Golden Corral

Man, I am having some issues with these negative reviews on here based on wait time and cost.

1. It is brand new. Everyone from the surrounding 100 miles has descended on this place at all times of the day. Seriously, if you drive up and can't find a parking spot THERE WILL BE A WAIT!

2. Where have all these complainers been eating cheap buffets at?
Hometown Buffet: $13.87 including drink & tax
Golden Corral: $10.49 without drink, $13.75 with drink & tax

Guess what, I went here and got water to drink and it was FREE! Yes it was packed and hard to maneuver but I guessed everyone was there for the same reason I was, to try out a new place in Peoria that sure smells delicious when you drive past on University. And was delicious-all the food was super fresh & steaming hot and there were tons of healthy selections of fish and baked chicken. (I had a steak, I just happened to also notice the healthy stuff! ;)

If you don't like this place, go on over to Hometown Buffet where you can pay 11 cents more to be told your drink "is included" Or learn math and figure out that when a restaurant "includes" a drink, they are including the cost in the price.

Here's how the conversation went:

Husband: "Hey, baby, wanna go out to dinner tomorrow night? I got free dinner at this new restaurant in town."
Me: [suspicious] "WHAT restaurant?"
H: "... ... Golden Corral."
M: "BABY. Baby, NO."

Despite all that, I tried to make the best of it. It's hard to say how subsequent visits would compare to a pre-opening "sneak peek," but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised. First, I was quite surprised that they were able to handle hundreds of guests in a timely fashion. It was a bit of a cattle call once you got into the buffet area, but for as crazy as it was, it was well organized and managed.

The bigger surprise, though, was that the food was actually decent.  There are a number of different buffet sections (salad, Mexican, Chinese, "steakhouse"/grill, Italian), and obviously I wasn't able to try everything, but what I did have was pretty good. The salad bar was a high point for me, having four - count 'em! four! - lettuce options, a wide variety of fresh toppings, and a nice selection of dressings. There are a lot of vegetable choices throughout the buffet, none of which suffered from under or overcooking (though steamed squash and red peppers just... isn't a great dish). I wasn't up for eating meat that night, but the chicken that our companions had looked fresh and crispy and smelled great, and even the steaks looked nice - medium rare, even! Holy crap!

The one area I was disappointed in was the dessert buffet. I can't really put my finger on what put me off about it, but it just didn't work for me. Not for lack of variety - cobblers, pies, cakes, cookies, brownies, chocolate fountain, soft serve ice cream - but it was all just very... oh, yeah, prepackaged. It wasn't really surprising, I guess, but everything tasted just a little bit artificial. Kind of makes sense, even, since they proudly display poster-size prints of their Carrot Cake "Recipe" in numerous locations, and the first ingredient is "carrot cake mix." Oh, okay.

ANYWAY. So yes, I'll eat my crow. This was a totally okay dining experience. Will I be back? Absolutely not - it's just not my scene. But if it's your scene, or if you're on the fence, by all means, check it out.