Golden Corral Restaurants

Hate to see this place closing but I will just go south to the new one. It’s not gourmet folks so I’m surprised at some of the reviews here. The food is consistently OK and you serve yourself. What could go wrong. I do hope the new place has a better handle on food temp.

Yes, the location on S. Lamar is closed. They opened a new location just south of Wm. Cannon on the frontage road of the interstate. I haven’t been there yet, but maybe today.

Over price bland food looks good on TV.
The staff is really nice, there is lots of choices

This place is kinda gross and trashy. I went because I hadn’t eaten all day and I thought a buffet would be nice since I was starving. Well, this place just wasn’t very good. It just felt dirty. There was still a feather in a piece of fried chicken I got. None of the fruit seemed very fresh. The ribs were dry. The rest of the food was just okay, but not nearly good enough to justify the steep price for the buffet. A lot of it felt like it’d been sitting out for a while. The worst part is that there’s gnats and flies everywhere. The peak number at our table at once was five or six. There are way better buffets in Austin; under no circumstances should you go to this one.

Normally I enjoy this location but I’m not sure what happened. Last week went there 1) there is no supervision of children they run like its a marathon all around the place yes it’s the parents responsibility but also management to ensure other guests are comfortable. 2) THERE ARE GNATS EVERYWHERE ONE FLEW RIGHT INTO MY PLATE. *turned off forever*!

### STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE! ###
My sis, her husband and kids were visiting from out of state, so we decided the golden corral would be a great place to fit the various food preferences of all our kids.
Everything started out great. Food was hot. Good selection.
Then I noticed all the dirty dishes. Took 3 tries before I found a clean bowl. One literally had a huge glob of food stuck in the middle of it, still wet. Just gross. Almost all the forks had dried food stuck to them.
Then my wife found a roach in her bowl. YES, A ROACH! This is a HUGE red flag for a restaurant — it means conditions in the kitchen are horrible, at best. Means you risk food poisoning, or worse.
She showed the roach to a worker. The worker grabbed the bowl and immediately whisked it out of sight into the kitchen. Came back out and said nothing, just went back to what she was doing previously.
Asked a different worker for a manager. She said she’d get one. 10 minutes later, I went looking for her and found her working on the register. she hadn’t bothered to call a manager. So I ask her right there for a manager. She finally calls one.
I explain to the manager what had happened. We absolutely could not eat any more food after seeing the roach. Completely ruined it for us. He asked for our receipt and asked which one saw the roach. I thought that was odd, but told him my wife had. He walked off, and a few min later returned with $ 13 cash.
I was like umm we ALL can’t eat because of that roach. He replied «SHE saw it, not you. SHE gets a refund, not YOU.» Then stood there giving me a very threatening look, staring at me for several minutes. OMG.
Stay away from this place. They do NOT care about the conditions. They’re moving to a new location soon, but I promise you they’re moving the roaches too.

I know buffet food isn’t expected to be the best but the least they can do is keep the food hot because everything was either cold or old in this buffet. The waiter could have been better, you can tell he wasn’t the talkative type which might be why he only came to refill our drinks once after us having empty cups for a good 15 minutes. The desert was stale as can be and the piece of steak I got still had a cold red center even though I asked for medium well. I know not to expect a lot from Golden Corral but if I pay over 30 dollars for two people I expect the food to at least be hot. Hopefully the new location will be better.

I will miss this place. Lots of good memories, great food and friendly staff.
Am looking forward to the new location at south park meadows
Thanks for the awesome memories :)

So i was craving all u can eat kinda thing and this place came to my mind since i was in the neighborhood. They were even running a special 7.99 buffet but it just wasnt worth it. Inside place is very old and dirty. Food doesnt look that good either. But i guess u get what u pay for. Lot of food u can tell is just sitting there. Just cant imagine going back to this place. My appetite for all u can eat is pretty much dead for a long time now.

NEVER going to go to this place again. Walls look like they need to be repainted. It didn’t smell to good. The food.. Some of it is edible. But most of it especially the desserts taste super old. i grabbed a cake that I could not cut through with a fork. It was so hard and dry looking. Ruined my appetite. Food hurt my stomach. Only reason I’m giving this place two stars is because my waiter Cliff was pretty attentive filling my drink and clearing the table.

Pros: decent selection (of course you can’t expect much from any buffet)
The desert selection is pretty good especially the strawberries with the chocolate fountain
Salad bar isnt to shabby.
Con’s: this place is one of the dirtiest restaurants I’ve ever been. Kids are running around as well as random food on the floor. Service isn’t good at all took them about half an hour to even check on us and refill our drinks. I know you can’t expect much from a buffet but I’ve been to much nicer ones than golden corral. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Not as bad as people are making it out to be. The lady who makes the waffles and eggs to order is a nice lady. The food is decent. I would go again.

