Indonesia
Dining Etiquette for All You Can Eat Restaurant
Pay for one but eat to full? Wow, this is too much a temptation for the eater.
The All You Can Eat concept is now available in big city restaurants. The rule is simple. Everyone must pay for one price and is free to eat anything the place has. Yup, correct! Eat anything and free for refill.
Chilren like us normally gets cheaper rate than adults. In Kafe Bromo, Sheraton Surabaya Hotel and Towers, 4-12 years old have 50 percent discount. While in Jamoo Restaurant. Hotel Shangri-La Surabaya, 50 percent off for children of 6-11 years old. Wait, even feeding frenzy has a rule, oke?
A famous food blogger Manda Prayoga shared some tips for when visiting All You Can Eat restaurant. The owner of www.sijagomakan.com is very often invited to rate new menus from many favorite restaurants. In one day she can go to 2-4 restaurants. “Personally i prefer All You Can Eat restaurant that serves dim sum. It has many variations, small serving and not stacking in. For me, it’s more like snacks,” said the writer of culinary column of Surabaya City Guide magazine.
Before starting the frenzy, read tips from Manda who is very familiar with food of many restaurants.
Check the Menu
Don’t just enter any restaurant with All You Can Eat label. Mind the menu, is it variety enough? More varied means more menus to try on. Yes the price may be a little higher, but we (especially Mom who gets to pay the bill) won’t be losing because there are plenty of meals to taste. Don’t forget to pay attention to the comfort of the restaurant, Superkids. What’s good of can have anything to eat if the place is too full? the crowd might finish the best meal before we taste it.
Empty Stomach
Yes, this is a logic rule we need to obey. Come when hungry, since we can eat all we want. When we are full or half full, why bother coming to All You Can Eat dine, right?
Light Ones First
Start the feeding frenzy with light meals. Try the cakes, salad and other appetizer in small servings. Don’t jump into the main course just yet. Once full, we will be helpless before other tempting meals.
Go Ask!
Sometimes there’s a meal served separated in special stall. To make sure if the menu is part of All You can Eat package, don’t hesitate to ask the waitress. It could be free or not.
Free Drink?
Some restaurants do not include drinks in All You Can Eat package. This means, we have to buy drinks because the eat to full package is only for the meal. Well, be caution Superkids. Sometimes a bottle of mineral water (which we consider the most economical) can actually at three times of a glass of fruit juice. There are also restaurants that provide refreshments for the All You Can Eat promo, but only in limited choice. We can take glasses of water, tea, coffee, or lemonade. But have to pay for the avocado juice, strawberry milkshakes and the likes.
Different Order
Some restaurants will take note of what we’ve eaten. Now, if there is a menu that ordered repeatedly, they sometimes say that the stock runs out or is being processed (cooked). Well, it is actually their trick to anticipate cross subsidy between among expensive ingredients menu (like seafood) with the others. So, do not keep order the same thing. Interspersed with the others before go back to the menu a while time later.
Finish It
Although that we may take as much as we want, do not need to go crazy or fear of running out. Take a little and refill. It is more polite than to pile up food on the table. Some restaurants would impose a fine if we make leftovers. The rest of the food that we leave of the table will be charged on us when going out. This warning is usually written in small letters in the book menu.
Eat on Site
Don’t get tempted to sneak out the cute cookies to take home. All You Can Eat is applied on site. If get caught, it is a sure fine. In fact, even if it’s just a little, we will be charged full.
Time Limit
Some restaurant applies time limit for the All You Can Eat Promo. Yes, we can take all the meal and refill as we like. But we can’t exceed the three hours limit because the restaurant is going to be cleaned up for the next dine hours.
Well, hungry already? Let’s hunt for the nearest All You Can Eat restaurant, now!
HAFIDA INDRAWATI
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGE
