In 1973, the very first Golden Corral opened its doors to hungry diners looking for a wide range of options in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Seemingly becoming an American institution and representation of the excess of American culture, buffets made their way throughout the country. Then, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, many restaurants needed to change, and those changes made it hard to imagine dining in anything like a buffet.
Even still, the Golden Corral survived (even becoming one of the few chains you can still find) -- the Old Country Buffet struggled significantly -- and buffet popularity is once again rising. For availability of options, it's no wonder; buffets are a great dining solution for all. Between breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, there's a little something for everyone, no matter the dietary restriction or preferences. In large groups, this can be a big concern, so Golden Corral is ideal. With an all-you-can-eat, endless plates situation, there's plenty of food to go around, even when you roll up in a bus.
In a place like Golden Corral when you can get your own food and have quite a bit more freedom than many establishments, it's also the perfect grounds for workers and customers to make choices that lead them to getting kicked out and even banned. Some of these stories are a little hard to prove, but there are plenty of allegations to go around.
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Social media is a fascinating place. It's not uncommon for us to see incredibly outlandish stories crop up with seeming reasonable evidence to back up the claims. However, every now and again, one of these wild narratives seems just barely believable enough to be true. In the tale of too much prime rib, we're left wondering if this is a hoax or really could have happened.
Across Facebook, TikTok, and other social media platforms, a Golden Corral customer out of Louisiana was allegedly sentenced to nearly two decades of hard time. His crime was eating an impressive 75 pounds of prime rib at a Golden Corral. According to the social media reports, the Golden Corral fan paid for breakfast then hung around long enough to eat the alleged amount.
The social media posts included photos of the apparent prime rib fan, but the photo was based on a different photo and had been edited to change it just enough to seem more probable. Even still, there's a lot working against this allegation between the lack of evidence, sheer fact that Golden Corral didn't have prime rib on the menu during the incident, and only viral social media posts to back up the claim. In the end, this allegation has been more or less debunked, making this legend worth its weight in, well, prime rib.
Does Golden Corral have a dress code? No. Did that stop a manager from asking someone to leave who was dressed in a way that made another family uncomfortable? Also no.
Back in the summer of 2019, Sueretta Emke visited a Golden Corral in Erie, Pennsylvania, with her husband, son, and friends, to celebrate her son's birthday. On this visit, Emke wore a crop top with denim shorts. According to reports, Emke says she had never worn the crop top before, and was excited to wear it because it made her feel good. She was doubtful, but her supportive husband encouraged her to wear it out and about.
Then, while in the restaurant, Emke was shamed by a manager who told her that she was dressed in a way that was too provocative and another customer had complained. When Emke pushed back, the manager admitted that though Golden Corral has no dress code, since another family complained, the manager stepped in to try and ask Emke to wear other clothing or leave the restaurant because of her outfit.
Emke believes that she was discriminated against for her size, and she ultimately received a letter from Golden Corral apologizing for the manager's treatment of her. The letter also included gift cards, and a promise to look into concerns raised by Emke.
When you think of Golden Corral, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Is it the chocolate fountain? It's gotta be the chocolate fountain. Trust us when we say that this is one buffet giant that takes its chocolate fountain operations very seriously. Mess with it, and you may be kicked out.
In an incredibly long winded YouTube video, creator Brendaniel claims he's been kicked out of the Golden Corral for a slew of reasons. The most odd of which is dipping pepperoni pizza into the chocolate fountain. Rather than using the designed dunking treats, Brendaniel chose something else. We've never tried pepperoni and chocolate, so we can't account for whether this would be enjoyable, but it's giving milkshakes and French fries, so who really knows.
So, why is this chocolated pepperoni pizza a problem? Apparently, the pepperonis can come off the pizza and lodge themselves into the contraption. This can clog up the works, making the fountain unusable for others, and certainly needing some kind of robust cleaning. While we can imagine this happening, we're not totally convinced this is actually what went down in Brendaniel's case. It feels like more of a comedy sketch, but still unadvisable and potential grounds for a ban.
