E-Mail This Article to a Friend Spreading it out When you’re on the move, all-you-can-eat buffets can be the best way to go BY RUTH TOBIAS
	Where to find them • Arirang House, 162 Mass Ave, Boston, (617) 536-1277. • Fire + Ice, 205 Berkeley Street, Boston, (617) 482-3473; 50 Church Street, Cambridge, (617) 547-9007; www.fire-ice.com • Gourmeli’s, Boston Marriott, 110 Huntington Avenue, Boston, (617) 236-5800. • Henrietta’s Table, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett Street, Cambridge, (617) 661-5005; www.charleshotel.com • Kashmir, 279 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 536-1695; www.kashmirindianrestaurant.com • Midwest Grill, 1124 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, (617) 354-7536; www.midwestgrill.com • Namaskar, 236 Elm Street, Somerville, (617) 623-9911; www.namaskarcuisine.com • Rani, 1353 Beacon Street, Brookline, (617) 734-2879; www.ranibistro.com • Rangzen, 24 Pearl Street, Cambridge, (617) 354-8881. • Royal India, 313 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 491-8333. • Sabra, 45 Union Street, Newton, (617) 964-9275. • Tanjore, 18 Eliot Street, Cambridge, (617) 868-1900. — RT

Rent, tuition, bills, beer, emergencies, beer emergencies — it adds up fast, with nary a nickel left over for nutrients. How to make the most of deficient food funds? Hit a good old all-you-can-eat (AYCE) buffet. True, this quintessentially American phenomenon is always a crap shoot (no wonder it’s ubiquitous in Las Vegas, that quintessentially American city) — and more often than not, "crap" is the operative word. Here in Boston, hitting the jackpot is all the more difficult for newcomers not yet familiar with the buffet terrain, which runs the gamut from the make-your-own free-for-alls at Fire + Ice and the elegant Sunday spreads at Henrietta’s Table to the humble but hearty offerings of neighborhood holes-in-the-wall. Still, when you’re hurtin’ for cash but hankerin’ for hash, there’s no harm in taking a little gamble on your grub — especially now that we’ve reduced some of the guesswork by offering glimpses into the following joints.

When it comes to overfeeding, Italian mamas have got nothing on Beantown’s Indian restaurateurs. Come lunchtime, the city teems with buffets from the Land of the Tiger, not only on just about every starving-student-filled square in Cambridge and Somerville (where, for instance, Royal India and Tanjore draw hungry academics), but also among the more-moneyed munchers of Back Bay and Brookline (whose semi-haute haunts include Kashmir and Rani). But for our dough, Davis Square’s Namaskar is the way to go, since it offers one lovely little surprise after another. First, there’s the space itself — serene yet smart in celadon and lilac, with wood floors, a small wine bar, and waiters in ties adding a touch of panache. Then comes a complimentary spot of juice, served in a cordial glass, which looks and tastes almost like dessert wine (in fact, the waiter says with a smile, it’s a "secret recipe"). And then there’s the food. Alongside a salad bar (where you’ll discover, among the fresh veggies, blistering-hot lime pickles as well as raita and chutney) lies the carefully maintained — if rather poultry-centric — array of main courses. Of the juicy tandoori chicken over onions, chicken kofta, and tikka masala, only the latter lacks character. Meanwhile, the vegetarian entrées — including saag aloo (spinach and potatoes), shahi bhindi (okra and onions), and cabbage bhaji — prove distinct in their succulence. Even the potato-pea samosas manage to hold up well, and aren’t mushy or overly greasy. (Note, however, that no one dish is especially spicy — chase chilies elsewhere.) And the icing on the cake? A $7.95 tab — which even includes your choice of plain, onion, or garlic naan (barring an occasional memory lapse on the waitstaff’s part).

Not in a Madras mood? For the same measly moola (or for three bucks more at dinnertime and on weekends), you can mingle with the musicology majors over mounds of Korean cuisine (along with some vaguely Japanese and Chinese dishes thrown in for good measure) at Arirang House, a few doors down from Berklee on Mass Ave. Your basic bamboo-and-rice-paper hut, Arirang House hosts an all-day buffet that’s as serviceable as the setting. It’s fairly extensive, with a dozen or so entrée selections, and filling, if generally forgettable (which beats memorably awful). Skip the seafood (like chewy octopus in chili sauce) and the sweet-and-sour stuff — sometimes chicken, sometimes pork, it’s always soggy — in favor of more low-maintenance fare, such as competent eggplant salad and savory, nutty soba noodles (the glass-noodle dish known as chap chae, however, skews a bit gluey). Classic bulgogi does unexpectedly well, remaining moist with smoky sweetness. As for the salad bar, it’s more like a kimchi bar, boasting three or four of the fiery condiments, plus a smattering of the cold vegetable sides typically served with a family-style Korean meal — think dressed bean sprouts, spinach, potatoes, and so on. As far as the cold buffet goes, it’s like receiving an edible lesson in Korean dining customs.

