Golden Corral was the GOAT buffet

[ChrisD]

Loved them as a kid/teen. Ain't been in.. six years? Have an occasional urge to try again, but price kept me from doing so then, Covid from doing so now (as in the next few years). Honestly, the main thing I think of is endless fried okra. Everything else would just be cherries on top. They could even be rotten cherries on the side, so long as they ain't managed to eff up fried okra we'd be good lol.

 

[Temtastic Muns]

Anyone in the PA area ever tried Shady Maple Smorgasbord? Been meaning to take a trip for years, but sadly never gotten around to it.



The place and selection looks HUGE.

 

[CaptainBojangles]

Oh fuck no. Golden Corral is an affront on humanity. I was dragged there multiple times and there was never a single good item outside of rolls and the buffet and restaurant were absolutely disgusting

 

[Ferrio]

My biggest memory of the place was when our family was standing in the queue at the front. The line was long and slow moving. My dad looks around at all the hungry people shuffling in line and starts moo'ing as we slowly shuffle forward. It's then I realized we were the cattle for the Golden Corral.

 

[Bakercat]

that's a weird way to spell

taco bar was OP when I was an 8 year old and the closest thing i came to authentic mexican was my parents taking me to taco bell (mild sauce)

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The one near my SO had a really good breakfast buffet, but they stopped doing it sadly. I'm still salty about it a year later lol. When i was there the last time I overheard an older couple talking and the woman was upset the breakfast buffet was leaving. The husband told her Golden Corral was just up the street and she belted out, "its just not the same!"

Hope that old lady found her a new breakfast joint...

 

[kmfdmpig]

A good casino buffet is much better than a standard restaurant buffet. Bellagio or Wynn, for example, have really impressive buffets. Even local smaller casinos will have good buffets. I never gamble, so if I go to a casino it's either to watch a show or eat at a buffet.

 

[Poppy]

My biggest memory of the place was when our family was standing in the queue at the front. The line was long and slow moving. My dad looks around at all the hungry people shuffling in line and starts moo'ing as we slowly shuffle forward. It's then I realized we were the cattle for the Golden Corral.

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this is a vignette i can get behind

 

[Shiloh]

My family went to one once. Once. Never again.

 

[Deleted member 6263]

As a college kid, I loved it.

As a college kid, I was also an idiot who didn't know anything outside of McChickens and Cheesy Roll Ups so I have to to take that into account in whether I'm remembering actual good food or just the feelings associated with walking into a building with more food options than people to eat it.

 

[Why would you do that?]

ITT, posters who are outing themselves for not instinctively insisting that OP is shockingly wrong and that pretty much any random mom-and-pop Indian buffet is vastly superior.

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An Indian buffet sounds really good... Here in NYC I feel like all I know are American Chinese food buffets, which are also pretty good. They seem to be popping up more lately, too...

I don't think Golden Corral or any of the other chains mentioned in this thread are in NYC, so I've never tried them.

 

[Deleted member 36708]

"WAS" is sadly correct

 

[RecRoulette]

Shoney's breakfast buffet was the goat as far a chains go.

There's definitely a local buffet for everyone that blows Golden Corral out of the water though.

 

[CorpseLight]

that's a weird way to spell

taco bar was OP when I was an 8 year old and the closest thing i came to authentic mexican was my parents taking me to taco bell (mild sauce)

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I thought I was the only human still alive that ate at Ponderosa.

 

[bastardly]

when it first opened here it was pretty good, but man it went down a cliff fast As their low standards dipped into the recesses of hell.

now it's borderline prison food, but I will say they have this deep fried bacon that stands up against any michelin star meal ive ever eaten, its fucking amazing

 

[Dodongo]

The Golden Trough is only good if you are mega hungover and there's nothing else around. If you really despise yourself and want to do bodily harm, the local Chinese Buffet is a good pick too.

Shoney's breakfast buffet was the goat as far a chains go.

There's definitely a local buffet for everyone that blows Golden Corral out of the water though.

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I miss Shoney's breakfast so much. I haven't had it in a decade.

