Critic's Review
I needed to make a run to Chinatown, and I had a coupon for $7.99 for lunch at Golden Corral in Tamarac. Talk about a perfect storm.
The coupon was only good until 2pm, so I did something different this time; I got here early. I usually like to hit buffets a bit early; I got here just after noon hoping that the food would be fresher than it is later.
No line today.
You get your beverage and a packet with your utensils before you pay; just 1 fork and 1 knife per person. Luckily there are napkins on the table so you can wipe them off between courses.
I grabbed a seat in front of the salad bar. Country music was playing, which didn't seem to fit the crowd.
There was a moderate crowd by 12:30; no lines for anything today, and all of the food bins were stocked.
The booths are all beat up; all of them had ripped seats. This is not fine dining.
Never a problem getting lemons at a buffet.
I was able to make myself a pretty good salad, aside from the stupid grape tomatoes. A good blue cheese dressing; no red onion and they don't peel the cucumbers, but I muddled through. DO NOT eat the deviled eggs. It didn't feel or smell right, so I discarded it.
I walked the buffet to get a look at the choices. They roll breakfast right into lunch, and some of the breakfast choices remain. French Toast and pulled pork together. Welcome to the buffet.
I'm amused by the spaghetti; who would eat spaghetti with sauce at a buffet?
I'm a fan of vegetables with cheese, and I wanted to try the meatloaf.
Over cooked broccoli and under cooked cauliflower. The cheese sauce was surprisingly un-cheesy tasting. The meatloaf wasn't bad.
Back to the buffet. I was astonished at how bad so many things looked.
The pizza looked edible, so I grabbed a slice.
Grilled cheese, mac and cheese, pizza and a slice of ham. How bad could it be?
I needed mustard for the ham; no mustard on the table. A server said he'd get me some, and he did. He didn't recognize me 2 minutes after I asked for it. " Are you the one who asked for mustard?". Yeah.
I was wrong about the pizza; a thin layer of cheese on bad bread is not pizza. The grilled cheese and mac and cheese; also not very cheese. What kind of cheese are they using? Low sodium cheese?
They've been advertising a "burger bar" with nice looking, juicy burgers. I saw a guy mass cooking burgers on the flattop; you know, they fill the grill with burgers, count to 100, and them flip them over.
The burgers were pre-bunned. Nothing on the "bar" looked good to me. I thought they might be cooking burgers to order, but this is your standard buffet burger. I grabbed some chicken fingers as well.
The chicken fingers were completely dry and inedible. The burger was medium; didn't really taste like a burger. No fat; in fact it tasted a lot like the meatloaf.
I went to make another run but there wasn't much that looked appetizing to me. Time for some dessert.
They had some nice looking brownies but I'm not a brownie guy.
They have the famous chocolate fountain, with macaroons and strawberries for dipping, but that seems like something more for women.
I did feel like chocolate, and the chocolate cake looked particularly good.
They had ice cream in tubs like they have at baskin' robbins, but you couldn't scoop it yourself. And there was nobody behind the counter to get it for me. So no ice cream.
The chocolate cream pie was ruined by some really awful whipped cream; however the chocolate cake was pretty good.
Conclusion
Golden Corral is what it is; you know it's a low-end dining experience going in so there's not much room for disappointment. The normal lunch price is 9.99; I think there's enough edible stuff to make it worthwhile. But 80% of the food is junk.