The Best Soul Food Buffet in Gainesville

There’s a restaurant on North Main in Gainesville Florida called Jr’s. It has the best soul food I’ve ever had. Even my Grandma can’t cook greens and macaroni like these people do at Jr’s. I heard a girl talking about this place at my job. Well, the girl is a c white girl, who likes country music. I said to myself, “this food has to be good, if she’s talking about it.” So one day me and my kids were out paying bills and we smelled this very refreshing, stomach growling scent. I said to my kids, “Where is that coming from?” My son said, “I don’t know mama, but I want some of that.” I said well lets find that place.

We continued to walk the plaza strip by following the smell. We walked right into it. The place was called, Jr’s. Me and my kids walked in. It was managed under African American people, but there were two white women who were servers. It was kind of strange. The music that was playing was gospel music. The place was filled with people. One of the servers came up to me and said. Is this your first time here? I said yes. She said, “Well then the greens are gooooood. The macaroni is greattttt,I said well, I don’t eat everybody’s macaroni, but I’ll see. I walked over to the buffet. There were collard greens, baked macaroni, candy yams, two different kinds of rice, lemon pepper baked chicken, chicken wingettes, cabbage, baked beans, sweet peas, fish nuggets, I could go on and on. There was even a salad bar. I went back over to my table sat down, said my grace really fast and dug in. I ate all my greens, I even started picking out of my daughter’s plate. My son then said, mommy, I don’t like greens, I said, taste these and put a fork full in his mouth. He then said, “MMMmmm”. I like these,” Even grandma’s greens don’t taste this good. I laughed. I was raised on soul food. But this place was awesome.

I dug into the macaroni and WoW!!! I couldn’t stop myself. I then went up for seconds. The server came back over as I was walking back over to the buffet and said, Maa’m. I just saw you sit down and now your plate is empty and you’re going for seconds. I was speechless, still chewing. I usually don’t eat until my stomach is hurting, but that day I did. I would not advise anyone who’s dieting to go to this place. After I had eaten until I couldn’t anymore, the server came back over to give me the check. I looked at it and said,” You forgot to add my kids’ meal onto the tab. She said, no I didn’t kids eat free, today is Friday. I couldn’t believe it. Me and my kids ate for only $10.00. This place was awesome. I see why the people call it, soul food, because something about the food and the environment fills you up.