# Is Anyone Else Grossed Out by Golden Corral's Chocolate Waterfall? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 17, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189 "2012-02-17T21:39:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/21 "2012-02-18T04:06:31Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > It’s like a glimpse into a self-inflicted emotional black hole. Golden Corral is where taste and hope go to die and rot in the sun. The hygiene of the chocolate fountain is the least of their worries. My wife’s parents take the kids there when we visit them in Florida. They should change their name to “The Golden Trough”. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/22 "2012-02-18T04:16:19Z")
Today I was daydreaming about how maybe I could go to the Golden Corral for breakfast on Monday. I’m thinking unlimited cheesy grits and sausage would be a perfect way to commemorate both the presidents and me having the day off from work. \ ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/23 "2012-02-18T04:28:57Z")
A kid sticking his finger in it? [It could be worse.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-wwbO4LUMY) (skip to 1:50 if you are impatient) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/24 "2012-02-18T04:57:31Z")
I hadn’t heard of this until just now, but yeah - ick. There’s a GC just off the highway we take when driving the kids to summer camp. It’s conveniently located and you can get a ton of cheap food of almost any sort, so of course the kids LOVE it. The food is… mostly edible. nothing I’d go out of my way for. Adequate cafeteria food in endless variety. The bathrooms are consistently so disgusting that I’ve told the kids we are not going back. The chain used to be a budget steakhouse, actually, and was decent for what it was. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/25 "2012-02-18T06:08:20Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Today I was daydreaming about how maybe I could go to the Golden Corral for breakfast on Monday. I’m thinking unlimited cheesy grits and sausage would be a perfect way to commemorate both the presidents and me having the day off from work. > > \ Chocolate covered grits and sausage… mmmmmm!\* Actually I’ve never had their breakfast but should probably go; I live about two blocks from one and I don’t work til noon most days. The weirdest thing to me about Golden Corral for dinner is that they serve about 300 different dishes and every last one of them mediocre. You’d think that they’d cook _something_ that was really good and occasionally made you think “I wish I had some of G.C.'s \_\_\_\_ right now”. Other chains in their price range usually have something- Cracker Barrel has good chicken&rice, fried apples, and fried chicken breast for instance- but I can’t think of any evening foods that GC does beyond ‘it was cooked sufficiently to avoid botulism’. Or of any that are uniquely bad for that matter- they’re the most “Meh” restaurant out there. \*[SIZE=1]For a while in the late 2000s there was a weird trend here- I don’t know if it was elsewhere- to merge chocolate and bacon: there were chocolate bacon candy bars, chocolate & bacon offerings in various restaurants, and even a chocolate & bacon biscuit one place. I like chocolate okay and I love bacon, but the two together are like onions and ice cream. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/26 "2012-02-18T07:51:55Z")
Blech. My worry is what is the temperature? My rational mind knows the amount of sugar in that fountain is probably enough to retard bacterial growth, but my irrational mind wonders if it’s just warm enough to be friendly to whatever illness someone sneezes into it. I generally avoid buffet style places and salad bars, anyway, and try to be nice enough to waitstaff so they won’t spit in my food. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/27 "2012-02-18T07:59:06Z")
The entire chocolate fountain experience has been ruined for me because of Paula Deen. Years ago, Food Network was running a bunch of little program snippits to advertise their Valentine’s Day lineup. One of these featured Paula thrusting her tongue into a chocolate fountain. XP ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/28 "2012-02-18T09:02:18Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > The entire chocolate fountain experience has been ruined for me because of Paula Deen. Years ago, Food Network was running a bunch of little program snippits to advertise their Valentine’s Day lineup. One of these featured Paula thrusting her tongue into a chocolate fountain. XP At which point, like a scene from _Ten Commandments More_, the fountain turned to corn oil and sugar. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/29 "2012-02-18T13:29:04Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > It’s like a glimpse into a self-inflicted emotional black hole. Golden Corral is where taste and hope go to die and rot in the sun. The hygiene of the chocolate fountain is the least of their worries. Good Lord, well put. Golden Corral hits me where it hurts just by its mere existence as a food factory for fattening up obese people. To heck with the chocolate fountain. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/30 "2012-02-18T13:47:42Z")
I am really not fond of chocolate to begin with, but the idea of eating anything dipped into the chocolate fountain just makes me gag. I was involved in the construction of our local GC. It was not far from our house and on the bike trail. A week or so after it opened, my wife and I rode our bikes there to try it out. The food was incredibly unappetizing. We never went back, and about five or six years later, the location closed. My company has a service contract with the three remaining locations in our city, and it amazes me that they are always busy. I guess it was just my neighborhood that could not tolerate a GC in our midst. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/31 "2012-02-18T14:00:09Z")
