(calm ambient music) - [Johnny] We're in the middle
of a clean food revolution. Courgetti spaghetti, cauliflower rice, quinoa, the mighty kale. We can't get enough. Or can we? (record skipping) A totally different food phenomenon is taking over in the high streets. And you can't see much
of the courgetti here. This is where you'll find
lots of curry, chips, crispy duck, pizza, fried
rice, sweet and sour pork, chocolate fountains! - There is so much. - [Johnny] Hundreds of all
you can eat restaurants are opening every year with one chain opening a new
branch every single week. - Four chicken tikka
please, four chicken tikka. - [Johnny] It's not just a meal. It's an entire experience. - Please make some noise! (people cheering) - [Johnny] So stuff your lentils, your wheat grass and couscous. The fad diet Britain really
loves is beating the buffet. - Because I'm British, we never give up. - They always come in with a mission. I'm gonna eat the house down. - [Johnny] Welcome to
the mouthwatering world of the all you can eat. (child belching) We Brits spend an average of over four grand a year on dining out. But if eating out used
to be for rich people, celebrities, and anyone who couldn't stand
being around their own family, now everybody wants to get stuck in. - If you look at dining now, it's much more experiential. So besides great quality food, people are looking for experiences. - [Johnny] Once, a birthday blow up meant a trip to the trattoria, bring your own cake and candles, and pray the waiter didn't sing. But now, well now, we want the world. And we can have it as all
you can eat restaurants offer all the food on earth
and all under one roof. - Look at that. You've got nothing on it. - I have to pace myself.
- No. - [Johnny] At Flames
World Buffet in Worcester, you can get 50 different meals
for less than seven quid. Leicester, the culinary town
best known for its crisps now offers More's Live
Social Dining Theater that actually encourages
you to stuff your faces. - Eat!
- More! - Live!
- More! - Love!
- More! - [Monaj] Go do it, guys. - [Johnny] Even The Chinese Buffet in St. Helen's is in on the act. - You can visit the food
as many times as you like. - [Johnny] Offering limitless
sweet and sour chicken, pork spare ribs, and that well-known
Chinese delicacy, pizza. - Nice. - [Johnny] I mean, if isn't the world we want
our children to grow up in, then what the hell is? - Here you go, guys. Would you like some lolly? Only one. - [Johnny] But for every customer happy to enjoy a nice
gentle meal and go home. - Hi.
- You all right? - Table for two please.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - [Johnny] There are those who really want to show
the buffet who's boss. This is Chris. He's an absolute buffet monster. - As far as I'm concerned, there's only one type of restaurant. It is the eat all you can buffet. - Are you getting a drink? - I think really, we're
here to eat, aren't we? We're going for a drink later, so. - Can we get like a jug of tap water? - I like to make sure I'm full up and I like value for money. I like variety. Combine all three and just
go to an eat all you can. - [Johnny] To make sure
customers like this can stuff their faces, across their 10 branches, The Chinese Buffet
kitchen is primed to serve a gut-busting two tons
of food every night. - So this is the central
production kitchen. Over here, we have the crispy chicken being made in the large hops. Crispy chicken, we'll do about half a ton
a week across the branches. And it's the alternative
to the crispy duck where we do about one and
a half tons in a week. - [Johnny] Think of it like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory but with pork balls and no Willy. This is a family show. - Moving along, our sweet and sour sauce
is a bit more popular than the other sauces. And we do it in the region
of eight to 900 liters of sweet and sour sauce per
week for the 10 branches. Here, we have the chicken being produced. For the moment, the guys, they're making a skewered chicken which are the ones on the sticks. Chicken breasts per week, we go through about four tons. - [Johnny] It's bad news for poultry. That's about 2,700 chickens every week. - We probably use in
the region about 15,000 of these eggs per week across 10 branches. And of course, it is The Chinese Buffet and it is a Chinese cuisine. So if we move on to rice,
the most famous of all, your average car at home weighs
about one and a half tons. So if you put two cars next
to each other on a scale, that's how much rice we'll sell in a week across 10 branches. - [Johnny] With streams of customers paying 15 quid per head
for limitless meals, this one branch can bring
in up to 12 grand a night just on food. - Let's go.
