Fine Dining - Golden Corral Has Won the Buffet Wars

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

🥩 Golden Corral’s 100-Year Plan & Dumpster Drama 🗑️ This week, we dive into the sprawling buffet empire that is Golden Corral. From hygiene scandals to military youth camps, this chain has been through it all and somehow, it’s still opening new locations. Joining me is Ben Cassil, host of Live from the Big Apple, to help unravel the chain’s bizarre history, including its long-standing relationship with the troops, a giant brawl over steak, and a game of hide-and-seek with their meat because of an impending health inspection. Plus, Ben pitches a Discworld-themed restaurant, and we dig into some unhinged Yelp reviews from our local Golden Corral. 🏢 A CEO with a 100-Year Plan 🫡 Ties to the Military (We Support the Troops) 🎤 If You're Jeff Foxworthy...You Might Be a Buffet Spokesman 🍫 Goodbye, Chocolate Fountain (We Hardly Knew Ye) 🗑️ “Dumpster Gate” & a Protected Whistleblower 🎸 Why the Founder is NOT the Lead Singer of Tool 🪄 A Discworld Restaurant That Lives in Our Heads Now 🌟 Yelp Reviews That Made Us Question Reality 💬 COMMENT BELOW: What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever seen at a buffet? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, full Yelp segments & more): https://www.patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): https://discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@finediningpodcast 🔗 All links: https://www.linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 Ben on IG: @bencassil | Podcast: Live from the Big Apple Patreon Producers: Sue Ornelas & Joyce Van 👉 NEXT WEEK: It’s finally our turn to experience the buffet ourselves. We eat at this Golden Corral (that definitely used to be a Circuit City) and let’s just say... it wasn’t great.

Golden Corral. With their early bird specials, buffet lines, and a chocolate fountain that those with weak immune systems should probably avoid, Golden Corral is America's last bastion of freedom. Where else can a man wearing his Oakley's indoors pile ribs on top of spaghetti, on top of taco meat, and not be judged but celebrated? Golden Corral. It's the culinary equivalent of a child drawing a T-Rex with a jet pack. Sometimes you don't need to know why. From a multi-year run with Jeff Foxworthy as their spokesperson, to a viral scandal known as Dumpstergate,

Golden Corral has had its fair share of highs and lows. But that hasn't stopped them from dreaming big. Their CEO revealed he has a hundred year plan for the brand. And while a hundred years might be what you expect the average age of their customers to be, they've also had a baby born in the bathroom by a woman who didn't even know she was pregnant. The child's middle name is Corral. This week on the show, I'll slather my unlabeled mystery sauce of knowledge onto your meatloaf

of curiosity so that you too may know everything I've learned about Golden Corral. Then we'll direct our attention to the people of Yelp to see what they're saying about the very Golden Corral we just experienced. Stay tuned, this is the Fine Dining Podcast. Better than you thought, worse than you hoped Fine timing, we don't treat mediocre as a joke Breaking every single place we've been Compared to the perfect five out of ten Wow, dude. I loved that. There's so many surprises in there. Oh my god, Jeff Foxworthy!

I can't believe I didn't know that. What was the dumpster, dumpster gate? Oh, you're gonna learn all about dumpster gate a little bit later. Here's a, like I have guesses, but like, uh, none of them are good. Let me hear your best guess of dumpster gate. I don't want to think about this, but my guess is like that someone was taking food back out of a dumpster and serving it in the Golden Corral. That's disturbing. Hello and welcome to Fine Dining, the quest to compare all restaurants to chilis.

I am your host, Michael Ornelas. And in this podcast, we examine the history of our favorite restaurant chains one week before seeing how they compare to Chili's the next. Why Chili's? Because after exhaustive, painstaking scientific research, I found it to be the most mediocre restaurant in America, the dividing line defining which restaurants are good and not good by comparison. This week on the show, we will be learning about Golden Corral, the only major buffet

chain to not just survive, but truly find its footing again after the Covid-19 pandemic took aim at its true target, salad bars. And joining me this week to talk about the GC is a man who told me that this place is one of his family's go-to restaurants, a super funny improviser and host of the podcast Live from the Big Apple. It's Ben Castle. Michael, how's it going, man? It's going pretty good.

Thanks for having me on this pod. This is so fun. Of course. What a great set. It's beautiful in here. Thank you. You know, I feel I have recovered better than expected from our sojourn to sort of the whole corral yesterday. How are you feeling?

In prepping this podcast, I got like no sleep, but I don't attribute any of my maladies to Golden Corral. But I also, and we'll get into it more next week, leaving a buffet not feeling totally full is kind of an indictment. You weren't totally full. No. Oh wow, yeah.

I ate too much and it was so, we don't need to talk No. Oh, wow, yeah. I ate too much, and it was so... We don't need to talk a lot about the food, but I just gotta say, the salt hit me hard. Like, I was feeling funky. You look so dry today. I'm dry! It sucked out the water. Yeah.

Well, Ben, you had been to Golden Corral before. You have a history. Can you talk to me a little bit about your relationship to the Golden Corral chain? Yeah, so much of my formative years and my life and my family lives in Missouri, was spent in Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, and there is a Golden Corral there, much different vibe than the one we went to, I'd say.

Always packed to the gills. And that was a place that my family often found ourselves due to getting like gift cards as gifts. A lot of people giving golden corral gift cards. I love that notion of we found ourselves there. We didn't go there. It wasn't, yeah. You ended up there.

