Anyone eating out in Paraguay will very quickly discover how common buffet restaurants are. They are to be found everywhere from high streets to supermarkets to shopping centers.
What they offer is good reasonably priced food without all the hassle of making a selection from a menu. Ideal for trying a selection of foods and for when you are not quite sure as to the name of dishes.
Also with menus I have been to more than one restaurant where although there was a menu of sorts it came in the form of verbal suggestions from the waiter rather than anything commited to writing.
The system of payment here is unlike that in England, and presumably other countries as well, where buffets are charged per person. In Paraguay instead the food is billed by weight at the till. This I personally think is a far fairer system as a person is therefore only charged for what they intend to eat.
The great majority of these restaurants have a similar selection of foods on offer. Various meats along with a selection of rice and pasta. There will also be salads and vegetables available although these tend to get treated as side orders or garnishes. There is no surprise that this is what is served up as it covers what the average Paraguayan would be seeking.
The best place to find other buffets tends to be shopping center food courts where in addition to the above there will also be others offering the likes of Oriental, Italian or even vegetarian options. Paraguay with it’s culture of meat eating can be a tough place to find something interesting and vegetarian.
With all these restaurants, from the cheapest to the most high class, the process of selecting food and getting it to the plate tends to be the same and very like dining in a canteen. A long counter of hot plates along which the queue of diners slowly passes picking out items as they go along for their meal. Unless there is no one else around moving backwards along the counter to pick up something that had been missed is not possible and would probably be looked upon disapprovingly if you were to try it.
These are not, apart from a very few, seen as luxury restaurants so the seating and decor is plain, funtional and canteen like. That though should not put anyone off eating at one of them.
In fact the shopping center food halls are full of customers every single day who come as much to socialize as to eat. There the buffet restaurant is as much a meeting place as the coffee shop.
As for me. When I eat out this has become my restaurant of choice. The ideal way to try new foods and to eat again those whos name I just don’t know.
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