Jack in Baltimore spotted this notice at a Maryland Chinese restaurant with a $7 all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. (Overall, a pretty good deal, Jack says…if you’re comfortable the idea of eating “discount” raw fish.) But while most all-you-can eat buffets make their margins by filling you up with a bounty of cheap carbolicious fare, that strategy doesn’t seem to be working out too well here. (Either that, or the proprietors here are pretty hardcore purists about the consumption — if not the spelling — of their nigiri sushi.)
I’d like to imagine this sign (source: “the internet”) as the next in the series.
related: the all-you-can-spell buffet
167 responses so far ↓
#1
Brittany
I was at the most disgusting Chinese buffet I’ve ever been to the other day and regrettably couldn’t get a picture of the sign behind the counter informing customers they will be charged for ‘excessive waste of food’.
Maybe these are common but I thought it was pretty ridiculous for a buffet. I imagine it was posted due to the hordes of people who file into the place, pay, load up their plates with food and simply walk out.
Oct 14, 2009 at 1:12 am rating: +10
#2
Kelly
I generally charge by the ball, too… but the context is totally different.
Oct 14, 2009 at 1:13 am rating: +89
#3
leftfoot
I can’t bring myself to eat buffet sushi. I just can’t. It apparently is a good thing because the one in my neighborhood was shut down a month back for 37 health code violations. YAY!
(and by the way “nigri” could be taken as a very racist typo…)
Oct 14, 2009 at 1:15 am rating: +3
#4
jackie
That’s pretty funny – since sushi is Japanese – that they were serving it at a Chinese buffet!
Oct 14, 2009 at 1:24 am rating: +11
#5
angela
When dining at all-u-can-eat sushi joints, one must obtain a large bowl or two of miso soup in which to discard your rice. It is dark enough to conceal it all in the bottom of the bowl. Don’t be an amateur! I have yet to find a work-around for Mongolian BBQ “Do Not Smash The Meat” rule, and they watch over you like a hawk.
Oct 14, 2009 at 1:26 am rating: +77
#6
Vanessa
I’ve heard about other Chinese buffets with “no food wasting” rules. Maybe the Chinese just can’t relate to our culture of being obese, gluttonous, and wasteful. It kind of runs contrary to their traditional philosophy.
Oct 14, 2009 at 1:37 am rating: +24
#7
William
This note is COMMONPLACE in buffet restaurants.
What’s next? You’ll post a note you saw on a the entrance door of an Italian restaurant that says, “Please keep this door closed. Thanks.”?
Slow news day.
Oct 14, 2009 at 1:39 am rating: +7
#8
Canthz_B
Seems to me that if you want the raw fish and not the rice you’d be better off at your local fishmonger than at a buffet.
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:04 am rating: +6
#9
bowloftoast
I made my first million selling pink bristol board in the amerasian market.
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:07 am rating: +4
#10
Canthz_B
I think my Mom would have made a fine employee for these folks during her working years.
Ah, I can still hear her constantly screaming “Eat your rice!” during our dinner time.
Yes, she’d make a fine rice ball consumption enforcement matron all right.
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:19 am rating: +9
#11
becstar
I’ve never seen a sushi buffet before. I can’t work out if I am appalled or impressed. So glad America can still amaze me sometimes.
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:47 am rating: +1
#12
Canthz_B
Mr. Lee was proud of his new dollar per rice ball left on plate policy. On the very first day the policy was implemented, every plate was rice ball free. “Yes, this going to work out fine!”, he thought to himself delightedly. It wasn’t until post-closing clean-up that he found the rice balls neatly piled against the walls, under the booths.
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:52 am rating: +32
#13
pony girl
Musubi fight!!!
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:56 am rating: +3
#14
pony girl
*sigh*
I miss being able to buy musubi at 7-11
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:59 am rating: +1
#15
bowloftoast
The secret here is to take about 40 of these bad boys, eat all the fish, then mold all of the remaining rice into one GIANT riceball. That way the penalty is only $1.
If you still have an issue with the surcharge, you can throw the giant riceball at the cashier as a diversion when you run out the door.
Oct 14, 2009 at 3:18 am rating: +70
#16
Linda
Don’t you think there is an implication that people are stealing the food as well? Ie stashing it in their handbags or something to cook up at breakfast time?
Oct 14, 2009 at 3:23 am rating: +1
#17
Chris
Agreed with unholyghost.
Also, “American food” like spaghetti and veal parmesan? Lulz.
Oct 14, 2009 at 4:17 am rating: +2
#18
Sho
Sushi…all you can eat? Wow.