It's very true. It was a frequent like Sunday lunch kind of place. And always see somebody you know, and it's like packed. And I will say like much, I don't know, much better. Definitely better than the one we went to. Like food is better. And just like it's so fresh because it's so full. So stuff is like the macaroni and cheese

is gone in like five minutes. So it's always very fresh. Constantly refreshing. For me, this was my first experience with Golden Corral and all I had coming in was a stigma in my mind. Yeah. What was your feeling of it? It was just a place where like, I feel like I remember seeing a commercial on TV and one of my parents

kind of scoffing at some point, just like, like, you can do better, which isn't not corroborated by our experience. It's true. Yeah, yeah, you can do better. But it did definitely paint the lens through which I viewed it. Yeah, yeah, I hear that.

Buffets are so much more prevalent in the Midwest than in the West Coast. Yes. But I love a buffet. I love the feeling of a buffet. There's something freeing, especially when you're younger. If you don't have like full ordering power at your age, it's like, I can do anything here.

Yeah. It's crazy. In quantity and in selection. Yes. The power is yours. As a child to like, through much of high. I was a like a combo guy like I'm making I'm making potions I'm making like Well mashed potatoes and pie. We don't know we've never tried. It hasn't been tried Let's try it so many combinations

And you can't know but like that is how you end up with the type of friend where you go over to their house and like, Hey man, try this. And it's like just some weird. Yes. I remember I went over to a friend's house after school one day and his mom rushed in like something was important and was like, you've got to try this. You've got to try this." And she just handed me, from her hand, peanuts. Like, not in the shell, like already out, like from a planter's thing, and said, eat this with watermelon.

And I did. You did? Okay. Yeah, and it was, it tasted like peanuts and watermelon. It didn't like combine in a way that made a third flavor. It was just two flavors I could taste simultaneously. It wasn't, like, bad, but it also wasn't pressing. Yeah. To, like, run into your child's room

and offer his friend... Into the room! You weren't even in the kitchen. In the kitchen, I could see it a little more. I also gotta say, like, it's, uh, something I feel not having children that I miss out on a little bit is being the weird dad for my friends.

Like my kids' friends that come over, doing stuff like that where like 20 years later, they're like, this guy gave me peanuts out of his hand. What the heck? Yeah, that's a fun legacy to leave somebody. Yeah. So that's your history with Golden Corral, my history with Golden Corral.

Do you want to hear the history? Oh, I would love to. I know nothing. Your teaser excited my brain. Amazing. Alright, we're going to jump into this week's Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat Deets. Eat De details. Golden Corral was founded by James Maynard and William F. Carle after they failed to secure a franchise with other chains. They opened the first Golden Corral family steakhouse on January 3rd, 1973 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In its early years, Golden Corral operated as a steakhouse concept in small towns gradually expanding across the southeast United States.

So these guys wanted a different restaurant. But they settle on gold on starting their own, I guess they're trying to franchise. Is franchising lucrative for people? Like, like, like a company or for the for the company? I'm it's's gotta be. But you've heard those stories of all these people who get Subway franchises and they end up losing. It's like a curse.

Yeah. I can't get rid of it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think it can be. It just really depends on the demand of the particular chain. Right. And you can bring a lot to it, but it is within the confines of what corporate allows. But there are some chains that I guess let you make it

your own a little bit more. But of course there are like consistency rulings and stuff where it's like you have to do this this way, you have to do this this way. If you work at a golden corral, you have to put out the sign that tells people to keep their shirts and shoes on. I for one am thankful for this rule.

I'm not. You kept wanting to pop your shirt off. Kept wanting to. Yeah. I wore a button up for easy access, and I was just like, I feel like I gotta become a Florida man right now, and the rules wouldn't allow it.

I support your quest, and I supported how you would go up to the host, and you'd be like, how many buttons? At what point is the shirt off? is it off? Yeah, can I unbutton them all and just let it flat? What's the threshold? Yeah, and they long conversation with them about the threshold of your shirt. Yeah took up the first hour. Yeah The chain grew quickly by 1987 Golden Corral had over 500 restaurants nationwide that year The company began franchising by selling 55 underperforming stores to its best general managers. This move came as sales were slumping due to poor staff training,

health concerns over red meat and competition from more upscale restaurants. In response, Golden Corral added salad bars to all locations and even expanded some dining areas to adapt to changing consumer preferences. They didn't have salad until the late 90s. They were just the steakhouse, yeah. Oh, okay, so a little, well, Sizzler known for salad, but I feel like Sizzler is a place

that people love for the like meat bar or the taco bar. Even then they started as like a different concept before kind of pivoting to. Yeah, interesting. I think the buffet is like an admission of guilt. Or an admission of. Yeah, or like they're throwing up their hands. Like.

Yeah, they're just like, we don't know what to do here. We'll make everything. Why don't you choose what you want? Yeah. You're like, angry service. Yeah, like what the heck, I tried to help you. It is also, they're slumping sales, and their solution to this is sell off some of the stores to that manager.

