Buffets in Manhattan?

[LilianNY]

Turkish Kitchen on 3rd ave has a great all you can eat brunch on Sundays. There are two seatings and reservations are recommended. There must be other decent restaurants out there with deals too.

[Cleo]

Two buffets that I have been to recently are Minado (for dinner) and the Church Lounge (at the Tribeca Grand Hotel) for brunch.

We went to Minado because I kept reading positive things about it on E-gullet and elsewhere. The Manhattan location is not too far from where we live, and I figured that it would be a good place to take my daughter.

The first time we went was on a Saturday evening late last summer when my daughter was about 10 months old. As is generally our game plan when we take her out to dinner, we went early – at around 5:30 when they first opened for dinner. Some of the food was fine, but I thought most of it was mediocre at best. Yes, there was a huge selection, but obviously quantity doesn’t always mean quality. My husband enjoyed it a little bit more than I did. The good news for us is that it is very child-friendly.

We went again sometime in the fall. I agreed to go back mostly because, again, it is a good place to take a small child. This time, it wasn’t even as good as the time before (and that’s not saying much!). Don’t know if we’ll go back.

The Church Lounge at the Tribeca Grand, on the other hand, is a very nice place for brunch. It is not a humongous spread, but very nice and certainly more than enough choices. Very pleasant space and comfortable to sit for a while.

My family has gone there several times for brunch, including Mother’s Day 2 out of the last 3 years, and it has been good all around. I think on a regular Sunday its $25 and on Mother’s Day it was only $35. We like it.

[Kris]

charles southern kitchen on 151 and 8th ave is the best fired chicken/soul food in nyc and its all served up from the buffet  

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I've been to this one! It's pretty good.

Also the buffet at Copeland's (145th, bet. B'way and Amsterdam) is good too. I think it's Tuesdays - Thursdays.

[Nathan]

I doubt you read anything especially positive about Minado on Egullet (some of the cooked dishes and salads are fine). It does get raves on chowhound of course.

Two buffets that I have been to recently are Minado (for dinner) and the Church Lounge (at the Tribeca Grand Hotel) for brunch.

We went to Minado because I kept reading positive things about it on E-gullet and elsewhere.  The Manhattan location is not too far from where we live, and I figured that it would be a good place to take my daughter. 

The first time we went was on a Saturday evening late last summer when my daughter was about 10 months old. As is generally our game plan when we take her out to dinner, we went early – at around 5:30 when they first opened for dinner.  Some of the food was fine, but I thought most of it was mediocre at best.  Yes, there was a huge selection, but obviously quantity doesn’t always mean quality.  My husband enjoyed it a little bit more than I did.  The good news for us is that it is very child-friendly.

We went again sometime in the fall.  I agreed to go back mostly because, again, it is a good place to take a small child.  This time, it wasn’t even as good as the time before (and that’s not saying much!).  Don’t know if we’ll go back.

The Church Lounge at the Tribeca Grand, on the other hand, is a very nice place for brunch.  It is not a humongous spread, but very nice and certainly more than enough choices.  Very pleasant space and comfortable to sit for a while.

My family has gone there several times for brunch, including Mother’s Day 2 out of the last 3 years, and it has been good all around.  I think on a regular Sunday its $25 and on Mother’s Day it was only $35.  We like it.

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[Cleo]

I doubt you read anything especially positive about Minado on Egullet (some of the cooked dishes and salads are fine).  It does get raves on chowhound of course.

Actually, there are positive reviews on Egullet. Not raves, but people who enjoy the food overall. Mostly the NJ locations though.

[herbacidal]

The idea of the buffet has gotten a bad name among the urban-upscale gastronomic intelligentsia by being associated with the obese, undiscriminating American strip-mall culture. And indeed the nation is awash in awful quantity-over-quality buffets full of utility grade beef and "Rangoons" and such.

At the same time, the close quarters, high real estate costs, narrow profit margins, high ingredients costs and various sanitation/hygiene issues make it difficult to run a Golden Corral or Ponderosa-type buffet in Manhattan or any other densely populated urban core area.

Buffets (which are almost by definition all-you-can-eat, though there are limited exceptions) are, however, a time-honored culinary tradition. When done well, they offer diversity, abundance and individual control. A good buffet is so enjoyable because you can sample a bite or two of everything and then have more of what you like best.

Aquavit is a great example of a place that does brunch right. There are several other upscale buffet experiences that are also worthwhile, mostly associated with hotels, especially the brunch at the Waldorf=Astoria. But there are also good, cheap buffets in Manhattan here and there, especially Indian ones. My favorite is the vegetarian Indian lunch buffet at Dimple (30th Street just West of Fifth Avenue).

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I'd very much like to see an upscale buffet in NYC or Philly, similar to those they have abroad

(I'm thinking of Hong Kong and major hotels in cities in China, although I believe there are more than a few in HK that exist outside of hotels; I wonder if they exist outside of Asia.)

I suspect they do exist here in the US only in hotels (Aquavit was a suprise in this respect, I'll have to visit) and will probably not emerge outside because they do suffer from a "brand image" point of view because of all the so-so buffets for the masses, in the same way that one of the obstacles the better Chinese restaurants have to wider respectability and gourmet status is the many, many Chinese takeout and delivery joints that dot the urban and suburban parts of the (and rural??) United States.