Restaurants woo customers with all-you-can eat deals

There’s no doubt that tough times are diminishing America’s appetite for restaurant food. We still like to eat out, of course, but most of us are thinking twice about splurging and focusing more on value.

Now comes word from Nation’s Restaurant News, a trade paper, that the struggling industry is reaching out to hungry diners with a variety of “endless,” “bottomless,” and “never ending” all-you-can-eat promotions. That’s great news for our pocketbooks, but potentially bad news for our waistlines.

According to NRN’s report, restaurant operators insist that the focus on gluttony isn’t a sign of desperation. Rather, experts say, they’re necessities to give a public beleaguered by roiling financial markets and high gas prices a reason to dine out.

Here are a few examples of recent promotions (You might want to check the chains’ Web sites for the latest deals, since some of those noted below have expired.):

• Chili’s “Bottomless Express Lunch” priced at $5.99.
• Applebee’s “Endless Favorites,” including such $9.99, all-you-can-eat entrées as chicken tenders, barbecue riblets and panko-crusted shrimp.
• Olive Gardens’s Never-Ending Pasta Bowl promotion $8.95
• Red Lobster’s “Endless Shrimp” for about $15.99
• IHOP’s  all-you-can-eat pancakes daylong as part of a promotion called “Trick or Treat All-You-Can-Eat” pancake feast, alone or along with eggs, hash browns and a choice of breakfast meats ($4.99).

We’re always on the lookout for restaurant bargains. Tell us some of the best ones you’ve come across. Write to us at tightwad at cro dot consumer dot org.