To the best performing general managers. If you're a manager, is that a good deal for you? I feel like not, but maybe it is, I don't know. I don't know, I don't know business. Yeah, like the line between company involvement versus franchise decision making is always. It differs from chain to chain. Right. So it's you know, it's just a matter of like,

are they burdening them with this or are they just being like, hey, we trust you, you know, as I'm sure if that's the case, they're probably cutting them a decent deal. Yeah, who knows? I don't know but also Red meat issues. I'm scared about this. No, no, no, so not golden crow but like concerns over red meat became like Sight guys, so we're talking Oprah you remember this Oprah had like a she was like Had a doctor on who was like there's concerns about red meat Then she was like, well, I'm not gonna eat beef anymore.

And then all these beef farmers got really mad. And stuff like that. Yeah, well, it's funny in my Nathan's Famous episode, we were talking about hot dogs and literally there was quote unquote, like the end of the American hot dog craze in the 1980s. And Nathan's, which was publicly traded, went from being worth $41 a share to $1 a share.

Like, just people being like, maybe hot dogs aren't healthy, crippled their business. Just a bunch of people finally read the jungle from 80 years previously, and they're like, what are we eating? Yeah, and so it just became a thing where a lot of restaurants had to respond because think of like a 50s themed diner. Yeah. And so it just, it became a thing where a lot of restaurants had to respond because

think of like a 50s themed diner. Yeah. None of the food offerings are particularly healthy. It's usually burgers, pie, milkshakes, french fries. Like that is the thing that was just delightful for 50s, 60s and 70s. And then we're like, oh wait, what's happening? We're poisoning ourselves. Let's take stock. Let's take inventory of what we're like, oh wait, what's happening? We're poisoning ourselves. Let's take stock, let's take inventory of what we're putting in our bodies. And now you have other places needing to pivot

to be able to keep up. And then other places that are kind of just like, so good at that like burgers, fries, milkshakes thing, that they prevail. So like McDonald's, In-N-Out, places like that. They kind of survive that time, but a lot of other places have to supplement more healthier offerings.

It's very funny thinking of what Golden Crow or like a mega buffet is now compared to the 90s where they have to be like, we gotta add in salad. Like, it's so basic. Yeah, which by the way, I so seldomly trust restaurant salad. Oh really? Salad is just a thing.

We're like Chipotle, all of those like reports of foodborne illness. E. coli, yeah. Very seldomly was it the meat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It happens a lot in lettuce. It's like in the lettuce, it's in the onion, it's in tomatoes, or you know, whatever.

I love it, I love the salad. The salad bar, great in any restaurant. Yeah. That's fun, cause I get to make my little potion. I get to mix it up. It was a did you ever do or are you familiar with familiar with the term? I'm sure there's a better term for now, but like suicides at a yeah, I know. Or like liquor wise.

I literally had that thought as you described it earlier. And I was like, for SEO, I can't say suicide this early in the episode. I'm just going to say it all the time. Well, that thing, feel free to beep it, is the idea that you'd go down the line at a soda fountain and you click everyone. You get a little bit of everything. You have to.

Even if there's water, it's... At the time, I had convinced myself it's great. I'll say this. Because I was a little freak. There's sometimes like maybe two or three drinks that if you mix, you're like... Oh, 100%. Yeah.

Yeah, this is early Coke freestyle. But like once you have like brisk ice tea knocking up against like Diet Dr. Pepper. Yeah. And then on top of that you have like the local like cane sugar root beer or whatever. Oh yes. It's just like it's too many strong choices. Yeah. And I would get diet and regular mixing.

That's always a crazy feeling. You got like a. Which, by the way, that is me on a diet. Me on a diet is the equivalent of like whenever I'm trying to lose weight. Yeah, it's always with an element of but I'm still having the like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm still having the like, the non-diet one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yep. In 1991, Golden Corral debuted its Metro Market concept, shifting decisively toward the buffet format.

These new restaurants were about 10,000 square feet, double the old size, and seated 400 to 450 guests. They featured the Brass Bell Bakery, where a bell rang every 15 minutes to announce fresh baked goods and an expanded Golden Choice Buffet showcasing a wide variety of items.

This era saw Golden Corral evolve from a steakhouse into the all you can eat buffet and grill model. And the chain began opening locations in metropolitan areas instead of just small towns. Oh, it was a small town thing first that tracks. the chain began opening locations in metropolitan areas instead of just small towns. Oh, so it was a small town thing first that tracks,

but I think this era is the era I'm familiar with. We're talking about like 90s into 2000s. I feel like America is like, we want the illusion of like no scarcity, like unlimited goods. Like it's when supermarkets really, like super Walmart started, right? Where it's like you can go to one place

and get anything you need. Any grocery item, any like hardware tool. That's an insane concept. And this is like the food equivalent, I feel like. It's like every dish you could think of as like an eight-year-old This is they have it every dessert. It's all fresh baked. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's

I do think buffets are just and look, I'm sure they didn't originate in America, but I feel like we've really taken the ball and upped it to this mindset of like, if you're not throwing out food, did you really eat? You know? Like that is the level of excess that I feel a hundred percent. Yeah. And I would do that. Well, clearly if I'm making potions, some of them don't work. Not all of them are like potions, if you know what I'm saying. By the early 2000s, Golden Corral had established itself as the largest buffet chain in America. System-wide sales topped $1 billion for the first time in 2001. The chain's footprint spanned most of the United States, with nearly 500 restaurants

in 43 states as of 2021. Notably, Golden Corral remains a privately held company. About 100 units are completely company-owned, and the rest are franchised. I gotta get golden corral stock Why are they privately held? Just buy a golden corral. You should be you should become a franchise. I gotta be a franchise. Oh, man My franchise it would be rough. I'm not running that thing. Well, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah It's just all plates. Yeah, it's all but yeah

Yeah, it's just all plates. Yeah, it's all but yeah They're like Ben you got to fill them with something we got plates. I got some I got to step one That's it. Yeah, which by the way their plate displays were Monuments yeah, that is an interesting thing to it the golden crow I grew up with They did not it was not like that at all. You actually, I think you had to wait for a server to take your plates away and then they would give you a fresh plate each time.

