Salad Bar Etiquette
Pressing question: How many times is too many to return to the Salad Bar in a very nice restaurant with a very nice Salad Bar?
This question came up yesterday as Jane and I were having an early dinner on our drive back from New York City. We didn’t plan to be among the “Early Bird” senior citizen contingent. It just happened that way. It was 5:00. We had been in the City all afternoon. The traffic on Rt. 95 was on the fringe of a nightmare. And we were starving.
There is a great restaurant right off the highway. Exit 11 in Connecticut. Been there many times in similar circumstances, but never as an Early Bird. Yesterday, as Jane and I took our seats, a very nice young waiter handed us a bunch of menus, including the specials and the Early Bird. He even smiled and made a funny little joke about all the menus. Jane and I laughed at his genuinely funny little joke and then studied the menus like ravenous animals.
Each selection came with the famous Salad Bar.
We ordered. We headed to the Salad Bar with its fresh selections of greens. Selections, as in more than ice berg. Then the overflowing delights of multiple veggies. And fresh bread. And soup. And nuts and croutons and shredded cheese and bacon bits and dressings all cold and inviting and clean and wonderful.
We returned to our table and devoured our voluminous salads. We weren’t ashamed. At all.
Until we both had the same idea. Another trip to the Salad Bar. OK. Should we? I mean, we had filled our salad bowls and eaten like we had never eaten before… and there were not many people in the restaurant at this early hour. It wasn’t like we could blend with the other diners and pretend to be making our first trip to the Salad Bar. Hmmmm. We wondered whether to use our same bowl or get a fresh one. Where is the list of Salad Bar rules, anyway. We decided to leave our old bowls and get new ones.
We returned to the scene of the crocks of wonder and took fresh bowls from the piles of bowls. And, we discovered, very conspicuously. We could hear our footsteps and and our short little breaths and the clink of the serving spoons as we filled our second bowl. We avoided eye contact with the nice people who were working the Salad Bar. We tried to silence our Salad bar noises and our footsteps that were becoming more and more thunderous. Was everyone watching?
Back at our table, we noticed immediately that our old bowls had been removed. Was that a hint that seconds are inappropriate and we are pigs?
Oh, well. We devoured our second bowls. When our dinners arrived, I couldn’t help but ask our nice young waiter if seconds are acceptable. He smiled his giant smile and said, “Oh, yes. It’s all-you-can-eat!”
All-you-can-eat? You mean, etiquette would have allowed a third, fourth or even fifth visit to this exquisite Salad Bar?
Could I have mustered the nerve to do that? Would you? Dish me some of your Salad Bar Etiquette!
You know what? If it’s all-you-can-eat and it’s included in the price, then go for it! That’s how the menu was designed and you have every right to enjoy! I’m sure it’s just that the typical early bird customers don’t usually partake in more than one trip so maybe you and Jane were an anomoly to them?
And, yes, I do know how to spell anomaly but I’m not yet awake
If it’s all you can eat then it’s all you can eat. It’s legal, and the staff was probably charmed, if not in awe, by these two very slender and in great shape ladies chowing down “like ravenous animals” did you say?
You may want to keep in mind, though, comedian Louie Anderson’s routine in which he treated himself to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.
After Louie had spent a long time and made several trips to the counter, the proprietor came up to him and said, “You go home now! You bin here FOUR HOUR!”
There is a Brazilian steakhouse by me that has the best AYCE salad bar, and I will take as many trips as my stomach can manage!
You bet! If you make a whole meal of the salad bar, you get your salad as your first course. Second course is bread and some more salad. Third trip is for the fresh fruit all GOOD salad bars have
Absolutely! All you can eat is all you can eat or all you care to eat. It’s one of the few times that you can “legally” pig out and do it semi healthy.
In my family, when we find a good salad bar, we have been known to make a second trip. Good for you girls!
Sounds like you enjoyed yourselves.
Only you Sharon can write about a Salad bar and make it a best seller! Well, my take on this is, if it is all you can eat, go for it! I do think a new salad bowl/plate is appropriate. I try to never take what I know I won’t eat. They probably appreciated you gals eating up so they didn’t have to throw out anything. I love a good salad bar and that one sounded like one I would love to go to about right now….1 hour til lunch! Oh, I do have a pet peave though at a salad bar, when I see the worker wiping around the crocks with a dirty dingy dishrag. Also, I think little kids should be with a parent when going to the salad bar.
If it’s all you can eat, then you can have as many bowls as you want, until they kick you out under that clause of “we have the right to refuse service to any customer”. Besides, most all-you-can-eaters only go up one or two times, so they make money off all THOSE people. Figure a party of 6, and only 1 or 3 of those people go for more than 2 plates…. yup.
Разгони тоску, окунись в зажигательные приключения с разврктнымп крошками. Они, как и ты, ищут отношений на одну ночсь. Не отказывай себе в удовольствии!