Today, while lounging around on my day off from school, I unusually wasn't craving any Tex-Mexican (or should I say "Texican".. hmm), Italian, Middle Eastern, or Indian food for lunch. I was actually craving something kind of... American. Moreso, I was craving all you can eat American. Scanning over places in the Bloomington area to eat at, a huge lightbulb went off when I reached the idea to try out Golden Corral for the first time.
I had my reservations though. A friend of mine told me that his mother always feels "dirty" after eating there. Actually enough, this made curious to see just how "dirty" I would feel after eating there. For anyone who doesn't know the meaning of "dirty" in this context, just think of how you feel after you overeat at an Old Country Buffet. The feeling you have afterwards is a prime example of "dirty."
Arriving inside, I had to observe the scene at first before making my first move. The setup is a little different from a normal restaurant; you grab a tray/utensils, someone gets you a drink and then you pay $10.38, if you get that drink they offer you. The grumpy lady at the counter then gives you your plate and then you find a seat. I was a little concerned after the last step as that one plate kind of implied that this wasn't an all you can eat buffet, but a sign reassured me that this was a typical stuff-your-face establishment. Sweet.
The place is styled like a Bob Evans or a Culver's. Warm, greeny tones and carpeted floors. The decor kind of gives off a "down on the farm"/"Americana" feeling. The place itself, however, is configured like a college dorm cafeteria. Open ceelings and several stations to get different types of food.
This week at this location, it was meat lover's week (or something to that extent). So there was a plethora of meat items out. Overall, while scoping out the food, I noticed the quality looked very hit or miss. I did not want to try the "miss" foods, so I stuck with food that looked visually appealing. Among the things I remember getting during this trip were: rice pilaf, corn, "Awesome pot roast", burbon street chicken, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, a mini-burger, barbecued pulled pork, shrimp poppers and stuffing. It all sounds like a lot but each of those were in sample-sized portions. I wanted to get a good idea about everything.
Upon returning to my seat, I noticed that a waitress already noticed my existence and gave me two extra plates and, as if my food wasn't enough, bread with honey butter. The bread actually looked appetizing and didn't fail to disappoint me at all. It was warm, soft and tasted phenominal with the honey butter provided. It was probably the only thing that was truly remarkable about this place.
The food was, like the appearance of the foods on the buffet: hit or miss. Overall though, it was decent. The rice, mashed potatoes and corn were all decent, you can't really screw that up. The "Awesome Pot Roast" wasn't awesome at all, in fact parts of it was leathery. The burbon street chicken was straight from a mall food court and the stuffing was straight from a Stove Top box. The mini burger was great, all two bites of it. The pulled pork was great, along the shrimp poppers. Those were the only two items from the mainline that I ended up getting on the next trip.
The next trip, as I said, I ended up only getting some more shrimp and pulled pork. The elaborate dessert bar was calling me, so I opted out on getting more food. Quite frankly, that was a good option as most of the other items didn't look pleasing. Specifically, the pizza looked absolutely stale and disgusting.
The dessert bar was huge and stocked with many different cakes, cookies and ice cream. I ended up getting a slice of chocolate cake, a slice of a cookie cake and a little brownie. Amongst the dessert items, the slice of chocolate cake was the only dessert out of the three items that I finished. The brownie was bland, sugary and uninspired. The cookie cake had a weird peanut butter taste that wasn't jiving with me.
Actually, aside from the bread, a lot of things weren't jiving with me there. For one, I was definitely the youngest person in there and I am 22 years old. Granted, it was a Friday during lunch hour. Specifically, there were a lot of senior citizens and upon leaving, I found out why: they get 3 bucks off their meals. Socialism at its finest.
My "waitress" was good with refilling my drinks, so I left her two dollars as a tip. There's a sign as you saying that it's customary to tip for good service and I was in a relatively good mood and felt like bumping my meal up to restaurant quality, even if it wasn't nearly as good.
So, now the true test comes. I did feel dirty afterwards but not nearly as dirty as I usually feel while leaving an Old Country Buffet or any Chinese buffet. It was roughly around a "Steak and Shake" level, maybe actually a little lower as the food wasn't as greasy. That and I ate somewhat (and I stress somewhat) moderately: never fully cleaning my plate each time.
Golden Corral is definitely one of those "once in a while" restaurants. That's really all I have to say about them
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Update: As of today, three restaurants I have review have closed. El Morocco, Garam Masala and now, Billy's Chicago Place. In all honesty, I wasn't too surprised about Billy's, considering our economy right now. In all honesty, this just isn't a great time to be running a small business and with the catastrophe that is our lending market right now, everyone is taking numerous blows.. except for those CEOs of course. Billy's also didn't advertise aggressively enough and their demographics seemed to be limited to those from the Chicago area.
Nevertheless, this is a just example proving that we're reaching tough times. Tough times. But I'm sure we'll eventually get through them all.
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