All you can eat in NYC

Where to find endless plates of tacos, mussels and brick-oven pizza, without a steam table in sight

In the dining universe, the lowest common denominator is the all-you-can-eat buffet, those steam-table terrors filled with gloppy, stiff foodstuffs about as nutritious and delicious as Styrofoam. Quantity and quality, it seems, are mutually exclusive—until now. In order to attract insatiable gourmands, recession-struck eateries citywide have started offering endless servings of top-notch food, from griddle-cooked pizzas to baby-soft brisket to ocean-fresh blue crabs.

Though these deals are caught in the crosshairs of insatiable gluttons, these restaurants' superior eats never suffer—unlike, say, General Tso's chicken after seven hours under a heat lamp. —Joshua M. Bernstein

Photos by Max Flatow