Golden Corral

Well, we went out to Golden Corral for dinner tonight with family. For those of you that don't know, Golden Corral is a buffet. This one is located in Ogden, UT. I've eaten here many times, mainly 'cause of the choices and amount you can get for $10. I didn't chose to go on this particular night, but i wasn't complaining either.

On my first plate I started the night off with a nice salad. I piled tomatoes, cheese, bacon bits, crumbled eggs, cucumbers, baby shrimps, and a tiny scoop of caesar dressing on top of my lettuce. It was pretty tasty and was actually one of the highlights of my dining experience. The lettuce was crisp and toppings tasted fresh-like. On the same plate I had one piece of fried chicken(which happens to be my favorite dish. I was pretty decent, no complaints here, might of been a tad overcooked, but that would just be nit-picking. I was excited to have some of their clam chowder, but it fell flat on it's face. It was really simple-tasting. That sadly happened to be the theme for the rest of the night.

My second plate included: a small piece of steak, cooked to medium, a crab cake, 2 deep fried jumbo shrimps, and tilapia with rice and a lemon cream sauce. The steak started of great as it was very tender, especially by buffet standards, but as it entered my mouth I noticed it severely lacked any seasoning. I added salt and pepper, but even that didn't help and had to resort to A1 steak sauce. The crab cake was mediocre at best and the tilapia was disappointing as well. Like the steak before them, they lacked any hint of seasoning or spice. The lemon cream sauce over the tilapia didn't do it any favors. The jumbo shrimps were easily the best thing on my plate, maybe i just like fried food though. They weren't anything special either, but they tasted decent.

After the poor showing on plate number two i decided it was time for desert and a slab of roast beef...and a bite of bourbon street chicken. The roast beef was a little tough, a little over-cooked, but it still had a good taste to it. The bourbon street chicken was actually pretty good. It had flavor to it, something that was missing in most everything else before it.

Desert wise I grabbed a small sample of bread pudding and banana cream pie. I also had a tiny chocolate chip cookie and vanilla soft-serve yogurt w/ hot caramel on a cone. Desert was winner of the night. I wasn't very optimistic about the bread pudding and banana cream pie, but surprisingly they were good. They were not too sweet and seemed to fill me up in the small samples I had. My cookie was soft and chewy, but taste wise, Mrs. Fields has nothing to worry about. And lastly, I should not have eaten that soft-serve yogurt, but i felt it was my duty to let you know what i thought of it. Yes, I did it for you guys. It was definitely not worth it. It was plain jane vanilla, nothing exciting. Maybe I've been spoiled by Jake's Over the Top, but this wasn't even close to Jake's(Farr's) ice cream.

Overall I was slightly disappointed. I wasn't expecting great cuisine at Golden Corral, but they could have done better. Compared to other buffets I've been to they are still in my top ten, but i was happy to go home tonight.

Grades:
Salad: B
Fried CHicken: B
Clam Chowder: C-
Steak: C
Crab Cake: D
Tilapia: D
Fried Jumbo Shrimp: B
Roast Beef: C+
Bourbon Street Chicken: B
Bread Pudding: C+
Bannana Cream Pie: B-
Choc. Chip Cookie: C
Vanilla Soft-Serve: C