Is there any structure or formula for how “buffets” charge for food? they don’t put it on any scale, they just take one look and tells you a price.
The problem is the pricing seems somewhat arbitrary. It seems I grab just a little more food and I’m charged 50nt more than I normally do, and I have no idea what the standard is, or what “one portion” looks like. I feel like there’s a lot of potential for abuse and I’m willing to bet that some foreigners here have been scammed by them. There’s been too many occasion where I had to put food back (and it’s very unsanitary and probably illegal in all locations in the US) because they gave me a cost that’s just way higher than expected.
Is there anyone I can report to if they do engage in price gouging?
I mean I see some people grab barely any food and I’m betting they’re still being charged a good 70nt or more for the plate even if the plate is nothing but veggies.
This is one reason why I hate “buffets”. I wish they’d have a more transparent pricing, but transparency seems to be a trait that is alien to Taiwan.
No other types of restaurants are ever this opaque. Even those soup/hot pot type places (you know the one where they got a bunch of food laid out and they boil it for you) have prices clearly marked either next to the food or have a menu with prices for each items.
Seems I’m not alone in this:
It doesn’t help that most the time the food’s cold!
Are you speaking about biandang? Place near where I live, the price is half if the laoban charges me, rather than one of her slaves. I only go in if the boss is on duty.
“buffet” is where you grab the food and then they tell you how much it is, but I feel like it’s a roll of dice every time you eat there, because there must at least a spread of about 20nt even if you grabbed the same amount of food.
I prefer biandang because they grab the food and the price is always the same no matter what.
Actually I did see a post on PTT where they did an experiment, where 2 people went there, grabbed the EXACT same food with the EXACT same amount, but in different locations. One was charged 105, and another was charged 120.
Why are these businesses even allowed to operate? I think if every customer just told them to grab the food for them, they would have to close it down.
I’m afraid you are mistaken, it’s partly my fault for not clarifying what location means.
When I said different location I mean the food and amount is exactly the same. The two people went to the same buffet on the same day. They all grabbed the exact same food, but both plates have different placement of the same food on the plate, and they were charged differently.
What makes it worse is often these places have horrible hygiene. And I’m sure someone putting food back onto the buffet is sure to gross some people out. Not to mention the food’s cold! Why the feck would anyone pay 600nt for cold food? for that price you could have gone to a real all you can eat buffet!
You were just telling me that you can’t tell the difference between serving sizes 50% bigger, but now you’re going to tell me those are exactly the same amount of food? to me, it looks like the one on the left has more meat… but the right side has better cuts. so which got charged what (I don’t read Chinese)?
Yea, extreme example. Guy grabbed 3 meat and 1 vegetable. 600 is still far too high for that though. You could have gone to an all you can eat BBQ and actually gotten all the meat you could eat.
If you can read the Chinese the second article I linked was exactly that. The place claims they use very high quality ingredients. Remember this was 2009 so you could have gotten a very good meal for 600. You could still get a good meal for 600 today.
I’d be reluctant to eat either of those for NT$105, or even NT$120. I’d maybe try the chicken and a bit of the egg, perhaps even a little of the soggy green thing, if they doubled it and paid me NT$240, but I wouldn’t go any lower.
I don’t know, but next time I’ll just tell them what my budget is and they can grab the food for me. At least I won’t be price gouged. It will be more work for them though.
The ones I been to have set lunchbox prices aside from you getting it your self. Different pricing depending on how many meat you want. So they may have a 60 ntd option with 2 meat and 2 veggies, 80 ntd option with 3 meat and so forth. The only downside is they get to pick the meat/veggies. You can tell them if there is something you are allergic to and they will avoid that.
I also found out some places has a charges on the number of different items you get. For instance, 5 ntd per item. So if you get 4 item, it’s 20 ntd then the weight of the item. It doesn’t matter if one of your item was only 1 gram, there will be the 5ntd surcharge.
Yeah, it’s pretty arbitrary. And it depends quite obviously on who is doing the counting.
There’s one particular old lady at my usual bian dang place who likes me and sells me large servings for NT$100 (it’s always 100, whatever I have on my plate). Then there’s another old lady who doesn’t like me and generally charges me $120-130 for the exact same thing.
I suppose it’s possible some of the employees have their fingers in the till. There doesn’t seem to be any record of sales so it’s all on trust.
Just bear in mind that fish is usually quite expensive. The ji pai and whatnot are going to be the usual NT$70-80 that you’d pay anywhere. Everything else is cheap.
The bian dang place near my house is 70nt for everything, 3 veggies and a meat, 4 veggies if you forego rice. If you have chicken leg quarter then it’s 80. Everyone charges 80 for chicken legs. But the y grab the food, and if you offer to pay more I’m sure they would give larger portions.
This reminds me of something that happened to me the other day. I bought (again) some tiny octopus from a lady, supposedly they go for 100 per jing. This time, when she was weighting them, she removed one. I found it strange because it didn’t look a whole lot but paid and left. Once at home I weighted the stuff and it was 500gr. I was a bit pissed off TBH. I’ve weighted her merchandise other times and one jing was 600gr as expected.
I’m going to tell her about it, it’s so crappy of her.
In the states the scales were calibrated by some agency to avoid disputes. You type in the PLU and it automatically registers it by weight. But as a cashier it means you gotta memorize all these plu
to me, it looks like the one on the left has more meat… but the right side has better cuts. so which got charged what (I don’t read Chinese)?