A buffet can be either a sideboard or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve themselves. A form of service à la française, buffets are offered at various places including hotels, restaurants, and many social events. Buffet restaurants normally offer all-you-can-eat food for a set price, but some measure prices by weight or by number of dishes. Buffets usually have some or mostly hot dishes, so the term cold buffet has been developed to describe formats lacking hot food. Hot or cold buffets usually involve dishware and utensils, but a finger buffet is an array of foods that are designed to be small and easily consumed only by hand, such as cupcakes, slices of pizza, foods on cocktail sticks, etc.
Swedish smörgåsbord buffet
Modern sideboard furniture, used for serving food
Dinner buffet in Americus Hotel (1955)
A small cold buffet at an art school exhibition
Service à la française is the practice of serving various dishes of a meal at the same time, with the diners helping themselves from the serving dishes. That contrasts to service à la russe in which dishes are brought to the table sequentially and served individually, portioned by servants.
Table layout for the second course, in Elizabeth Raffald's The Experienced English Housekeeper, 4th Edition, 1775. Identifiable dishes include three mammal species, four birds, and four of fishes and seafood.
The medieval predecessor of service à la française in the 1410s, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Reconstruction of middle-class table set for eight, around 1800