Why isn't there any "all you can eat" Mexican food buffet restaurant? People like all you can eat buffer restaurants (my brother and I regularly eat at two different "all you can eat" Chinese food buffet restaurants and they are always packed.) and people like Mexican/TexMex/Southwest food. An "all you can eat" Mexican food buffet restaurant would be a winner!
It'll have
1) a taco bar - You can make your own tacos or taco salads with whatever ingredient you like. If you like sour cream, you can have sour cream; if you are lactose-intolerant, you can leave out the sour cream. With a taco bar, you are not confined to eating whatever the restaurant defined to be a taco. (I like chipotle sauce on mine and when I ask for it, waiter/waitresses are constantly rolling their eyes as if to say "Why do you have to be difficult!")
2) a fajitas grill - You can make your own fajitas with freshly grilled steak strips, chicken strips, tuna strips, shrimp, or longaniza. For vegetarians, there would be grilled eggplant and zucchini.
3) a soup bar - I love Mexican soups but for some reason, the Mexican restaurants, where I eat, don't seem to have a large selection of soups. The soup bar should have, at least, chili (beef and just veggies), tortilla soup (beef, chicken, and just veggies) albondigas, posole stew (pork and chicken), Mexican shrimp soup, and Mexican vegetable soup.
4) a fruit / fruit shake bar - Why don't most restaurants serve a large variety of tropical fruits like guavas, mangos, papaya, passion fruit , and dates. They are common in supermarkets; why aren't they common in restaurants.
5) a dessert bar with someone to cook fried ice cream on request - what more is there to be said about that.
I intentionally omitted a lot of food that are expected to be served in a Mexican restaurants (like burritos, chimichangas, tamales, etc.). Because, it's an "all you can eat" buffet; the profit must be made on volume and not on margin. To increase volume without increasing cost, the food prep time must be short. So I limited the food list to very popular food items very short food prep time.
Such a restaurant will be successful because
1) The startup cost is low (somewhere between a moderate priced restaurant and a carry out). Start with a closed supermarket. Add a kitchen for basic food prep and grilling. Convert rest of the space to dining area.
2) The required skill of the staff is low (with the exception of the fried ice cream, there's no fancy cooking, just cleaning, cutting, mixing, boiling, and grilling)
3) Very little marketing is required. The two very popular "all you can eat" Chinese food buffet restaurants, where my brother and I frequently eat, get most of their customers by word of mouth recommendations. (If you build it, they will come!)
Of course, the restaurant would have to be at a location with a high traffic volume.
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