- Let the battle commence. - Oh, there's too much choice. It's better to look around
the whole place first. - [Johnny] Chris has two hours of solid eating ahead of him. And he's got a whole game plan
to help him fill his face. - [Peter] Look at that. That's heaven on a plate. - You take an initial sweep of the area 'cause you wouldn't want
to commit to something without taking a full sweep. 'Cause you might commit to load a beef or a load of chicken
from around the corner. They got more expensive
food, so it's tactical. - [Johnny] Tactics, Chris, nice. - The choice in here is amazing. I'll catch up with you soon. - All right, mate. - [Johnny] But the restaurants also have a few tricks of the room. Every all you can eat
has a selection of foods cunningly placed to fill you up quickly. - There are people who
just go for the noodles and nothing else. So therefore, that's
where our profit goes up. - [Johnny] But a restaurant can't just serve noodles and rice. That'd be madness. So hidden amongst the basics
is the really good stuff. Look at that. - One of the most expensive
item within our branch would be seafood such as
king prawns, fresh salmon, which is very nice. We have squid, which is
at the teppanyaki as well, - [Johnny] And an expert
customer like Chris knows exactly what he's looking for. - Oh my God, you've got roast duck here. Breasts. Look at the breast on that. Oh my God, this is like paradise. - [Johnny] Only if paradise is refilling the crispy duck tray every 40 minutes, Chris. - Oh my God, look at this. Glistening duck breast. That is marvelous. What's the evening buffet price? - [Peter] 14 quid, is it? - Whatever it is, if you went to a normal Chinese and ordered this individually, we've already made our money back. Right then. - Are you getting more savory? - Oh yeah. I am not finished with the savory yet. - [Johnny] 45 minutes in and Chris has eaten four
plates worth of food. It's a good start, Chris, but you ain't seen nothing yet. - I would say nine times out of 10, yeah, I beat the buffet. Let's give that a 10 maybe. (laughing) - [Johnny] George is an
all you can eat veteran. - I've been banned from one and literally banned for nothing, for just doing my normal thing, going into an all you can eat, and as advertised, having
as much as I liked, which at the day, wasn't a lot. Five small bowls. - [Johnny] Lightweight. That's just a snack. George has come to Leicester to More's World Dining Experience and has opted for the 11.99
early evening sitting. Now, he's on a mission to beat the buffet. - I would say at this particular time, I'm feeling fairly hungry. So I'd say, yeah, be scared, be scared. I'm coming in, I'm a new customer, and you're advertising all you can eat, and I'm Mr. All You Can Eat. So yeah, bring it on. - [Johnny] Tasked with
taming this eating machine is owner Monaj. - Hello there. - Welcome to More.
- Thank you. - Have you been before?
- No, I haven't, no. - Let me take you to your table and we'll take it from there. - All right, fantastic. - [Johnny] In a better world, Monaj would have his own national holiday. - It's about eat more, live more, love more, be more, try more, enjoy more, more fun, more friends, more family. And eventually, more than enough. - [Johnny] Hallelujah. - Most of our food is cooked
freshly in front of you. - [George] Okay. - [Monaj] You've got about
50 dishes to choose from. - [George] Wow. - If you take one scoop of each, you'll look like me. - Okay, fantastic. I mean, you're looking good, looking good. Nice and strong. - You can come again, sir. (laughing) - [Johnny] Monaj has
seen plenty of punters like George before, and he's got a whole kitchen
full of tricks up his sleeve. - I don't waste any time
worrying about big eaters. We want our guests to eat more. They spend time eating in here. They'll drink as well. It's one of the key things in a buffet that you try and sell a drink. It's not a trade secret. Everybody knows that in the restaurant, the margins in the drink are far better than the margin of the food. - [Johnny] A glass of Coke costs the restaurant about 15 pence, but they can sell it for a couple of quid. So all Monaj has to do is
flog George a few bevies and he's quids in. Monaj, do your thing. - What would you like to drink? - I will just start off with
a glass of water please. - Lovely. - With no ice. - Enjoy. The drink will be here shortly. - [George] All right, thanks very much. Thank you. - [Johnny] Well, that
didn't exactly go to plan. George's is a pro and it turns out what
he's got Monaj's number. - The restaurant really
wants you to fill up on pasta dishes and things like that. When I see somebody just
filling up their plate with rice and pasta, I do think to myself you're playing into the
restaurateur's hands. There is so much. It can be like a big boxing match. Hm. The gloves are off, my fork's in hand, and I'm ready to go all the way. (bell dinging) - [Johnny] This super
heavyweight contest is on. It's ginormous George
versus manager Monaj. - The average guest will
eat four plates of food. The most I've seen anybody eat is eight solid plates of food. An average starter plate will cost us for raw material about
one pound 30 a plate. - Thanks very much. That's great, thank you. Cheers, thank you. - A main plate will cost about
one pound 10, one pound 15. - I didn't see this. Where was this? - If you're going for lots
of their expensive items, chicken, beef, I can imagine they're gonna
