Golden Corral Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in Brandon

I hadn't been at a Golden Corral buffet restaurant in over ten years because I felt their food quality had gone down for the price in 2012. But I was hungry yesterday ( a Tuesday) and had missed all the 3:30 end times for my favorite sushi/ Asian buffet restaurants in the Brandon Mall area east of Tampa.

I decided to try Golden Corral again in Brandon and surprisingly found them to be a really great, reasonably priced American, Asian style and Latin foods buffet! Their price for seniors over 60 is only $11.95 for their all you can eat option and after 4pm that includes giant fried and breaded butterfly shrimp and sirloin steak. All of their food at the Brandon locale is freshly prepared all day and the waitress service is exceptional, very attentive and friendly. The salad bar, hot foods and dessert areas were all well attended and noticeably refreshed all day on a regular basis. This Golden Corral is very well managed with apparent areas in the restaurant dedicated to local service organizations like Rotary International and a local branch of Retired US Airmen and Soldiers groups in Brandon. I was delighted with my time at this locale.

UPDATE, August 6, 2025: The Brandon, Florida Golden Corral still prepares a terrific blend of different food offerings for dinner including shrimp and sirloin steak, all the fixings for tacos, all types of salad ingredients including iceberg and spring mix greens, pickled beets, sarimi crab salad, black and green pimento olives, herbed Italian style tomato, onion and cucumber salad, etc., and all the fried chicken ,wings and sauces, meatloaf, fried breaded white fish ( catfish or ??) and an awesome array of desserts that anyone could want.

However, in two years, the price for 60 plus seniors has jumped from $11.95 plus a drink to $17.49 plus $3.49 for beverages! So what used to be a great deal under $20 is now at least $20 or higher per senior. To me this is very dissapointing as Golden Corral was my reasonably priced go to American buffet and now it's priced like standard sit down wait service diners and casual restaurants whose food is often a caliber higher than the Golden Corral buffet. Not to say their food has gone down, but the value it was just two years...

So...lets add some to this review. I had been asked to write a feedback on the GC site, so this is what I sent them on 6/1/22 - I am moving this to 5 stars because they do a very good job at this GC.

Left the google review below and was asked to post some feedback here. Here is some added feedback. GC is a go to restaurant for me. I hit it at least once a month, normally lunch or dinner. Your food is VERY consistent in flavor and quality. I do the comfort food section, roast beef, mash and gravy, fried chicken and fish...but first I start off with the salad bar. Plenty of fresh veggies, and I love the crab salad (yes, I know its imitation, but I don't care). I have had the baked fish, meatloaf and occasionally the steak. Steaks can be hit or miss, so I normally don't get them since I come for other food. Hard to beat a Longhorn Outlaw...but I will say this...there was a day you absolutely hit it out of the park. My wife and I stopped in and it was prime rib night. Not very often do you get as good as we got that night. It was arguably some of the best I had ever had. Not what I expect, its very hard to do, but we were pleased.

We have been coming here since the previous owners (we knew them) and so have seen a change in staff over the years. But although the faces change, the quality of the food and the service brings us back. There are probably 20 restaurant options in a mile or so of here, but we keep coming back because you do such a good job. Kudos.

Here is the review on Google... Golden Corral has comfort food which can be surprisingly good. The family likes it because they have such a variety that everyone can eat something different. They have a very good selection of all over your staple foods eaten mom used to make, as well as a rather large dessert bar.

Updated...

Honestly I asked the lady at the register if they had lemonade and she said yes so I order everyone in my party of 8 (took my family out since they are here from Ohio and are heading home in a few days) drinks , they had no Coke so a few people had to choose something else. She reads my order back to me and says two sprites I said no one sprite one lemonade and she says oh we don't have lemonade . Nice to know after you said yes is what I was thinking but of course I just choose something else. The young man that was our waiter was very quick to clear our tables and fill our drinks . The food was good as usual except when we got there alot of pans were very near empty and the only steak was very well done . My husband and I ordered medium rare together and he said it's gonna be a few minutes since he had just put the steaks on . I sent my husband back up to get our steaks and he was told he couldn't get mine even though we ordered together (seriously?) So I went back up after I found that out and the only (rare) steak was black on one side so that's what he offered me and since he had a grill full of well done steaks I took the burnt one that I already had to wait for since there was very little steak when we got there and like I said it was all well done. Needless to say it was the worse steak I have ever gotten at Golden Corral . It was not only burned on one side but was as tough as leather . I don't eat a lot I only get steak and a few sides so of course my meal wasn't worth the $14 that I paid . By the way my husband's steak was delicious (so I hear) so I could have had a meal worth the $14 if my husband would have been able to get my little piece of steak when he asked for it . My two stars are...