The Lobster Grabbers Converted

We have not been to the China Grand Buffet in Farmingdale, New York for over a month or more. The price went up a while ago - just fifty cents per person, but at the same time the lobster was taken off the buffet. Had the price gone down fifty cents when this happened it would have been no real loss, as this restaurant claimed that it refilled the lobster tray every forty five minutes, but in reality, we could be there for 90 minutes having dinner and never see lobster. And, of course, asking for it did no good as you would be told "45 minutes". We have been on a bit of a budget lately so we have not been there.

Tonight we went back. Low and behold, there were the Lobster Grabbers. (For those of you new to this site, check back in past articles for the Lobster Grabbers) What would they do now? There is no lobster any more for them to grab. Would it be the crab legs? No, it was the sushi! The Lobster Grabbers have now converted to become the Sushi Grabbers. The guy literally filled a dish with every piece of sushi that was in the tray. And did the restaurant refill it the entire time that we were in the restaurant eating? Of course, not. My suspicion is that they did not refill the tray because they knew that as soon as they did, this guy would bounce up and grab every piece again. Not so good for the rest of us.

The now, Sushi Grabbers like to fill entire plates as serving dishes. There are only two of them but they fill several plates and put it out in front of themselves, in addition to their own plates full of food. As I have pointed out before, this is incredibly rude, wasteful, and inconsiderate of every other diner in the restaurant. They, apparently, have no concern or thought for anyone but themselves. (I often feel this is a New York phenomenon - but perhaps you in the rest of the country will tell me that it happens every where. I generally find people outside of NY nicer.)

The Sushi Grabbers are not so unusual, unfortunately. I have seen this other times at other restaurants. People decide that they need to fill plates of one item and bring it to the table. Often the plates are almost as full when they decide to go and fill plates with dessert as when they started the meal. The plates of food are left and thrown out as the table is cleaned. For everyone else, all of the chicken is gone; all of the french fries are gone; etc. Terribly rude! It also send sends a message to the restaurant - too much is being taken too quickly and prices are need to go up.

One day I am going to make up a card to hand out to people like this at buffets. It will have the address of this site and say, "Come read the RULES". I would just say, "Take a look. You might find this interesting." And I would smile - no sense in getting punched in the nose for a piece of sushi or chicken. If anyone else would like to make such a card and use it, be my guest. I am sure that you have all seen and encountered your share of Lobster/Sushi/Chicken/Shrimp Grabbers. Let us know what you have seen by posting a comment.