be sweating and watching and alarm bells are gonna be ringing. - [Johnny] George has come out fighting, sticking to what he knows. He's soon on his fourth
plate of chicken tikka. - If I sit here too long, relax, drink loads of water, you know, I'm gonna start to
feel full very, very quickly. So you get the food down,
get up there, get some more, get up there, get some more. (bell dinging) It's probably a bit like a
man at the blackjack table in a casino when he starts
to win, and win, and win. Suddenly, the security start twitching and most certainly the owners are borderline having a heart attack. - [Johnny] Seconds out and plate five. (bell dinging) And George has already eaten
almost two whole chickens. - What I'm doing here, just
breaking this chicken up. And basically it saves me chewing so much. - [Johnny] George has
really come out swinging, even if he can't be bothered chewing. Either way, he's got
owner Monaj on the ropes. - When the guests eat around seven plates, I'm in trouble. - [Johnny] We Brits love our food like a fat kid loves, well, food. And now, there is a world of restaurants who are saying no to fasting diets and high intensity interval training in favor of high intensity
fat eating with no intervals. - [Female Speaker] How many nuggets and onion rings are you gonna eat? - [Johnny] As a nation, we are flocking to the all
you can eat restaurants convinced we can eat our money's worth and then some more. - I've got more duck that I can get on the pancakes I think. - Is it wrong if I say I
feel a bit full already? - You are literally
their perfect customer. - [Johnny] But if all you can
eat restaurants are booming. - Do you want some more noodles? - No, I'm okay, thanks. - [Johnny] Then they
must have a few tricks up their sleeves to
beat us at our own game. - (indistinct), come on over
to the back of the restaurant. - [Johnny] And at More's Restaurant, Owner Monaj is about to
deliver a master class. - It's quarter to 8:00. It's Saturday night. It's getting really busy now. We've got about 150 children, youngsters, and lots of parents and adults with them. - [Johnny] Kids love a buffet restaurant. It's like being let loose in a sweet shop, but with extra chips on the side. - We welcome them. We love them because where
children go, parents follow. - [Johnny] And the moms and dads love it because the adorable little gluttons seem to be getting a bargain. - Oh yes, look, Jacob's
well under the line. Come on over here. You eat for half price, young man. - [Johnny] But once again, the all you can eats are one step ahead because even at half price, the restaurants know
they can make a killing. - [Monaj] Get them to
make more chips in that. - Yeah. - [Monaj] Tell chef chips. - [Johnny] 10 minutes in and the kitchen is rushed off its feet. - Couple of creaks
happening here and there. The most interesting one is
guess what we just ran out of and we had to top up twice? Tomato ketchup because all the youngsters
are having chips with ketchup. As much as we're saying,
try all the other dishes, they all love their chips. - [Johnny] There is nothing worse than running out of ketchup, well, except maybe war
and Jeremy Clarkson. But still, it's bad. - Oh gosh. Hey chef, center, ketchup please. - [Johnny] Although for
Monaj, there is a plus side. - [Monaj] Fantastic. Thank you, buddy. Can we also put some next to the chips? - [Johnny] Empty ketchup bowls mean the kids are stuffing themselves with his most profitable items because chips are cheap, literally, cheap as chips. And when they're not eating chips, the kids are eating another
high profit item, pizza. Kids, what are you doing? A Margherita pizza costs
about 15p a slice to make. Well, 15p and the heartfelt
passion of a good cook. But still, it's cheap. And as the kids have had
their fill of pizza and chips, Monaj is standing by with the
next cheap and cheerful item. - And we know the next big rush
is gonna come from waffles. So we're just making sure
we're ready for that. - [Johnny] Monaj there, waffling on. It's not just kids who can be tempted by less expensive grub. Back in St. Helen's. - Two Pepsi's, no ice. - [Johnny] Manager David
is watching a grown man make the mistake so many make. A siren calling him onto the rocks covered in crispy seaweed. - [Chris] Oh my God, look
at the amount of seaweed! - [Peter] What is crispy seaweed? Is it seaweed from the sea? - My guilty pleasure at an
eat all you can is seaweed. I could eat it like cereal. I build it up like a
sandcastle of seaweed. I don't know about you, but as you probably notice from my plate, I like an eat all you can buffet, but I think that they
should rename buffets to eat all the seaweed you can. - [Johnny] Yeah, it's quite niche, Chris. It's also music to our
buffet manager David's ears. - This is our seaweed which
we offer to the customers. Per week, the chef have to make one and a half of this size buckets. To be honest, this is a bit of a secret, but it's actually cabbage. And then what they need to do, they need to finely chop it, and then deep fry and season. - [Johnny] Seaweed, or as it turns out, fried cabbage, is one of the cheapest
items on David's menu. And so-called buffet master
Chris has fallen for it. - If you stop and relax, it's game over. You almost gotta keep it going, keep it going, keep eating. - So how is it then, gentlemen? - Tell you what. It's left me a bit hungry.