And it was like a little more table service. That feels a little bit more like, we don't trust you. It might've been that, but it felt at the time, cause they were fast. Yeah. It was nice. And I think they would also go around with roles and like distribute show your roles

It's like just a little more as many things are in in modern times. Like there were more people working them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Golden Corral often highlights its endless buffet in advertising its slogan in the 2010s help yourself to happiness Encapsulated the chains pitch of indulgence and abundance in 2011 Golden Corral launched the Chocolate Wonderfall, a multi-tiered flowing chocolate fountain surrounded by fruits and treats for guests to dip. This eye-catching dessert station added permanently to every restaurant's buffet,

was heavily promoted and became a signature feature. We didn't have that. What the heck? We did not have that. We did not have that. We didn't have that. What the heck? We did not have that. We did not have that. Uh, there are... We didn't have any cool stuff. They took away the chocolate fountain because of, like, sanitation concerns.

Yes. People were complaining, I don't think that this chocolate is hot enough to kill germs. Yeah, it's not. It's not. It's literal trickle-down, like, disease spread. Yeah, and you get your... you dip your ice cream cone in there and then comes out with like a fingernail. You don't wanna.

Little leaf press on nail in your eyes. I hate that sentence. Yeah, it's bad. Hey, it's bad. And I think Jeff Foxworthy got wind of it and he put a stop to it. Yeah, that was an executive decision the spokesperson got to make. That'd be if like Danny DeVito was like, hey, Jersey Mikes.

You know, you don't. Is he? He's the spokesperson for Jersey Mikes? Oh, yeah. Wow, I love that. He's the one who put the kibosh on them serving sandwiches inside of pickles. Oh, have you done Jersey Mikes on here?

Oh, nice. Yeah. It's not bad. It's not bad. I think it's very order dependent of a Oh, nice. Yeah, I would. It's not bad. I think it's very order dependent of a place. Yeah. Yeah, but very good. I like their turkey sub a lot. The turkey sub Mike's way, add bacon and avocado. If you're feeling rich, it's a good it's good.

My issue with Mike's way salt. Why are you putting salt on my sub every? Oh, I love every I love salt as well. But there's salt already in every cured meat on here. Oh, sure, yeah. And like the bread and everything, like, you know, gotta shake more on there.

Don't get me started on Jersey Mike. You're already started. Yeah, yeah, I'm going. You're off to the races. Yeah. Yeah. Golden Corral has also run frequent limited time promotions like All You Can Eat Ribs or Shrimp

in its commercials to entice customers with specific crave worthy items. We did have shrimp. They do have the I had to. Oh yeah. And you had ribs. But I got it like we had no carving station. That's a big.

But they like they they had it. But it wasn't good. Out the meat and then just no one. Yes. Was attending. Yeah. A lot of weird choices. But yeah, it felt like the abundance has like, kind of like gone over a hill

and now they're just like maintaining. I am gonna say advertising like endless of anything when you're all ready and all you can eat buffet is kind of just re-gifting. You know, it's like, Absolutely. It's like we already, you already are endless shrimp and endless.

Yeah, everything's endless. It also kind of feels like... Although it's not entirely true because it is very clear that the end is coming while you are there. Oh yeah. It is endless, but also a reminder of your mortality. Okay, great, that end.

Yes, that's absolutely true. Like you are, yeah, yeah, the end. Yes, that's absolutely true. Like you are, yeah, yeah, the end is near when you're at Golden Kral. I would also say, I would also say. That's so casually. Well, it's just, it's a fact of life. If you're here, we got the funeral parlor next door.

It's also a case of like, kind of like a cell phone company, right? So, a cell phone company, unlimited minutes. Never true. of like a cell phone company, right? So your cell phone company unlimited minutes never true There's always all these catches right of like Unlimited and unlimited plus how can there be a plus? It's already unlimited, right? Yeah, so that's an issue and they have the same thing with like you we saw the breakfast Yeah, unlimited Breakfast never ends. Yeah, literally nine to a lot lunch breakfast 8 a.m. To 11 a.m

Yeah, put an end time on the sign. Don't tell me it's endless We already know the store closes every day. Yeah, 24-hour buffet, so it's not literally endless. It's not Vegas Yeah, it's not Vegas So we know it's gonna end but it ends at 11 a.m So we know it's going to end, but it ends at 11 a.m. Wild. Yeah. Yeah. Since 2001, Golden Corral has hosted an annual military appreciation night around Veterans Day,

offering free dinner buffets to all U.S. veterans and active duty service members. This event has served over 6.5 million free meals to veterans and raised more than $19.5 million for the Disabled American Veterans Charity as of 2024. Golden Corral is also the founding sponsor of Camp Corral, a nonprofit summer camp program for children of wounded or fallen military members. By 2018, Camp Corral had served over 17,000 children across 19 states, with Golden Corral raising $1.8 million

for the program in 2018 alone. Well, you know, Michael, I think that's nice and I for one support the troops. I support the troops. And I invite you to say the same, but you don't have to, but I support the troops. I support the troops. We support the troops.

