{"id":385489,"date":"2026-10-28T14:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T14:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/385489\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T14:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T14:44:15","slug":"restaurant-review-good-time-country-buffet-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/385489\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Good Time Country Buffet in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fried chicken is not hard to come by at the many nouveau-country cafeterias around town<\/a> \u2014 or anywhere else: My old Yemeni bodega in Brooklyn used to sell it by the piece at the counter. Unlimited fried chicken is a rarer bird. For that, you can head on down to Good Time Country Buffet<\/a>, which looks airlifted not only from somewhere south of Marietta but also somewhen circa 1998. There, amid the steam trays of Salisbury steak, collard greens, baked beans, and candied yams, the partners behind the Korean restaurants C As in Charlie<\/a> and Kisa<\/a> have recreated the Atlanta-area southern buffets of their expatriate American youth<\/a>, an exercise in memory that is an invitation to abundance. For $26.99 a head, the price of an appetizer at many fine restaurants around town, the only limit is your enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

On a recent weekday evening, I dined there with two of the New York\u2013iest New\u202fYorkers of my acquaintance: one fresh off designing a top show at Fashion Week, the other coming from a party celebrating his latest triumph in alt-ceramics. These boys have hand tattoos and Comme des Gar\u00e7ons collections and blow off steam running 40 miles a week. And yet they\u2019d gone goggle-eyed with joy at the prospect of hitting a suburban buffet. \u201cYou\u2019re really not in New York anymore,\u201d one of them said as we walked in the door, past the bulletin board\u2019s tacked-up ersatz community notices that were set dressing in disguise. \u201cYou\u2019re not even in New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

I grew up in \u201990s Manhattan and never knew a real buffet like this. My nearest equivalent was the priced-per-pound steam table at the larger corner delis \u2014 which all somehow offered the same heterodox assortment of slicked lo mein and tomato-and-mozzarella caprese \u2014 and I have to admit I underestimated the pull this kind of establishment can exert. During Good Time\u2019s first month in business, a line of eager pilgrims formed up First Avenue most days before the 5\u202fp.m. opening. \u201cIt\u2019s so funny that this is popular,\u201d I overheard a girl say as she peered through the restaurant\u2019s slatted blinds. \u201cIt does look cute,\u201d her friend replied.<\/p>\n

Good Time\u2019s owners \u2014 David Yun, Steve Choi, and Yong Min Kim \u2014 mastered this kind of immersive scenography at Kisa, which is kitted out as a Seoul taxi drivers\u2019 diner, accurate down to the boxy antique TV mounted on the wall. Here, Yun said, they wanted to incarnate the buffets, some of them Korean owned, that had set the scene for him when he immigrated to the U.S. in 2000. The d\u00e9cor is essential to the disorienting experience: the dowdy plush of green carpet, the grannyish wallpaper, faux Tiffany lamps. The music is an early-aughts Atlanta Honda Civic soundtrack: Akon, Usher, Lil Jon.<\/p>\n

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\n Lines outside form before the restaurant opens. Inside, the d\u00e9cor and food will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s visited a traditional buffet before. Hugo Yu.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lines outside form before the restaurant opens. Inside, the d\u00e9cor and food will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s visited a traditional buffet bef… more
\n Lines outside form before the restaurant opens. Inside, the d\u00e9cor and food will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s visited a traditional buffet before. Hugo Yu.\n <\/p>\n

The appeal cuts across communities \u2014 inside, I spotted a table of four elegant 50-something gentlemen across from a couple feeding an infant nibbles of Salisbury steak. Here an East Village beardo, there a rat-tailed gay guy. A middle-aged couple were pushing a grandmotherly woman in a wheelchair out the door, murmuring to her in Korean. She was beaming beatifically.<\/p>\n

The aim of Good Time is a good time, which is not the same as good cooking. \u201cWe want to stick to the original recipes as much as possible,\u201d Yun told me. \u201cNothing too out of the blue.\u201d For edible set dressing, familiarity is the most important seasoning. The chicken is crunchy enough, though not especially tender; the meat loaf, sectioned into tiny squares, tastes of its caramelized ketchup top. Mashed potatoes, a few chunks intact, are dispensed using an extra-large ice-cream scoop with your choice of pale \u201cbrown\u201d gravy or even paler sawmill gravy. Green beans are addictively overcooked; candied yams are diabetically sweet, though they hardly compare to the glycemic wallop of sweet tea. There\u2019s a build-your-own salad bar, a potbellied tureen of chicken-noodle soup, and scoops of tuna or egg salad. Desserts are the most egregiously institutional. Yet I found my spoon going back for the thick, wafer-dotted gloop of banana pudding. It was more than I wanted and less than I wanted it to be, but it beckoned with an irresistible promise: There\u2019s plenty where that came from.<\/p>\n

Much of the food may be resolutely, even intentionally average \u2014 \u201cIs it supposed to be bad?\u201d my ceramicist wondered \u2014 but the ability to indulge without limits is its own reward. The buffet is id unlimited. \u201cIt\u2019s about impulse,\u201d the fashion designer said to me, loading up a plate of Red Hot\u2013glossed chicken wings. He\u2019d hoped they were gluten free. But he was prepared to risk it if they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The insistent charm of Good Time doesn\u2019t even really require firsthand history. There is, I\u2019ve learned, a word for this borrowed nostalgia: anemoia, coined by the author John Koenig for his Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. At Kisa, Yun said, \u201cpeople always tell me, \u2018Oh, this makes me feel like I\u2019m in Korea back in the \u201990s,\u2019 although they\u2019ve never been in Korea in the \u201990s.\u201d The past is a foreign country but one that you can visit \u2014 briefly. \u201cI like to see these full plates,\u201d a waiter said during another meal as he brought over slushy drinks \u2014 ready to be alcoholized by the upturning of a $7 single-serve nip of Evan Williams or Southern Comfort. Even with the encouragement to get multiples and a nimble staff clearing away half-empties, surrender can set in quickly. I did my worst and never lasted longer than 75 minutes.<\/p>\n

\n Scratchpad\n <\/p>\n

Good Time Country Buffet<\/p>\n

166 First Ave., at E. 10th St.; goodtimebuffet.com<\/p>\n

Rotating Favorites
Before long, daily specials will be introduced: Think fried fish, taco night, sloppy joes. Plan your weekly visits accordingly.<\/p>\n

Host a Party
Good Time has extra bar space downstairs that\u2019s available to rent out for private events.<\/p>\n

Pace Yourself
Unlike at Vegas buffets, the high-ticket items don\u2019t run out here. You\u2019ll never go wanting for more meat loaf.<\/p>\n

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