Using these principles will help you get better value from an all-you-can-eat buffet and have a better dining experience to enjoy your food.

Principle #1: Check the spread before you dive

Look at the buffet tables before you line up to pick up a plate. You may want to go for the salad first. If you’ve checked the tables, you’ll know which table to visit next.

Principle #2 – Focus on the good things

Buffet prices are the same whether you eat just bread or indulge in filet mignon, lobster, and crab legs. It is necessary to pay special attention to these elements. They tend to go fast. Restaurants take their time restocking these items and expect you to fill up on some of the less expensive items.

Principle #3 – Go for the crab legs

Cheaper establishments will serve imitation crab meat. The best restaurants will serve snow crabs and the best buffets will serve king crab legs. King crabs are $5 per pound and snow crabs are $2 per pound wholesale on crabbing boats. Retail they are $27 per pound and $12 per pound respectively. King crabs are easier to peel and contain more meat per leg. However, they do have a spiny shell covering. Snow crabs have a smooth, harder shell that is more difficult to open.

Principle #4: Don’t eat too many carbs

Potatoes, pasta and rice take up precious space in the stomach. So cut carbs and eat more seafood.

Principle #5 – Start small

Start small so you have room on your plate and in your stomach to try everything. You can always get more of something you like in the next round. Don’t overfill the plate, you can finish the sampling on the next plate.

Principle #6: Be adventurous Try the mystery empanadas

Try a breaded hamburger. You’ll never know what you’re getting or losing until you bite into one. If it turns out to be a bitter vegetable, the breading process will temper the flavor. If you’re lucky, they might give you a clue as to what the mystery burger is by spotting it on the veggie, meat, or dessert tables.

Principle #7: Branch out with different vegetables

Try some of the garden variety vegetables that you wouldn’t normally eat, especially if it’s an oriental food buffet. Oriental cooking can do wonders for bitter-tasting vegetables. I have had some good tasting tree leaves and grain husks. Oriental cooks are quite thrifty when using the whole vegetable.

Principle #8: Consume food quickly when time is limited

You can gobble down a few plates of food quickly when you have a limited amount of time or a dinner partner who just isn’t interested and wants to leave early. He can eat more food this way because it takes a while for his stomach to realize that it is full. On the other hand, you may pay for it later with stomach aches.

Principle #9 – Eat slowly and enjoy the experience

The other approach is to take your time. Your first few bites will settle in your stomach by the time you reach the third and fourth courses. You have more time to chew your food carefully.

Principle #10: Free Buffet’s Revenge

Your stomach will remind you why you don’t do this often. A large meal will tend to make you groggy. Find a place to lie on your back and massage your stomach muscles. Be sure to lift your head so that stomach juices flow in the right direction.