Here on the Fine Dining Podcast, we support the troops. Yeah, and we bow to pressure. I clearly yeah, yeah, we grumble. Golden Corral has remained privately owned and has seen very little turnover in top leadership in its five decade history. The company has had only three chief executives. Founder James Maynard led the brand through its early growth.

Longtime president Ted Fowler helmed the company for many years thereafter. And in 2015, Lance Trenary, a 30 year veteran of the company, veteran we support, became the third CEO. This stable leadership has allowed for consistent strategy. Trenary even outlined a 100 year plan for Golden Corral's future. And the founding family remains involved. Maynard's daughter, Easter Maynard, serves as board chair. James Maynard?

Is that the lead singer of Tool? Of Tool? Yeah! This guy's diverse. That's Maynard James Keenan. Okay, great, great, great. Yeah. Good fact retention.

Literally one of my favorite bands. Really, Tool? Yeah. What's retention. Literally one of my favorite bands. Really, Tool? Yeah. What's a famous Tool song? Don't, Skism is probably the only one that like- Skism. People know from like the radio.

Yeah. Or Sober maybe. What's a little of Skism? But no one knows my name. I know the pieces fit, cause I watched them fall away. Right. So it could be like a little bit of like, I know the mac and cheese

refilled on the buffet. I am all about this. Yeah. I think it's a natural... Foxworthy's out. Foxworthy's out, Maynard James Keenan. Get in there. Get in there. Get in there.

You should run Golden Corrals marketing. We'll not run the marketing. James Maynard. Yeah, be the face of it. Maynard James, we got mirror images. We got mirror images. They should, yeah, they should appear together, Papa John style.

Like Papa John, disgraced Papa John Schnatterer, and Shaq in the same commercial. We got James Maynard and Maynard James. Yeah. I am here for it. And then just like always in the back of Golden Corral is just the best drumming you've ever heard. Yeah. And like just like our head chef is an octopus.

He has independent limbs in all regards. A bunch of dudes like us who look like us standing around, arms crossed like Hate how accurate to like probably eight or nine tool concerts and it is just a lot of people being like yeah This is really good. Yeah Like many buffet chains golden corral has faced its share of foodborne illness scare Oh, no in 2003 a Salmonella outbreak at a Golden Corral in Kennesaw, Georgia sickened 23 people. Health inspectors found Salmonella

bacteria in a floor drain, suggesting that contaminated fluids from kitchen equipment had been hosed into the drain. In late 2012, similar outbreaks occurred at Golden Corral locations in Casper, Wyoming and Orlando, Florida. The Wyoming incident was a large norovirus outbreak linked to over 340 illnesses, including 31 employees who worked while sick, accelerating the spread. These incidents prompted restaurant closures for sanitation and drew public and media scrutiny. While no national outbreak has been attributed to the chain, such local episodes have periodically harmed

Golden Corral's food safety reputation. Concerning on many levels, but you researched this before we ate there, so you've got norovirus, you've got salmonella rattling around in your brain. I know the endless possibilities of how we... Ah! Endless! ...could have ended up. Yeah.

And you know what? We traveled the center road and we avoided the obstacles. So far, I feel fine. Famous last word. Not good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, hopefully it's not like a late onset salmonella. I'm not going to lie.

I did, more than most places I've gone to, at the very least, worry that our recording would be affected by the meal. I don't feel good. I feel fine. Like medically affected. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always affected, but like medically.

Yeah. Yeah, this is concerning on a lot of levels. My question for you, as you're seasoned, as we can see, like a lot of ratings here. Is this above average for food-borne illness issues for a chain? Oh, honestly, I don't know many chains that have been completely unscathed. I mean, yeah, you read Yelp, and every restaurant will have a Yelp review

that's like, I think I got food poisoning. Absolutely, food poisoning is often just people not washing their hands properly after the rush. Yeah, and I mean, the nature of preparing mass quantities of food for a living and just being human, it is very, unfortunately, natural and common to have some infractions. The issues where they come into the conversation

are when it's like there was oversight or like, Yeah, negligence. to have some infractions, the issues where they come into the conversation are when it's like there was oversight or like... Yeah, negligence. Yeah, in like an excessive way. When you have like 300 people being affected by norovirus That's bad. And 31 employees working while sick, that's a noteworthy infraction.

I don't like that. It doesn't make me feel good. It reminds me of a time I was at Ryan's. Are you familiar with Ryan's? I think this is defunct. Another buffet? A worst buffet. Yeah.

Golden Corral. It was owned by the same company that ran Hometown Buffet. Yes, very similar to Hometown Buffet. And Old Country Buffet, I think. Yes, those are all pretty similar. They're all gone now. That makes sense. Yeah.

I would say this trip to Golden Crow felt more like a Ryan's because it's just like very basic. But Ryan's trip there. This was probably early 90s for me. I'm young enough to wear like the when you put your plate on the like tray thing, you know? Yeah. It's like up for me a little bit. And I look up and there's this man scooping mashed potatoes

and he does a full huge, you know how older men will do like a really loud sneeze? Very loud sneeze, both hands, still scooping mashed potatoes through the whole thing. Sneeze guard covered in sneeze, dripping off of it, and he gets his mashed potatoes and just moves on. And I had to like get out of his way. I'm just staring at the sneeze on the sneeze guard.

