January 24, 2025 • By Dennis Beaver

We’ve all seen news stories where giant swarms of locusts descend on farmers’ fields and within minutes decimate their crops.

But, did you know there is a human version?

That’s right, human “locusts” devouring plate after plate, tray after tray of expensive food items at all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants, in quantities most people would consider unreasonable, and spending hours in pure gluttony.

The justification? “Well, it’s all-you-can-eat, so I’m getting my money’s worth and trying to break the buffet.”

YouTube has dozens of videos showing customers — who have annihilated trays of lobster, prime rib, sushi and other expensive proteins — with long, sad faces, seemingly shocked that the restaurant would cut them off, asking: Can they kick me out of an all-you-can-eat buffet for eating too much?

“We Are Competitive Eaters”

On Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 31, 2024, I received an urgent request to accept a WhatsApp video call from “A reader with a serious legal question.” I agreed, and at once was greeted by folks in an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant.

“Janine” explained that she and her five friends were warming up for a competitive eating contest at a buffet restaurant. “We each pay for the buffet and then practice eating as much as we can.”

When I asked if they explained their purpose in being there before paying, she replied in an arrogant, entitled, emphatic tone of voice; “No! Why should we?”

Their camera operator sent me real time video of what I can only describe as human vacuum cleaners devouring plate after plate of expensive meat and seafood items: enormous amounts of lobster, crab, and pounds of prime rib.

They were all laughing. I wasn’t.

It reminded me of YouTube Halloween Ring Camera videos of adults with face-masks in ill-fitting costumes emptying entire bowls of candy — intended for kids — into bags and running away: Pure theft.

To me, these competitive eaters were ripping off the restaurant. The owner, on camera, said, “Stop! This isn’t the Las Vegas Bellagio buffet. What you are doing would be wrong there, but this is our family’s livelihood. You are taking so much that my customers have nothing. Get out!”

“I read your column. You help people. This is an AYCE restaurant! Can he do this?” Janine asked. Her attempted innocence and victimization didn’t fool me.

“Janine, in my legal opinion, yes, but lawyers have differing opinions. To be safe, I recommend leaving the restaurant immediately.”

Not Risk Free

Competitive eating, consuming as much as you can, as fast as you can, within a given period of time, is big business. While beyond the space limits of this article, it is important to be aware there have been several deaths during these events, as well as long term health consequences.

Also, there is a moral issue involved here.

In 2023, 13.5% of U.S. households were food insecure, having difficulty providing enough food for their members due to a lack of resources. Author Jane Oliver eloquently puts it this way:

“Competitive eating mocks struggles of the poor who worry about how to put any food on the table to feed themselves and their children. How disrespectful it is for those suffering from malnutrition in famine or drought-stricken regions to see such blatant, unnecessary gorging for the sake of ‘sport.’ These contestants make a game out of stuffing themselves to sickening levels while almost one billion don’t even have access to enough calories”

Legally, can you be kicked out?

“I could not find this issue adjudicated,” Los Angeles-based, Loyola Law School contracts law professor, Bryan Hull says, and suggests, “management should have a time limit, or language that would spell out the terms so that customers know what they are getting into. A restaurant could refuse to serve someone who has abused the system. If they sued, the damages, if any, would likely be the cost of the buffet.”

Fair Dealing and Reasonableness

I discussed this issue with New York-based attorney Catherine Pastrikos Kelly. She has written extensively on the legal issues raised in implied contracts:

“Going to a restaurant and paying for food is an implied contract, and like all contracts, there is a duty of good faith and fair dealing. This means acting in a reasonable manner.

At a buffet, even an all-you-can-eat buffet, a customer would be expected to eat what a person would reasonably eat at one meal.

“For example, it would not mean eating 30 to 40 lobsters or multiple trays of food or practice for an eating competition, for that is not what a reasonable person would do. In situations where the customer is acting outside the scope of what a reasonable person would do, management would be well within their rights to make them stop, or pay extra, and potentially, to leave the premises.”

So a sign that says “all you can eat” doesn’t mean we get to abandon all logic and human decency. Let’s enjoy ourselves within reason.


Dennis Beaver Practices law in Bakersfield and welcomes comments and questions from readers,
which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993,
or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1 – at – Gmail.com.