The Best Tips to Bring Buffets Back

Here’s how to safely reintroduce self-serve dining to your guests.

More than two years into the pandemic restaurants can reopen buffets for business.

I recently visited Walt Disney World and hit the first buffet in years – and it looked a bit different. It was great to eat at a buffet. Back in April 2020, Restaurant Business published the headline “Is This the End of the Buffet?” The article’s author questioned how federal safety laws due to the Covid-19 pandemic would impact the buffet industry as a whole in the future.

While at the Biergarten Restaurant in Walt Disney World’s Epcot center, there were a few changes I couldn’t help but notice that contribute to smart and safe ways to reopen a buffet.

Break up the quantity

The Biergarten breaks up what used to be one longer serving station into two smaller stations. It helps eliminate large groups of people piling up.

What used to house 12 steam trays of food now has six – and there are just two of them. Breaking the food trays into a few separated more than six feet away from each other just makes sense in the new normal.

You can keep multiple hot food sections, multiple dessert sections, and a carving station in the middle to break up the number of guests.

Safeguards

In March 2020, Golden Corral Buffets announced the company was adding Safe Guards to its food stations. At the time, it still wasn’t considered enough to slow the spread of Covid-19 but has definitely been adopted as a buffet best practice.

All of the Biergarten stations have safeguards in place. The Restaurant Store sells these guards for anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on how large and strong the material you’re looking to add to your buffet.

Staff to man stations

This is a big change for Biergarten. From July 2020 to  Aug. 2021 Biergarten in Epcot opened as only a family-style serving restaurant.

Biergarten now allows guests to serve themselves now but does still have staff to man the buffet. Mainly they’re swapping out food before hitting dangerous temperatures and assisting guests when needed.

Some cruise ships still have it set that face masked and gloved buffet assistants serve guests from behind safeguards. Either shouldn’t prevent guests from truly enjoying all they care to but can add an extra layer of precaution.

In Disney World, all buffet and restaurant staff wore face coverings and gloves. They routinely swapped out food for presentation and temperature control.

Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize

Since March 2020, cleaning and sanitizing businesses is more important than ever. Nation’s Restaurant News recommends sanitizing serving stations every 30 minutes to ensure proper safety guidelines. Utensil stations should also be swapped out in that timeline. It doesn’t hurt to have hand sanitizer nearby at all touchpoints for guests.

Precautions for what guests don’t see

It’s one thing to keep it clean for what your guests can obviously see in the restaurant but make sure to go a step beyond. Keeping your kitchen clean and sanitized will help curb the spread of germs among the kitchen staff.

We live in a world where coronavirus is as common – if not more common – as the flu or cold. If and when a restaurant staff member has a confirmed positive case it’s important to send them home to quarantine until negative.

Buffets have always been a unique and valued customer experience. It’s time to bring it back in a safe way to maximize guest experiences and profits.