- Peckish. (laughing) - [Johnny] Stuffing himself with seaweed means that Chris has left no room for one of the most
valuable items on the menu. - The aromatic crispy duck, you'd be quite surprised to hear this. Per day, the customers can
eat up to 20 crispy ducks. - [Johnny] Across its 10 branches, the restaurant gets through
five tons of duck every week. That's 2,500 ducks fried in
over 20,000 liters of oil. Poor Donald. Costing three times more than chicken, it's one of the most
expensive items on the menu. So The Chinese Buffet has
come up with a cunning way to stop people from eating too much and keep down their duck bill. - Where you place the
food is very important. What we have done with the crispy duck, we have decided to put
it by the open kitchen. At the same time, when we do this, we have reduced consumption of the food because people do not just
pile it up on the plate. - [Johnny] Nobody wants to look greedy in front of the chefs, not even in an all you can eat restaurant. - They might feel a bit embarrassed if they pile it up on the plate if the chef is standing next to them. - [Johnny] Either way, bargain hunter Chris has ducked out. But has he got his money's worth? - There comes a point when the fun ends and the pain sets in. - [Johnny] Well, he and Peter polished off a total of nine plates between them, but on food alone, they've eaten just under the
cost of one 14.99 buffet meal. - It's funny, isn't it,
how when you come in here, you have aspirations and
hopes to eat all that food. And when you leave, you don't ever want to look at it again. - [Johnny] Once again, David and The Chinese Buffet
have seen off the challengers. - Pub. - Let's go. - Our eyes are always
bigger than our belly. Therefore, you go and attack and you have a mountain full. By a second plate, I'm sorry, I'm stuffed. And that's what always happens. But then, they never learn
because they come here 10 times and they still do the 10 times the same. - Get a beer inside you, Chris. - [Johnny] Remember George who'd rocked up at More's in Leicester and looked like cleaning
out Monaj completely? Well, he's still going. I mean, I've had
relationships last less time than these two have been together. - [Monaj] Hi George,
how are you getting on? - I'm getting on, yeah, great, yeah. I'm eating you out of profit yet or? - You've got a long way to go. (laughing) - [Johnny] That is the laugh of a man who hopes that George chalks on a balta. This battle of giants is still on. George was banned by his
local all you can eat and is now onto his sixth
plate of chicken tikka. - See, I've had a fair bit of chicken. - Now, if you'd have had the lamb, I'd have been in trouble. - Oh really? I'm still going.
- Yes. - [Johnny] Seconds out. (bell dinging) Again. Plate six. - Aiming for around about 10. 10 or 12, but maybe more. - [Johnny] In an average week, the restaurant could get through up to 100 kilos of chicken tikka and 135 liters of tikka masala sauce. That's 116 chickens, 12 liters of cream, over 200 tins of tomatoes, and nearly two kilos of chopped chilies, or as George calls it, a snack. - It's good stuff, yeah. Really good, yeah. - [Johnny] Monaj has set
in the restaurant's price based on customers eating
less than seven plates. - [Monaj] Yes, there is a risk and you have to calculate everything. - Ooh, beautiful. - The perfect customer for me would be the one that comes in, spends an hour and a half here, enjoys their meal, has about three plates of food, lots and lots to drink, and off they go. - [Johnny] It's a gamble because anyone eating
more than seven plates will literally eat into his profit. - When somebody comes in looking to eat as much as they can and it's a bit of a
mission, a bit of a game, you can tell. And it's usually the
youngsters these days. When the concept first
opened, it was quite popular. - Tackling the lamb. Try and get a last bit of lamb in. The walls of my stomach now
are starting to stretch. Hopefully, I'll get another plate in, but who knows at the end of this one? - [Johnny] George has
already stuffed himself with almost two whole chickens. Now, he's getting the meat sweats. - You know, I don't want
to make myself sick. - [Johnny] After seven plates of curried lamb and chicken tikka. - [George] Aye aye aye. - [Johnny] Mr. All You Can Eat
has found he can eat no more. - [George] I think I've had a lot. - [Johnny] It's a good effort and close to More's all-time record. - The most I've seen anybody eat is eight solid plates of food. - [Johnny] George has
polished off all this and for just 12 pounds. - Seven plates, and I think I've
definitely beat the buffet. - [Johnny] But, has he
dealt Monaj a knockout blow? - Nuh-uh, he did not beat the buffet. He did just over seven plates and that's about my breakeven point here. And they weren't full plates. So whilst he was sort of pretending to eat lots of plates of food, they weren't even full. - [Johnny] So tactical Chris
