Golden Corral Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in Waukesha

Very disapointed........Again. this resturaunt, when first opened years ago,was very well maintained. But very soon there after,it started taking a nose dive. The customer service is poor, inpersonanable,lacks enthusiasm with a very unwelcomed greeting. The poor professionalism in cashiers,table attendants and even "managers" show this in the way their appearances and the way they dress,from the baggy close,untucked shirts,impersonallity,lack of interests in the customers as they walk by,almost as if they are zombies. The poor quality of most of the food here is maintained and prepared so poorly. The kitchen staff and attendants fail rotate the food on the buffet, the amount of time the food sits on the buffet without being rotated out is not only unappealing but very unsanitary. Instead of removing or discarding expired food from the buffet,they just fill the newly prepared food on top of the expired food. This past visit was just plain horrible. 7:45pm on 9/22/18 my wife,mother-in-law and I had arrived to enjoy a late dinner. We immediately noticed the feeling of unwelcomeness, the register attendant was lacking the warm feeling of hospitality,not only by her poor appearance,but a very impersonal "huff" as we approached the counter.We ordered our drinks, 2 waters,1 coke and three adult "buffets".....when i say buffet i am using this term loosely. After our purchase,we now entered the dining area to have a seat before getting our food. This took some time, not because of the dining room being over populated, but because the majority of the tables were being occupied by plates,and gabage on and surounding them on the disgusting floors.We eventually found a suitable spot and took our seats. My wife and i were the first to make our way to the "buffet", where my wife was anticipating only on enjoying the salad bar,where I was planning on utilising the "limitless" food options that are as advertised. Her salad bar options were about the same descriptive choices as mine were at the main buffet tables. Cold, dated,expired,limited and laking freshness. My Mother-in-law followed her way to find the same results. Upon trying to convey the issues to the kitchen staff,i found it very difficult to do so because of the language barrier, Not one person behind the glass spoke english. How can you have not one person who prepares you food and may be asked about a specific type of entre,ingredients or to advise that certain parts of a buffet area need attention, and not one understands your words. Instead the ones i did approach tried to mimic my concerns and just stood there inquizitivly. My wife approached who seemed to be a manager and relayed what i tried to explain to the kitchen staff at the buffet counters. The manager, did very little to resolve the issues,only to make excusses and did nothing to ensure the items would be investigated,rotated,replenished or appologise for the inconvienance. The lack of taste,quality ,empty trays and amount of food choices were not worth the amount we paid. Cold chicken,stake and beef at the taco bar. Dry popcorn shrimp,cold hush puppies,dry ,hard as a rock yeast rolls, fatty,full of grizzle beef roast, cold undercooked carrots,missing items from trays. All this was never restocked, re-prepared or anything. Sitting at our table durring our visit, we were never aproached by any staff. Table attendant's never asked how things were or if we needed anything like refills or how something as simple as how we are doing today. I will not be returning. The Staff, management,buffet,and restaurant as a whole need seriouse attention. Get involved at making this place more welcoming with quality personel,better respect for the food they serve,appearances of your employees as well as the hospitality,and I may consider it.Get involved and make it right

I have already submitted the form and addressed my concerns. Management denied my proposal for refund and stated he could not arrange anything more. But, will address the issue.I felt very unconvinced, and felt as if he was just giving a...

