Originally Posted by Chromie25

Interesting to see how one interprets the title relative to OP's thoughts. The spiral really depends on the type of restaurants and where in the world (literally) we are talking about.

Based my experience in Hong Kong my first thoughts of the death spiral would be restaurants that are on the verge of going under. Typically the restaurant starts off as an a la carte place, then starting to offer AYCE as a last resort solution before closing down. It's particular true for Japanese restaurants in Hong Kong as a friend of mine is a wholesaler/distributor that has a large clientele of Japanese restaurants. When one of his clients informs him and starts ordering foods/supplies as an AYCE style place he starts worrying about the client's ability to pay the bills.

I would imagine for OP's seafood restaurant, they weren't making enough money at $24.95 and raising the prices would drive people away from the restaurant in general, hence the solution was to stop offering the buffet.

For the example of the Japanese restaurant in Ontario, Canada, they obviously see the AYCE is more profitable and having both a la carte and AYCE at the same time is basically asking the kitchen staff to find another job.