Cultural trends, from art to food, are among New York City’s biggest exports. Call it stubbornness, superiority, or just ignorance, but this economy of ideas tends to flow in just one direction, leaving Gotham completely oblivious to what much of the rest of the nation is smitten with: mega-churches, outlet malls, even Nascar. Keep in mind that ours is a city that only got around to accepting its first big-box retailers a matter of months ago. Another late 90s/early 2000s suburban trope that has mostly passed NYC by is the reinvention of the all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant–a modern day marvel where whole families can unload their SUVs and stuff themselves silly for under $30. New Yorkers love their by-the-pound steam tables, but buffets take grazing and amp it up by at least an order of magnitude. Some buffets specialize in soup or salad, like the market sector’s heavyweights, Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation. Then there are mammoth, one-of-a-kind buffets like Shady Maple Smorgasbord in Lancaster, PA and and the beef-heavy Ryan’s. But perhaps the country’s largest chain is Old Country Buffet, with over 500 locations around the country, including a solitary one, rebranded ‘Hometown Buffet,’ located on Forest Avenue, Staten Island–well within the boundaries of NYC. Apart from the dismal Todai (formerly Minado), Hometown Buffet might just be the closest we ever get to sharing the rest of the country’s passion for eating at the strip mall food trough.

Curious eaters that we are, we paid Hometown a visit, along with friends Pescatore and Schnicksy, and their two children, Sleeping Beauty (age 5) and Tom Thumb (age 3). In a way, our trip was prompted by Sleeping Beauty, who, thanks to her grandmother, became an Old Country Buffet regular this summer in Virginia. Upon her return to the Lower East Side, the buffet was all she could talk about. ‘It was the best place ever!,’ she cried, turning up her nose at the Essex Street Market, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, and…well, portion control in general. With Sleeping Beauty in the lead and her slightly disturbed parents in tow, we all headed out to Staten Island.

Writing about a place like Hometown Buffet demands an open mind in the way that few other restaurants in the city do–it is far too easy to point to the long counters of fried food and sugary desserts, roll your eyes, and declare the place the epicenter of the city’s diabetes problem. The reality of the situation is a little more complicated, and while there are some real problems with the food (more on this later), there are also a couple of things that Hometown Buffet gets right. Among them:

It’s cheap. Lunch at Hometown Buffet costs an adult only $8.19. Children–a major demographic, if our visit was any indication–pay only $0.60 for each of their years. Our three-year-old ate for $1.80, and our five-year-old buffet devotee, on whom Hometown Buffet clearly lost money, ate for $3.00.

It’s Easy. Choose any table you see. Go back to the buffet as many times as you want. What the hell, even have dessert first, if the mood strikes you. With no service of any sort, the buffet starts to feel a bit like your own self-serve apartment kitchen. There is also no menu to pore through–if Hometown serves it, it’s out on the line, in full view.

It’s Communal. Everyone eats here. Black and white, young and old (and yes, buffet restaurants are particularly popular among retirees), this is the kind of restaurant where you eat among your neighbors, not just alongside the subset with expense accounts.

It’s Kid-Friendly. The prices help here, and so does the selection at the buffet. Even the pickiest child is likely to find something enticing among the dozens of dishes. And as a bonus: eating at a buffet strikes a chord of familiarity with the cafeteria-dining demographic.

As for the quality of what you and your kids end up putting into your own mouth: it could be worse. It is possible, despite all our expectations, to put together a healthy meal at the buffet. There is plenty of fresh fruit on offer, as well as a clean salad bar with more than nutrient-free iceberg lettuce, as well as lots of choice between sauced and unsauced vegetables. Our biggest finds were the beta-carotene rich baked butternut squash and a baked fish dish that, while on the dry side, had a lemon and pepper seasoning that, feeling charitable, Pescatore pronounced ‘beguiling.’

Unfortunately, such dishes were the rarest of exceptions. My own plate of ‘hand-battered’ fried chicken, mashed potatoes and cornbread stuffing was representative of the buffet’s most popular offerings. The chicken yielded little in the way of white meat, but was nonetheless enjoyable, if only for its savory, crispy skin. Both Schnicksy and I remarked on the cloying sweetness of the cornbread stuffing, and the mashed potatoes possessed that ineffable, insitutional flavor that lets you know they were probably made in a bucket. Our whole table was also fascinated by the mini-corn dogs, small pockets of fried cornmeal dough with a single bite of hot dog in the center. After a few minutes on the warming table, they lost what little allure they might have had when they were scooped from their cooking oil. We picked and nibbled, and were never really tempted to gorge ourselves as watched as the two children revel in the experience, especially the soft-serve ice cream station. For them, there was something magical about Hometown Buffet’s bounty, and in the end, there is nothing wrong with showing them that…once in a while. Just feed them a carrot or two before you hop on the ferry.

Hometown Buffet, 1501 Forest Avenue (near Travis Avenue), Staten Island, 718-815-7666.