Golden Corral

Ate here with the family Valentines Day, the place was packed but efficiently fast and waited only for at least 12mins for a table. They serve dinner during lunch, no reason to wait just to have a steak or prime rib late afternoon. They are offering some breakfast during lunch so you can have your 3 meals for the entire day. Cotton candy and chocolate fountain is a must for kids.

Way too many people in this restarant and having your lunch or dinner is a challenge because of over crowded rude people. I rather eat at McDonalds than here. Too bad if the atmosphere was better than maybe!

Food was surprisingly good, and they had some breakfast items (eggs, bacon, etc.) Which was a huge surprise since I love brinner! Server was great, friendly and attentive, even after my party finished and decided to hang around and catch up, he continued to check up on us.

I’ve been to this Golden Corral with my family for years now and it always tastes good! I love their selection of food, it has a little bit of everything! I love coming at dinner time because they have steak!
Their desserts are delicious, especially their cookies and chocolate fountain. I love how they have cotton candy. The kids couldn’t get their hands off of them!
I feel like the price is reasonable and the servers have always been very nice to me and my family. My only complaint is that the bathrooms aren’t clean every time I come to eat. But I plan on coming back!

I’ve been to this restaurant many times over the past few years, mainly because my wife likes the food here. The service, atmosphere, and cleanliness of the restaurant has always been a big problem and seems to get worse every time.
On our most recent visit, we asked for a table for 7 with 2 high chairs. We were shown to a table for 6 and not given any high chairs. I told the hostess that I need a table for 7 and she said they only have tables for 4 or 6. I asked if they can put 2 tables together and she said you’ll have to ask your waiter.
We stood there for several minutes and nobody helped us. I asked the nearest waiter if I can put 2 tables together and she said that she’s not the waiter for this section and we would have to wait for that waiter to show up. After several more minutes waiting, I just put 2 tables together and went and got 2 high chairs myself. Some time later, the waiter finally arrived and asked why we’re sitting at a table for 10 when there’s only 7 of us. I asked him if he’s kicking us out of the restaurant and he said no.
Once I finally got to go to the buffet to get my food, I went to the carving station to get turkey. There was a whole turkey that was not cut into slices. I stood there waiting for help while 5 employees stood there staring at me and ignored me. I said excuse me several times and they continued to ignore me. I said excuse me loudly several times and waited several more minutes until they finally decided to stop ignoring me and cut some of the turkey. The employee who cut the turkey was very rude about it and almost threw the turkey at me.
We did not get any refills until we were almost done with our meal. The waiter came and said something like «Lady what are you drinking? LADY, HELLO LADY WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING?» I’ve never been to a restaurant before where the waiters referred to female customers as «lady». I went to the rest room to wash my hands and found that none of the sinks worked. How are the employees washing their hands if the sinks don’t work?

My little prince has recently taken a liking to this place because «they have EVERYTHING» lol. I also discovered that he now will suddenly eat steak… if it is cooked for me… and on my plate lol. So we gathered some of the family crew and seriously had the most fun I have ever had at an American Buffet! It was great watching my little people try some new foods that they might fight me on when we are home.
Of course my little ones enjoyed the 5 — high chocolate fountain as well as the cotton candy. I am pretty sure I saw my son stuff an 8 inch piece in his mouth all at once. SMH!
I most look forward to their awesome salad bar and that is always the first place I head to.
Keep an eye out for children wandering without their parents even though they are instructed not to. And be mindful of folks who simply lack manners cutting in line or not being as pleasant as one would hope.
Tip: Ask your waitress for hot fresh rolls and honey butter :)

The bathroom is atrocious stinky broke toilets. It smells so bad you don’t even want to eat a salad because the bathroom I’d do close to the salad bar section. The staff is slow. The steak is barely ever cooked they way you want.

