Tell me about Golden Corral

[zoo2tycoon]

Am sure just like most franchises that the GC restaurants vary very much by location and management.
GC Corporate Headquarters is in the city I live in and their flagship restaurant 1 mile from there is great! Lots of the employees eat there, and it's of the highest standard. In fact, dh & I plan to eat lunch there tomorrow.
What the one in your area is like - I cannot say, but the only way you'll know is to give them a try! The best of luck!



Paint people with broad brushes much?? You must have tried them, so guess this was a description of yourself also at that visit??

There is good management, and there is bad management and that goes for all franchises.

I’m sorry I’m not a one to go eat at a buffet all the time. OP asked for opinions on Golden Corral and I gave mine from the ones I visited in my state. Disgusting- from the people who were seen reusing plates and sampling things with bare hands. Not hard to see or ignore. Not hard to see a kid drop a spoon and put back in buffet serving dish for some poor person to use- while mom and dad sat stuffing faces.

I told what I saw at mine- and I haven’t been back. I could have said the Walmart crowd in pajamas stuffing their faces

 

[RedAngie]

So food has to "match"? For me, the big draw of a buffet is I can have 7 different things on the same plate.

Yeah, I've learned @ronandannette is quirky about that. Heaven forbid someone bring a side dish to one of her chic dinner parties that clashes with her carefully selected menu. I almost had my head ripped off over a noodle salad.

 

[ronandannette]

Yeah, I've learned @ronandannette is quirky about that. Heaven forbid someone bring a side dish to one of her chic dinner parties that clashes with her carefully selected menu. I almost had my head ripped off over a noodle salad.

And don't even get me started on how you buttered your bread...

 

[luvnwdwgal]

I won’t eat at any buffet, period. I don’t want to handle the same utensils that everybody else in the restaurant has handled. You have no idea if their hands are clean, especially the kids cause you know how they can be. Gross!! No thanks!

 

[Klayfish]

DD and I both got food poisoning eating at a Golden Buffet many years ago. We know what made us sick. It was a carrot raisin salad. Within two hours, DD and I were ill.

That wasn't food poisoning. Food poisoning takes much longer than 2 hours to set in (I do auto and general liability insurance, including restaurants). Stinks you and DD got sick, and I can understand the connection that's drawn. However, to be fair to GC, it wasn't from the salad if you were ill two hours after eating.

The fear of touching a utensil that's in a common bin doesn't make a ton of sense to me. You very likely pick up more germs when you touch the handle to open the restaurant door (or any public establishment) or the bathroom sink handle.

 

[ronandannette]

That wasn't food poisoning. Food poisoning takes much longer than 2 hours to set in (I do auto and general liability insurance, including restaurants). Stinks you and DD got sick, and I can understand the connection that's drawn. However, to be fair to GC, it wasn't from the salad if you were ill two hours after eating.

The fear of touching a utensil that's in a common bin doesn't make a ton of sense to me. You very likely pick up more germs when you touch the handle to open the restaurant door (or any public establishment) or the bathroom sink handle.

I totally agree with this point but I also understand the visceral reaction to observing some of the nonsense that goes on at a buffet. The out-of-sight-out-of-mind stealth germs everywhere don’t seem like such a problem.

 

[Klayfish]

No doubt. The optics can be pretty bad, to say the least. So the simple solution is to not use those common serving utensils and just use your hands to pick up the food.

 

[littlejimmy]

I have very few rules in life. But one of them, that has served me very well is this: never eat at a place that has corral in the name. 4 pages of a thread, and it could all have been solved by following this one simple rule.

 

[dish rag]

That wasn't food poisoning. Food poisoning takes much longer than 2 hours to set in (I do auto and general liability insurance, including restaurants). Stinks you and DD got sick, and I can understand the connection that's drawn. However, to be fair to GC, it wasn't from the salad if you were ill two hours after eating.

The fear of touching a utensil that's in a common bin doesn't make a ton of sense to me. You very likely pick up more germs when you touch the handle to open the restaurant door (or any public establishment) or the bathroom sink handle.

I don’t touch those things either.

 

[bcla]

No doubt. The optics can be pretty bad, to say the least. So the simple solution is to not use those common serving utensils and just use your hands to pick up the food.

They have hand sanitizer dispensers in strategic places, although they always seemed to be out. And there were even some hand washing sinks right in the food areas, although I think they might have been for employees. Nobody stopped me from using it though.

 

[GoingSince1990]

I’m sorry I’m not a one to go eat at a buffet all the time. OP asked for opinions on Golden Corral and I gave mine from the ones I visited in my state. Disgusting- from the people who were seen reusing plates and sampling things with bare hands. Not hard to see or ignore. Not hard to see a kid drop a spoon and put back in buffet serving dish for some poor person to use- while mom and dad sat stuffing faces.

I told what I saw at mine- and I haven’t been back. I could have said the Walmart crowd in pajamas stuffing their faces

Anybody else who has never been to a GC and based upon this thread has firmly resolved never to go near one?

 

[sam_gordon]

They have hand sanitizer dispensers in strategic places, although they always seemed to be out.

I thought this was your first trip there. So how do you qualify it as "always seemed to be out"?

