Behind the unlimited buffets lies down-to-the-second organization and careful budgeting.
This afternoon, you go to the all-you-can-eat restaurant with your family. Everyone is happy: big eaters can refill as many times as they want, children love going there, and you save yourself long hours in the kitchen. Strategically, you didn’t have breakfast this morning. So it is with a hungry stomach that you now head towards the restaurant, determined to make your lunch profitable. However, despite all the efforts you make to chain together plates, the owners of all-you-can-eat buffets remain the big winners of the day…
In a episode Capital broadcast on October 19, 2025, Mr. Zhang, the owner of a Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant, explains how he remains profitable despite big eaters. At the house of Fuzuthere is no question of lowering the quality or quantity: the dishes are worked on, the recipes carefully prepared, and the orders are unlimited. For 21.90 euros for lunch, and 32.90 euros on weekday evenings, customers can enjoy unlimited Rossini-style flambé makis, shrimp and lobster tartare mille-feuilles, or even foie gras sushi. There’s no question of letting the customer help themselves either: thanks to an armada of 30 servers, Mr. Zhang promises a semi-gastronomic experience at a low price. The restaurant is never empty, and many customers have become regulars.
“Our dish record? 82 in one evening”explain two friends, who come “once a week to unwind”. How to keep a margin despite these big appetites? First, by purchasing raw materials in very large quantities, at a very attractive price. Mr. Zhang buys more than 4 tonnes of salmon per month, at only 9.50 euros per kilo excluding taxes. Then, by reducing the time of preparing and serving dishes as much as possible. Thanks to tablets placed on the tables, and connected to those in the kitchens, the customer is served in less than fifteen minutes. From a central screen, Mr. Zhang monitors the waiting time for each order. When the red light comes on, 20 minutes have passed. The boss then rushes into the kitchen to alert the teams.
But above all, Mr. Zhang relies on drinks and desserts, not included in the all-you-can-eat formula, to make a margin. But the biggest eaters often let themselves be tempted by a bottle of wine and a touch of sweetness at the end of the meal. “If they don’t drink, we lose money”explains the boss in the report. A loss compensated for by smaller appetites: understand that children are also very good customers!
Thanks to meticulous organization, highly efficient little hands and well-thought-out additional sales, the all-you-can-eat buffet is running at full speed. “After a year of activity, the recipe seems to be a winning one for Mr. Zhang, who plans to achieve more than 4 million euros in turnover,” concludes the report.
