TOM ANGLEBERGER Special to The Roanoke Times

Country Cookin in Christiansburg offers tasty side dishes such as these.

Tom Angleberger knows what he likes. So we've asked him to eat at NRV restaurants and write about them. If you have a restaurant to recommend, e-mail him.

Tom Angleberger

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Country Cookin is not Country Kitchen.

It's an easy mistake to make, until you've eaten at each restaurant and discovered the differences.

Country Kitchen -- which I reviewed a few weeks back -- is an all-you-can-eat buffet serving fantastic Southern food.

Country Cookin is based on a slightly different principle. You order an entree from your waiter or waitress and then you help yourself to all the side dishes you want from the "Country Favorites" bar.

The most notable of these favorites are the crispy, round slices of fried potatoes. These seem to be unique to Country Cookin, and they're hard to beat. Other selections include green beans, corn, pinto beans, cabbage, soup and mashed potatoes, with two kinds of gravy.

I'm not sure if salad qualifies as a country favorite, but Country Cookin's salad bar is quite good.

Quality varies among these sides. Sometimes you'll get something that's really great, and sometimes one item will be inedible. Recently, the corn bread has been particularly good.

It's easy to make a meal from the Country Favorites bar, but the entrees are so reasonably priced that it's only a little more to order a burger, a flounder filet or liver and onions.

And for a little more than that, you can get a steak, pork chop, salmon, shrimp, etc.

Here's a note from personal experience: If you order the country fried steak -- which is very good -- ask the staff to hold the gravy or put it in a bowl.

For little kids, the Country Favorites bar is free. For bigger kids, it's still a bargain at $2.49. And it almost never fails to please our picky eaters, especially with the promise of a little ice cream from the dessert end of the bar.

This semibuffet setup is a very clever idea and makes for a smooth, relaxing restaurant experience. Friendly, hardworking servers make the whole thing run smoothly.

Country Cookin is part of a small chain, which only goes to show that chains can be great if they know what they're doing.

Bottom line: Country Cookin a crowd-pleaser and a bargain, to boot.