 

[Mona]

that's a weird way to spell

taco bar was OP when I was an 8 year old and the closest thing i came to authentic mexican was my parents taking me to taco bell (mild sauce)

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my man

 

[Ultima_5]

I️ miss buffets and hope they can still exist in the future

 

[entremet]

I remember Ryan's. It was OK. I was a kid so I don't know if I would like it now.

 

[Doggg]

Beef ribs, pot roast, and onion rings were my favorites there. Now that's a meal.

 

[zoltek]

Something like Fogo de Chao leaves these low rent buffet places in the dust.

Plus you get unlimited meat carved tableside by just raising a flag at your table...

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Stay away from the salad bar. It's a trap! You are paying that hefty price for the meat and the servers always wait a half hour before bringing out the expensive filet mignon for you to eat. I learned my lesson the hard way, because the salad bar is actually tasty, but then you wake up that night with meat sweats from trying to devour all the meat they give you so you don't feel bad about spending $50 for a meal.

 

[mute]

I was lucky enough to have a new one open up near me and I tried it out the first ~week and it was amazing.

Ever sense then though, the soul got sucked out of the place and no way I would pay what they were charging to eat there.

 

[NealMcCauley]

My dad's on a strict diet as well as a germaphobe doctor so yeah buffets were a no-go growing up. As I got older I went to a few with friends. There's a Chinese place in my hometown that was good, a Mexican hole in a wall the next town over that was fantastic for the price before the health department shut it down, and nothing really beats a university cafeteria.

Big shout out to the Harris Teeter hot bar next to the beach my fam vacations at, and all the Courtyard by Marriott breakfast spreads.

 

[JimJamJones]

Anyone ever been to a Lambert's Cafe? I remember going to this place once with my family. Not really a buffet but they would continually bring side dishes to your table and you could just take what you wanted.

But that's not important. What's important is that the workers will throw rolls at you whenever you wanted one. Here's a gif I found as evidence.

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Yooo there's a Lambert's near my mom's family in Alabama. Baldwin County has some amazing food.

 

[Lexad]

Rarely disappointed at a crappy Chinese buffet, especially if they have crab out.

best buffet I ever had was for brunch at Saltys on the Alki in west Seattle. God tier buffet

 

[johnsmith]

shabu shabu is the true goat all you can eat experience. Runner up is Korean bbq, followed by Mongolian bbq.

 

[Grouch Douglass]

My experience w/ Golden Corral was that of large amounts of disgusting (almost inedible) food and long lines full of sad overweight people. Even the ice cream bar sucked. Never again. Would rather eat McDonalds.

 

[Einchy]

This was my shit back when I lived in Mississippi.

 

[Quinton]

Hook that Mongolian all-you-can-meat into my I-can-eat-meat veins

 

[DarthButcher]

Hook that Mongolian all-you-can-meat into my I-can-eat-meat veins

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You speak my love language.

 

[mnk]

Having lived in Vegas for years and experiencing what a good buffet really is, I just can't go back to places like Golden Corral or Hometown Buffet. Maybe for a Saturday breakfast, but that's it. I still make it to local Chinese buffets every now and then, I can still enjoy those ones for what they are.

 

[Hound]

An Indian buffet sounds really good... Here in NYC I feel like all I know are American Chinese food buffets, which are also pretty good. They seem to be popping up more lately, too...

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It's super good and I'm sure there's at least a few in NYC. Generally most of the ones around me cater to more americanized tastes, so you're going to get stuff like tika masala, which is by no means bad. But if you can find one that's also popular with your local Indian community, it can be really fantastic (although also keep in mind that you might want to try a few of those types of places because there are different regions of India/Indian food and what they serve can be quite different).

 

[Quinton]

You speak my love language.

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You and me, Darth Butcher. We'll go far.

 

[Nairume]

Bunch of us once went to one after a day-long fencing tournament, feasted, and then went and drank a bunch at the after party.

It felt like we went to Valhalla.