and buffet buster George have both failed to break even. But hang on. At The Chinese Buffet in St. Helen's, the kids are about to strike gold. Brown gold. They've hit the sweet spot. Everyone loves a chocolate fountain. - People are fascinated by it. Adults, kids love it. - It's also one of the
most expensive items in the entire restaurant. Per day, we can use up to eight bags of these chocolates pellets. It costs 15 pound a bag. So per day, we can go through
120 pound worth of chocolate on our chocolate fountain. - [Johnny] So if you ever think you've eaten too much chocolate, remember that these guys spend
up to 44 grand a year on it. It's also where you stand the best chance of beating the buffet. Let's be honest, all this talk of healthy
eating, balanced diets, and portion control is
enough to make you sick. There's facts of anecdotal evidence. The spiralizer and the NutriBullet are gathering dust in the cupboard, aren't they? What you really want is to get stuck into the all you can eat. - He's walking around
with two plates at a time. - Fantastic. - [Johnny] These restaurants
are set up to make money from even the greediest punters. But pay attention because we're learning
some important tricks here for when you're next at your local buffet. First, avoid the cheap foods and go straight for the good stuff. Second, drinking is for mugs or glasses. Either way, it's a mistake. Thirdly, hit the chocolate fountain hard. That's where you'll get your money back, but they're hoping you'll be too full by the time you get there. - I'm gonna have to take
my belt off, you know? (laughing) - [Johnny] In this battle of the buffet, the restaurants seem to
have all the trump cards. But there are some big guns out there. Time to send in the heavy artillery. - Start making everything. - [Johnny] It's lunchtime in Flames World Buffet in Worcester. And these strapping lads are on a mission. - The challenge today is who can eat the most
plates of food in an hour. I'm pretty confident. We've got some big lads on this team, so we should do well. - [Johnny] Big lads. You're telling me. These are my kind of sportsmen and they've just touched
down at Flames Buffet which is run by manager, Limon. - We're just setting up a table for you. Literally one minute. - [Johnny] And head chef Pramad. - How long for the bacon? Two minutes? Your two minutes or my two minutes? - [Johnny] Like all top athletes, these boys have to be very
selective in what they eat. So like you do, they've selected the full
English breakfast section. - Can we have more sausages please? More sausages quickly. We're running out, so one more batch should
be coming out in a bit. - You're 11 minutes in, guys. - [Johnny] These boys know the importance of a balanced diet. So having wiped out the full English, they're now moving on to
an even fuller Chinese. - Sweet and sour chicken, please. Sweet and sour chicken. Any dish, we can pick it
up in five minutes time. And then we know when it's less than half, we start making it. - [Johnny] While the Bombers
launch another offensive. - Ba-boom! - [Johnny] There's a new guy on the scene who eats for a living. - I like to think I'm the
biggest eater in the UK. I recently got back from
representing the British team at the Butler Big Eaters
World Championship. And of the four person
team, I ate the most. I tried to eat 25 Big Macs
from McDonald's one time and got through 17 or 18. - [Johnny] I'd have checked his beard. - Britain's number one eater. - [Johnny] He could hide a couple of quarter
pounders in there easy. - Sit down, go on. - [Johnny] Adam has come to Huckleberry's, an American diner in Yorkshire. But if there's one thing our friends in the U.S. are good at, it's eating. Drinking, rubbish. But eating, phenomenal. And now, they brought a very particular type of restaurant to our shores. - How are we doing, boys? We nearly ready? We've got some very eager competitors. - Two minutes. - [Johnny] Huckleberry's
is one of Britain's first food challenge restaurants where for up to 35 quid, punters can test themselves against ridiculous quantities of food. - [Sarah] When we first
started two years ago, there was nothing else
like us at all, was there? - [Jon] No. - The market has changed
so much that literally, everywhere is doing
this kind of thing now. - [Johnny] Realizing our
love of stuffing our faces, Jon and Sarah have set up a restaurant where if you're tough, hungry, or criminally insane enough, you can take on the burger apocalypse, weighing as much as 20
quarter pound burgers. - Looks good. - Our USP is obviously the challenges. Running at any one time, we've probably got eight or
nine that we have on the menu. - But it's everyone else
that comes with them. People love it. Everyone gets to take a
photo of somebody doing it, making a fool of themselves as well. - [Jon] Making an event, isn't it? - Yeah, we make it an experience rather than just having a meal. - [Johnny] Huckleberry's latest challenge is their toughest yet. Man versus dog. - That's your second one. - Yeah, thanks. - [Johnny] And Adam has