Did you take potatoes? Oh, I was so grossed out. Good, good. I think this was probably like, you know, my third trip to the buffet. That's crazy. So I was done. In July 2013, Golden Corral became embroiled in a viral controversy when an employee at a Port Orange, Florida location exposed unsanitary practices on video.

The worker filmed trays of raw meat and other foods being temporarily stored outside by a dumpster during a health inspection, which is like you're hiding the goods. Allegedly, this was done to hide the food from inspectors. Yeah. The video posted to YouTube spread widely and sparked outrage. It reinforcing negative perceptions about the chain's cleanliness. Golden Corral's corporate office responded that none of the dumpster side food was ever served to customers and fired the restaurant's manager for the incident.

The whistleblower employee was placed on paid leave and ultimately not punished as the CEO vowed to investigate. This incident, often dubbed Dumpster Gate in the press, was a PR black eye for Golden Corral, even though it was attributed to one franchisee's laps in judgment rather than a company wide policy. Listen, we know we're putting our food by dumpsters. It's happening. But we're not serving it. And it's one time. I love it's one time being the excuse.

She okay. So yes, our date ended badly. And technically that was murder. This is my first time It was one and it was a lapse in judgment. Yeah, it wasn't premeditated that we're not talking first degree like sure you fire me But like it's not like I have a history of murdering dates. Well, you do know Yeah, well, I guess I do have a one-time history murder gate I guess I do have a one-time history. Murder gate.

Yeah, this is murder gate. Murder gate. This is a one-time, I killed someone. Man, there's so many disturbing things about this. Like, I love the idea of like, oh God, we've got health inspectors. Quick, you know what to do. Wheel that tray outside

because that's not passing inspection. Yeah. Like, they, it's so knowing. yes, it's so deliberate to be like, this food can't be seen. Chuck it outside. Happy for this guy. He didn't get fired. I want to know what's his subscriber count on YouTube now. This is really blew up for him.

Right. His 15 minutes is over. No way. He's probably on Hawk to right now. Hawk to a cast. Hawk2O. Hawk2O, thank you Hawk2O. I don't listen. The problem with the, weird, they don't listen. No, I don't listen. Okay.

The problem with the mashed potatoes in the tray was, you gotta spit on that thing. Yeah. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 posed an existential threat to buffet restaurants, and Golden Corral was no exception. For a time, the company had to temporarily close the majority of its nearly 500 locations nationwide due to public health mandates.

To survive, Golden Corral experimented with modified formats such as cafeteria-style service – employees dishing out food to guests to avoid shared utensils, and family-style all-you-can-eat meals brought to the table. Despite these adaptations, the prolonged dining room closures led to significant losses. The chain's unit count dropped by over a hundred restaurants.

We had a really hard time in this worldwide pandemic because people didn't want to eat our buffet food. I'm like, yeah, that sucks, I guess. And people aren't getting paid. But like, I lost grandma, you know? Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Like, come on, dude. Yeah. Yeah, and I do love their solutions being like, hey, you want to sit at a table and tell us what you want to, all you can eat of? That is actually very funny. Yeah. Because I feel like there's a level of dignity

that you, like like you're not gonna Say all the things that you would have gotten if I would love to be that server Who's like hey really is that all you want? Do you want any weird combos? You want some like you sure you don't like pepper on your baked fish Well, and everybody's got a different buffet strategy, right? Like I was a combo guy. Like I said, my sister was a like million things on a plate. Try it all. Yeah. So, uh, or like a potluck. Uh, she was a fan of like a tiny spoon of every, like every dessert.

Every like casserole, very few casserole star location. Yeah. I will say I kind of am more like that other than the fact that this place was just too sprawling to accomplish it. Yeah, I hear that. It was also laid out strangely. Uh, but I, so like, I'm imagining sitting down with my face mask on, sitting there at Golden Corral, it's 2021 probably.

We've just gotten our vaccine and I'm going, okay, so can you get me like a three quarter scoop of the green bean casserole, a one quarter scoop of the macaroni and cheese? Can you make sure there's a river of nacho cheese between the two? I want the poultry gravy touching but not on the green beans.

Then I want the beef gravy on the potatoes. Then could you throw three french fries in that and kind of mix it up? I like to mix my potatoes. On top of that. On top of that, if those potatoes are a little too thick, can you water them down with a little icy please? Yeah, and then if you could sneeze on it all. That would be...

Yeah, not enough sneezes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. By 2022, it returned to modest growth. The brand posted a net increase of three units that year. And by 2023 was reporting record sales per restaurant as customers returned. Company leadership noted that Golden Corral emerged from the pandemic financially healthier, paying off debt and streamlining operations and credited its

survival to Swift innovations and the demise of weaker competitors. By the way, that phrasing, the demise. Oh, they love it. I cannot describe any more accurate feeling than what I wished upon a hometown buffet the first time I had it. I was praying for their demise. Yeah, it's bad, it's bad. Your mashed potatoes shouldn't have a hard crust.

No, no. Oh, it has a shell. Yeah. Is the skin still on this potato? I also love how much corporate speak is in that that I don't understand where it's like, the demise of our competitors. Good news.

We're up three units. Right. What's going on? Three units. Three. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man.

It's two units too hot outside. As of 2025, Golden Corral has 399 stores open and is again expanding, proving resilient in the face of the buffet industry's decline. Expanding. Golden Corral is expanding. The one we went to is pretty new. I think 2023 or 2024. Yeah, it did feel like everything in there was new and very cheap. All the other furniture.