 

[SupremeWu]

It was great in the day, they had these amazing sausage patties that were battered and slathered in some sort of sweet/sour type of sauce, I could eat plates of those. It was also only full of high teenagers and old people, a very chill environment

EDIT: Oh shit lol for some reason I read this as Old Country Buffet -- Sorry, never been to a Golden Corral! OCB was my jam.

 

[Keywork]

My mom hates buffets so I never really went to any growing up. So my only exposure to a buffet was ones at hotels when we were road tripping it for continental breakfasts and then at the Country Club my extended family belonged to where the whole clan would meet for Mother's and Father's Day so of course that was crazy high-end.

Speaking of Continental Breakfasts...

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

Everything rattled off in this thread other than something like Fogo De Chao is utter trash.

OP is right - for kids, GC was fire. But as an adult... I'd sincerely rather not eat.

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

lol nah, your local Chinese buffet is better than Golden Coral. Tends to be cheaper too.

Actually good buffets begin at your nearest casino.

 

[Swiggins]

I liked Golden Corral alright, but for my money nothing beats a nice Chinese Buffet.

Super China Buffet near my house used to be my favorite...I hope they can somehow weather the storm and come back someday.

I have a sneaking suspicion that buffets are going the way of the dodo.

 

[Chie Satonaka]

I think I'm done with self-serve buffets forever.

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This. I've never generally been a fan, but I've made exceptions, like when we had a work brunch at Rodizio Grill late last year and we were the first people there, so there were no shenanigans.

I can't even imagine doing that now or in the future.

 

[Deleted member 24052]

Golden Corral is actually more legit than most people might think.

But with Covid, I've rethought a lot of lifestyle choices like open buffets. I'm not sure I'll go back to places like Golden Corral for a long, long time if ever.

 

[Deleted member 16657]

An Indian buffet sounds really good... Here in NYC I feel like all I know are American Chinese food buffets, which are also pretty good. They seem to be popping up more lately, too...

I don't think Golden Corral or any of the other chains mentioned in this thread are in NYC, so I've never tried them.

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Indian buffets are really great. All kinds of delicious vegetable dishes and the butter chicken is to die for.

 

[Jayuk]

Last year I ate at Golden Corral, and since I was trying not to eat too much heavy food, I decided to eat from the salad bar. I was the only one out of all of us that did. That night, I had the worst food poisoning (or stomach virus idk) that I had ever had in my life. My stomach felt as if someone was stabbing me, and I kept constantly having to use the bathroom from around 7pm all the way until 4am the next day (I'm trying not to be too detailed with this. It was awful). It was so awful that I almost asked someone to take me to the hospital, until finally it "calmed down" around 4am.

Thank god I didn't have work the following day because I felt as if I had been hit by a train and was weak as fuck. Since then, that same location shut down permanently (before the pandemic) and honestly I'm not surprised. I will never eat at Golden Corral again. It's fucking garbage.

 

[ryseing]

Big shout out to the Harris Teeter hot bar next to the beach my fam vacations at,

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The HT hot bar is better than it has any right to be.

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

Buffets going forward I feel are going to be more cafeteria style like Luby's. It does mean the end of taking that entire tray of crab legs yourself.

 

[Maso]

Sizzler had the best Dino Nuggets I tell ya. A long lost delicacy.

 

[Devilgunman]

For American food? Maybe. But Sushi buffet is always my choice.

 

[KillingJoke]

Their steaks are surprisingly damn good. Worth the price alone. Everything else is bad to average.

 

[shnurgleton]

buffets are all terrible unless they are chinese or indian buffets, in which case they're not good but at least they aren't godawful

 

[Ferrio]

Sizzler had the best Dino Nuggets I tell ya. A long lost delicacy.

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Wow they still exist? Dark magic must exist if they're still operational after covid.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

Something like Fogo de Chao leaves these low rent buffet places in the dust.

Plus you get unlimited meat carved tableside by just raising a flag at your table...

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I keep saying I'm gonna go, but I never want to drive into Portland. Plus, no one wants to pay that much, so I'd be alone... At a buffet.