Buffet during Covid
 

To start I have never been against buffet's but if given a choice I would almost always choose a prepared meal. Peoples ways and actions in buffets are just pretty horrible usually. Living in Taiwan our travel this year has been all local and the one thing that I think Covid has helped is making Buffet's much nicer. The policy on most places here is that you can only be without a mask when sitting down at your own table. Anywhere near the food you have to have a mask. A huge plus in my book. Secondly many places have one time use tongs, So each time you go take food you get your own tongs, take your food and then put them in a box to be washed. Each small section has its own tongs so you don't even go around with the same ones. Another big improvement. Thirdly the employees are much stricter about telling people what to do and how to behave which again makes things more clean and nice. I very much hope things stay this way after the pandemic.

Off course the problem of food sitting too long is still there as well as often the subpar quality of things.

How are things handled elsewhere, for example the Mexico resorts or Vegas?

That Taiwan method sounds wise.

I wouldn’t trust USA buffet at all. Combo of inadequate staffing and poor service. Just as buffets run out of plates, I can picture them running out of tongs.

I think the Brazil Quinos buffet is not occurring for now.

Are buffets even operating in Vegas and other spots? I believe they are all closed here in IL.

Any buffet would be a hard pass for me right now. I'd be more comfortable in Asia (and sounds like Taiwan has a pretty good approach to things) but it would be a HARD pass in most of the world, especially the US (and even more so in Vegas / Disney World / etc)

Buffets were a hard pass pre-COVID. They are an absolute pass during a pandemic.

If the Broadmoor can't even pivot to offer a safer Sunday brunch, there's no way I would want to try elsewhere in the US.

There are very good quality buffets available in the US. You just have to be prepared to pay for them. But I will really miss Sweet Tomatoes. It wasn't expensive but it was a nice option for something sort of fresh and healthy.

I love a good buffet. Not all the time, but one of the things I love about travelling is a massive buffet with tons of variety - even if I know it is not the best convenience.
Best one I ever had was at a hotel in St Petersburg Russia which had a vat of caviar you could basically serve yourself.

On to the present - was in Marrakech over the holidays. They had a lunch buffet and the way it worked is you could see all of the dishes and you just told the waiter what you wanted and then they would make you a plate. Seemed like a sensible compromise.
I have also seen pictures of buffets in the middle east (can't remember if it was Turkey or UAE) where the buffet is now all pre-portioned, and covered, items.

As a long-time veteran of the hospitality industry, the hysteria over buffets has always amused me. Some of the things people claim to be horrified by - well, don't go peeking into your regular neighborhood restaurant's kitchen, that's all I have to say.

Taiwan has really lax food safety standards compared to the US. Don't get me wrong, I go to Taiwan multiple times a year (well I did pre-pandemic), love the night markets, and was literally today half-joking about how I'd undergo mandatory quarantine just to go to my favorite buffets there. But the culture is definitely different and I'd feel a lot better if they adopted the same standards as in the US. The worst obvious example is how in recent years, many buffets in Taipei were encouraging patrons to reuse plates at the buffet due to eco concerns, something that is a complete and utter no-no under US standards. I truly hope the pandemic will have permanently ended that practice, much less any thoughts of making it mainstream.

A few Vegas buffets on the strip tried to run buffets under a 'server-gets-your-food' model, but it is simply unfeasible due to the increased labor costs and the reduced capacity from state regulations (honestly I'm amazed they even tried). The last holdout, Wicked Spoon at Cosmo, will close this weekend. I think there might still be an off-strip buffet or two running in this fashion, but not sure.

I have a colleague who is into fine dining but Sweet Tomatoes was actually among his favorite restaurants, which always amused me. But yeah, sad to see it go.

In the US, the Ritz Half Moon Bay Sunday brunch buffet was pretty good, though not sure if they still have it. In Vegas, Caesars is decent enough, I suppose. Hm, never tried or heard of Sweet Tomatoes, and should give it a try whenever I may get the chance.

I know of a few locations near me who, when they reopened after our months-long shut-down, had employees manning sections of the buffet, and they would dish up the food you wanted. I didn't try it, so I don't know how it was from a time perspective, but it seemed like a decent option to me as well.

How many people will be in close proximity to your food from kitchen to table? Three perhaps 5. How many people will be in close proximity to your food at a buffet? Hundreds.

I've worked in the hospitality industry too. It's one of the reasons I don't eat at buffets.

Spoiler alert: Sweet Tomatoes (aka Souplantation) will be nowhere close to the quality of Caesar's Palace buffet nor the Ritz Half Moon Bay. :D

That said, it will be 1/3 to 1/8 the price of either of those two. The food is non-offensive, so it's a perfectly fine place to go when traveling to a different city with a youth sports team.

It's all a moot point: the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in May.

Alas, I'm always late to the party...

There is much more to food safety than just how many people are in proximity to the food as it goes between the kitchen and the table. You know this since you worked in the industry.