Wow. Yeah, I can't say I'm surprised that Golden Corral is expanding if Hometown Buffet and Ryan's closed. Yeah. Because there are, like, loyal fan bases for buffets. But Sizzler's not doing great. Yeah, Sizzler's a weird case. Did you, uh, where it's sort of buffet? Yeah. It's down there.

It's down there, and also extremely location-dependent Sizzler. Mm. The one in Pasadena used to be decent, but it's also a strange place where like, a lot of people will order at a Sizzler. It's not just a buffet. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, just a strange restaurant where they're trying to do too much stuff. Yeah. Kind of like IHOP is getting that way, where they've got too many things. IHOP, we do burgers now. Now see, that was pretty freaking funny. I guess. They changed that P to a B

Yeah, what they got Jeff Fox worthy in there If you invert that letter you might be a marketing genius you might be smarter than a fifth-grader take those buns off Put some pancakes on there. I Hope I think he just invented the McGriddle I think he just invented the McGriddle. Whoa! In 2022, a 40-person brawl at a Pennsylvania Golden Corral made headlines and further cemented the chain's pop culture notoriety. In the video, tables and baby high chairs are being wielded as weapons, both melee and projectile, and a cyclone of people can be seen yelling and running around. There are conflicting reports over what started the fight,

but they all agree it had to do with steak. Either one customer received their rare steak before another customer's well-done steak, despite ordering after them, or there was a shortage. Those are the two stories. Also, who's risking their life with a rare steak at Golden Corral? When I eat Golden Corral, I'm not thinking yeah, let's undercook this. Yeah, can I I like my pork pink?

Can you give me that? Golden Corral, I'm trying to like you. These are adding up. The stories are stacking up against you. The video of this is also incredible. I am not kidding you when it's just like, it's just a nonstop, like, it feels like you're trying to like jump into a dance that everyone knows the moves of, but you don't. And so there's like, everyone is brawling

and then there's a person, you know, filming. Yeah. And like, I was just like, man, don't risk it. Don't step forward. You're gonna get caught up and swept up in the current of tables and high chairs. Feels like, hey, good news, we're up three units. So everybody's gonna be pumped about the three units.

Bad news, we are on World Star Hip Hop homepage again. There's a big brawl. It's bad. I did see a tweet that someone did that was basically like, who's gonna tell these people that Golden Corral is not worth fighting over? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

It, I mean, I will say, having been to many, many buffets of different types in my life, it feels like an easy place to get your boundaries. Worked up? Yeah, worked up and your boundaries like pushed because there were, it wasn't too busy when we were there, but it was busy and you see people will kind of snake you, like get in front of you and when it's really busy,

you can be waiting for that chicken fried chicken for five minutes. And five minutes at a buffet, that's a long time to wait. You're just like standing there fuming. You're the one under the heat lamp. Oh, God forbid, don't slice me. But it looks so delicious. No, don't slice me.

Despite its longevity and popularity with many diners, Golden Corral has long struggled with a mixed reputation. Critics often lampoon it as the archetypal low-end buffet, sometimes calling it the Walmart of restaurants, known for heaping comfort food and overindulgence. In one tongue-in-cheek ranking of trashiest restaurants in America, Golden Corral earned the number one spot with the blogger joking that the chain quote unquote

requires a permanent ambulance and EMT crew in the parking lot due to its patrons' gluttony and the dubious quality of the food. Despite this, Golden Corral was listed among Yelp's top 50 most loved brands in the country in 2023, suggesting that behind the jabs, the buffet has a fond place in many consumers' hearts. Yeah, just imagine. It is the Walmart of restaurants. I think it's a Super Walmart or Costco, because there's so many.

The Walmart of restaurants to me, for some reason, is always McDonald's. That's what I think of. Also, because there's a lot of McDonald's in Walmarts. Yeah, but I totally get your point. I was just imagining if they literally did have an EMT in every parking lot, people being like, you know, I think I've got an oral virus,

we gotta go to the hospital, why don't we just go over to the EMT at Golden Corral. You know what? Let me grab food first. I was just saying, it would embolden me to take more chances. I was like, well, if they can save me right out there. It's like the drag racing. You're like, oh, I'm going to go for it.

They're going to pull me out before I die in flames. Yeah. And that'll do it for this week's Eat Deets. Ben, I hope you weren't sleeping during that history lesson and that you gleaned some ideas for how to become a real baddie in the world of fast food and casual dining because the next few minutes are all about you and your vision for a themed chain restaurant dining experience

of your very own. We need to make up a little theme song. Oh, Ben, Ben, Ben, wake up, wake up, wake up. I was sleeping during that segment. Oh, no, you're unprepared. I had to power down for a minute. I was thinking about being under the heat lamp and getting sliced.

It freaked me out. I don't joke about that anymore because I think it did something. It could happen. It could happen and I got really sleepy. We need to come up with a little theme song for this Restaurant of Your Dreams segment. Let's do it.

And based on what just happened, we're gonna do it in the theme of a lullaby. Whoa. This is the restaurant of your dreams. Close your eyes, get a blankie, and let us slice into a turkey. The chocolate fountain that would be so obscene. Restaurant of your dreams. I have a record contract I'd like you to sign. Yep. It's a really good signature.

