Eat all you can at Golden Corral
Buffet dinners are quite popular all across the American Midwest. What is awesome about buffet places is that you pay a fixed price, regardless on how much you eat. And one of my favourite restaurants with buffet meals is called Golden Corral and it is pretty popular all across the United states of America. One of my friends here told me a while ago that Golden Corral is terrible, full of germs and it has bad food, so I did not really have a big wish to try it out. But on my recent road trip, I was starving after four hours of driving, and when I saw a sign for Golden Corral, I decided I will give it a try. And guess what, I was not disappointed at all! Actually, the only thing I regret is not going there sooner.
How much does it cost?
The menu has a fixed price, but it depends whether you are eating breakfast, lunch or dinner. Breakfast and lunch buffets cost around nine dollars, while you will pay either twelve or fourteen dollars for buffet dinner. The price for dinner depends on the day of the week, but it is always a bargain, considering that you can eat as much food as you want (or can eat). And the menu for children is cheaper.
Process
The first thing that came to my mind once I entered the Golden Corral was: 'Oh my God, that looks just like in the movies!'. Sometimes, I still find it hard to believe that I actually am living in the United states of America and it is extremely mind blowing to see all these typical American things we are used to see in movies with your own eyes.
When you enter Golden Corral, you have to pay for your meal. Yes, you pay in advance, and remember, you can eat as much food as you want. The only catch is that you are not allowed to bring any food from Golden Corral home.
Next to the register, where you pay for food, they also have some games for kids.
The only thing you have to decide in advance is what you will drink. After paying, the cashier will give you a receipt and the ticket for drinks. Do not throw that ticket away - it tells your server which drinks you ordered. So, upon selecting a table you want to sit at, you can either wait for the server to bring you drinks, or you can go and try to choose the food. I am saying ‘try to’ because the selection of foods that Golden Corral offers is enormous, and it is hard to decide what you want.
Again, remember that you can go get more food as many times as you want. I did a big mistake during my first time at Golden Corral - I put a ton of food that I first saw and looked good on the plate, and after eating it, I was too full to try other foods. So my advice is to take a little bit of foods that look good to you, so you will basically be sampling food. And later, you can get more of the foods that you especially liked.
After you are done eating, you can just leave the plates on the table, and since you already paid for your meal in advance, you are free to leave.
Choosing the food
The buffet bar is divided into several parts. The first part is situated at the very end of the restaurant, and this is where you will find appetizers. Then, there will be main courses, and this is where the most food is situated. Behind you, there will be an island with fruits and vegetables. And at the other end of the restaurant, there is a big table with desserts. I will talk more about desserts in the next paragraph, just because they deserve a special mention.
This is just a small section of the appetizers.
What I would advise you is to choose two appetizers and five main course foods. In small amounts, of course. Then, you can go eat that, refill the plate with different foods, and then go pick out desserts.
Desserts
Two words: unlimited desserts! Oh, and chocolate fountain! And basically everything else at the dessert table. But let me start at the beginning. Next to the chocolate fountain, there are various foods that you can dip in chocolate, including marshmallows and strawberries.
Next to it, you will find some delicious homemade fudge and a lot of cupcakes and regular cakes. Then, there is a soft serve ice cream machine with all the toppings and hot fudge and caramel sauce. And I am getting hungry just by describing all this.
If you feel like overdosing on chocolate sounds like a great thing to do, you can do what I did - cover the fudge with chocolate under the chocolate fountain, and then put some hot fudge and caramel on top. Worth it!
The soft serve ice cream has two different flavours - chocolate and vanilla. You can combine both of them, of course. My advice: put some hot fudge on the bottom of the bowl, put the soft serve ice cream on top and add one or five of many toppings they offer. Try jelly beans and gummy bears. Also, the fudge under the ice cream will harden and it will become sort of chewy. Yummy!
And do yourself a favour and try their carrot cake. It does not sound good and I was a little hesitant to try it, especially because I never had a carrot cake before, but it is delicious. And I was telling myself that it is healthy since it contains carrots!
So much chocolate!
A short conclusion
This restaurant is simply awesome. And needless to say, I spent two hours at the gym the next day just because I felt bad about eating so much food at Golden Corral. But hey, everybody deserves a cheat day once in a while, right? And basically, the only downside of eating at Golden Corral I can think of right now is too many foods to choose from. Well, that’s not even a bad thing, is it? And you have to carry your own plates, so make sure you do not overfill them with food, because there is a lot of kids, running around.
