Like many other chains, the quality varies widely. Some are fine, but at best the buffet format still grosses me out a bit. They are a good place to make your own salad, and maybe pick up some fruit, a pork chop, and maybe a baked potato while you’re up. There are many different types of food. I ate at one in NC that unbeknownst to me had a selection of seafood, and wound up paying $33 even though I didn’t touch a bit of the seafood.
The chocolate fountains are complete grossness to me.
When my husband and daughter and I lived in Las Vegas, I think that most or all of the larger casinos had buffets, and the buffets were not expected to make much money, if any money. They were just in the casinos to keep the gamblers in the casinos. Don’t want those wallets walking out until they’re empty!
Some of the buffets focused on large quantity, and large selection. Some focused on quality. My father was flabbergasted when confronted with a buffet with lasagna in it. He was astonished (and very pleased) when I took him and my mother to a very nice Sunday brunch buffet…with a champagne fountain. He said that it wasn’t the very best champagne he’d ever tasted, but it was pretty damn good. And since I was driving, he could get as giggly as he wanted. He only got a bit tipsy, but he had a great time. So, some buffets are really worth it. Others, well, they’re really good for feeding those teenage boys.
Now that you mention it, I’ve worked for a banquet hall that served a $40 Easter buffet (and another for Thanksgiving). The kitchen was clean “enough” but it was still a working restaurant kitchen and you wouldn’t mistake it for a CDC clean room. Open trays of food, people from the general public, little kids picking at the dessert table… I think the biggest difference was that the $40 Easter buffet didn’t have sneeze guards over its open trays. No one ever recoils in revulsion when I mention $40 Easter buffets to them though.
$33 for Golden Corral?! From the commercials, I thought they only charged $10. I’ve never been to one though.
Oh man…and I used to eat at “B” places when I was living in CA :eek:
Every time the chocolate fountain commercial comes on we have to talk our 11-year-old daughter out of wanting to go. “Golden Corral is like Old Country Buffet. We went to Old Country Buffet that one time we had a coupon and you hated it.” “Chocolate fountain.” “You don’t even like buffets and you still complain about the last time.” “Chocolate fountain.” I don’t know what her obsession with that chocolate fountain is…she doesn’t even like chocolate all that much!
$33 isn’t typical. This one was on the coast and had a lot of seafood in addition to the normal stuff.
Now that I think about it, it might have been Western Sizzlin or another buffet chain. I just remember being unpleasantly surprised how high the per-person cost was. It was because of the seafood they had, which I didn’t even want.
Sidebar here. In my county in CA (Sacramento) they have the last couple of health inspection reports for every restaurant and food service facility in the county online. Go ahead and search - there are 2 Golden Corrals in the county.
I wish they had this for other places as well. Or, maybe not.