challenged owner Jon to give it a go. - One hour. Three, two, one, go. - [Johnny] For 20 quid, it's like eating four days worth of breakfast, lunch, and
dinner in just one hour through the medium of hot dog. - The man versus dog challenge which is the four feet of hot dogs has in it two pound of bread, four pounds of hot dog sausage, four pounds of beef chili, and also a pound of cheese
grated on the top of it. Weighed in at just over 10 pound. - [Johnny] If Adam succeeds in the man versus dog challenge, he'll have eaten the equivalent of an actual Yorkshire terrier. - [Sarah] Nearly 15 minutes in, boys. Still feeling confident, Adam? - It's tough. The chili's making it hard. Look at all that cheese, man. Salad. That wasn't part of the meal. - [Johnny] With owner Jon dropping out, Adam is left to go it alone. Adam may think he's getting close to beating Huckleberry's challenge, but in fact, he's doing them a favor. Not only does Adam's
plight give other customers something to point and laugh at. It's also great for marketing when Huckleberry's uploads
pictures to the internet for everybody else to point and laugh at. - When the challenge
comes out to start with, we'll take the photo and then that photo will get uploaded onto our Facebook page. - Our Facebook has 50,000 followers and we had 500,000 people had
seen one post that we put on, which is huge for a little place literally in the middle of nowhere. - I don't want it. I don't want it anymore. - He's failed it four times already. I've never seen him
struggle with any challenge as much as this. - [Adam] I hate this one, man. This is like the worst eating
challenge in the world. - [Johnny] You've got to give it to Adam. He's trying everything. Mushing the bread into
water hasn't worked. - Can I have some more
chocolate milkshake, Sarah? - [Johnny] So now, he's
trying to wash it down with a 900 calorie milkshake. - You've got to keep going! Come on, Adam! You've got a fistful left. - Come on, Adam.
- Come on! (people cheering) Well done, Adam! - [Johnny] He's done it in
a world record 54 minutes. Quick, somebody check his beard. - I feel pretty good that I defeated probably the hardest eating
challenge in the country. But at the same time, I feel like I'm gonna give birth to a car. - [Johnny] While Adam
sorts his transport home, the restaurant is already one step ahead. - If they complete it, they win the cost of the
challenge back in vouchers that they can use for anything. - I'm gonna go use the toilet. - Another challenge. They can use it to be deducted
off a bill for next time. - [Johnny] Yup, that's right. Adam may think he's beaten the restaurant, but his prize for eating the
vomit inducing quantity of food is to come back and do it all again. Who's laughing now, Adam? - Well done. - You don't want to touch that. Trust me. - Well done. - [Johnny] If even a
champion eater like Adam can't get one over on
these cunning restaurants. - Can I go home now? - [Johnny] Can anyone do better? Back at Flames, those finely tuned athletes are putting in a marathon effort. Except in a marathon, you'd ought to lose weight. - The calculated average
for a plate of food though is about one pound 44 pence. - We're all at five each. - [Johnny] After five plates each, the Bombers have almost eaten enough to cover the cost of the
7.95 lunchtime buffet. The way they're filling their crockery brings a whole new meaning
to the phrase Superbowl. - It does look like they're quite hungry. I'm just watching that stack
getting bigger and bigger. - Guys, go for more chicken tikka please, more chicken tikka. - I'm slightly concerned at the moment, but nothing too bad. - There you go, sir. No problem. - [Johnny] Maybe these boys have found a way to beat
the buffet after all. - We've run out of plates now. - Have we? - I think everyone has
at least eight plates. - Eight plates each?
- Eight plates each. - I think these guys can eat. - [Johnny] It looks like the Bombers have blown Flames away. - Sometimes, it can be like
a battle with customers. A lot of people come in with the intention of
making their monies worth. They'll come and eat as much as they can until they're so bloated, they can't actually move. - [Johnny] After just one
hour of concentrated eating, the nine Bombers have eaten
65 plates between them. (Bombers cheering) Leaving Flames with the
loss of over 20 pounds. - It's not an ideal
situation for football teams to come like this and have as many plates. Well, I'll be counting my pennies tonight. - [Johnny] So, let's get this clear. Bearded wonder boy Adam has
proven that he can eat more than you or I might get
through in four days. Chunky athletes, the Lincolnshire Bombers, have shown that a buffet can be beaten at the
cheapest times of the day. (Bombers cheering) - [Johnny] So what if you
put champion eater Adam in an all you can eat? Surely, you'd create the perfect storm. It's Saturday night. Adam's rocked up at The
Chinese Buffet and he's hungry. - Hi there.
