Golden Corral Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in Westland

Golden Corral Buffet is a little better than you would expect.

I've passed this place 10,000 times in my life, and never once thought about going inside. The idea of typical buffet food (rows and rows of lukewarm 'hospital food') does not entice me at all.

But an ex stopped by from out of town, and commented that she didn't have a Golden Corral anymore (and was shocked that I had never been to one).

It looks dated, like those old Ponderosas your grandma would take you to when you were a kid. But everything looked reasonably clean. The dining room is very crowded; people will definitely be bumping into the back of your chair as they get up and down to get more food. We even moved to a more secluded table when one cleared out.

Oddly, the only thing you don't serve yourself here are the drinks. Which seems odd, because that has to be the cheapest commodity of the entire buffet.

A woman comes around and clears your dirty plates from the table and brings your drinks. The woman we had was excellent. You have to tip her $5 at the end of your meal.

Fried fish - Really good. Cornmeal breading, perfect flake, crunchy outside. Surprised me.

Baked Fish - bland, overcooked. Go for the fried version for sure.

BBQ Ribs - they come pre-sauced. A little chewy, could use another hour of low&slow cooking to make them more tender. If you like Applebee's style ribs, you'll probably Love these. Not too bad.

BBQ Ham - sliced in front of you, and they'll slice it thick if you want it.

Cornbread - The stuff is totally excellent. The right amount of sweetness, the right amount of moisture. Better than probably 50% of Detroit's barbecue joints.

Pulled pork - lightly seasoned, soaking in a lot of juices. Not too bad at all.

Mac n Cheese - this is the stuff buffet nightmares are made of. No cheese flavor, no crust on top, overcooked pasta . I always wonder, if restaurants don't want to bake a real mac and cheese, why not just serve the Kraft mac n' cheese? Everybody loves the Kraft stuff, because it tastes good.

Fried Okra - crunchy, no slime, perfect. Don't Skip this, you at least should have good okra once in your life.

Popcorn Shrimp - excellent. I could probably eat a plate of just these critters.

Meatloaf - pretty good.

Mashed Potatoes - good, did not taste like instant.

Fried Chicken - better than KFC. I can't imagine anyone not liking this.

Cinnamon Roll - served hot with frosting, It looked pretty good. Sadly it was hard as a rock, and had probably been out since morning. Completely inedible.

Cherry pie - not too bad. If you like those pies at the Kroger bakery, you're going to like this.

Figure $22 for dinner and drink, and then you have to tip your busboy.

So it's a little hit and miss overall, but I've got to admit it was better than I thought...

We don't have one in my city, so after driving 2 hours I was ready to eat dinner. We waited at the door for 30-40 minutes to pay and be seated. That wasn't the issue, once going into the dining area I noticed how dirty it was. The floors and the buffet area from people dropping food when getting it on their plates and nobody cleaning it up. There weren't enough place settings for people. There weren't forks, spoons, bowls and plates as needed. One area of food that was labeled comfort foods which had the stuff for tacos was empty and what was available was old, alot of the bins were empty, and what was available there was a long wait. The dessert table was a mess, the cakes and pies had been mushed around, and was only a few things available. Some staff was helpful, others seemed as if it was a bother to be asked. They're definitely lacking employees, they're lacking a team effort between the employees, the womens bathroom was NASTY. They definitely don't have the staff to keep up with the crowd and people were just making the mess worse and didn't seem to care. 8/10 don't recommend. The food I could get was hot and fresh and that wasn't much. Extremely disappointed. I don't think there was even a manager on duty to run things. I felt so bad for the staff that was trying. There wasn't any bourbon street chicken, salad bar was empty, no spaghetti, no stuff to make tacos, Basically chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and if you were lucky to get one dinner rolls. Had to wait on steak, they did have ham out, the Mac and cheese wasn't bad. Our server tried his best to do a good job but the poor guy was swamped with tasks and I could see he was stressed. Find a different buffet or don't go on a Sunday. Idk if everyday if the week is like this but I won't be returning to find out. After reading other reviews, I came back to edit mine. Most of the one-2 stars are accurate to what we experienced. I have no clue how they're getting 5 star reviews. So disappointing 😞 I can't stress how dirty the place was, I wish I'd of taken pictures but the other reviews that have them showing the filth...

Haven’t visited in over 5 years, the walls were dirty, they need a fresh paint 🎨 job, they need new carpet or tear out and replace with wood 🪵 floors, I did not go to the restroom 🚻, they need to take down those old sliding wood 🪵 panel dividers and add some booth style seating, keeping some of the tables for wheelchair ♿️ accessibility🦽🦼 and update the fake wood 🪵 or stone patterns with actual textured stamp stone that they can buy at Home Depot to update the look 👀 of the service bar at the bottom when you walk up to serve yourself…and they need a new rack to stack clean plates in…the server left without saying their shift was over…someone else walked over and introduced themself…at the front door add kid friendly machines at both entrance with a game to retrieve a stuff animal 🧸 or a giant gum ball 🍬 machine and I just 🤦🏾‍♀️ realized what was missing at the front cashier station…you would pay by cash 💵 or debit card 💳 the drink 🥤 station was at the cash register…now you no longer carry your drink 🥤 to the table the server brings you your drink 🥤 to the table once you sit down…wow…they probably changed this after Covid 🤷🏽‍♀️ the other thing I didn’t see was the chocolate 🍫 fondue 🫕 fountain ⛲️ but I did see they added a slushy drink 🥤 machine and they were adding vanilla soft serve ice cream🍦in the middle…I did not eat dessert…the Westland location is a for sure no 🙅🏾‍♀️ regarding a return visit…until they do some updates…6 years ago was my last visit to the Hall Road location it was clean and decent but once again this was before Covid…🤷🏽‍♀️…when they refill the napkin holders on the table they need to also wipe 🧽 them down…the one on our table was covered with I’m not sure 🤔 different dried condiments or food 🍲 splatters…as the servers clean 🧼 the tables…they should also wipe the steak sauce and hot sauce bottles down…along with the black plastic container dispenser holding the napkins…do not sit in the two rooms on the left hand 🫲🏽 side of the building by the ice cream 🍦 machine and desserts 🥧🍮🧁🥮🍰🍧 where the fountain drink 🥤 refill machines are that the...