Golden Corral Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in Waynesboro

This was the first time and will be the last time we will ever eat at a Golden Corral.

I hate to leave a bad review but I can't understand where all of these positive reviews are coming from. My review is for the Golden Corral in Waynesboro, Virginia. My wife and I went in with reasonably moderate expectations and the food did not meet even those standards. We all know what to expect from buffets. I like them to sample a small taste of a variety of dishes. Some are always better than others.

Golden Corral is currently (August 2025) running a TV campaign right now talking about chicken wings. At the booth where we sat, the napkin dispenser had an ad for the wings. This is one of the main reasons that we tried it. I like chicken wings. It would seem reasonable that if corporate headquarters is going to run a national TV campaign, that the wings must be at least "decent".

After a quick survey of the buffet, I put two buffalo wings on my plate along with a few other items to sample. I bit into the first wing, which was disgusting, to find that it was barely cooked. The meat was pink, not cooked and there was red at the bone. The skin was slimy and gross. Safe cooking temperature for poultry is 165ºF. Then it should be held at a minimum temperature of 135ºF. The chicken wings need to be baked or fried until the skin is slightly crisp and the interior is still juicy AND the meat reaches 165ºF. The food safety manager here really needs to stick a meat thermometer in those wings before they go out of the kitchen. This is a serious food safety issue.

I tried the steak. It looked decent and the grill cook did a good job on medium rare temp. Unfortunately, the steak was terribly tough and flavorless. Keep in mind that I was not expecting much but there's got to be some way to make it less tough.

The rest of the food was cafeteria quality which was basically what we expected but held out hope due to the other reviews. The rolls that everyone talks about were undercooked and the texture was gummy.

The salad bar was very good with a nice selection of options. My wife tried the clam chowder and said that it was better than she expected it to be.

The dessert bar was loaded with options including soft serve ice cream, toppings and hot caramel or fudge. All kinds of fruity options, cakes, cookies, etc...

The staff were all cordial, working diligently and getting along with one another. The restaurant was clean.

The food is disappointing but there's plenty of it...all...

I enjoyed my dinner as the selection of steak was extremely done to my liking n your chef was polite and caring. It was just hard since my steakknife was so dull it took me a long time eat. I finally ask the waitress/Marie for a better steakknife and her response was No that's all we have??? I asked her again in a deeper tone to find me a better steakknife again and get return of 5-7 ,min. B4 she came back I continued to finish my mashed potatoes n yam..my steak did get very cold but because I was hungry I still continued eating. I have been coming to golden corral for years that I have watched employees become ast. managers etc. I have alot offriends here. But again the waitress was very poorly trained. I'm sorta handicap now..I use a cane. So visualize 1 plate n my cane with the other is hand. I got up for dessert n I was looking for a spoon.. n there was a young lady/sitting- waitress off the clock eating her dinner saw me scrambling for a spoon n I asked her where the spoons were and she got up n got me a spoon. Now here is a young lady off n doing her generosity deed. ?? Cassidy maybe her name anyway. I enjoyed my dinner n I enjoy seeing good friends that work here/mgrs. GOLDEN CORAL KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK BUT tell Marie that it's not about "The Tip" but how you help all customers especially single woman like me..I usually tip well but today I will donate my $5 ,to the camp corral on line. Hugs to all my friends

HAPPY VALENTINE TO ALL 2-14-2019 I returned today for a nice dinner for VALENTINE..."Their Prime Rib Dinner amazing again !!! I truly enjoyed as my favorite day, their specialty dinner..if I could change my status on my stars ☆☆☆☆☆☆ my dinner was exceptional and my dessert too. All the managers look fabulous as well as "Patricia"..who's been there a long time when she was doing desserts and stepped up on the room as a manager. Yahoo!!girl..but not being bias but all the men managers you'll were great too. I truly enjoyed my waitress today Jackie who made sure my water glass was filled as needed and to me that is very important to me and many who come here. LOVE ALL....

My husband and I stopped by on Tuesday for dinner, paid, got our table, I moved the napkin holder and the condiments tray to the back of the table, the waiter brought our silverware, we sat down, said our prayer and went up to get our food. Absolutely NOTHING else on the table. We got our food, came back and there was an extra glass of water, a bowl of lemon and a soda glass on the table. We asked the manager, he took the soda, we were laughing about it, but didn't pay that much attention to it, we were hungry and concentrating on our food. We noticed that the waiter and a waitress kept looking at us and talking, but we didn't understand why. So, the waiter came by, we asked him what the other stuff on the table was about, and he proceeded to inform us that we had taken someone else's table. I said that we absolutely had not, no one was sitting there when we came in, I personally moved the napkin holder to sit out cups down. For the next two minutes this waiter stands there and chastises us for sitting at someone else's table, how if we came in and stuff was on the table that we needed to sit somewhere else, and on and on. I told him we positively did not sit at an occupied table, and my husband, always trying to diffuse a situation, actually turns around and apologized to the new couple sitting behind us. I will not apologize for something I have not done. So, this couple that came in and sat their items down on our table had left their ticket laying on the table, I got it and checked the times, and they had actually came in and paid 4 minutes behind us, so how did we take their table?? We took the two receipts, theirs and ours, to the manager, who was extremely nice and seemed to understand the situation. The entire thing was an easy fix, just remove the other stuff off of our table and to the proper place, a waiter talking about us and (wrongly) chastising us was not necessary, and an apology is very much necessary. I love Golden Corral but I doubt if I will ever go back to this one. Needless to say an otherwise delicious dinner was...