Gyu-Kaku is an expensive, Japanese barbecue restaurant.
Last year an all-you-can-eat Asian buffet, Hokkaido, opened up across the street. While the buffet’s food is merely adequate, its quantity and variety are pretty darned impressive.
I’m guessing Hokkaido ended up “eating Gyu-Kaku’s lunch,” so to speak. It made a big dent in their lunch business.
In fact, it’s been taking away so much lunch business that Gyu-Kaku hung a big sign outside, advertising “Lunch All You Can Eat”— just $15.95 for an array of their most popular items.
That’s a few bucks more than the across-the-street competitor, but the food quality probably is considerably higher.
Smart move, I thought. Until I read the “fine print” on the restaurant’s website.
Here’s Hokkaido’s description of its buffet.
Now take a look at Gyu-Kaku’s luncheon buffet description — specifically, the “RULES & RESTRICTIONS.” (Note: That link opens to a PDF file.)
Someone at Gyu-Kaku had a good idea, fighting back with its own luncheon buffet.
But whoever is in charge of Gyu-Kaku’s “fine print” has done his or her best to discourage anyone from actually trying their all-you-can-eat special.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see uniformed Luncheon Police at each table, monitoring customers’ ordering and eating behaviors as frantic diners keep one eye on the countdown clock and bargain with each other to determine which one course they all must order.
Comments on this entry are closed.
The “high end” Japanese restaurant serves “Cajun Chicken”? Is the “Kobe Alligator” and the “Sweet and Sour Crayfish” available after the buffet? lol.
The fine print indicates a pretty deep-seated mistrust of (and contempt for) the very clientele they are trying to attract. Any manager who doesn’t know that most people aren’t going to abuse the offer in the way the fine print suggests, and that the money lost to the small percentage who do abuse the privilege would be more than made up by the majority of visitors, probably doesn’t belong in the restaurant business to begin with.
The first rule, “Whole Party Must Order The Same Course,” would be enough to make me turn around and walk out the door. Gyu-Kaku? More like Gyu-KAKA.