I’m a bit OCD, so the very idea of everybody, with their grubby little hands, dipping their food into it, with no guarantee of no double dipping, makes me puke little carrots. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/32 "2012-02-18T14:14:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Chocolate covered grits and sausage… mmmmmm!\* > > Actually I’ve never had their breakfast but should probably go; I live about two blocks from one and I don’t work til noon most days. I agree that their dinner offerings aren’t anything to write home about. Maybe it’s because breakfast foods are harder to mess up, but they are decent. Grits, sausage, waffles, pancakes, donuts, fried chicken (I’m guessing to eat with the waffles), ham, steak, scrambled eggs, omelettes, biscuits (which aren’t half bad), gravy, hashbrown… You aren’t going to get gourmet food there, but for $8? It’s not bad. About the chocolate fountain. I have not been exposed to such a monstrosity and do not want to investigate. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/33 "2012-02-18T14:47:44Z")
When I first saw this commercial, I just thought: WTF? I had never heard of one of these things, and although I do like chocolate, it looked disgusting. Not because I was thinking that people were dipping all sorts of things into it. It just looked disgusting. I wasn’t really even sure what it was for. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/34 "2012-02-18T14:55:42Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Today I was daydreaming about how maybe I could go to the Golden Corral for breakfast on Monday. I’m thinking unlimited cheesy grits and sausage would be a perfect way to commemorate both the presidents and me having the day off from work. > > \ We go sometimes for breakfast on Sundays. They actually cook a decent piece of steak to go with your eggs. I think it may vary wildly though as there’s one near my sister and when I mentioned GC to her, she was disgusted. I read reviews on the one near her and they’re uniformly negative. The one near me is much better. I’ve never found it dirty and seen them throw away entire trays of food on the suspicion that someone might have reached into it or dropped a sausage and put it back in. The Old Country Buffet near us was much worse but they’ve since gone out of business. It’s especially nice because we’ve been eating with a baby the last 15 months and so being able to go in, eat and leave at our leisure is great, same with not letting your food get cold as you tend to the critter. I’ve seen the fountain thingie but never paid it much mind since I was eating breakfast. Never seen kids sticking random objects or appendages into it. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/35 "2012-02-18T15:11:27Z")
Aw Jeebus, Old Country Buffet. Where the food is dead but still hoping you will join it. When we bought our house here, we found one close and would go there for breakfast as a break from packing and unpacking. I hated it - for fuck’s sake, they fucked up bacon! But Mr. singular loves chicken fried steak, and has much lower standards for food. The idea of a chocolate fountain gags me as well, and I try to protect him. He still doesn’t understand why I panic and knock his hand out of the dish of mints that the snotty child in front of us at the register just grappled. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/36 "2012-02-18T15:19:43Z")
Tsk tsk tsk the actual name of this horror is the “Chocolate Wonderfall” - as in “I wonder what kind of infection it will give me.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/37 "2012-02-18T15:21:42Z")
I don’t care what Mr Wonka says. I’m not eating anything out of the chocolate waterfall until I actually see that German kid alive. ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/38 "2012-02-18T15:43:02Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > So I guess putting your penis in it is out of the question? Only at a majority of GC locations. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/39 "2012-02-18T15:46:58Z")
I’m grossed out by Golden Corral in general. Their chocolate fountain doesn’t at all sweeten the deal for me (ha!). With the singular exception of [Phillips](http://www.phillipsseafood.com/menus-and-locations/ocean-city/seafood-house), I’ve never been to an all-you-can-eat buffet that was anything but terrible. I’m not at all a snooty-foodie, I’ll happily and enthusiastically eat at Taco Bell or Denny’s or wherever, but the combination of who-knows-how-long-that’s-been-sitting-there, who-knows-whose-hands-have-been-in-there (not to mention the look-that-kid-is-sticking-his-hand-in-there-_right_-_now_!!), and overall piss poor quality of the food to begin with that I’ve experienced every single time I’ve been taken (note: **taken** ; I’ve never voluntarily gone to one on my own, except to Phillips) to one of these types of places, makes me gag just to think about. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189/40 "2012-02-18T16:34:06Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > the combination of who-knows-how-long-that’s-been-sitting-there, who-knows-whose-hands-have-been-in-there (not to mention the look-that-kid-is-sticking-his-hand-in-there-_right_-_now_!!), this is why i like disney’s approach to buffets. the food is placed far back from the serving line. like, so far back the adults have trouble reaching it and you have to kind of maneuver around the sneeze guard to reach the salad tongs. it’s worth the annoyance knowing little grubby hands can’t reach it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-else-grossed-out-by-golden-corrals-chocolate-waterfall/613189.md?page=3)