Buffet Restaurants
Have a good idea and it tends to get repeated. So it goes with the amount of all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants which have sprouted up around the city in recent years. Most buffet restaurants in the city are of the Chinese variety - not too surprising as Liverpool is particularly renowned for the amount of Chinese restaurants it has - and a lot of them can feel interchangeable. So let us attempt to separate them into some handy categories. Best for sneakily filling up your Tupperware May Sum Buffet King 180-181 Elliot Street, L1 1NH (0151) 707 6886 The concept of all-you-can-eat usually hits a barrier when that button goes flying off your trousers and your lower intestine starts sending out the equivalent of white flags through the rest of your guts. So if you're a real cheapskate - and let's face it, you're in a buffet restaurant so you must be - then this is the place to sneak in a few tubs of Tupperware in order to create your own doggy bags. May Sum is a very popular place in St. John's Precinct, usually full of demanding families and wired-up shoppers, so it shouldn't be hard to shovel some food from your plate whilst the staff are otherwise dealing with noisily moaning customers. The atmosphere might be too fractious to actually enjoy your meal - we witnessed two full-blown rows last time we were here - but if food's all you're after you may be able to keep your fridge stocked for weeks. Best for spending the whole day in Buffet Star 87 Hanover Street, L1 3DZ (0151) 703 0645 Far East is so large and usually so busy that it is possible to spend the whole day in here. In fact, most of the people in here might be classed not so much as diners as residents. Occupying a vast underground spot underneath the Neptune Theatre right in the heart of the city centre, this place is popular not just for the cheapness but also for the food actually being quite good, thanks to it serving a mixture of Chinese and Thai food. We know of someone who did indeed spend most of the day in here, and then tried to push their luck by trying to walk away without paying the bill. But whilst the staff may tolerate a bunch of scruffy students sitting around all day, they must be used to these selfsame wastrels having a go, so they were stopped practically before they left their seats. Best for having an eating showdown Yums Oriental Buffet 77 Bold Street, L1 4EZ (0151) 708 6278 For those daredevil enough amongst you for whom food is not so much a pleasurable necessity as a competitive sport, then try Yums on Bold Street. Here's the perfect place to have an all-you-can-eat showdown with a similarly foodie-obsessed friend. It's a lot smaller than most other buffet restaurants and is also less packed, so the toilets are both a lot closer to hand and also relatively unencumbered with people voiding their brimming bowels. These things are important in competitions such as this. Yums is a bit low rent as far as these places go, which only helps the sporting nature of your visit. A lot of the food is, well, unrecognisable as to its origins and vegetarians should beware: a friend of ours went in for an Egg Fried Rice and was pointed to a tray that contained distinct (if unidentifiable) animal matter. But this is all part of the fun. Best for those in denial Shere Khan 17-19 Berry Street, L1 9DF (0151) 709 6099 Thankfully, it's not just Chinese restaurants that do the all-you-can-eat thing, as monosodium glutamate can get a bit, well, poisonous is large quantities. This spacious and quite lovely Indian restaurant does an all-you-can-eat on Sundays only, so it's perfect if you want to impress your friends on a budget. You can troll up here and declare with ease, 'oh I didn't know it was a buffet, I usually come here during the week. But since we're here, eh?' and they may just believe that you're not a complete skinflint. The other advantage of buffet restaurants is that it's impossible to get into arguments about who ate what, including the inevitable cry of 'I only had the starter' when the bill pops up. With Shere Khan you also get top quality Indian food including a starter and the Chef's specials. It may not be the cheapest place around, but it's buffet with quality. The best of both worlds as far as we're concerned.
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