Rise of the all-you-can-eat restaurant

In just 12 months the all-you-can-eat restaurant chain Taybarns has taken the catering industry by storm - and there are plans to open 30 new branches. But does it encourage unhealthy eating?

With a "34-metre long food counter" Taybarns is all about quantity. It offers an array of food. Choose from a chip shop, carvery, pizza, pasta, even what appears to be a new hybrid-cuisine, Texican.

Its menu boasts: "Enjoy as much as you like, as many times as you like. All for one fixed price!"

While other restaurants are closing at an estimated rate of 100 a month, Whitbread which owns Taybarns, has recorded a 3% increase in sales in the last six months to £703.3m.

It is serving almost 10,000 people a week in its most popular branches and there are plans to expand next year, turning 30 Brewers Fayre pubs into Taybarns.

"We offer quality family food at a really good price and it's helped Taybarns succeed where others have failed," says Taybarns operations director and the man behind the concept, Simon Ewins.

"We're doing volumes that are eye watering for the industry. Our Wigan branch, which has been open for a year, has served more meals than the population of the town - 300,000."

Ewins says the company has, unashamedly, based itself in the working-class heart of Britain.

There are Taybarns branches in Newcastle upon Tyne, South Shields, Barnsley, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Coventry, Swansea and Wigan.

Help yourself

It is not yet 6pm on a Friday night in the Coventry branch of Taybarns and already the eaterie is full of people queuing along that famously lengthy food counter.

Customers pay £5.99 - or £7.99 in the evenings - at the door. Then, as the sign says, "grab a plate, help yourself, help yourself again".

"We come here because of the choice of the food and the price, it's really good value" says one woman whose plate holds a burger, chips, sausage and a lamb skewer. "We can all go out as a family. We're all different, but there are no arguments about I don't like this or I don't like that."

The union jack bunting strung across the chip shop, the flames leaping up from the wok and the sweet smell wafting from the dessert counter add to the buzz of excitement among customers. The treacle tart and chocolate sponge are going down well.

'Grab a plate, help yourself, help yourself again'

Spicy dishes, like the chilli con carne and tikka masala sauce, are popular on Friday nights, but on Sundays people go for a traditional roast dinner.

US concept

Taybarns is modelled on the American all-you-can-eat chain, Golden Corral, which opened in 1973 and now turns over more than $1bn a year. It claims its focus on freshness differentiates it from other steakhouses, featuring a large hot and cold buffet, grill, carving station and bakery.

The all-you-can-eat concept originated in the US's working areas in the 1930s. Golden Corral has capitalised on that trend, focusing on small-town America, it now has more than 450 restaurants across 41 states.

But with warnings that the UK is following the US with rising levels of obesity, isn't this sort of dining experience a cause for concern?

Mr Ewins is adamant that offering variety, as well as value, is the key to Taybarns success too. It is not about encouraging overindulgence he says. It is about offering the opportunity to experiment with food in a non-risky way.

"People want to try new things. But if you go out on a Friday night and you try a new main course in a traditional restaurant and you don't like it, that's a disaster. At Taybarns you can just try something else or go back to your favourites."

So it could be that in cash-strapped times Taybarns offers a safe way to eat out. You know exactly how much it costs and what you get for the price.

But some believe the all-you-can-eat concept promotes poor dietary habits. And, that contrary to the suggestion that more choice encourages experimentation, it actually stifles it.

"The irony is that if you give people complete and unadulterated choice they eat a narrower range of food simply because they can - you can eat burgers every day if you like" says Professor Martin Caraher, professor of food and health policy at City University London.

He is concerned about all-you-can-eat restaurants. "It encourages greed. There is a sense of getting value for your money. And we've moved away from the notion of stopping when we feel full. People think I'll just have another bit, I'm not paying for it."

The recorded average number of platefuls eaten by Taybarns' customers is 3.37. In the Coventry branch, Heidi, who is celebrating a family birthday is already on her way to surpassing that.

"When I come here I pig out. I've had two puddings already. I'll be regretting it when I go on the scales next week."

Profit margins

So how, if people are piling up plates several times, does Taybarns make money?

Its food does not claim to be organic or free-range, but it does emphasise the freshness of its ingredients. Industry experts argue that it is down to the high volume of customers. Margins may be low, but the figures add up because of the footfall.

"It's perfectly feasible to create decent food without spending a fortune," says Paul Wootton, editor of Restaurant magazine.

"At Taybarns, a large part of its offer focuses on salads, pizza and pasta, where ingredient costs will be at the lower end of the scale."

Many operators in the restaurant industry this year have been working to tighter margins than Taybarns, offering 2-for-1s and 50% off, to get customers through the doors, he says. They know that low margins are better than no margins.

"If you're buying spuds and chicken on an industrial scale you're going to get them cheap," says Richard Harden, of Hardens restaurant guide.

"Even if people are eating half a chicken each, which might only cost Taybarns £1 - they might be producing a whole meal for £2.50 per head."

Credit crunch

Taybarns appears to be going from strength to strength while top-end restaurants suffer.

But, not everyone is convinced it is around for the long haul. Some argue that they are akin to fast food outlets. A sector predicted to grow in the next three-to-five years, but then stabilise.

"My suspicion is that Taybarns will come and go - that it's a phenomenon related to the credit crunch. They'll reinvent themselves in three or four years time as something else," says Mr Caraher.

"The American model bothers me. We want big portions, rubbish food. What we actually need is higher quality and people eating less."

source :  bbc news