My pants are tighter. I huff and puff as I walk up metro escalators. I've started wearing my overalls because of the extra space they provide. But at least I can write a good all-you-can-eat restaurant review.

Maybe restaurant owners are wary of Russian appetites, but all-you-can-eat buffets are difficult to find in Moscow. Few restaurants are completely all-you-can-eat, a la American establishments such as Home Town Buffet or Souplantation. Mostly, buffets come in "Business Lunch" form available only between certain hours and allow just just one trip to the buffet table.

What we're looking at here are those generous, authentic all-you-can-eat places that allow you to fill up your plates as many times as possible for as long as you want. And we're looking at affordable places, not the exclusive Sunday brunches at the top hotels – which offer top quality but at top prices, too. So here's the first installment of LifeStyle's long-term look at the pig-out places around town.

• Starina Mueller, a German beer hall at 18a Ul. Malaya Dmitrovka is probably the weakest of the all-you-can-eats, but it does offer a permanent buffet in addition to a regular menu. For 299 rubles, Starina Mueller boasts a selection of 24 cold dishes and 12 hot dishes. Many of the cold meals were nothing more than vegetables in a dish: One had slightly stale radishes, another had pickles and yet another just cucumbers.

The salads, ranging from Korean carrot salad to a mushy bean dish, all tasted rather bland. From the hot plates, the potatoes and the chicken were tolerable, but it wasn't like there was a lot to compare with – some sausages and really scary-looking slabs of pork.

Perhaps the most disappointing was the dessert selection. It seemed like the chef just poured some canned fruit into a pan and called it a day. My Russian friend, who hadn't been to a restaurant since July, was wishing that she could have stayed home and cooked something.

• Uncle Sam's Cafe filled me with more hope about buffets in Moscow. The one at 5 Ul. Zatsepky Val. has billiards, televisions that play good music videos, a kitsch "American" interior and an all-you-can-eat stand weekdays from noon to 5 p.m. for 230 rubles. It gets better: The food is good. Although there were only five hot plates, they were interesting and tasty. The plov – a mix of rice, meat, carrots and spices – was especially good, as was the spaghetti and the potatoes. The Nepalese chicken looked a little too greasy to try but the waitress brought us shchi, a Russian soup, which was also part of the buffet and went very well with the bread.

The salads at Uncle Sam's were well-thought-out and tasty. There was a cheese salad with mushrooms that my companions and I couldn't get enough of and two types of "kholodets" – made with jello-like lard and meat and made tastiest with horseradish sauce, and a beet salad with garlic. There were also mushrooms "po-selyanski" – I have no idea what that means but they were delicious.

Pans of plain lettuce and lettuce with mushrooms were laid out for those that needed fresh vegetables. There were also bowls of various salad dressings, which was a truly thoughtful addition to the buffet.

What clinched my approval of this all-you-can-eat selection were, of course, the desserts. Pans of jello, banana and orange souffles, apple and carrot salad, and orange slices in syrup all made me feel like I could truly end my massive meal with a sigh of satiety and my pants unbuttoned. My two companions, also Russians who rarely go to restaurants, could barely stand up.

• Another impressive all-you-can-eat business lunch is at Patio Pizza, weekdays from noon to 4 p.m., for $7. There's a chain of Patio Pizzas outlets located throughout Moscow. The one I went to is in front of the Hotel Intourist.

With an Italian interior and, well, its name, Patio Pizza makes you crave ... pizza. So, imagine our disappointment when my six American friends and I didn't find it included in the buffet. That was probably the only downside to the restaurant. However, we got a delicious salad bar, four hot dishes, and drinks – one juice and one tea or coffee were also included in the lunch.

The plov here was amazing, and I went for seconds. I may have even gotten thirds, but I try to block that sort of thing out of my memory. Other hot meals were chicken, potatoes and a dish of cooked cabbage, peppers and onions.

Every dish on the salad bar was creatively put together, albeit a little mysteriously. Although there were no labels explaining the make-up of the salads, they were all flavorful and interesting. The pasta salad, the eggplant salad, the potato salad and others all had different kinds of sauces, spreads, spices, or oils, which gave them a unique taste. Some dishes were a little plainer, like olives and marinated pickles. Some dishes I had never seen before, like pieces of cooked eggplant, each covered with a bacon slice.

The dessert selection was limited to a fruit salad, but it definitely wasn't of the canned variety. Creatively placed in an empty watermelon shell, it contained grapes, chopped-up cantaloupe and watermelon, and it was actually fresh.

• One of the most eclectic all-you-can-eat places is Apollon, next to the food court in the bottom level of the Okhotny Ryad mall. It has a naked Greek statue in front and serves Georgian, Russian and Japanese food.

It also has a wide variety of dishes, including salads, meats and fish dishes. Although the food is not gourmet quality, it is good enough to fill up on. Service is often confused and rude – sometimes they want to serve you and sometimes they allow you to take your own food.

Eating strategies vary here: Some people focused just on the salads or on one type of cuisine; others just filled their plates with as many different types of food in order to sample as many cultures as possible and to stuff themselves as much as they could. Orange soda and tea are included in the price and the setting is comfortable with a good view of the food court for people-watching.

So, never fear, Muscovites. There are places you can go to eat yourself silly and leave with a guilty grin on your face as you head for the nearest gym.

(Send your recommendations for Moscow's best all-you-can-eat buffets to robertab@russiajournal.com.)

Patio Pizza
3 Ul. Tverskaya. (in front of Hotel Intourist).
Metro: Okhotny Ryad.
Hours: Restaurant: 10 a.m. to midnight. Buffet: noon to 4 p.m.
Price: $7.
Tel: 292-0891.

Uncle Sam's Café
5 Ul. Zatsepky Val.
Metro: Paveletskaya.
Hours: Restaurant: noon to 6 a.m. Buffet noon to 5 p.m.
Price: 230 rubles.
Tel: 235-6530.

Starina Mueller
18a Ul. Malaya Dmitrovka.
Metro: Pushkinskaya.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. (Thurs.-Sat. to 3 a.m.).
Price: 299 rubles.
Tel: 299-8506.

Apollon
2 Manezhnaya Sq.
(Okhotny Ryad mall).
Metro: Okhotny Ryad.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Price: $10.50.
Tel. 737-8322.