{"id":309930,"date":"2026-07-30T16:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/309930\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T16:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:42:08","slug":"is-nyc-an-all-you-can-eat-buffet-town-a-5-year-old-investigates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/309930\/","title":{"rendered":"Is NYC an all-you-can-eat buffet town? A 5-year-old investigates."},"content":{"rendered":"

This column originally appeared in the Looped In NYC newsletter. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One night about a month ago, my wife emerged from putting our daughter Joanna to bed and informed me that our 5-year-old was now obsessed with all-you-can-eat buffets.<\/p>\n

How Joanna reached this conclusion was through a combination of genuine curiosity and disingenuous bedtime-delay tactics. Their hold-on-one-more-thing discussion that night had touched on Disney World and cruise ships, two settings we won\u2019t be coming near anytime soon. But in the process, she learned that these venues also offer restaurants where you can fill your plate with whatever you want, which apparently thrilled her.<\/p>\n

And that kind of thrilled me!<\/p>\n

I have great childhood memories of continental breakfast spreads at Hampton Inns, bacon bit-loaded salad bars at Shoney\u2019s across the South, a Shakey\u2019s Pizza buffet I once went to near Branson. Going to high school in San Diego, my friends and I used to hang out at a now-shuttered Souplantation franchise (it had a soft-serve machine).<\/p>\n

Even if our family won\u2019t be traveling to Orlando anytime soon, could I at least get my child a decent buffet experience here in New York City? It seems like half this town is currently lining up for frozen yogurt<\/a> and chicken tenders<\/a> \u2014 I figured our nostalgic-for-kiddie-food dining scene must have some options on the buffet front?<\/p>\n

After poking around and calling some local hotels, I discovered that the Marriott Marquis in Times Square had what appeared to be a promising breakfast buffet that\u2019s open to non-hotel guests, so Joanna and I set off for a late-morning feast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the ferry ride in, I asked her what she thought the buffet would have.<\/p>\n

\u201cCookies,\u201d she said, with no further elaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell if you just wanted cookies, you could go to a cookie store,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they might have different things,\u201d she remembered.<\/p>\n

When we finally made it up to the eighth-floor restaurant, which is in the middle of a grand atrium, Joanna walked up to the buffet spread and immediately homed in on a tray of dark frosted brownies with rainbow sprinkles. When I told her \u201cdessert\u201d would have to wait until she finished a proper breakfast \u2014 it was 9:30 a.m. \u2014\u00a0she relented, and instead filled her plates with Froot Loops, bacon, a waffle covered in chocolate syrup and whipped cream, two slices of bread with a packet of Nutella, some pineapple, and a chocolate milk.<\/p>\n

About 15 minutes in, she started moaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still want to get dessert, but my tummy is really hurting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

We decided to call it.<\/p>\n

After dropping $47 plus tip for my entry to then push a lukewarm egg patty around my plate (they told me kids got a discount, but then didn\u2019t charge me for Joanna), I was pretty underwhelmed. I knew buffets were on the decline \u2014\u00a0even the ones in Las Vegas are struggling<\/a>. But New York City has every other type of restaurant from around the world \u2014 why not a good buffet?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe all-you-can-eat buffet, known for short as AYCE, almost completely disappeared from the landscape during the Covid era,\u201d said veteran restaurant critic Robert Sietsema. \u201cThe reason is, people didn\u2019t want buffets where people were kind of poking into [them].\u201d<\/p>\n

When I asked Sietsema what does still exist, he pointed to some Brazilian churrascarias, where waiters in gaucho outfits come to your table with big skewers of meat; all-you-can-eat sushi places (\u201cto me a very bad idea \u2014\u00a0with sushi, you want fewer pieces of exquisite fish\u201d); and cook-it-yourself hot pot restaurants (\u201cthe bubbling pots are at eye level, which, to me, is kind of dangerous for a child\u201d).<\/p>\n

He said the city\u2019s all-you-can-eat Korean barbecues are excellent, and highlighted Let\u2019s Meat in Koreatown and the family-friendly Wonder Pig in Sunnyside as stand-outs.<\/p>\n

And then there were the city\u2019s traditionally excellent Indian buffets, which have nearly disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still one called Dhaba, up in Curry Hill on lower Lexington Avenue,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat kid doesn\u2019t like tandoori chicken?\u201d<\/p>\n

So, after working off our Marriott breakfast at the playground for a couple hours, Joanna and I headed over to Dhaba<\/a>. The aloo gobi, chicken dishes and paneer were a little more my speed; Joanna appreciated the biryani and the naan. The gulab jamun, which she more or less accurately described<\/a> as \u201cdonuts soaked in something,\u201d was a hit. And the price was right: $24.74 plus tip for the two of us.<\/p>\n

Joanna\u2019s review: \u201cI liked trying the rice. I liked trying the chicken. I liked most of all trying the new dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n

My review: Taking a 5-year-old who only wants carbs and sugar to an all-you-can-eat buffet really isn\u2019t necessary. But in the end, I had a happy daughter who\u2019d tried something new \u2014\u00a0and gotten over her stomach ache.<\/p>\n

Will I eventually take her on that cruise vacation? No. But when she\u2019s a little more coordinated, we\u2019ll try hot pot.<\/p>\n