With all you can eat restaurants, sometimes it's best to go in with a game plan. Chris Dubuc has developed his own method of attacking buffet tables, and if you're in for a real feast, it's not a bad move, as long as you don't get kicked out.
The first thing Dubuc does is load down a huge plate of food. It should be crowded with whatever you can gather and be somewhere in the vicinity of 5 pounds, at least. Feel that burn? It's the prime rib. Anyway, after you scarfed down all that, you'll start going out for less substantial plates. Dubuc recommends something light for your next one, possibly salad, and then for subsequent plates serve up light, but hearty foods, like soups.
On one visit to Golden Corral, Dubuc was six plates into his process and noticed employees checking on him frequently. After reaching the nine plate mark, a manager walked over and thanked him for his patronage but also said that he had been there for two hours and that the table was needed for other customers. While it is certainly understandable to need a table if people are waiting, Dubuc noted that there were plenty of other places people could sit. The restaurant was in no way in need of the table. In the end, he was likely kicked out because he was eating a whole lot of food.
Every now and again, people over stretch what they think they are capable of doing (and eating). And that includes people who visit all you can eat restaurants. In one such incident, a customer ate so much food, she lost control of her basic bodily functions.
Unfortunately, such incidents can occur as much in public as they can in private scenarios, regardless of whether people are eating or not. In a Reddit post, a Golden Corral manager shared a rather horrifying incident in which a customer ate two plates of food piled so high they reached about a foot. Each plate was heavy with some of the more robust foods that the buffet offers. While the customer worked her way through her selections, she began to lose control of herself, and making quite a mess on the way to the bathroom. To make matters all that much worse, a customer nearby was so grossed out, they also got sick in the process.
After leaving the bathroom, the customer allegedly returned to her dining location to continue eating. A manager couldn't have this and so they asked the customer to leave.
You may wonder how a Golden Corral would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (better known as ADA), but a location in Westland, Michigan, did just that. Danielle Duford was visiting the restaurant with her four daughters. Unfortunately, they were asked to leave the location by the manager. Why? Because Duford's children appeared to have an infectious disease. However, they didn't, and Golden Corral was found to be violating ADA.
Duford's Daughters have a condition called Epidermolysis bullosa. According to the Mayo Clinic, this is a relatively rare, genetic condition that has no cure. The skin actually blisters from very minor injury or even exposure to heat. To the uninformed onlooker, it may look like a potentially contagious disease, and that may have been the reason that the restaurant manager asked the family to leave. However, Duford took the time to reassure the manager that her daughters had the condition and no customers were at risk, but the manager still insisted that they leave.
In the end, Golden Corral was deemed to have violated ADA. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, "Under the settlement agreement, which must still be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy III, the defendants will pay $50,000 in damages to Duford and her children and $10,000 in civil penalties to the United States." Not to mention, Golden Corral was ordered to provide further training for employees, especially pertaining to ADA.
For whatever reason, Golden Corral seems to be a prime target for comedy sketches. TikTok user Sophksawyer is another example of this phenomenon. In the description, she claims that, "everything about this video is real including my ban from the golden corral [sic]." We're willing to buy that to some extent, but the jury is still out, if we're being honest.
In any case, the sketch shows a character named Slorp discussing a time she ate a whole lot of potatoes and was asked "to leave the Golden Corral immediately." Her alter ego, Katherine, comments that she had been at the restaurant for five hours. Did this happen? We feel it's unlikely, but not altogether impossible, and certainly alleged.
TikTok is littered with Golden Corral customers who have attempted to stay long enough to get kicked out, only for Golden Corral staff to allow them to stay for a long period of time. Like anything else, your mileage may vary, but if you're looking to stay for an extended period of time, you may be rolling the dice.