Sort of expensive if you ask me. Spent a lil over 14 dollars just to eat some dinner + the drink. Granted it was buffet and all you can eat, I was still disappointed by the price. The main reasoning for my disappointment with the pricing though was over the food. It was merely okay food that overall was not worth 14 dollars. The food was fresh, though it looked as though it had been sitting out for awhile. Nothing really wowed me about the food. There was a pretty good variety of content available which did impress me. It was a mildly enjoyable experience and this rating is more of a 2.5 star than a 2.

If you are going to Golden Corral chances are you want to 1) have many choices of food to eat, 2) you wanna gorge and 3) you ain’t worried about service because everything — but maybe your drinks — is all serve yourself!
This place is not bad at all. I find the best times to come is about an hour into the dinner hour and the in between time of when breakfast is closing up and lunch is brought out. You get best of both worlds all for the same price!
Now that I have been coming here quite often, mostly with my friend who has 4 kiddos, we know where to sit and who to sit with (server wise). Staff is friendly but you know you always get taken care of by the server who recognizes you and your party. Be sure to tip graciously because these servers have a lot to deal with and have to bus your mess. At least be courtesy and thank them in a nice tip!
Parking is never an issue no matter how busy it is and the pork meat and grill area is a must if you want some good tasting meat. The guy behind the grill is always so sweet and will let you know how much time is left for your meat to hit your plate. Just hang tight — he sees you.

I will NEVER go to this location again. It was the DIRTIEST restaurant with food all over the floors, tables, and foods in different serving trays. (think vegetable bits all over other hot serving trays). The food serving spoon handles were all sticky… sigh Kids running around and just… dirty. wow, I was shocked at how people could even eat there. We prayed we wouldn’t get food poisoning.
Truly the dirtiest, grossest location I have ever been too. I’d rather pay less and get less options at Souper Salad. Lol
Be warned and do not visit!

Absolutely the worst and quickest and explosive and eruptive squitter episode ever thanks to this place. Do not go here if you value your drawers. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

How desperately hungry are you? Thinking of this place? Turn around to anywhere else. This place is bottom of the list. Can’t forget the microwave cold food and the rude workers oh and the horde of people in the way.

I dine out many times a week.
There are only two restaurants in Austin that see me almost every week, and this is one of them.
I think their rotisserie chicken is some of the best in Austin.
Where else can you get deviled eggs?
One of the best cole slaws in Austin.
Amazing value.
Nice people.
With the loss of Arkie’s, one of the few places left in town for real, traditional American food.
I also enjoy being in a friendly, family environment with a crowd that is much more diverse than you typically find in South Austin restaurants.

Never listen to 15 year olds when they beg you to take them to this place. They were brainwashed into thinking a chocolate fountain and cotton candy would be like a trip through the seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest and past the sea of twirly, swirly gumdrops.
This was like my worst nightmare… a Twilight Zone school lunch cafeteria amped up on crack. I expected it to be fairly cheap after seeing the cafeteria trays and garish lights but nope… it was about $ 40 bucks for 3 people.
There is a vast array of food here. There is also a vast array of people dipping in and out of lines piling their plates full. I don’t do drugs but I felt like I was on them here. I think I entered an alternate universe (MIB Style.) I couldn’t help but feeling like I was part of a group of alien cockroaches descending on a sub par feast of earth food. Almost everything was edible but really the only thing I could stomach were the dinner rolls.
It took about 2 hours to wipe the look of utter disgust off my face after this dining experience. No amount of teen begging can get me to come back to this place.

Ever made the same mistake twice?
You know, there’s that friend you keep hanging out with, even tho he/​she gets «mouthy» with total strangers after a few beverages?
Or the mechanic that screwed up your last oil change, but you give them another chance because their shop sent you a coupon?
Or a date with your ex that reminds you why they are your ex in the first place?
Well, for me, I decided to make a return visit to the south Lamar Golden Corral… Now, I had been to this location years before and the overall experience was underwhelming to say the least… From being elbowed by other diners who just had to get that last piece of roast chicken, to the wilted salad, I told myself that I would not make a return visit…
Well, both time and a visit to the far north Lamar GC (which had a fairly impressive selection of vittles) caused me to re-​think my original opinion… Had I been too harsh on the south Lamar location? Maybe it’s improved… I’ll pay another visit… What could it hurt?
Well, sadly, not much has changed… If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost swear that the same meatloaf from a couple years ago was still on the serving line! Also, it didn’t help when I picked up a plate and noticed that it hadn’t been thoroughly washed… I should have left right then, but I wanted something to eat, and they had some steak on the grill… Big mistake… I got my cut from the disinterested grill-​person, got a bit of watery mashed potatoes and some over buttered corn and had a seat… You know, it shouldn’t take more than 3 or 5 passes with a knife to cut through a steak, and your jaw shouldn’t be sore after chewing it… Then there was the overall ambiance… Nothing like screaming toddlers running between the tables while the parents enjoy yet another plate of fried chicken and mac and cheese, or having your foot stepped on by someone who needs to get to the pot roast…
At any rate, we decided to go down the street to Torchy’s…I probably should have asked for my $ 25.00 back, but by then I just wanted to get out of there… Like the old saying goes– «Lesson Learned, Knowledge Gained»…