Golden Corral Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in Nampa

This is my first time at this Golden Corral location. I think the 4.2 overall rating is fair (I would say up to 4.4-4.5 would also be justified, based on our visit), even if it doesn’t paint an entirely comprehensive picture.

Golden Corral occupies an interesting space in the dining world these days. Adjacent to Chuck-A-Rama, which has a far smaller regional footprint, this chain is a national survivor in the ‘scoop-and-shovel’ wars (no less the pandemic) which laid waste to the likes of Furr’s, Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation, HomeTown/Old Country, and now-diminished though still standing brands like Sizzler. As such, it competes with places like C-A-R and your local Chinese buffet for clientele that definitely skew older and/or more budget conscious. These are the same people who might forgo a sit-down, fast casual, restaurant that has raised its prices and shrunk its portions in recent years.

First, the obvious. This location, like most others, deals in volume. That is a strength and a weakness. You can’t expect prepared-to-order quality on this sort of scale. What you can usually expect is consistency. This place provided that. The salad bar—an afterthought for most customers here—was well-stocked and generally fresh, offering the usual array of toppings and dressings. The range of hot dishes—lurching from BBQ to Mexican, from seafood to stuffing—provides that dizzying sort of range which is a treat for some and turn-off for others. Then again, if you are here and this isn’t your first time, you know all this and you should know what to expect. And this is a buffet. So, if one of your normal go-to items is lacking, you simply don’t eat it and move on. Case in point? This visit, the Bourbon St. Chicken was stringy and tough. The (chemically?) tenderized steaks? Surprisingly well-prepared and medium rare. And the price-per-person, at a time when prices have gone up across the board (see above), was a value for what we got.

Second, a perhaps not so obvious observation. One of the things that I have noticed at most Golden Corrals I have visited is that they have really great customer service. This location was no exception. From the person who took our money, to our gregarious and smiling server, to the other server who broke a larger bill so I could provide a tip, you could sense a generally appreciative approach to customer service that didn’t seem feigned/affected. Me? I am not sure I could pull that off on a daily basis. And, to be fair, I am sure there are slip-ups and bad days. But this visit? A really nice bunch of people doing a job that not a lot of us would want to do. They deserve praise. More than that? They deserve a generous tip for the service they provide. A buffet is a series of interlocking pieces that requires a lot of people to do their job just well enough. This group, on this night, were doing more than that.

Listen, I get it. Golden Corral isn’t for everyone. Heck, it isn’t always for me either! And, thankfully, most of the negative reviews for this place look like they are about the reviewer and not the restaurant (meaning: you read them and you get the sense that this person, if they just paused and thought through their, well, thoughts, might actually regret that this is how they want the world to see them).

Thanks for a great experience. Thanks to everyone who helped us. When we are in town again, we will most certainly visit this...

I recently had to have a colonoscopy, not fun, but don't worry, nothing serious, just some pesky internal hemorrhoids think John Leguizamo from the 90's movie The Pest Did you know you're not supposed to sit on the toilet longer than 7 minutes?... I didn't. Maybe we can sue cell phone producers? They should warn you, it's addictive and may cause hemorrhoids. Needless to say, there is certainly less time on the toilet for this guy. Anyhow, back to the review. So as I mentioned I had to have a colonoscopy and I don't know if you know this but before you can do that you have to take a bunch of laxatives pill and powder form and you can't eat anything for nearly two days! Needless to say, I was starvingggg, and this was the first place I wanted to go after the anthesia wore off. You can get everything! There are only two in our state. We drove 40 minutes to get to ours, paid roughly 30 bucks, and I was in heaven. Except for how busy it was on a Thursday afternoon and for how large all the other humans were... no disrespect, actual factual. It just made it hard to navigate, think plane aisles in an all you can eat restaurant. I was tempted to feed people with airplane sounds as I walked by... Regardless, the food was fantastic, and I ate a bite of almost everything in the place. There wasn't anything I didn't enjoy all the way down to their new dessert where you add ice cream to different Icee flavors, and yes, that's soft serve. Are you hard or wet yet? Cue Missy Elliot song... I'll wait... okay, you're back! So what I'm saying is if you have to have a colonoscopy, this is the place for you once you're all done, of course. They did get rid of the chocolate fountain, which is sad but has probably saved countless lives... Thank You...

The health department needs to check this place out. It's food doesn't meet proper tempting to be served. We had problems with cold fried shrimp that was pulled (I even gave them the out of doubt by going back what looked like fresh shrimp, but it was hardly warm. The chicken was rarely warm, and they were pulling that too after I complained, and it didn't register right with his meat thermometer (telling the people behind the food that it was too cold also. Plus, everyone in our party that got pizza said their pizza was cold. The only thing that was cold that was suppose to be cold was the salad. The manager, server and cashier all started getting hostile because of my complaint. The cashier was buting in saying the food was not under cooked. How come the managers pulling it then?? Then the server started burying in telling the manager not to refund my husbands meal with the hardly warm chicken they just pulled from the line so no one else got the improper temperature chicken. I told the manage I'm not taking come back cards this time because we've had this same problem from this same location before. They gave us a hard time using their complementary cards when we return. I was told not come back after they got hostile because they were serving food that could make you sick, especially the Luke warm chicken that didn't pass the heat test. Stay clear of Nampa, Idaho Golden Coral. They get hostile towards you if you complain in front of other customers because they don't want you to know your eating improper...