“All the cooking is being done right at the stations,” Bembeneksaid. Inside the restaurant, which opened for its first meal atlunchtime Friday, a rotation of chefs prepare various styles andtypes of food, from Chinese to seafood.

Without a membership card, prices range from $14.99 to$24.99. Members of Pala’s Privileges program - which is free to join -pay $11.99 for lunch and $15.99 for dinner Monday through Thursdayat Choices, with a $13.59 brunch and $19.99 dinners on theweekends.

“We wanted to make surecustomers could be seated as quickly as possible, so they’re notspending their holiday waiting in a line.” “One of the things we see at most buffets in Southern Californiais that, on peak weekends, you typically wait anywhere from half anhour to 1 1/2 hours to be seated,” he said. “The real reason that we went to a larger space was for theconvenience of our guests,” Bembenek said of the upgraded buffet,which will seat 625 guests, compared with 400 in the former TerraceBuffet.