- Yo. - How many is it for? - One. - [Johnny] And single, it seems. The average customer will eat
about three plates of food. - [Adam] Good stuff. Very impressed. - [Johnny] But Adam takes
the all you can eat concept to a whole new level. - You can use all you can
eat buffets or restaurants as a competitive either
to very frugally train 'cause basically you pay,
you know, 10, 15 pounds, and you know, all the food
that's there is yours. - He's come on his own. - Oh my god. - I can get up to 20 plates quite easily. - [Johnny] Manager David
is used to big eaters. - They always come in
with a mission by saying, "I'm gonna eat as much as
I can for that set price. I'm gonna eat the house down." Which means that I'm
going to have 10 plates. I don't care if I'm sick afterwards. - When I go to an all you can eat, my tactics generally will be to take the light protein first, so chicken, fish, whatever it might be. And I'll avoid carbohydrates
and really starchy things. - [Johnny] Nice tactics, Adam. We're listening. - After four or five plates, because they don't pace themselves, they will stop. They will literally cannot eat anymore. - [Johnny] But Adam really can eat more. (bell dinging) - I've never seen
someone eat so much food. He's got like 10 plates. - I really don't know where he puts it. - [Johnny] Adam may be
skinnier than a French fry, but he's not letting that hold him back. - Most people are shocked because of the size of me, to see me eat so much. I only weigh like 164 pounds right now. - (indistinct) his fingers, noodles dropping down his face. If he eats like that in public, how does he eat at home? That's what I wonder. Little minger. - [Johnny] So what he's doing here, he's literally shaking his body to help the food go down. It's like a digestive wiggle. This guy is a pro. - He's eyeing for the dessert
and he's going for it. - I bet his beard stinks. (laughing) - [Johnny] Adam's polished
off 21 plates of food and put away about eight
and a half thousand calories in one meal. - So, did you enjoy your dinner? That's the main thing. - I really did. The food was really, really good. - Have you been here before? - No, I've never been here. - 'Cause you've done extremely well. Oh, I would say you're
talking 40 pound very easily. - Got my money's worth then.
- Very, very easily. So next time, I'm afraid I have to charge
you three times as much. - [Johnny] Adam may have a beard that smells of curry and hot dog, and he's probably not someone you'd want to get stuck in a lift with, but we've finally found someone
who can beat the buffet. Let's be honest. Every time we go to an all
you can eat restaurant, we go with just one thing in mind, to get maximum value for money. - I can feel that you're gonna eat a lot. - We might be here all day. - [Johnny] We don't want
to fall for the tactics like Chris and George. - [Chris] Oh my god, look
at the amount of seaweed. - [Johnny] We don't want to stumble at the first hurdle like school kids. - As much as we're saying,
try all the other dishes, they all love their chips. - We want to eat as much as we can and pay as little as possible. But in More's, someone is taking this
goal one step too far and has tried to avoid
paying anything at all. - A girl just left on the street. We went after them. - I knew that was gonna happen, yeah. When everyone leaves the table, that's generally what it means that they're gonna do a walk out. So sadly, that's what it is. - [Johnny] You can't
run off without paying. It's not right. - You need to go out and talk to them. They've left without
paying, the two ladies. - And why? Where were they eating? - Well, they were at 47 actually behind. - Yes, I saw them eating. Yeah, a couple of girls came in to eat and they didn't want to pay. The thing that annoys me most are people that try to fleece you. We have a policy on price and they're trying to get
something for nothing. - [Johnny] Detective Monaj is on the case. Yep, definitely not there anymore. - You can tell that there's lots of things that give away when somebody's going to actually try and slip out. But they'll disappear to the washroom. One will disappear somewhere else. Things like that will happen. - [Johnny] No buffet will
survive if customers don't pay. That's just against the rules. - We don't let it happen. We chase the people if we have to and bring them back in. - [Johnny] Yeah, I wouldn't
call that chasing, Monaj. - But with the police involved, the customer suddenly has
an attack of conscience. - The lady would like
to pay and she's here. So were you with the other girl? - Yeah, yeah, she wanted 16 pound. - Yes. - [Female Speaker] Yeah, so there's it. I'll give her a fiver as well. - Well done. I'm sorry, what's your name? - [Female Speaker] No problem. - You don't have to tell me your name, but you know what? That's really honest of you. - [Female Speaker] We
weren't even finished. I had about two chicken nuggets. - [Johnny] Oh yeah, the old
two chicken nuggets defense. Heard it before, love. - An honest citizen. Maybe, maybe not. Do I believe her? I don't think she'd have paid one bit. Yes, why would they run away? And why has the other
girl run away not to pay? Simple. They didn't want to pay. It's only because we've made
a fuss, they've returned. Result. - [Johnny] So, doing a runner isn't gonna beat the buffet either. And anyway, that's cheating. But do you know what? Even an all you can eat
has an Achilles heel. It's a Friday night and the full fat gamble
of the buffet concept is not paying off at Flames. - My worst nightmare would
