VietNamNet Bridge – When it comes to buffets, most people might think of numerous food options and high prices. However, with VND50,000 to VND80,000 (US$2.32-3.71), one can now enjoy a decent buffet meal at a couple of restaurants in HCM City.

Guests have lunch at Que Toi buffet restaurant

Ngoc, a patron of Thi Buffet restaurant, says, “There are a variety of food options but prices are affordable at this restaurant.”

Thi Buffet is decorated as a stall selling traditional snacks in the countryside with brick walls and dishes served in clay pots, glazed terra-cotta plates and bowls.

Charging VND79,000 per guest, the restaurant serves more than 30 traditional Vietnamese dishes including banh uot ( steamed rice pancakes served with boiled lean pork paste), banh beo (steamed rice cakes), banh bot loc (cassava flour cake stuffed with shrimp), banh khot (rice pancake fried with prawn and onions), pha lau (pig or cow offal cooked with coconut milk), sticky rice, and sweet porridge.

Lunch buffet at Que Toi restaurant is another choice for cheap buffet in the city. With a ticket costing VND45,000 per person, diners have 21 dishes to select and the lunch menu is changed every day.

Truong Thi Thuy, the owner of the restaurant, says the decision to open Que Toi as a buffet eatery came all of a sudden.

At first, Thuy opened a restaurant specializing in a la carte dishes. But hard work led waiters and waitresses at Que Toi to quit their jobs one after another, forcing her to think of a new way of doing business. Then she came up with a plan to provide buffet meals, which allow guests to serve themselves, thus saving her from hiring a lot of staff.

At Bang Do Nam-Korean Buffet Lunch, diners can enjoy Vietnamese and Korean dishes in buffet meals at low prices. With only VND70,000, guests can eat seven Korean dishes.

Le Na, a guest from District 7, says she has found no Korean restaurant that offers such a low price. This restaurant now serves around 100 guests a day and the number of its guests is on the rise.

Speaking about difficulties in offering cheap buffets, Bao of Thi Buffet says his restaurant could not attract many guests at first because most people doubted the quality of dishes, so he spent a lot of money on advertising and incurred losses in the first three months of business.

But things have turned out to be fine for Thi Buffet, with more people coming to dine.

Meanwhile, Thuy of Que Toi restaurant says the VND45,000 ticket per person can help her break even, but she has no immediate plan to increase the price so as to retain customers. When there are more guests coming, Thuy could consider raising it by VND5,000.

Addresses of buffet restaurants:

- Que Toi, 41 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, District 1

- Thi Buffet, 13 Hoa Mai Street, Ward 2, Phu Nhuan District

- Bang Do Nam-Korean Buffet Lunch, R4-62 Hung Phuoc Street, Phu My Hung Town, District 7.

SGT