'Cause the commercials make it look like Hometown Buffett.
I can’t see for myself, as there don’t appear to be any on them local (Los Angeles)
It’s a normal American buffet whose target demographic is “not rich people”. The food will be edible, the prices will be low and you can stuff your face until you explode.
Never been there, but the chocolate wonderfall commercials skeeve me out if just because it’s so public. Salad bars and buffets are gross enough, now you want to ruin chocolate that way? I can just imagine some little kid sticking their germy hands in there after having licked their fingers.
The only time I have voluntarily eaten at a Golden Corral was when I was recovering from sepsis and the simultaneous discovery that I was seriously allergic to both main-class antibiotics. I ate there every afternoon-evening for about 4 days.
At that point, I had literally not eaten anything in the past week, and in the weeks before that I had eaten much less than a person should. I was still nauseated by just about everything, and the ability to pay a fixed low price and then sit there for about three hours eating randomly selected bites of something that didn’t make me want to urp that particular day (and I never could figure out how to tell beforehand what would or wouldn’t) was totally worth it.
Otherwise, not really what I’d consider fine dining, no. I’m grateful to them for keeping me fed in a rough patch, but they aren’t particularly amazing. If you don’t mind normal salad stuff, basic meat cuts, lots of deep-fried things of questionable provenance and butter-drenched pasta things, then I doubt their food will hurt you. The one here has always had an A rating (My husband looked it up while I was ill) but that only means they’re basically clean and aren’t actively peeing on the food. If you have the money for Golden Corral, you have the money to go somewhere better.
I think there was a thread a few weeks ago about them introducing a permanent chocolate fountain. Mmm, grubby licked-kid-finger germs.
It’s not good, but it’s not quite on the level of terrible that Hometown Buffet or Ryan’s is.
+1. My grandmother loves the place, to our horror.
Golden Corral is the buffet that broke this cheap ass camel’s back. A few years ago I ended up at one because that’s where the “group” wanted to go. That most of this group hovers somewhere between obese and morbidly obese should be noted. The food is “okay”. But for what they charge for okay food you need to eat fair amount of it (which obese/morbidly obese people can do with one fork tied behind their back). Well, I stuffed myself on questionable food to “get my monies worth”.
I ended up in a weekend long funk/crappy food coma. That was the trip that made me swear to never try to “get my monies worth” at any buffet. And at Golden Corral especially.
For a week?!?
There used to be an Old Country Buffet around here that was quite similar, but far superior.
Golden Corral has no more than mediocre food and nothing that stood out.
Fascinating. You had the sepsis before you ate at Golden Corral for 4 days?!
Golden Corral serves comfort food. If you’re comforted by quantity.
Yeah - but not for lack of trying. Sometimes I had a half-hour before I lost it all again, and my darling husband only let me drink soup stock, so I figure that’s why I didn’t actually die. It sucked. A lot. If I wasn’t phobic of doctors/hospitals, I should have been admitted (my doctor is still astonished (and a bit upset) that I didn’t go), but my husband knows the only way he’s getting me there is if I am actually unconscious. I wouldn’t recommend my version. 
I know, right? Life is full of irony sometimes.
Amen. Kids are just gross anyway. Plus you know people are double-dipping.
I like the Golden Corral. The food is better (and more varied) than at Old Country Buffet and it is WAY better than the half dozen Chinese food buffets we have around here. We’re going tonight in fact.
My husband went to one during a business trip and raved about how good it was. We had one locally that we never really noticed. Back then, (1998ish) they weren’t running GC ads.
We popped in to the local one, and couldn’t pop out quick enough. 14 years later, it is still the worse “dining” experience I’ve ever had. To be fair, I didn’t actually eat anything except a pack of crackers from the salad bar. I am not a picky eater, I don’t usually eat “homestyle” restaurant food, but I’m not opposed to it.
I think our bad experience may have been due to that particular location, because it closed down the same year.
We were the only customers and, after waiting 20 minutes for a server, helped ourselves to the salad bar. My son was small and hungry. I don’t remember exactly what made me repulsed. I almost always can find something on a salad bar.
When we went back to the table, the server shows up, scowls at us, then disappeared into the back. Then the manager came by and scowled at us, and told the server to “keep an eye” on us.:mad:
She completely ignored our request for a check so we left a $20 on the table.
I lived in a college town in Georgia with amazingly few restaurants between fast-food and upscale, and Golden Corral was one. This was about 2003 or so, and I remember the food as ‘okay’, nothing to write home about, but with some good veggies and hot hyper-sweet yeast rolls.
I didn’t go to one for years then one opened a couple of miles from my house and I went a few times for convenience sake. Much blander than I remembered, and, as mentioned above, overpriced if you’re not going to gorge. (This isn’t to say it’s expensive, but that for the same amount of money you can eat something better in most places.) The only thing that stood out at all were the straight off the grill pork tenderloins, and I don’t think they were so much delicious as just better than anything else there.
This is about their dinner/lunch. In a thread about the chocolate fountain, Monstro said they’re pretty good for breakfast, which I’ve heard from others as well.
I’ve eaten in them on the road. Their food reminds me strongly of US Army mess hall food circa 1980.
Waiting for a server? :dubious: Are you sure this was a Golden Corral? The ones I’ve been to, you just pay upfront, get a plate and help yourself. The servers are there only to bring you drinks and take your dirty plates away.
I’ve eaten at two locations a couple of times, and it’s mostly inoffensive buffet food. I like the yeast rolls, and their mashed potatoes were real - not rehydrated flakes. Decent fried chicken, decent salad bar offerings, good selection of vegetables. I’m not a big dessert fan, so I mostly don’t worry about little kids and their double-dipping. As with any restaurant, if I were to walk in and see or smell filth, I’d leave. Also, I have a low tolerance for the long lines and crowded spaces, so I don’t fight the after church crowds or dine out at really busy times. From my days of waiting tables, I can easily imagine that many diners don’t monitor their kids’ behavior at such times, so I just wouldn’t eat at GC (or any other buffet) during a big rush.
Chapter 3 of Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons, which works pretty well as a stand-alone short story, should provide quite a laugh for everyone here.