Great Aussie buffet bonanza: When KFC let you fill your boots for $13

There's something beautifully Australian about the lengths people will go for a good feed at a fair price. Back in the 1990s, when a KFC all-you-can-eat buffet cost about $13, enterprising diners were smuggling drumsticks in their handbags and stuffing Country Road totes with chicken pieces like they were preparing for a poultry apocalypse.

It sounds almost mythical now, but KFC buffets were a genuine phenomenon across Australia until they were phased out in the early 2000s.

For many Aussie families, these weren't just restaurants—they were weekly pilgrimages where parents could afford to feed the whole clan, and kids could experience the pure joy of unlimited potato and gravy.

When the Colonel went all-you-can-eat

The first Australian KFC opened in Guildford, Sydney in 1968, and by 1995 there were 452 outlets employing 12,000 staff. But it was the buffet format that really captured Australian hearts and stomachs during the late 80s and 90s.

Scott Reynolds from Central Queensland still recalls his regular visits to the Busselton KFC buffet in early 1995 with the kind of detail reserved for truly momentous occasions. 'You paid around $13, and you were given a plastic plate and access to a bain-marie.

There were about five trays which had specific pieces like drumsticks or thighs, or wings. More trays had mash and peas and corn, and gravy,' he remembered.

That $13 might not sound like much, but adjusted for inflation, it's equivalent to about $28 in today's money—still excellent value for an all-you-can-eat meal, which explains why queues often snaked out the door.

The great chicken heist phenomenon

The KFC buffet wasn't just about eating your fill on the premises. It inadvertently created a subculture of creative takeaway enthusiasts who treated the buffet like a legitimate catering service. 'Once I had some veggies, I wrapped up a heap of drumsticks in napkins and put them in my coat pockets.

I usually managed to fit about 10 or so pieces in my trench coat and shuffled off back to the bar,' Scott admits with the kind of fondness usually reserved for youthful adventures.

He wasn't alone. Reddit threads reveal a whole ecosystem of buffet entrepreneurs: 'There was one in Thomastown, Melbourne, we used to go up there with Tupperware containers in our Country Road bags and load up. There was one guy who ate 25 pieces in one sitting, we were 15-17 at the time,' one user recalled.

The most brazen operators were apparently middle-aged women with handbags the size of small suitcases. 'Was crazy seeing grown women stuff chicken into their handbags. Like who tf is eating handbag chicken?' wrote one bewildered observer from Lalor in the 90s.

The buffet golden age

KFC wasn't dining alone in the all-you-can-eat space. The 1990s were the absolute pinnacle of Australian buffet culture, with Sizzler opening its first Australian restaurant in Brisbane's Annerley in 1985 and proliferating across the country through the 90s before declining and finally closing its last stores during COVID-19 in October 2020.

Pizza Hut's eat-in restaurants also offered 'The Works' - a buffet with several different kinds of pizza, pasta, salad bar and dessert bar, complete with apple crumble pizza, soft-serve ice cream, chocolate mousse, jelly cubes and chocolate brownies. As of May 2017, only 16 eat-in Pizza Hut stores remained from more than 270 Australia-wide.

These weren't just restaurants—they were cultural institutions where families celebrated everything from new jobs to birthdays, creating memories that still spark passionate online discussions decades later.

The empire strikes back

So why did these beloved institutions disappear? The fast-food industry shifted towards a more streamlined approach with a larger focus on takeaway options.

This followed a larger trend of the restaurant industry leaning away from buffets, accelerated by rising food costs, staffing challenges, and eventually, COVID-19 dining restrictions that proved highly vulnerable for hybrid establishments like KFC buffets.

The numbers tell the story: users on KFC Reddit stated that their local restaurants hadn't reopened their once-popular buffets after COVID, with one noting 'Ever since COVID's hard lockdown, they haven't had enough employees in the store to run the buffet'.

Where the magic lives on

While Australia's KFC buffet era has ended, the concept lives on elsewhere. KFC buffets can be found in Japan, located in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, and they're so popular that establishments provide tickets to customers to ensure an orderly experience.

In the US, as of 2024, KFC buffets can be found in Pigeon Forge and Sparta, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; Waynesboro, Virginia; Dunn, North Carolina; and Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada.

There's something poetic about KFC buffets thriving in Japan, where KFC is considered a traditional Christmas meal. Perhaps they understand what we've lost—the simple joy of gathering around unlimited fried chicken.

The nostalgia factor

The passionate response to that simple Reddit post about bringing back KFC buffets reveals something deeper about Australian food culture. These buffets represented more than just cheap eats—they were democratic dining experiences where everyone, regardless of budget, could have a proper feast.

'My local KFC had the buffet when I was a kid. Legit the best thing ever! Take me back to the popcorn chicken pyramids,' wrote one nostalgic commenter. That image—popcorn chicken pyramids—perfectly captures the abundance and slightly chaotic joy of those buffets.

For many Australian families in the 90s, these buffets provided something precious: the luxury of abundance during times when money was often tight. Parents could watch their kids pile plates high with food, knowing they were getting their money's worth.

The memory of that freedom—both financial and culinary—remains powerful enough to spark international news coverage when someone posts a faded photo online.

Will they ever return?

With the cost of food so high now, reasonable buffets are increasingly difficult to maintain. The economics that made $13 buffets possible in 1995 simply don't exist in 2025's inflation-adjusted reality.

Yet the yearning persists. KFC lovers have taken to Facebook to call on the fast-food giant to 'bring back' the buffets in Australia, though the company shows no signs of reviving the format.

Perhaps that's for the best. Some experiences are perfect precisely because they belonged to their time—when families gathered around red-checked tablecloths, kids built architectural wonders from potato and gravy, and the most pressing ethical dilemma was whether sneaking drumsticks into your coat pocket constituted theft or strategic meal planning.