 

[luvsJack]

I don’t touch those things either.

How do you get in the door?

The pp is right, you are much more likely to get sick from touching ANY surface in ANY public place than you are from picking up the spoon at a buffet. And if someone gets sick within a short time of eating, IF its food poisoning, they would have had to get it from a completely different meal.

Not sure why anyone thinks the kitchen at a non-buffet restaurant is better. There are still many people touching the utensils used to dip up any food on your plate. Besides, you really don't want to know what goes on in some kitchens. Your roll may have hit the floor more than once and that is the least of it.

Not defending GC. just pointing out that other places are not "cleaner" they may just appear that way.

 

[mikehn]

This past weekend I had dinner at Longhorn. While eating steak at the bar, I saw a roach run across the bar counter. My girlfriend found a hair on her plate. We ended up getting comped for both dinners, but the moral of the story is eating out anywhere has its risks. So I doubt you all really think golden corral is worse than anywhere else.

 

[dish rag]

How do you get in the door?

The pp is right, you are much more likely to get sick from touching ANY surface in ANY public place than you are from picking up the spoon at a buffet. And if someone gets sick within a short time of eating, IF its food poisoning, they would have had to get it from a completely different meal.

Not sure why anyone thinks the kitchen at a non-buffet restaurant is better. There are still many people touching the utensils used to dip up any food on your plate. Besides, you really don't want to know what goes on in some kitchens. Your roll may have hit the floor more than once and that is the least of it.

Not defending GC. just pointing out that other places are not "cleaner" they may just appear that way.

I wear long sleeves and use my cuff. Or follow someone in. Use my elbow or paper towel. Whatever works. Use my knuckle to push buttons. I do my best and wash my hands frequently.

 

[luvsJack]

I wear long sleeves and use my cuff. Or follow someone in. Use my elbow or paper towel. Whatever works. Use my knuckle to push buttons. I do my best and wash my hands frequently.

Oh! OK, guess that works. I do keep hand sanitizer with me an use it frequently but not after opening every door or touching every surface.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I know what it is, but I've never actually been to one. The big chain around here used to be Hometown Buffet, but one by one (along with sudden mass closures) . Hometown Buffet was operated by the same company as Old Country Buffet, and they used a variety of different brands. I remember seeing a pamphlet at one showing different locations/names within the same company. There are still (barely) a few left, but only in scattered locations.

The main buffets around here are often the iffy Asian buffets, although there are some upscale ones too. And those have issues staying open.

We're going to watch a drive-in movie and the theater is in the same town as the only (current) Golden Corral in the San Francisco Bay Area. I know there are differing views on the quality (I did a search on DIS), and there's no accounting for the differences in location. This one was previously a Hometown Buffet. Their weekend holiday prime rib sounds pretty interesting although I'm not sure how good it is.

At a location run well the salad bar is great, the hot food not so great. At a location run not well the salad bar will be average and the hot stuff will be terrible and something might make you sick. Much of it is canned or pre packaged stuff. But a few things are home made.
Some tips.
Never go at off peak times, especially late after the rush. You might encounter food that was cooked early shift hours before.
The Chicken and pot roast are usually good if a bit bland in the case of the pot roast. Some of the other things are hit and miss.
If it looks like it has been sitting, avoid it. It likely has. They have tried to upscale it a bit recently with some better food, but the price has upscaled to match.

Never been to one, but reading this thread I get a distinct impression that “Chef Mickey’s minus the characters” would not be a completely accurate description of this place.

The stuff designed for kids at CM is probably about equal to GC. The rest should be better.

So food has to "match"? For me, the big draw of a buffet is I can have 7 different things on the same plate.

Yeah. That is the big draw of a buffet. I don't have to eat a big slice of ham, sweet potatoes, and green beans. I can have smaller portions of a lot more stuff. I never understood the people that say you need to eat 5 plates of this expensive item to break the buffet. Well that begs the question. If all you want is that item, why go to a buffet?

 

[mnrose]

I thought of this thread on Saturday when my husband and I took our son to an Indian buffet for lunch. The food was really good....but, of course, Indian food is mainly the kind that is sauced and stewed, and therefore perfect for a buffet. Might be the only buffet I've enjoyed in years. LOL.

 

[belle032]

Probably in the minority here, but I'm fine with GC. It's just a chain buffet restaurant and I've never had a horrific experience. It's a standard buffet with standard buffet food. Obviously you don't go in expecting the culinary experience of a lifetime. And I love a big salad bar. But if we're talking about chain buffets...we LOVE Sweet Tomatoes!

 

[bcla]

I thought of this thread on Saturday when my husband and I took our son to an Indian buffet for lunch. The food was really good....but, of course, Indian food is mainly the kind that is sauced and stewed, and therefore perfect for a buffet. Might be the only buffet I've enjoyed in years. LOL.

I like Indian buffets. I've worked on and off in Silicon Valley, and they're ibiquitous. I've even been taken to one on an interview lunch.

However, I do have issues with how they're stocked. One charged $10 for lunch and provided something expensive like lamb, although I suspect they just put out a certain amount which is then gone and not replaced.