Southern Chicken

FOOD

Fried chicken leads Southern Chicken’s all-you-can-eat buffet, with macaroni and cheese and collard greens forming its familiar supporting cast. The selection is modest enough to keep those foods in focus. The appeal is a full country dinner, with return trips for the chicken and whatever Southern vegetables are in the day’s spread. The restaurant has been fairly transparent about its priorities.

The chicken is served in substantial bone-in pieces, with a crisp fried coating and tender meat beneath it. That gives the buffet a proper chicken-dinner centerpiece, something to work through with the cooked sides. Breast, wing, thigh and leg pieces also feature in the restaurant’s separately sold whole-chicken order, though the pieces available on the buffet depend on the day’s spread.

Macaroni and cheese supplies the softer, richer part of the plate, while cooked collards keep the meal recognizably Southern. Give both some attention before committing every available inch to chicken. The substantial macaroni can easily earn as much space as the meat. Collards bring cooked leafy greens into a selection that also makes room for beans and vegetable casseroles, so the chicken has plenty of company.

Mashed potatoes and gravy extend the hot-side choices, and coleslaw offers a cooler accompaniment to the fried chicken. The slaw also pairs naturally with pulled pork when it is in the spread. You can build a familiar chicken-and-potatoes dinner or give the pork its own plate with slaw and vegetables. Those are useful differences within a small buffet, especially if another helping of chicken is already under consideration.

The rotating vegetables bring more character than the word ‘sides’ gives them credit for. Squash casserole, butter beans and candied yams are choices to look for, with the casserole joining the cooked greens and beans in a particularly country-cooking selection. The candied yams add sweetness to the savory meal. Availability changes, so let the actual spread settle the question of what accompanies lunch that day.

Pulled pork gives the buffet another substantial meat when available, with slaw, collards or butter beans making useful accompaniments. Barbecue also has a life beyond the buffet: it comes in separately ordered sandwiches, including a plate with fries and slaw, or by the pound to take away. That makes pork a practical alternative for both a sit-down country meal and lunch headed elsewhere.

The separately ordered menu reaches further, including chicken tenders, burgers, fried flounder and shrimp. A shrimp-and-flounder order pairs fried fish with a choice of fried or grilled shrimp; shrimp also comes in a po’ boy or wrap. Order those separately from the buffet. The fish and shrimp give seafood-minded company something specific to consider alongside the country cooking.

Banana pudding and Oreo Delight give the restaurant’s broader offering a spoonable sweet finish. Both are sold separately, so ask which sweets come with the day’s buffet before counting dessert as another unlimited course. Banana pudding keeps the ending in the country-dinner tradition, while the Oreo dessert takes the cookie route. Either is a sensible reason to reconsider that supposedly final helping of macaroni.