"All you can EAT!" A regional/state thing?

SWTXBelle · #1 08-26-2008, 08:48 PM

The rural area where I lived in Tenn. was BIG on buffets - as my father said, they liked good eatin', not fine dining. I found the food to be mediocre at best.
Here in Houston, there is Pancho's Mexican Buffet - you can raise a little Mexican flag at your table to get more food. My high school students used to love CiCi's pizza - blech. Luby's cafeteria is not all-you-can-eat - in fact, most of the old-timey Southern cafeterias (Luby's, Furr's, Morrison's, Picadilly) are NOT all you can eat. And in my experience, the food is good.
I hate all-you-can-eat because I can't eat much - that, and the quality is just not good.

epchick · #2 08-26-2008, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Here in Houston, there is Pancho's Mexican Buffet - you can raise a little Mexican flag at your table to get more food.
...the old-timey Southern cafeterias (Luby's, Furr's, Morrison's, Picadilly) are NOT all you can eat.

I miss Pancho's!! I used to love lifting the flag, and the song they used to play on your Birthday! lol.

Your Furr's is NOT all you can eat? We have at least 3 here, and they are all, "all-you-can-eat."

We have A LOT of all you can eat buffets. I would definitely NOT call Applebee's, Chili's etc. "all-you-can-eat."

The "all-you-can-eat" places we have are: a few Chinese buffets, Furr's, a few Mexican buffets, Golden Corral, Cici's Pizza. That's all i can think of at the moment.

SWTXBelle · #3 08-26-2008, 09:57 PM

It has been so long since I have been to Furr's - I noticed they still have one in San Marcos - that I may well be mistaken, and they are all-you-can-eat.

catiebug · #4 08-26-2008, 10:17 PM

When I was living in Missouri (back in the late 1980s), I came home to Dallas for a visit. My friends took me to Panchos (I love me some Panchos - it's nasty but in a good way) for lunch and asked the manager if they could have the flag. He said yes, and they gave it to me. It's been 20 years -- I still have the flag; I keep it in my guest bedroom.

Quote:

Originally Posted by epchick

I miss Pancho's!! I used to love lifting the flag, and the song they used to play on your Birthday! lol.

While they have the usual Chinese buffet on every corner her in Connecticut, they don't have cafeterias -- like Furrs, Picadilly or Luby's -- up here. My mom came up from New Ulm (Texas) to visit and she was floored that we didn't have cafeterias. I guess it's a Southern thing.