[kaplods]

My husband and I do like to go out to eat, and since moving to Wisconsin, I've never encountered so many "All You Can Eat" restaurant specials. Portion sizes in many of these restaurants are so huge that the AYCE specials could be the calorie bargain (instead we take the leftovers home and get another meal or two out of it). That's beside the point, but now that we're eating healthier, the AYCE specials have become a joke between us.

The other day, we drove past a restaurant advertising an AYCE liver & onions special. Hubby ribbed me about it because I do like liver and onions, and about twice a year will order it (and I always take home at least half).

Now the AYCE features are almost never healthy, but I have to say that of all the AYCE specials I've encountered, the liver and onions was the strangest. Liver has just never appealed to me as a food anyone would want to eat in bulk. When I order liver & onions, half the time I don't even eat the leftovers because the half order more than satisfied my desire for liver & onions.

What irks me is that the few healthy AYCE specials are disappearing. Like serve yourself salad bars. I'm not a pizza fan and never have been, but hubby likes pizza and Godfather's in town was a good compromise because they had a small, but nice salad bar. He'd get pizza and salad and I'd get salad. The last time we went in, they'd discontinued the salad bar.

When we moved here five years ago, there were several places that served a nice salad bar, but they're all disappearing, and the few that remain are getting smaller and unhealthier (wilted, rusty lettuce and an assortment of mayonaise-based salads).

We have friends who own a restaurant, and they tell us that the cost of ingredients, especially fresh meats and produce has doubled in the last couple years, but it still stumps me because it does seem that more people are health conscious these days, so it would seem to me to make sense for restaurants to offer more healthy options (even if the prices were higher).

What do you think? Are those of us who'd like to see healthier options (and would be willing to pay more for them) - are we really in the minority? Would restaurants lose money by having a few healthier options?

[VisitorX]

A steak house near me, Longhorns, used to have all-you-can eat liver on Saturdays and I would go once a month. I love liver and onions. Alas, I must have been one of the few; the restaurant discontinued serving liver. Now I have to learn how to make it myself at home. I'm off later today to buy some and try it. I do wish more restaurants would offer it but that's not the way of things. By the way, I was never tempted to eat more than one helping. Maybe that's why they offered that as all-you-can eat. lol

[kaplods]

Originally Posted by VisitorX

By the way, I was never tempted to eat more than one helping. Maybe that's why they offered that as all-you-can eat. lol

That's what surprised me about it. I do like liver and onions, but I thought who would ever order a second helping?

Liver and onions (with or without bacon) is very popular around here, so a lot of restaurants serve it (and do a good job of it). I'm always hesitant to order liver & onions in a restaurant for the first time, because so few restaurants seem to do it right. There's nothing worse than liver prepared poorly.

[nelie]

I lament the fact that we don't have an all you can eat salad bar place here. Soup Plantation/Sweet Tomatoes is a chain that exist in many states including California and Colorado. When we go to California, we go to Soup Plantation at least twice, sometimes 3 times.

Otherwise, I never ate 'all you can eat' type specials. I hate most buffets except the aforementioned salad buffet and sometimes Indian buffets.

[AnnieDrews]

I've noticed the decline in the salad bars. Most places just have a little bit of iceberg lettuce and a few nasty tomatoes to choose from. Lots of cheese and macaroni salad, though. There is a place in town called Souper/Salad that seems to have a good salad bar, but none are very conveniently located for me. Good, fresh produce is expensive. I suppose that is why they have gone away.

[lauralyn]

Just jumping in to say I would be thrilled to have an all you can eat liver and onions night around here! I sometimes cook liver and onions twice a week and then have the leftovers for lunch the next day...yummm!

I have also notice that there are no good salad bars lately. One place about an hour away called Bonazas has a decent salad bar but who wants to travel that far just to get a good salad.