7 Times All-You-Can-Eat Buffets Kicked Customers Out

When you go out to eat at an all-you-can-eat restaurant, you probably assume that you can, in fact, eat however much you want. That's basically true, but admittedly, there are some exceptions — like when people stay for far longer than any normal meal should take or they eat several meal's worth of food in one sitting. In fact, there are many stories dotting the internet about people who have gotten kicked out of all-you-can-eat buffets for just that reason (among others).

Are they in the wrong by pushing the limits of what an all-you-can-eat buffet offers, or should the restaurants in question have let them stay and really consume everything they wanted to eat? And what else have people done to get themselves kicked out of these kinds of establishments? We're taking a closer look at seven different instances in which people were kicked out of all-you-can-eat joints, so maybe you can avoid the same fate the next time you find yourself ravenous at a place that supposedly has no limits.

Some all-you-can-eat buffets are relatively inexpensive, offering amazing deals to hungry diners. Others, though, are on the more expensive end of the spectrum, like the $80 Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, where one woman went to get her grub on. The woman knew that this high-end restaurant, reportedly one of the best buffets in Vegas, had a supposedly strict time limit of 90 minutes — which makes sense if a restaurant allows customers to eat whatever they want. She thought that she would be thrown out after going past that 90 minutes, but in reality, the restaurant let her stay a little while longer.

Once she got up for another round of food, though, she was quietly asked to leave. Perhaps it wasn't a big deal for her to be taking up a table after the 90-minute limit, but the restaurant apparently didn't want her eating more. She stayed there for a total of two hours and 55 minutes, which seems pretty generous of the restaurant, considering the time limit. That $80 may be more than most all-you-can-eat buffet customers are willing to pay — especially considering the first Las Vegas buffet cost only a dollar — but it sounds like this woman definitely got her money's worth.

A lot of all-you-can-eat buffets feature a lot of cheaper, carb-heavy food that fills you up without costing the restaurant too much money. But others, like all-you-can-eating BBQ spots, offer pricier food items, which means that the restaurant has more to lose when customers have particularly voracious appetites. That seemed to be the issue when, in 2021, a Chinese live streamer was booted from a restaurant called Handadi Seafood BBQ Buffet in Changsha, China.

On one of his visits to the restaurant, he reportedly ate a kilogram and a half of pork trotters. During another trip to the restaurant, he scarfed down 3½ to 4 kilograms of prawns in one sitting. "Even when he drinks soy milk, he can drink 20 or 30 bottles," said the restaurant owner. "When he eats the pork trotters, he consumes the whole tray of them. And for prawns, usually people use tongs to pick them up, he uses a tray to take them all." This man's eating habit seems to have taken a toll on the business. "Every time he comes here, I lose a few hundred yuan," the restaurant owner complained. It was such a problem, in fact, that the restaurant reportedly stopped allowing live streamers to eat there after this occurrence.

BBQ tends to be expensive, but it may not even be as pricey as sushi, which requires high-quality seafood — and knowledgeable chefs who know how to prepare it. And maybe that's why a man got kicked out of a restaurant for eating 100 plates of sushi. Back in 2018, a man named Jaroslav Bobrowski, who was a German triathlete, went to a restaurant in Landshut, Germany. The restaurant promised all-you-can-eat sushi, so Bobrowski obviously thought that meant all he could eat for less than $20.

But, as you can probably imagine, being a triathlete requires a lot of fuel. Perhaps that's why Bobrowski was able to finish about 18 pounds of sushi, approximately 4,000 calories, in just a few minutes. Despite Bobrowski being a regular at the restaurant, he was banned from eating at the establishment again. "When I went to the checkout, I wanted to tip, but the waiter did not want to accept that. I'm banned from now on because I'm eating too much. I was stunned," he told reporters. But we're not surprised — that's a lot of sushi.

Most people can only eat so much within a short timeframe, which is why some all-you-can-eat buffets have a time limit. However, others don't, and that can prompt some to stay at all-you-can-eat restaurants for hours at a time so they can continuously eat or eat several different meals while only paying for one single trip. It turns out that at one Indiana restaurant, trying to eat for four hours straight is crossing a line.

One woman visited an Indianapolis restaurant called Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet, where she paid around $13 for her meal. After four and a half hours, she was finally kicked out, but she didn't seem too upset about it — she tipped both her waitress and the person who ultimately had to force her to leave the restaurant. During her stay, she consumed six plates of food, after which she was told that she was eating too much.

You might have to follow a dress code at school or to work, but you probably won't expect one if you visit your local Golden Corral. But a woman was still reportedly kicked out of a Golden Corral in Erie, Pennsylvania because her outfit was apparently too "provocative." The woman, Sueretta Emke, who was 25 at the time of the incident in 2019, told reporters that she was wearing a crop top and denim shorts. The manager told her a customer had voiced concerns about her outfit and asked Emke to either change or leave.

"I explained that we drove an hour there. I didn't just have clothes I could change into, but he didn't care," she recounted on social media. Emke understandably felt that the interaction was inappropriate. Golden Corral made a statement about the incident, saying "We are grateful the issue was brought to our attention because it represents an education opportunity and a chance to make amends with a guest we disappointed."

Kid-friendly buffet Cici's Pizza arguably has one of the best deals in the business, offering a $9 all-you-can-eat buffet that serves up pasta, pizza, salad, and dessert. Sounds like a great deal no matter how much you eat, but one woman tried to see how far she could push the policy. She started off by eating pizza and cinnamon rolls, then taking a break to check out the arcade. The woman soon returned to her seat, determined to consume even more.

After a period of time — quite a lengthy period of time, if you ask us — she was finally asked to leave because of a "new rule" that stated that people could only stay for two hours. She reported that she was at the restaurant from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., which seems like more than enough time to fill yourself to the brim with pizza, pasta, and more.

An all-you-can-eat fish fry sounds like heaven for the seafood-obsessed, but probably not many people would be able to pack away 12 pieces of fried fish. One man, though, did just that before he was kicked out of a restaurant in Wisconsin back in 2012. The restaurant, called Chuck's Place, told him that he couldn't eat anymore after packing away a dozen pieces of fried fish. Apparently, the restaurant was running out of fish. They still gave him eight more pieces of fish before they made him leave, though — so at least they were somewhat nice about it.

But the man was apparently still upset, because he stood outside the restaurant with a sign that said "false advertising." Most people probably don't eat that much fish, but he does have a point. The owner of the restaurant, though, said that the man hadn't been following the rules of the restaurant — specifically, he was sharing food with a friend, which wasn't allowed. We're not sure who's in the right here, ultimately, but our stomachs do hurt at the idea of eating that much fish in one sitting.