Want your tummy filled? Here are best local buffets

A few of our local buffets outshine others. If you’re hungry and prefer quality as well as quantity, these are the ones to check out.

Ole Times Country Buffet

Address: 1343 Gray Highway and 3661 Eisenhower Parkway, Macon; 1208 Russell Parkway, Warner Robins

Hours: Daily, hours vary per location

Website: onealrestaurants.com

Price: $12-13 per person

This buffet is the granddaddy of all buffets. Rows and rows of homemade meats, veggies and desserts, made just the way you used to have after church on Sunday. With their slogan “A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand,” you can expect at least 10 different desserts, four different types of cookies and soft-serve ice cream, too. They have several locations, so check out the web page for one nearest you.

Joy’s Home Cooking Buffet

Address: 103 Riverside Drive, Macon

Hours: 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday

Website: Facebook

Price: $8.19

Tucked away behind Burger King on Riverside Drive, Joy’s is easy to miss but worth looking for. It’s only open for lunch during the week and it’s quite smaller than the most popular buffets, but the quality shows. With pork chops, chicken and dressing, and beef tips on rice, this buffet is more like a meat and two restaurant where you can eat all of the choices. Someone even called the police one time because they ran out of fried chicken legs.

New China Buffet

Address: 5056 Eisenhower Parkway, Macon

Hours: 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Sunday

Website: newchinabuffetmacon.com

Price: $7.99-$12.99

With over 300 items, you are bound to find a few favorites at this gigantic Chinese-oriented buffet. In addition to the six aisles of buffet tables, there is a hibachi grill and a sushi bar. Weekend dinner costs more because they add crab legs, oysters and other seafoods. Watch their facebook page for special menus and prices on holidays, such as a lobster buffet with prime rib on Independence Day and those items plus frog legs and clams for Fathers Day.

478 Country Buffet

Address: 311 Ga. 41, Peach Outlet, Byron

Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday

Website: Facebook

Price: $7.95-$8.95

One of the cheapest buffets in the area, 478 Country Buffet gives you plenty of bang for your buck. All the usual suspects plus fried chicken gizzards and livers, sauerkraut and smothered meatloaf. You can even get a low country boil on most days. What they lack in size they more than make up for in personal service and a friendly atmosphere. As one diner commented, “If you leave here hungry, it’s your own fault.”

And don’t forget that most Indian restaurants have Sunday buffets, making it a great time to try something new. Even if buffets aren’t in your usual rotation, it’s fun to go once in a while to just graze and make an evening of it.

This story was originally published May 2, 2018 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Want your tummy filled? Here are best local buffets."