Is it impolite to eat a lot in Tabehodai restaurants?

16 comments

1. I suppose it depends on what their behavior looked life to the staff. If they were running an eating contest with each other and being wasteful then I would say they were being inappropriate. If they were taking more than a reasonable amount of food from the buffet then they might have been depriving other customers of some items if they were emptying trays.

2. Ordering more than you can eat is impolite, but if you can eat it its generally no problem.

   It might be that particular restaurant, or the staff at that particular restaurant that had issues with big eaters for some reason, or just nothing.

   I’ve been to places where the staff simply struggles at with many orders and the orders just gets lost. So sometimes you just have to order again.

3. Having that “competition,” as cute or fun as it may seem to you and your friends, could bring stress and undue burden to the restaurant staff. By far, most customers don’t behave that way, even the folks who are capable of eating at high volumes.

4. No idea, but I always go there really hungry so I enjoy the most of it lol.
   It’s tabehodai for a reason =)

5. Sounds like a tin foil hat moment

6. Sometimes orders get slow as the place gets busy. You might not have noticed it, but there may have been lots of orders concentrated at that time.

   It’s not rude to order a lot, per se, because that’s the deal, but there are rude ways to order, like ordering one plate every minute or two instead of in less frequent larger batches, or ordering more than you eat, or ordering more when you still are not close to finishing what’s on the table.

7. Eating a lot is fine. Ordering a ton of food at a tabehodai at once CAN be an extreme nuisance for staff and other customers.

   I once was THIS close to going full KORAAA at these three college aged idiots who had ordered literally an entire table’s worth of sushi to take a fucking Instagram photo and basically blocked the orders put in by everyone else in the restaurant for something like 20 minutes.

8. One time I went to a tabehodai with my friend in Yokohama and we ordered enough Peking duck for the restaurant to cut us off. Tbh it wasn’t even that much, but by the end we were receiving the tiniest little slivers or duck.

9. Just a shitty restaurant? What was the food? What do you mean with adding more salt?

10. Some places “throttle” you (as my husband and I call it) for sure. An Indian place in our neighborhood used to have tabehoudai. We went once, and after we ordered about two rounds, the bowls magically became 1/4 of the size they used to be — and it continued until we decided we were done. They don’t have tabehoudai anymore lol.

    Somewhere like Yakiniku King? Eat away, friend. No throttling, just stupid robot servers.

    Tabehoudai is kind of going away at non chains, I’ve noticed. All my favorite tabenomi places in Shin-Okubo are only nomihoudai sets now. It’s sad.

11. Definitely happens with nomihodai. You have to wait 10+ min after you finish your drink for a new one to arrive…..

12. 何にでも 何処にでも モラルは必要です

    客側も当然 店に迷惑にならないように気を使う事は当たり前

    食べ放題で沢山食べ 満足するのは問題ないでしょう

    しかし テレビや大会のように競争を店でやる事は正解ですか？ 店の事を何も考えてない

    食べ残してないからOK としか感じないなら アナタの”モラル”に問題があります

13. I absolutely have a story to tell.

    There’s this restaurant near my workplace. It’s one of those hamburger restaurants, and you can go to the salad bar unlimited amount of times; however, there is an option to get the salad bar only for 780円. On top of this, the company I work with gives me a card that allows me to get unlimited drinks and ice cream from this restaurant.

    The salad bar serves a very decent variety. It has olives — which itself is very damn expensive — so damn right I am taking as many olives as I want. You can also get unlimited bread, 1 type of pasta, and 4 different kinds of curry. Don’t forget I still could also get unlimited drinks and ice cream.
    They’ve never complained about me, despite me eating like Kirby.

    Then I introduced my coworkers(4) to this restaurant, who also have the same card I have. It’s starting to become our favorite place to go for lunch because it’s so damn cheap considering the pricing of everything that’s around us. They’ve all joked about that they’re going to raise the price if I keep eating the way I do.

    One of them was legit concerned about it, and suggested we shouldn’t come here every day. We should come in shifts instead. I didn’t listen; I showed this restaurant to more of my colleagues and my colleagues did the same thing.

    Eventually, they’ve increased the price to 1,280円.. After seeing that, we’ve stopped going. Weeks later, they’ve secretly lowered the price to its original, and my friend kept it a secret from me because he was afraid that I will ruin it. He’s been going for weeks without telling me.

    The day after as soon I went back to that restaurant along with a handful of my coworkers, they’ve raised the price. The coworkers who were trying to hide this from me were kinda furious and wanted to kill me lol.

    They’ve changed the policy to that you need to buy the burger to get the salad bar, or if you get the salad bar only, you can strictly have salad only; no bread; no pasta; no curry; no unlimited drinks or ice cream even if you have that card. It definitely felt like they were targeting us, considering we were all foreigners.

    Months later, sometimes we pass by the restaurant, and we see the same waiter who’s been serving us through the years. He tries to bring us back in, but after looking its prices, we decided it’s not worth it.

14. Has anyone watch groups of Japanese girls line up at a buffet? They eat as much as pro-wrestlers.

15. Also plopping in that orders cutting off 15/20 minutes before the end of your allotted time is s normal rule that they usually explain to you.

16. Only good buffet i have been to here is usually like a hotel or ryokan where they have a lot of variety but of course gonna cost more .