After 35 years in Australia, the last plates ofcheese toastwill soon be served at Sizzler's nine remaining outlets across Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.

The family-friendly restaurant, famous for the all-you-can-eat salad bar and cheesy TV ads, was once a suburban dining stalwart. But Sizzler'sclosure on November 15isn't just another consequence of COVID-19.

Australia's food values and tastes have changed since the chain's heyday of the 1990s. Today, food is much more important in our everyday lives.

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Sizzler began in the United States in the late 1950s, opening its first Australian restaurant in 1985 in the Brisbane suburb of Annerley. A novelty of the chain was its salad bar, which the Canberra Times in 1992described as:

15 metres of salad choices, two soup choices and croutons and rolls, a potato casserole, savoury rice, two types of pasta (with the usual unfortunate consequences for pasta left sitting) with meat, tomato and cream sauces, and four or five desserts.

Optional steak, seafood and chicken offerings could be served to your table. When the chain reached its Australian peak in the mid-1990s, our food culture was very different. Cuisine of the era was increasingly multicultural as food author Cherry Ripe notes in her bookGoodbye Culinary Cringe but food was more often spoken about in utilitarian terms.

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Sizzler positioned itself as food that was cheap and fast, but not "fast food". Most of those who dined there, alongside the dine-in all-you-can eat Pizza Huts,earnedunder $60,000 (approximately $110,000 today).

But over the past 25 years, the way Australian families dine hasdramatically changed. Instead of a large "family friendly" diner, we are more likely to frequent a range of small, culturally diverse eateries.

While Sizzler hasattributed the shutteringof the final nine stores to the impact of COVID-19, the brand has experienced aslow death, with19 outlets closing across Australia since 2015.

Its demise can be attributed to many factors.

Since Sizzler's peak, Australian consumers have shown greater interest infood provenance, or understanding where their food comes from.

There are growing concerns about environmental impacts of the way we eat, particularly aroundfood waste. These concerns become stark in buffet settings.

Other contemporary culinary interests include the ideals of "clean eating" and Instagrammable#foodporn Sizzler isn't entirely suited to either category.

Once considered "alternative" approaches to eating, vegetarianism and veganism are also on the rise. By 2019,more than 2.5 millionAustralians were vegan or vegetarian.

We have embraced movements likeflexitarianism(a mostly plant-based diet, with animal products eaten in moderation) andMeat Free Mondays. Sizzler is known for its salad bar, but the prominent grill offerings of steak, seafood and chicken dont necessarily align with these culinary values.

Pressure has been placed on Sizzler, too, as fast-casual diningchains gain popularity, with companies like Guzman y Gomez and Grill'd focusing on ethical and healthy choices.

The pressures faced by Sizzler can also be seen in the Australian fine-dining sector. There has beenan explosionof mid-tier, casual but trendy venues opening to accommodate diners' changing tastes. This has led to closures of both "value for money" sit-down restaurants, like Sizzler, at one end of the spectrum, and fine dining at the other end.

Our notion of what constitutes "good value" has also evolved.

Until Sunday, a standard Sizzler all-you-can-eat salad bar will cost you $27.95. You can add $4 and get a rump steak, or $2 for a "Malibu Chicken Supreme" (think parmy-meets-Chicken-Cordon-Bleu).

But "value" now lies in thequalityrather than quantity of one's meal. As Australians' idea of value is shifting, we are inclined topay morefor food we consider to be good quality so $30 for an average steak and salad now seems rather steep.

This isn't to say Australians are a bunch of food snobs.

Inmy 2014 researchinto food and food media habits, I spoke to then 38-year-old food enthusiast Melanie, who enjoyed trips to Adriano Zumbo's Sydney patisserie and celebrated her sister's 40th birthday dinner at Tom Colicchio's New York restaurant but she was not opposed to more lowbrow or fast-food offerings.

I will say I love fine dining, but if you offered me up Sizzler on a Sunday, I'm right there.

I hope Melanie got a booking at Sizzler to enjoy one last Sunday indulgence.

Katherine Kirkwood is a PhD candidate at Queensland University of Technology. This article originally appeared on The Conversation.

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