I can see how they’d have trouble keeping profits up. It’s not like a chinese buffet where they can serve up truckloads of noodles and chow mein.
Oct 14, 2009 at 5:25 am rating: +3
#19
Woman on the Verge
Good thing the rice is nice and sticky. You can just stick it to the underside of the table. Hey, it worked when I was six…
Oct 14, 2009 at 6:46 am rating: +4
#20
Woman on the Verge
Do you think they have someone guarding the bathrooms? I’ll bet there’s a sign on the stalls that says “NO FLUSHING TAMPONS, PADS, OR RICE BALLS.”
Oct 14, 2009 at 6:47 am rating: +30
#21
Havingfitz
Now this could be fun. Take about 30 pieces, wait until the guy at the next table gets up to take a leak, and dump all the rice balls on his plate. I also want to know what the charge is if I leave the fish and just eat the rice balls; will I be shoved onto a subway car with 2000 other people? Disgrace my ancestors? Have to be a contestant on “Wheel of Sushi”? They’re not very clear…
Oct 14, 2009 at 7:22 am rating: +20
#22
Makya
My favorite part is the exclamation point. “Enjoy!” A strangely aggressive suggestion.
Oct 14, 2009 at 7:26 am rating: +2
#23
Canthz_B
In Soviet Russia rice ball eats you!
Oct 14, 2009 at 7:29 am rating: +5
#24
blde
Those rice balls are f*cking delicious.
Oct 14, 2009 at 7:40 am rating: +2
#25
adam
The rice is the best part about chinese food. These owners are stern. Stern, but fair.
Oct 14, 2009 at 7:49 am rating: +5
#26
Joe 2
Reminds me of Catholic grade school: an “enforcer” nun would stand by the garbage cans in the cafeteria. Your tray had to be ABSOLUTELY clean or you’d be forced to eat every last bit of food.
Oct 14, 2009 at 7:56 am rating: +4
#27
fan
Sushi buffet? Not for all the rice in China.
Oct 14, 2009 at 8:32 am rating: +4
#28
Critical Grass
Eating the fish and leaving the rice balls is like breaking pasta, or barbecuing without beer and picanha… Or being private with yourself with no one watching you through the window.
That’s just wrong.
Oct 14, 2009 at 8:59 am rating: +11
#29
Sarah
Wow. There is a Japanese hibatchi /sushi place near us with a lunch buffet and they have almost the same sign. It must be a maryland thing.
Oct 14, 2009 at 10:35 am rating: 0
#30
Critical Grass
- No sushi for you!
- What?!
- Come back in one year! Next!
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:00 am rating: +2
#31
Wakarimasen deshita
Isn’t that spelled Nigiri?
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:01 am rating: +1
#32
Alex
I hate it when my girlfriend ignores my balls too…
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:09 am rating: +4
#33
pony girl
Spam Musubi – ‘cuz it’s tastier than one hamburger and it’s healthier too.
or so the song says, but I kinda doubt it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn4rZe1lbgA
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:14 am rating: 0
#34
kat
A couple of the Japanese places here in NYC have all-you-can-eat specials on certain nights of the week, with the same rules. It makes perfect sense to me, since the fish is the more expensive and less filling part of the nigiri — and if you just eat the fish and leave the rice, you should have ordered sashimi instead of trying to take advantage of the sushi special. *shrugs*
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:17 am rating: +2
#35
Lindsey
I didn’t know the Clean Plate Club had member fees. Or non-member fees, as the case may be.
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:35 am rating: +3
#36
shoutabyss
I had this experience at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant. It wasn’t all-you-can eat but you did get to fill your own bowl. Part of the fun was how you stacked the bowl. I usually put bean sprouts on top ala “Marge Simpson hair.”
One day I’m there eating and a family with two young boys is at the next table. The two boys had loaded up their bowls with nothing but beef. No veggies. And their bowls were overflowing.
The restaurant didn’t even complain.
You know what happens next, right? The boys nibbled a bit and left 90 percent of what they had taken in the bowl. What a waste!
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:46 am rating: +3
#37
darkstar1485
ok, so i am assuming that if i go to this buffet and leave the rice balls on the table or on a napkin, i get off scott free? give me a break!