In a video shared by Paula McDowell that is a little difficult to decipher, it appears that the recorder is confronting workers at a Modesto, California, Golden Corral over kicking out a man who was experiencing homelessness. The people filming the Golden Corral employees are clearly trying to share the story with a wider audience over social media to bring attention to the actions taken. The woman in the video even has his receipt, sharing that he paid $45.69 to dine and then was kicked out.
Doing a bit of digging, Diane T's account on Yelp offers a little more context. She shares that she saw a cashier accept money from a man and his friend and then proceeded to kick him out because he was too dirty. To add insult to injury, they did not refund the money spent. Diane adds that there is video evidence of this event, likely referencing the TikTok incident captured by Paula McDowell.
Every now and then, when we get the bill, we're left a little bewildered by the amount. Call it inflation or sheer money blindness, but it happens to the best of us. Every now and then, though, this surprise is warranted when we're overcharged or a restaurant makes a mistake in the check. Typically, these situations are easily remedied, and the server or cashier has little trouble with resolving the difference. In other situations, the check leads to further escalation, and at a Golden Corral in Aurora, Colorado, this was definitely the case.
According to a Facebook review made by Jose Barron, Golden Corral attempted to charge their 12 year old as an adult rather than a child, even rudely pushing back and asking for the child's birthday. This elicited comments from Jose's wife, leading to a downward spiral that eventually resulted in a boot from the location with an escort from security. It all seems like one large misunderstanding, but it all began with a small disagreement over the appropriate check amount.
The old adage of when it rains, it pours, certainly falls in line with Yelp reviewer beastsbelle's experience at a Golden Corral in Clinton Township, Michigan. From raw chicken to missing flatware to poor management, this incident had it all.
The first complaint was that there were plenty of dirty plates covering up clean ones. Moving to the buffets, the reviewer encountered plenty of empty stations and spoons nowhere to be seen. The grossest concern, though, is a real issue: raw, pink, uncooked chicken. The reviewer brought this concern to the manager who took the chicken, bringing it back to the kitchen. In the meantime, the chicken from the buffet remained in place. After some time, the manager returned and offered a full refund, which the reviewer took. After the refund was issued, the manager told the reviewer to leave, kicking them out, allegedly saying "you got your refund you asked for. Now Leave. No food, you are finished."
According to the manager, they were told to leave after asking for a refund, but the reviewer states that this refund was offered, not demanded. The reviewer also says that they had been regulars at the location, but will most certainly never be returning. In the times we've been given a refund after an unfortunate dining experience, we've never been asked to leave. In fact, we've found that restaurants often bend over backward to make the whole situation right, not further bully us out of the restaurant.
In the age of social media, foodstagram is definitely a big part of eating out. For many, including this author, the camera tends to eat first. But that's not the only way that dining out with a camera in hand can be helpful. When things go bad, cameras can be equally beneficial, and that was certainly true for John D, even if it got him kicked out of a Golden Corral.
On a visit in December 2015, John and his family were visiting a location in The Villages in Florida, per Yelp. On their visit, they spoke with a manager about some items that were "untouched and really sick looking." The manager wanted to see the items and John pointed them out to her. John, unhappy with the way the situation was handled, took a photo of one of the items, but with one close of the shutter, the manager yelled at John to get out of the restaurant. When he wasn't leaving quickly enough while collecting his family, she called the police and had John and his family banned, all over a photo and not leaving when asked, apparently.
Working dogs are remarkable creatures. They help people live full lives in ways that may be impossible otherwise. It's no wonder, then, that these dogs are available in many areas that wouldn't otherwise allow pets. For Bevo Flores, though, trying to visit Golden Corral with her mom's dog ended up getting her kicked out.
According to Flores, they had visited the location on previous incidents and not had the same problem, so this came as something of a surprise. It seems the dog is in fact a service dog, but the Golden Corral still wouldn't allow it.
What isn't immediately clear is whether Flores' mom has a service dog that is legally required access, per the ADA, or whether it is more of a dog owner attempting to take advantage of ADA type of situation. While service dogs must have access, comfort dogs have less stringent requirements.
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