My grandfather would be asked by various buffet restaurant owners to leave after he had a plate of food or even not come in. He was a traveling salesman for much of his life and had a route he would travel across Canada to sell his product (high end bespoke clothing), take measurements and deliver his product. He ended up having his own clothing line and many customers who would order again and again. He learned to get by on a single good meal a day, and ate junk food a lot of the time. He wasn't a glutton, but if he was getting a steak meal, he wanted the steak, the fries, the veggies an a coffee, all at a good price. He would drive an hour to go somewhere where the food was good. I didn't really know him till after he was in his 50s, but he liked the Bonanza chain.
He was a great salesman, tailor and manager, and he really enjoyed a buffet. There was always some place he liked to stop in at. He would always tell me not to spend 69 bucks for a motel room, that I should sleep in my car or find some place where the toilet was down the hall and they wanted fifteen bucks a night.
This man always liked the things that just came with a buffet. He would drive to Vegas and really loved the big hotels buffets. I remember taking him to a really nice steakhouse in my hometown and he filled up on free bread, because after all, it was free. I bought him a hundred dollar steak and he took most of it home. Just developed a different attitude as he got older. He was never cheap, but he liked to eat well, and he knew the spots for a good feed.
He sure knew that if he was paying 14.99 on a AYCE buffet, he wasn't going to fill up on rice and noodles.
Chuck.