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:57 am rating: 0
#38
Missy
That sign is so New York! There is an all you can eat Sushi place on the Upper West Side that my girlfriend and I often go to. Same “policy”. We’ve learned to outsmart these guys by bringing in small little shopping bags from Coach or Bananna Republic, topped with copious amounts of the tissue they usually pack on top of your bags. Just 2 girls out for some shopping and a “light” lunch, right? Hey, we did not come there to eat RICE all afternoon and get bloated! With the shopping bag wedged firmly between our right thighs and pocketbooks, we keep stuffing the rice in the bags in between all that tissue. Absorbs any moisture so the bag dosen’t leak. We are able to knock back ample amounts of the fish with no problems and still stay slim. Hey, they aren’t going to search our bags!
By the way, technically the rice is not always wasted since we go to Central Park and dump the bags of rice in front of a flock of pigeons….it’s gone in 60 seconds!
Everyone gets to enjoy.
Oct 14, 2009 at 3:56 pm rating: +3
#39
aaa
There’s a reason why I get my sushi from an actual (i.e. not buffet) Japanese (not Chinese) restaurant. :/
Oct 14, 2009 at 4:05 pm rating: +2
#40
mamason
The one time I went to an all you can eat Chinese food buffet, I took a portion of what appeared to be yummy sesame chicken and when I tried to eat it, it was hard as a rock. I decided not to complain, but tried to find something edible at the buffet because we were with friends and my husband always complains that there’s a 50-50 chance that I’ll complain about the food when we go out. So anyway… When the “waitress” said something to me about wasting food I kind of snapped. I vaguely remember being escorted out of the restaurant in handcuffs by two large and rather handsome police officers. Papa still gripes about the ultimate price of that lovely evening out, but I just smile, confident in the knowledge that a waitress somewhere is still finding sesame chicken bits everytime she gets private with herself.
Oct 14, 2009 at 5:23 pm rating: +14
#41
Gretal
I was at a sushi restaurant in Michigan which advertised a lunch buffet, and they had the same rule. I don’t think that it is uncommon or unreasonable.
Oct 14, 2009 at 5:25 pm rating: +1
#42
S.
Thankfully, the all-you-can-eat sushi places in Vancouver aren’t buffet-style: you simply order from a set menu, and they bring you as much as you order. If you don’t eat what you order, they charge you for that specific dish. Sashimi is not usually on the all-you-can-eat menu.
Oct 14, 2009 at 5:53 pm rating: +1
#43
choco
My local Japanese all-you-can-eat buffet has a similar sign.
“Customers will be charged for plates of food not consumed.”
But I totally understand because some people just waste food when going to a buffet.
Oct 14, 2009 at 7:13 pm rating: 0
#44
Neeners
Screw you sushi nazi! I’ll eat my g.d. food any way I please Martha. I paid for it.
After the transaction it’s none of your business what I do or don’t do with the food unless it’s illegal in your establishment and if it is, I’ll get it to go ass munch.
And hey, what if I decide to eat all the RICE and leave the FISH? Rolled up into little balls of course. Are you gonna charge me for them because it’s hard for those damn fish to swim with such big cojones?
Oct 14, 2009 at 8:09 pm rating: 0
#45
I don't get it
OK, there’s a misspelling but that rule is standard policy for all you can eat sushi (a scary concept and I don’t even eat fish).
Oct 14, 2009 at 9:28 pm rating: 0
#46
Stream of bat's piss
I ain’t eating anything that smells like fish.
No way.
No fucking way.
Oct 14, 2009 at 11:03 pm rating: 0
#47
Primal Scream Therapy
FORTY SEVENTH !!!1111!!!!111!!11!
I’m in prime position.
Oct 15, 2009 at 12:11 am rating: +3
#48
Renagade676
That’s what she said.
Oct 15, 2009 at 12:36 am rating: 0
#49
Michelle S.
Team Sushi Proprietor.
Eat it all if it’s an all-you-can-eat. Otherwise, go to a real Sushi Bar.
Oct 15, 2009 at 9:19 am rating: +1
#50
Greg Bulmash
Tell them you have diabetes and white rice causes dangerous rises in your blood sugar levels. You are not obligated to take an insulin shot or suffer the damage high blood sugar causes to your body just to protect their profit margin.
If they refuse you service or make you pay extra for the uneaten rice when they know you’re a diabetic, they’re breaking the law. You can sue them and have them fined.
Nov 2, 2009 at 2:08 am rating: 0
#51
InYourSleep
Oh…what if you have a rice dick already? then is it okay???
Nov 23, 2009 at 9:06 pm rating: 0
#52
Just some guy
If I order rice and fish and decide to just eat the fish, then kiss my hairy one for more money.
I already paid for my rice and fish, you can have the rice and sell it again but I’m not paying for not eating what I already paid for.
WTF?
Dec 14, 2009 at 12:52 am rating: 0
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