Golden Corral Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in Caguas

Updated review from December 28, 2023

Wow. This place went downhill fast. Tonight was my first time back. This was a completely different place. They were severely understaffed.

We first arrived to a line of around 40 to 50 people waiting to pay and be seated. Our first 20 minutes waiting there was only one person running the register. She was doing her best. But that's a lot of people to ring up. Only maybe 15 to 20 got through the line in our first 20 minutes. At least 10 people left as they got tired of the wait. We should have known this was a bid signal for what was to come.

Finally another person came to run the registers the two of them got the other 30 or so people checked out quickly.

Then all 30 of us were in another line waiting for a table. I left my wife in that line while I went to the bathroom to wash my hands. As I walked through the restaurant I could see at least 30 to 40% of the tables were open and clean. I really wondered why we were waiting to be seated. When I came back from the restroom we still waited another 10 to 15 minutes for a table. By the time they showed a table we had been waiting for more than 45 minutes. So we left out drink receipt on the table and headed to the buffet.

The salad bar was in good shape and most of the ingredients were well stocked. So we grabbed a salad and went back to the table. We still had no drinks. I was finished with my salad before I could flag down a waitress from another section and ask her how we could get our drinks. She was confused as we were not in her section. But she took the receipt and said she'd bring our drinks. About 15 minutes after we were originally seated our actual server appeared and said she'd get our drinks. About 5 minutes later she returned them. Then about 5 or 10 mimutes after that the one I flagged down also came with drinks. Which was a good thing because we needed refills by then.

Now it was clearly obvious to me that there were not nearly enough servers. That's when I saw our server with her coat and purse headed for the exit. And another one followed her. I was confused why servers were leaving when there was still a large line of people waiting to be seated. And now the floors were dirty all over the restaurant.

As I went back for my main course plate about 30% of the food trays were completely empty. And at least 15 were in line for a grill item. I didn't see anyone behind the counters. One hurried kitchen worker came out with a tray of mashed potatoes. I heard one of the workers say there was nobody in the kitchen. I'm sure that was an exaggeration as food was coming out, too little and too slow, but someone had to be back there. Just not enough kitchen workers.

When I went back for dessert there were no plates at all and a line of 20 or so waiting for a clean plate. And there was even less food on the buffet.

I have to give a huge commendation everyone who was on the clock. They were all working very hard.

It seems like the management that was there and ready on day one has left town and someone who is way under qualified is now in charge. They needed at least 20 more people on the clock.

I'm having to take off several stars from my first review. I paid the same amount tonight as the first visit but the experience was not the same. I really felt cheated.

Original review shortly after they opened in September 2023:

The buffet was very well maintained with fresh ingredients. Many go for the meats which are great. But a really good test is the salad bar. Nothing was wilted or old. It was all fresh and the color it's supposed to be. They have plenty of employees to make sure you don't have to wait for food to be restocked or plates to be cleaned and available. Our server was also very attentive and brought us drinks as quickly as we could drink them. Despite going at lunch on a Sunday, the restaurant is big enough to manage the large crowd effectively....

13th Feb 2025 — 6:50 PM

Alright—

How are going to start this. I was taken aback from the awful service of Golden Corral Catallinas. Minding you that buffet at 20.99 and 2.99 for the drink to be included in the meal.

I went with my mother and myself to the Golden Corral as a Act of Birthday Meal for myself. I was greeted by a wonderful cashier. We conversed for a minute and talked about the prices. So we proceeded to seat ourselves and i told my mother to dine in as i waited for server to come and attend our table.

The Server was a young lady that took more than 20 minutes to come by. I asked the manager at the end how many server were at location. I was told there was Seven Servers.

As the progression through the night. She was distant and did not checked on the table as supposed inspect as service. I will comment. No. The restaurant was not full. There was six tables in total occupied at the location. 4 times they sng happy birthday to the other guest. While my mother asked the waitress to add me to list to be sang a birthday song and of-course they didn’t added me to list. The waitress confirmed i was added me. As i said. The service was utterly dull and horrible. The cooks breach protocol of health issue.

As there was 4 cooks that had headsets on.

( health codes, wearing a headset in a workplace setting can be considered a potential safety hazard, particularly if it significantly reduces your awareness of surrounding sounds, which could lead to accidents, especially in environments with moving machinery or where immediate responses to auditory cues are crucial; therefore, wearing a headset might be restricted or require specific safety guidelines depending on the workplace and job role )

This caused their attention not being payed at their surrounding and cleanliness of the food quality and utensils.

At the taco side there was utensils that had marshmallows or utterly sticky residue that caused myself and my mother to clean our hands multiple times. I tried to catch attention of the cooks. They didn’t care or apologized for the mistake. Instead just grabbed it and left. I asked another cook. Why is their pico de gallo frozen? It should be thaw out or their refrigeration temp might be in certain temp- that it should’t be. Food items being frozen at the food bar is not allowed to be at the quality that Customer is paying for.

I warned Waitress.

She only nodded and didn’t do anything of the sorts. I was ashamed my own birthday was such a downfall. As we were nearing the end our dinner as we didn’t feel like dinning anymore for how horrible the service was.

I talked to a manager about the service.

Being a critic and communicator for these services is something needed to be taken seriously.

Representing the brand and company means you must uphold the standards of the food, image, cleanliness and service to the customer and their experience. Golden Corral at Winter Haven, Lakeland and Orlando has always thrive to bring the best service at possible and always check the quality and uphold it high.

For a customer to pay 50 dollars for their food entry is not a joke and steep entry. Bring yourself to think and uphold your standards.

I will say this was worst service at that day and time. I would not recommend this to anyone.

To manager of the venue. I hope you followed my advice. As i warned you all i was going to critique my experience and service.

Cashier was lovely.

The rest of the service was dreadful as a funeral.

1/10

Have a nice day to anyone...

Very loud, so if you're with a friend or family forget about casual conversation. I was alone and thankfully I had my nose canceling earbuds and Bluetooth on my phone. LOL 😆 Food was good due to the fact it was different from the regular dishes found in PR restaurants. I needed a break the same old chicken and pork. I did like the beef stew and the fact that they have a salad bar. Regardless it is still a Golden Corral, with CG quality. The selection was about half or less of what you'll find stateside, lines for carved / grilled items were long. I didn't want to wait as most of the hot food items in that section were usually empty. They would run out of plates at times causing lines before even getting food. Spoons were always empty at the soup station. Getting refills on drinks was tough. You had to stop a random server and ask for a refill and sometimes it would never arrive. So ask several if you want a refill. Regardless, I'll still go back...