I've been to Golden corral weekly at the other location and here I was astounded at the contrast. Truly a gross experience. I remarked on this and notice that the owner reached out. However I've read the reviews and nothing has changed. Sometimes you have to replace staff and upgrade the standards. It's worrying that every complaint is highlighting very troubling concerns. I have experience with Google reviews as a former manager and you can offer a canned apology or response. There's more needed than that. The practices performed at this location can get someone killed. There's unsafe food practices that are concerning. Having a pan full of "cooked" meat is a concern due to unsafe hot holding procedures. The overly scratched plate wear can hold bacteria. And putting the plates in the office to use during peak breakfast, lunch or dinner rushes and saving the brand new plates for inspection is not a smart move. Not saying that's what's happening... Just a guess because it's another violation. The bathrooms must be fully functional. If there's a toilet issue an "out of order" sign should be present. Tables should not dirty longer that 8 minutes max because it affects the customer's image of cleanliness. The GM seems to be afraid of loosing bad help. The employees may show up everyday but if they don't respect their work space and the most important people in the building "the guest" they're perpetuating the horrible response from customers. In my restaurants a 4.7 rating would land us in hot water. You can't get complacent due to customer tends. Expectations change with the economy. Yes there's problem guest but in my experience they tend to be regulars. You can't become complacent. Have a heart-to-heart with your regulars if they're causing trouble and let them know that somebody is there for them so they don't have to take it that far. They'll change their tune, guaranteed. Employees that are too busy cleaning or prepping and not paying attention to the customer and being despondent, non entertaining, not willing to assist when assistance is necessary... That's not a good employee, that's a person that lowered the bar for the restaurant. Sometimes you have to rock the boat and get rid of the people who think they have seniority because they have been there longer but they really are the problems with complacency. Your numbers are going to be jacked up when it comes to profit versus wages and now you blew your monthly funds because of overtime of lousy employees. What would it take to hire a cleaning crew? The floors are sticky you feel it when you walk over them! Now if you can't afford the budget for a cleaner than you should use petty cash and rent a cleaner from Walmart for 30 bucks and have that salary manager spend a couple hours just going over the place. I'm sorry but Golden corral is a corporate name and I understand there might be franchises, but you owe it to the public who spends their dollars in this economy to do better. Temperature food more often, where is the line checks? Where is the quat buckets? Where is the passion for culinary perfection in a restaurant that yes may be a corporate name but pride should be held for consistency. We don't need another canned response of "thank you for your input thank you for being honest thank you for sharing your experience please tell us more!" You need to actually act before corporate decides that this location is a liability.... Over my 19 years of being a restaurant manager I've seen this happen more than once. please find your pride and the profits will increase and the reviews will be stellar. Excuse any brevity's or grammatical/spelling errors. Love, a former...

No complaints, best of the best non-asian buffet! Can’t go wrong!

Edited: Wrote this review 5 months ago. Here is the update 9/8/2025!

I have since visited this location (1673 Arcadian Ave, Waukesha, WI 53186) 15 other times, and I have to tell you—my kids and I were addicted to Golden Corral. This location is way out there in the suburbs, so a 40-minute drive was a commitment. But no matter what, we were always eager to dine here. From February to September, we frequented this location up to 15 times, sometimes visiting as often as 3 times per week.

At first, this location was fantastic! Cotton candy flowing, steaks always on the grill—well done, medium, medium rare—you name it. Never had an issue. If you don’t believe me, there’s an older, heavier Caucasian couple, the man always wears a flat cap, and they were practically dining there every time we visited. It’s like he lives there. Not sure if he’s friends with the owner, but their constant presence should tell you I’m not making any of this up.

However, things have gone downhill—fast. The quality of food and service at this location has dropped tremendously. The food is just plain nasty now! Dried-up soup, brown/orange lettuce on the salad bar, no mushrooms, and sometimes more than half the salad bar items are missing.

Everything—from the vegetables, spaghetti, pizza, bread, to the now-missing cotton candy and desserts—is a disappointment. But the worst part? The steaks. The most important thing on the menu, and apparently they don’t even bother grilling them anymore. If you ask for one, they look at you like you’re crazy. Bad vibes all around. I’ve never felt uncomfortable asking for a steak until now. The cooks act cheap and annoyed.

The last four times I visited—same behavior. No steaks grilling, none ready to be served. One time, it took 15 minutes, then another 10 minutes before I even got served a steak. The cook grilled one steak for me and my son, told me to come back in 10 minutes, and when I returned, she gave it to someone else and told me to wait another 10 minutes. That was the last straw.

The quality of food here is an embarrassment compared to the Mitchell Airport location. If you want to succeed, you better start emulating what that location is doing. I will no longer visit this location and will take my business elsewhere.

I’ve always tipped every waiter here $10–15 just for refilling drinks. Your waiters lost me. You’ve lost me. And you know your location is quickly sinking into low quality because your food and service are starting to...