Went to the Golden Corral website and saw this endless list of amazing foods… crab cakes, coconut shrimp, bbq ribs, grilled salmon and so on. We’ve been going to the other buffet restaurant for years and very much enjoyed but thought after looking at GC’s extensive menu, we’d be up for a more expansive seafood spread.
Do not believe the GC website. It’s loaded with lies. The salad bar is like any diner salad bar. Nothing special. The ‘seafood’ salad is fake. Then there is a fruit bar. Then there is a big breakfast bar. Then a small chicken bar… a mexican bar and vegetable bar. The grill as advertised was supposed to be veggies, salmon, chicken, steak. They had a turkey swimming in juice and they were only grilling steak.
I don’t eat meat so of course was disappointed to see no grilled or baked fish at all until the third waiter I asked pointed to the mexican section where there was baked fish (couldn’t tell what kind) swimming in a sea of butter.
The icing on the cake I didn’t even bother to try was my trip to the lady’s room. Warning: Plumbing is in need of an overhaul.
I rate this a one only because the guy who greeted us was a real charmer and the waitress was sweet. Otherwise, both thumbs way down, especially when the manager came over totally oblivious to the mention of crab cakes, grilled veggies, salmon, etc. He looked at me like I had two heads when I told him and said «Hmmm I’ll have to check that out.‘
Wow.
Do yourself a favor and go to the other buffet. You will not be disappointed there and they do not lie on their website.

This is one of my go to places for when I cannot decide what I want to eat, but don’t want to cook or spend a lot of money. Just everyday American fare of decent qualty. About 23.00 a couple for all you can eat. Still slightly expensive in my mind, but better than fast food.

I’m surprised to see such low ratings for a Golden Corral. I’ve been here twice, on a May 2015 Saturday night and October 2015 Saturday night. The place was jam packed on both occasions. I didn’t observe any of the filth complained about in the other ratings. My waitress on both occasions was very attentive and friendly. Also, a floor manager stopped by several times, asking if everything was okay.
The green salad bar was fine. I concentrated on eating pulled pork and cole slaw, however, everything else I saw looked appealing to the eye. During my first visit, they actually had a really good macaroni & cheese with little cubes of ham that was excellent. I got the sense that this is not a regular dish because they also served the regular low-​budget mac & cheese. On my second visit, they had a really good chicken fajita set-​up. On both occasions, their grilled beef was really good — seasoned well, and better than anything you’ll get below an upscale steakhouse. Although this isn’t the best Golden Corral that I’ve been to, it gets my Five Stars because they do quite a few things very right, including their all day breakfast station. Also, I’ve never seen a Golden Corral this packed with such a waiting line; so, they must be doing something right. (Yes, the brussels sprout, turnip greens, mash potatoes, etc are average; but, we all cook average dishes at home, so you can’t nit-​pick when there are over 100 items to pick from). Also, for the price, you can’t beat choosing what you want to eat and leaving as full as you decide.
No — you don’t come here to impress a date. You come to eat a lot. Be prepared to dodge a few kids and wait a bit as you create your plate.
If I can have one magic suggestion that would end a certain behavior, I’d wish that people wouldn’t nibble from their plates until being seated. Seriously — it’s poor manners to walk-​and-​eat in a dining hall.

Unilocal is sorta embarrassing because you all get to see my guilty pleasures! Golden Corral is one of them. I come for the giant chocolate fountain. But, as far as giant buffet chains go, Golden Corral is usually one of the better ones. I generally enjoy their breakfast and this is usually the only meal I go to a place like this.
This Golden Corral wasn’t great. In fairness, it was a weekday and we came late morning (about 9:45), but all the food looked old. The eggs had that gross egg crust on the outside. The nacho cheese next to the old eggs had that gross skin on it. They had this nasty cold crusty breakfast pizza that probably had been sitting there since 5am. It certainly wasnt touched during the hour we were here. There was a hunk of some unidentifiable dried meat (ham? beef?) that sat like a dying soldier under heat lamps untouched and avoided by all, customer and staff.
I ended up just getting an omelet at the omelet bar and some salad.
How hard is it to send a cook out every 15 minutes to give everything a good stir? They all seemed to be standing around anyways.
I’ll probably come again some day on a weekend when it’ll be busier to give this place another shot. I like Golden Corral. But I’m not sure why I’d drive 20 minutes from Reston when everything there is pretty great.

Ok food that’s cheap. Best part is my son really enjoyed the dessert buffet.