be if there's no customers. That's just a disaster. - [Johnny] The restaurant
has to cook enough of their chicken tikka
masala, prawn madras, and vegetable balta to tempt punters in. But if they don't turn
up, the food is wasted. - The bookings didn't come today. That was the biggest problem. - What's the number exactly? How many no-shows we had? - Around 40. It would be more than 40. - Nobody call, no? No cancellations? - No, no, no, nothing. They just didn't show up unfortunately. - [Johnny] A night with no
customers hits an all you can eat twice as hard as a regular restaurant. And this is where their
businesses are most vulnerable. - Today, it's really a bad day for us. I haven't seen a Friday
like this for a long time. We had 40 no-shows, no
people didn't turn up. Like as you can see, there is a lot of food left out now. More than like half of the serving dishes. So the cost is actually proportionate. By looking at the amount
of food which is left out, it's like, you know, at least 600 pounds. That's the amount of food
we're gonna waste tonight and which is a lot of money. - [Johnny] I can't bear it. Look at all that tasty
goodness all going to waste. - The most stressful thing
isn't actually the fact that people are eating too much. It's actually the waste. At the end of the night, having to throw away a bucketful of food, that's probably the most
heartbreaking thing. - Today, we definitely didn't break even. It's a loss today. - [Johnny] This can't be right. Do we really want to beat the buffets and put these places out of business? These restaurants are
an oasis of happiness in a cruel, diet obsessed world. They're even attracting new customers who'd never normally
visit an all you can eat. - [Mary] I was classically
trained in cordon bleu cookery and I like to think of
myself as a food expert. - [Johnny] Believe it or not, this is Mary's first ever
trip to an all you can eat. - What happens? Boy, it looks busy.
- I know. - I wouldn't go and eat in
an all you can eat restaurant because I just don't think you would get the standard of food. I know lots of people
like value for money, and I know that they
probably pile their plates up and go back for seconds, thirds. To me, I think, you know,
that's almost like gluttony and that sort of food that
they're probably serving is probably only fit for pigs. - [Johnny] Yeah, sexy pigs
though like Miss Piggy or that one from "Babe." Mary clearly hasn't known
the joys of combining chips, noodles, and chicken
curry all on one plate. - Should we go and see
what they've got then? - Yeah, lets go. The duck's all in there. - That's duck? Oh, it looks a bit dried up. I don't think I'll be having that. - Do you want to grab a
plate whilst you're here? - I haven't seen anything I like yet. - The way we manage volume and ensuring that things don't run out is little and often, little
and often, little and often. - This came at the right time. Nice and hot. Wow, look at that. - Because if you cook
too much of one thing, it takes longer to cook. So from the wok, there
can be two chefs there. They can be cooking four
dishes at the same time. - Is it nice? - Yeah, it is actually. You see, to me, I'll be
full after eating this. Well, I'm really surprised. I didn't think that the food
would be as exciting as this. I was expecting it to be quite really, you know, run of the mill stuff. - It's nice that you can see 'em in the middle cooking as well. That's something a bit different. - [Johnny] This fussy eater
seems to have seen the light. - The type of restaurants I like are usually quiet and intimate. I tend not to like big noisy places with lots of people in them. I think I need to concentrate
on what I'm eating. - [Johnny] Not here, you don't. The joy of the all you can eat is that we don't have
to make tough decisions like whether to have a
starter, or a dessert, or a side dish to go with the main course. - Here thee, ladies and gentlemen! - [Johnny] And at More's, you can even combine the
triple joy of big meals, low costs, and a disco. - Tonight, if you feel like celebrating, please make some noise. (people cheering) - [Johnny] It's a seductive threesome, a Monaj-a-trois if you like. Because you know what? The secret of the all you
can eat success is simple. It's about getting enough
of us through the door. - This, the whole concept is
basically based on numbers. You need the volume through the door. But the way I see it, the larger the restaurant, the more you can offer. The more you can offer, the more attractive it
looks for customers. - [Johnny] Just like a casino. If enough of us turn up, the restaurants will
definitely make a profit. - I don't waste any time
worrying about big eaters because our philosophy is more. It's in the DNA of what we do. And sometimes, you'll make a
healthy margin from one guest and you'll make less from another. As long as the average
of the week pans out to be a reasonably good margin, everyone's happy. - [Johnny] It means we get to keep saying, stuff the diet. I'm going out. - As it's suggested, it's a buffet and eat as much as you want. - [Johnny] The restaurants
know exactly what to give us. - If you want to be wined and dined, that isn't what we do. It isn't what we're about. We don't pretend to be like that. - And most importantly, that the all you can
eats are here to stay. Now, get me out of here. I'm starving. (man belching) ♪ More, more, more ♪ ♪ How do you like it,
how do you like it? ♪ ♪ More, more, more ♪ ♪ How do you like it,
how do you like it? ♪ ♪ More, more, more ♪ ♪ How do you like it,
how do you like it? ♪ (upbeat jazz music)
