I got home to let the mgr know that putting a raw eggs mixture in a nacho bar is not a good idea...didn't want it to happen to anyone else.

I'm going for quality over quantity from here on out.

BTW our Old Country Buffet has become cringe worthy over the years as well. The area where I live has become a thrift store economy. Retail stores go out of business and thrift stores have popped up everywhere. I do like thrift stores but it's a sad state of affairs overall.