Golden Corral Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in Florence

I never eat at Golden Corral, and I mean never. However on July 25, 2024 @ 8pm, I thought, I'm in South Carolina, this Golden Corral should be great. . . Souther cuisine right? I was indeed wrong. This is the most dugusting Golden Corral I've ever seen in my life. I had a party of 9, I should have turned around immediately but I already had the drinks. What I gather was condensation was dripping from the ceiling onto our plates. Sweat from the glass were dripping on our plates. The food looked as if it had been there all day. The ham was dried out, it's pretty hard to mess up HAM. There was mold, black mold on the ceiling tiles and leaks dripping from the ceiling tile in multiple places. The guy that wiped the counters and ice cream machine down rung out the towel he was using onto the carpet in front of the ice cream machine. If he could do that in front of us, imagine what he's doing out of sight. Some of the workers including the manager looked unkempt. We asked the manager to come over bc we were disgusted and wanted to ask her why the place was so ran down, she claimed that the black mold over our heads only started two days ago, which was a lie. She was very nice, but I had to tell her that she was apart of the problem. I will report this further bc I felt really sick upon leaving and I realized that we don't need the elderly nor the children consuming this slop. They should be shut down until they come up to par. My nieces and nephews didn't even touch there food and they weren't attracted at all to the desserts which looked old and ran through. The best thing about the place was the soda. The owner should be ashamed. I have fond memories as a child going to South Carolina and eating at Ryans with my family and wanted to gift this new generation the same, but all they remember is the disgust. Do better sir/ma'am. If this is the business you want to be in, please do it well. The manager didn't even offer us our money back when we told her that we should...

I dined for breakfast on a Sunday morning, arriving early enough to beat the crowds that always show up.

First clue I should have gone elsewhere is the restaurant smells like old, wet carpet. The condition of the facility is poor. Carpet is worn, paint is old and the furniture tired. I did not use the restrooms and based on other reviews I’ve since read, that was probably a blessing.

Despite stacks of plates at various stations around the buffet, I had to dig through to find a clean plate that did not have a few bits of food still clinging on. The plates that were “clean” are so worn and scuffed up they still look dirty. C’mon… buy some new plates and silverware at least. The serving ware on the buffet line is also well past its prime.

As for the food, it was not good, either. At 9:00am, the French toast was already cold while the sausage links were hard and overcooked. I waited several minutes at the omelette station before anyone came over to assist. The omelet ended up looking like a hot mess on the plate, but it was tasty and at least hot and fresh. The grits were bland. The iced tea was good.

There was an initial disagreement between employees over who was supposed to serve my table. Once that was settled, the server was very friendly but rarely around to keep my drink filled despite having almost no other tables to keep them busy at that hour.

I see the crowds of cars and people here at peak times. Why they keep coming, I have no idea. How Golden Corral can be this busy/popular and can’t afford to invest in the facility? Also, no idea.

Won’t be back here and has definitely soured me on dining at Golden Corral...

We went to the restaurant today for a late lunch after a long morning of Christmas Shopping. They were very, very busy which is why they were having a hard time keeping the buffet full, which is understandble. We were there 40 minutes and no one had stopped by our table, we were out of drinks, needed the table cleared etc. I can understand with it being busy it can take a little longer, but there were 4 members of the wait staff checking on all the tables around us, except for us, but it’s fine. We aren’t picky( although the way the wait staff handled the fact that we hadn’t been waited on is an entirely different story that I won’t bother telling on here, but it was handled) My reason for the bad review is my husband ran out of drink so he had to track someone down to get a refill, he requested Coke Zero, but they were out at the back so the man began to walk to the front to refill his drink, then a lady told him “no, you don’t have to walk all the way up there if we are out back here, just put half Diet Coke and half regular Coke in the glass and it will taste the same” honey, it doesn’t matter about the taste, it taste awful, if someone is drinking coke ZERO there is a reason. My husband politely told them that he’s a diabetic & please don’t do that. I can only imagine how many times they have done this “trick” to make it taste the same. The only reason I’m giving them a few stars, is because the manager Paul was so nice and so professional about everything. We were not looking to get our meal for free, he offered and I turned it down. We only wanted to make him aware of the situation and make sure it doesn’t...