Good Time Country Buffet

Good Time Country Buffet is the only buffet in the East Village (not counting AYCE sushi), and the only country buffet in Manhattan. The city’s other country buffet is a Golden Corral in the Bronx. Emily Sundberg flagged that Good Time signed a 10-year lease a year before it opened. Since it opened, it’s gone viral for the price, dinner for $26.99, which covers a salad bar, about two dozen dishes and dessert (peach cobbler, banana pudding, brownies). Unheard of in New York.

It’s owned by David Yun, Steve Choi and Yong Min Kim, the team behind Kisa, who all grew up in Atlanta. Yun’s first job was cashier at Donnie’s Country Cookin’, a long-standing chain of meat-and-threes started by Korean immigrant Donnie Kim. In 2015, one of the Donnie’s changed its name to Good Times Country Home Cookin’.

Like Kisa, their blue-collar cabby spot, Good Time copies the office drop ceiling and the hand-labeled hot bar of a typical country buffet. One person on Reddit wrote, “The presentation of the food is a bit off-putting.” There’s a cork board of flyers for piano lessons, an alcohol rehab, Noble Signs (who made the sign out front and run the New York Sign Museum) and Good Time’s own job openings. The floor is wall-to-wall green carpet. About 80 percent of America’s carpet is made around Dalton, Georgia. Donnie’s didn’t serve alcohol, but Good Time lets you add a shooter of Evan Williams to the frozen drinks for $5. It’s spiritually similar to Ray’s.

The main draw is the buttermilk fried chicken, which is fried twice in the Korean way, making it lighter and less greasy than most. Choi has said there’s no Korean fried chicken on the menu.