This place is disgusting! Their cleanliness standards must be that of an third world country. The food is okay at best, the customers that come in here need a lesson in manners, dipping and eating their fondue stick right in front of the station! Come on! The restaurant never cleans after each customer! I hate myself for eating here every time I go there! I will have to stop.

I usually love Golden Corral, especially my mom, with the food variety and great prices, but I must say that I was a little disappointed in this one.
It wasn’t too crowded when my family and I came in, but the place just seemed messy. Our table was very very wet from being wiped down, I guess, but we had to rewipe it a couple of times to before putting anything on there.
Additionally, one of the major reasons why my mom loves eating at Golden Corral is because of her obsession with chocolate covered strawberries (the dessert section has a chocolate fountain with fruit on the side to cover them). However, there were no strawberries served at this Golden Corral, which is the first time that I’ve ever seen that. They didn’t even bother to give us an explanation either.
The service was just okay, but we had to ask for our drink refills and towards the end of the night, had to hunt our waitress down for some coffee.
The reason why I gave this place 3 stars is because of their food which I really do enjoy. I just wish that they kept the place more tidy and presentable, and couldn’t believe that they didn’t have strawberries, which they always advertise.

Here now and waiting for a simple refill. Service is HORRIBLE!!! Instead of the Servers staying out to serve the tables… they are in the kitchen fighting over the Free Rolls for Customers. The food was Mediocre. Disappointed with this visit… usually a pleasant experience turned out to be my Worst at this location!!!

Not a very clean restaurant at 8pm. Someone had taken off the labels for all of the meat dishes which made it annoying for my guest who cannot eat pork and is not familiar with american dishes.
The vegetables and fruit were very fresh but all the meat dishes (save for the specially prepared steak yum) and the fries were not warm at all.
Desert selection was very small; the station was dirty but the workers did not seem concerned about it at all.
Our server Marilyn was very sweet and did her best to keep our drinks refilled and our table clean.

Service is very good here and the food choices Are always super tasty and delicious. The restaurant staff is very helpful and friendly
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BUT WhY!!! I honestly, don’t know why I was expecting to get amazing food at Golden Corral. Let’s be real, this a buffet for people who just wanna put some food Downnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!
The quality isn’t great at all, except to say that there are a few gems that I really like namely the banana bread French toast and the vanilla ice cream, the chocolate was icy and not that great!
Things that scare me about this buffet, the deep fried bacon, and the «bacon candy.» Try at your own risk.
I really do love buffets, they have a soft spot in my heart, the chocolate fountains look so cool, and make for great photo ops.
The place is definitely not fancy or amazing, so don’t come here with those boujouis-​y expectations! The service was good =)

Talk about mediocre. What a disappointment! I wanted a buffet dinner so I could have variety. This place did not come close to meeting my taste buds standards.
While this place wasn’t disgusting, everything was just okay tasting. Everything you can eat here tastes a hundred times better somewhere else.
At least the waitress was sweet.
I won’t be coming back here.

About a 2.5: I know that Golden Corral is a chain and sometimes, after dining here, you can feel kind of gross from stuffing your face so much. However, there are just those days where you just crave an all-​American AYCE buffet: P On rare occasions, we come here for their breakfast, close to where it switches over to lunch so we can get both of two worlds. For breakfast, I like the cheesy hash potatoes, as they are very cheesy, salty, and the crispy hashbrowns on top are the best part. They sometimes also have these mini cheese and bacon quiches that are pretty good as well, with eggs, bacon bits, and cheese. For lunch, the bbq pulled pork is juicy and good, and if they have the side of the bbq sauce to dress it, it’s even better. Their pot roast can be good as well with tender chunks of beef and the carrots and potatoes to go with. I do like their glistening rolls with the honey butter — nice and soft. Golden Corral can have consistency issues, but when everything is right on the money, it’s pretty good value and you will leave satisfied. A lot of people dome here, so the food is usually fresh and always being produced from the kitchen. The staff is also nice and friendly.
+cheesy hash potatoes
+mini cheese & bacon quiches
+bbq pulled pork (ask for extra bbq sauce)
+pot roast
+honey butter & fresh rolls
+oatmeal raisin cookies