Gastronomic protocol is also on display at Sabra, in Newton Centre, in the form of hearty hospitality from an avuncular proprietor. He greets you with a cheery "You hungry, yes? You ready to eat? That’s good," before leading you past the bar into a modestly pleasant split-level dining room done in various warm hues, where a small but satisfying Middle Eastern buffet awaits you for $8.95. Composed primarily of vegetables — fresh and cooked, cold and hot — it’s a worthwhile alternative for herbivores and calorie-counters fed up with ho-hum one-trip salad bars. Here you’ll find loads of leafy greens cooked with garlic and lemon; not one, but two tomato salads; grilled eggplant and corn on the cob; an authentic tabouleh (parsley-heavy, bulgur-sparse); and plenty more, including a simple pasta salad, carrot-raisin couscous, and hummus brimming with salt (but not so much that a squirt or two of lemon can’t balance it out). On the flip side, a quick flick of the salt shaker gives a three-legume stew with lentils, chickpeas, and pintos the kick it needs. Don’t be too quick to judge the two main dishes — falafel and flame-broiled chicken (the buffet’s lone free-ranger) — by their somewhat charred covers, or you’ll misread their moist, flavorful interiors. Meanwhile, one dish that comes off without a hitch is Armenian-style rice mixed with short strands of egg noodle, nicely textured and buttery. Its simple goodness fulfills the promise of the host’s kind welcome.

By contrast, your arrival won’t warrant much fanfare at Rangzen, where business is too brisk for niceties: a quick smile and a wave in the vague direction of your table are as far as greetings generally go. Luckily, the ambiance and edibles here have hominess to spare. A tiny place just off Central Square, Rangzen is filled with rough-hewn-wood furnishings and scattered with artifacts. In one corner is a table stacked with books on Tibet for diners to pore over as they please; in the other, an itty-bitty bar serves wine and beer. Beyond that, behold a plethora of meaty, starchy, pleasantly greasy provisions — all yours for pennies. There are chickpea-batter-dipped, fried eggplant slices and green-bean-carrot patties (the former a bit doughy, the latter just so); wedges of roti-like bread and savory veggie pancake; and two soups, one a vivid emerald with a light cilantro tang. There are stews galore: deep, dark beef curry with chunks of what seems to be apple; glistening teriyaki chicken fried with mushrooms; one unctuous mélange of eggplant, potato, onion, tomato, and garlic, and another of chickpeas with celery. And yet more: curried, fried chicken drumsticks; a simple, cooling chow-chow; salads (including a tofu-green-bean blend that proves the only bland blunder of the bunch); and even homemade condiments like daikon pickle and hot cilantro sauce. Finally, there’s fresh fruit for dessert, topped off by a tiny tab ($7.55) — proof that if the folks at Rangzen aren’t especially attentive to you personally, they’re at least watching out for your waistline and your wallet.

But suppose you’ve got a few extra bucks, and you’re keen on making the most of them, Fargo-style (remember the scene in which everybody’s favorite pregnant cop, chubby hubby in tow, loads her lunch plate from a down-home cafeteria’s steam table, laden with mystery meat after fried, gravy-smothered mystery meat?). With a corny, faux-elegant vibe all its own, Gourmeli’s, located in that no-man’s land between the Copley and Prudential arcades, might be just the place for you. Since you’ll never see anyone you know there (not to mention anyone under 50), feel free to make a feasting fool of yourself at its lunch buffet. It’s complete with carving station and disproportionate display of desserts — including a yummy bread pudding that’s easy to mistake for some sort of casserole, kept as it is next to the entrées, which are, natch, almost entirely submerged in cream sauce. Which isn’t to say they’re bad; the baked chicken, in fact, is tasty from its herbed skin to its moist meat. Ditto a nouveau potato salad sprightly with corn and celery; in fact, the cold buffet has more to offer than the hot, including decent lox with all the trimmings, plenty of fresh fruit, and stacks of breadbaskets (after all, the leftover breakfast pastries have yet to be either as dried out as the roast beef or as sodden as the mashed potatoes). Best of all, giving in to your yen for the retro comfort of continental cuisine won’t mean giving up too many yen altogether: it’s $14.95 for the whole shebang, $10.95 for unlimited soup and salad.

Then again, for just a tad more cash, Inman Square’s Midwest Grill displays tons more culinary — especially carnivorous — cachet. For all the festive charm of its rustic wood-and-wrought-iron interior, this Brazilian churrascaria means serious business when it comes to stuffing you silly with meat, meat, more meat, and just plain more. While $10.95 gets you grub galore from the buffet itself — including empanadas, roast chicken, and beef-black-bean stew; French fries, fried plantains, and rice; potato salad, tuna salad, and coleslaw; cooked vegetables, fresh fruit, and even self-serve ice cream — an additional $7 guarantees endless goodies from the grill. When AYCE becomes AYCEASYC — all you can eat and some you can’t — you know your bet on buffets has paid off.

Ruth Tobias can be reached at ruthtobias@earthlink.net