Golden Corral Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in O’Fallon

After our initial three visits that each ended by meeting and having lengthy discussions with managers, we took a break from the bountiful buffet of glorious gluttony. Although the call of "all-you-can-eat" steak, pizza, Chinese, Mexican, BBQ, baked potatoes piled high, and cheese covered french fries, I mean broccoli (you have to think of your nutrition!) may be strong, we were so put off by the staff and their attitudes that it was at least 9 months before we returned.

The most recent visit was on a Friday evening around Labor Day, to meet family from out of town. They hadn't experienced the newest Golden Corral in the area, but had already ruled out ever going back to the location in St. Charles because of many of the same reasons we have experienced at both locations. It wasn't looking good...

I arrived at 9 pm after work. There was an hour left of the "hours of operation" and that was plenty of time for me. The rest of the family was there for at least an hour before I arrived, and were already on dessert. This was a Friday night and the charge was about $20 per person with a drink. The manager running the front said "they are trying to fancy us up, so there's lots of (she listed a lot of food I'd not eat, like seafood, etc.) When I told her I would not eat any of their add on's, she said they didn't care, it was their new way of "making it better." Ridiculous.

Since my family was there, I paid and went in. I ate more than my fill and was happy with the quality of the food (better than the St. Charles location), and got some dessert too. I have never been to a Golden Corral where the ice cream machine actually worked. Every store has the same brand and model machine and has the same problem. I've even contacted management about it, but got nowhere. (Sorry folks, I've tried for all of us!)

The employees were better this visit. My drink refills were pretty quickly brought when I asked for them, and our plates were cleared so the table wasn't cluttered with old food and empty cups. It wasn't personal service, but it was adequate. We will probably try again, mostly because of the desserts and cheesy fries, but you can bet it will be a midweek lunch!

Pros: Good food variety Fresh food monitored by the staff Management that wants to provide a good customer experience

Cons: Extremely HIGH prices! Impersonal wait and kitchen staff Really terrible ice cream machines Extremely HIGH prices .

SUGGESTIONS: I'd love to see some better training available to the staff, including team building and customer service instruction.

Of course, we'd all like to see a more affordable menu so families, working stiffs like me, and retired people wouldn't have to save for months just to go to a buffet. I'm pretty sure the profit margin is actually pretty high for the corporate offices and the CEO are probably paid pretty well too. It would be nice to be able to have an option to go more frequently!

More vegan/vegetarian options (my girlfriend wanted me to put that!), like not putting bacon in green...

My son, daughter-in-law, and I went to Golden Corral on a whim. We used to go frequently to one that was close to our house, but it closed down after the Covid pandemic. We had not been in a while, and all of a sudden we all had a craving to go. It happened to be a cold, rainy evening. As it turns out, that was actually a good time to go, because the restaurant was not too busy. We were able to proceed through the line and the checkout very quickly. We found a good table, and we started to proceed to the buffet tables. All of the selections were fully stocked. All of the food that I saw was very fresh. The hot foods were hot and the cold foods were cold. It did not appear that anything had been sitting out for long. Our dining experience satisfied our craving for Golden Corral. All of the usual proteins were in abundance, like fried chicken, meatloaf, shrimp, fish, pot roast, and pork. The sides are always delicious. I think I tried almost a little bit of everything and nothing disappointed. (I exaggerated about trying a little bit of everything - there are too many selections to try them all!) I did make a small salad and it had every kind of food that I would want, plus a large selection of dressings. I did not make a taco, but all of the ingredients were available if I wanted one. The bread was soft and hot and buttery. The dessert bar satisfied our sweet tooth. Our waiter was very good at clearing our empty plates, and refilling our drinks. I noticed that the employees were not just standing around. In addition to refilling food, I also saw numerous employees mopping floors or wiping down counters. Cleanliness seems to be very important in this restaurant. We all agreed that we were happy that we went to Golden Corral, and are already looking forward...

We stopped in Saturday evening for a meal. We chose a table in the back corner. As we approached we realized it had not been wiped off so we turned to find a different table, and the waitress (Her name was Virgina) was walking over with a rag to wipe it for us, so we waited and sat down. I thanked her and she walked away. A few minutes later I asked her where we fill our coffee cups and she very rudely asked to see our receipt to prove we had paid for coffee. We showed her our receipt and she proceeded to huff off after the coffee. When she came back and was pouring our coffee she said "You know, nothing annoys a server more than people who stand by a dirty table waiting to be seated. I wanted to vacuum under that table" then stormed off. I was flabbergasted. We absolutely did not mean to be rude, and were going to go to a different table once we saw that one had not been wiped, but she was already headed that way to do it. I have been a server myself for around 20 years and I would never speak to a customer the way she did. The rest of the meal she was pleasant enough but to be honest that ruined the entire experience for us. I felt uncomfortable the rest of the meal. Not to mention there was a man in the woman's bathroom, it was filthy and poop all over the toilet. I probably won't be returning to...