[Photo: Robyn Lee]

In the United States, all-you-can-eat restaurant franchises are hardly a novel concept, but in the UK, they're more of a new arrival. In a piece about the new British buffet chain Taybarns, BBC News asks whether all-you-can-eat buffets encourage excessive eating.

With warnings that the UK is following the US with rising levels of obesity, isn't this sort of dining experience a cause for concern?

"When I come here I pig out," one diner is quoted as saying. "I've had two puddings already. I'll be regretting it when I go on the scales next week." Others echo similar sentiments.

Sure, you might fill up a plate with more than you need, when you've already paid for it. But do these sorts of restaurants actually constitute more of a health problem than any other? I'm inclined to say that enough dirt-cheap dining options exist in our world today—McDonalds and 7-11, I'm looking at you—that all-you-can-eat restaurants, though perhaps encouraging momentary indulgence, won't have a large-scale impact on health. And portions are so gigantic these days that one might not eat any more at a buffet than they would at any other restaurant meal.

What do you think? Are all-you-can-eat restaurants a bad policy? Or just a decent way to get a cheap, filling meal?