Best buffets and places to gorge and overeat in Sacramento

Dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. Macaroni and cheese. That unlimited “salad” bar. As a kid, I loved Sizzler. It was a magical place where you could devour anything you wanted in any imagined quantity. Remarkably, my immigrant mom liked going, too. Choice. Freedom. The American Dream.

The buffets of the ’80s may have fallen out of favor, but there are still plenty of ways to get your all-you-can-eat on in Sacramento. Some feature aisles of grub sitting in chafing dishes, others cook your meal to order.

Or, you cook your own meal. I recently found myself at Oz Korean BBQ in Elk Grove, surrounded by neon lights, grills and platters of raw, marinated meats. The onslaught is quick: wasabi-flavored salad; eight small plates of pickles, fermented veggies and other banchan; rice; fried chicken and fried pot stickers. And the grill was just getting hot.

Galbi. Chili pork. Garlic prawns. We cooked and ate as quickly as possible. More galbi. Bulgogi. More galbi. We were already full. Pathetically full. But my boyfriend insisted on placing two more orders, even after I’d thrown my napkin on my plate. He takes the all-you-can-eat thing quite literally.

“I’m still going, even if I wheeze myself to sleep tonight,” he said.

Then, he started sounding like my mother.

“If we all do our part and have one more piece of chicken, we’ll be fine.”

Despite the bowling balls in our bellies, we were more than fine. We were ecstatic. Gorging so much that it hurts is fun—not to mention our basic human right. Amurrica.

With that, I present SN&R’s quick-and-dirty guide to overeating in the 916. Click the image to the right to explore.