I am. Oh my God. I am in so much debt now. We are taking a big cut. Ben, tell me all about a restaurant concept that is missing in the world and that you find its absence profoundly saddening. Something that only you have the capacity to concoct. It must be practical, delicious, and memorable. Three, two, one, go. Practical's out the window.

Oh, great. Okay. So are you familiar? I imagine not. There's no reason you should be familiar with great. Okay. So are you familiar? I imagine not. There's no reason you should be familiar with this. Yeah. Are you familiar with the author Terry Pratchett? I know the name. Okay, you know the name. So Terry Pratchett's my favorite author. He's the author of the Discworld series. Discworld. There's about 40 novels in this series. They're all very funny. They're like fantasy comedy novels.

Okay, okay. There's a continuity with all 40. It's not all the same story, there's like different sub stories floating around. It's very funny, it's a great world. He's English and much more popular in England. So I love this guy, Terry Pratchett. Can I take a guess at what you're about to pitch?

I would love to hear. You're gonna make like 40 restaurants where you just have to like go to each one to learn a different part of the story. That's a great pitch. That's like, that's like Epcot Center. Yeah. That's really good.

But that's not what it is. That's not what it is, no, it's called the Mendidrum. Okay. So this is a pub from Ankh-Mor Park. This is a city in Discworld. Great. This is an existing pub in literature. But I gotta tell ya, we're giving it the Disney treatment.

So this is gonna be a little bit Casa Bonita, and a lot like Epcot Center Disneyland. You're appealing to me. Dude, it's an experience, okay? I gotta say the price point's gonna be up there. Cause there's a lot of people to pay. Look, Casa Bonita has kept it to like 55 bucks a person. Yeah, you're gonna need a Trey and Matt type.

Or a Rob. To eat those costs. Yes, you're gonna need a Rob McElhenney, Ryan Reynolds. You're gonna need like two people who wanna invest in a losing venture. You need a famous angel investor. Yes. Yeah. So imagine medieval feeling like everything, low lighting.

Everybody's in costume. We've got like a bar, we've got lots of seats. That's the dining room. A couple sample dishes, we got lamb stew. Yeah, we got coffee and figgen. What's figgen? Figgen's an invention of Terry Pratchett. It's like a...

There is so much of this ride that I am not aware of. being Figgen. What's Figgen? Figgen's an invention of Terry Pratchett. It's like a... There is so much of this ride that I am not buckled into. Yeah. So what I would suggest for most people who aren't gonna be Terry Pratchett fans. Just read all 40 books before coming. That's the suggestion. To the Mend It drum.

Yeah, or if you don't have time for that, like surrender to the thing of like being immersed in a world you don't understand Which I think is really fun. Yeah, it's like traveling abroad Exactly. Yeah, you get to go to this place. I'm gonna say this is in anaheim This restaurant is in anaheim. It's right between pirates adventure and medieval times. Yes, absolutely It's in that zone Probably double the price

So we're talking like $100 for dinner. But you get dinner and there's a lot of stuff to do. I do want to point out, based on what I just signed, it is $100 per person. It only costs $30 to provide all the experience. He's just taking 70% off the top. Daddy needs a slice, okay? So don't begrudge me my little three units.

Uh, so we got Splot, that's another dish. Um, that's like, well that's not a dish, that's a drink. So you're having your dinner. That's great, you're getting drinks, full bar, with specialty drinks, everybody's in character, it's like Star Wars land, Disneyland. Okay, yeah, yeah. Where it's like everyone's immersive to this world. Exactly. They greet you as if you're in that world.

Are there heroes and villains there? Yes. Death, some might say, is a villain. But we get interrupted much in the same way that at Casa Bonita there's a sheriff. There's Commander Vimes, who's in charge of the City Watch. He's chasing villains like robbers and thieves through the dining room constantly. Little shows, right, where they're trying to get away from him.

You can't catch me, Captain Vimes! And he's like, I've been on the force for longer than you've been alive. Grab by their little like, uh, neck and ringing them around. It gets violent. I want to let you know the vision that I just had while you just jumped into that. I feel like what we're really going to is like a dinner theater one man show where you're playing with action figures, recreating these books. Also good.

Yeah. Like I would also be into that. Oh, my God. Like, I just like the picture. Like, in your mind, you're offering this, like, immersive experience. I show up, it's a black box theater. I'm sweaty as hell. And there are just so many, like, dioramas on stage. Yeah.

Here's the thing. Like, Disneyland, they employ a lot less actors than they used to. There used to be tons of, like,, they employ a lot less actors than they used to. There used to be tons of like improv actors and people you could get work and they pay like union rates. So we're filling that hole. You can come here, you'll be funny,

you're improvising all the time. We got, yeah, there's stuff like, there's a dark ride in the restaurant. A dark ride? You know what a dark ride is? No. So like, we're talking a Pirates of the Caribbean sized ride. Dark rides are just like those inside rides

at Disneyland or other amusement parks where it's like dark, meaning no sun. Yeah. So we got a dark ride. We're in water. We're journeying to Fairyland, which is bad. Fairyland's scary. Yeah.

Oh. There's the Nakmak Fiegel. They're little like half foot tall fairies who, whoosh, they talk like this. Oh, wheel, we have to get you out to Fairyland. their little like half foot tall fairies who, oh, they talk like this, oh, we have to get you out to fairy land. Pretty funny, dude. You're gonna get your meal and you're gonna get some laughs

and you're gonna get a little scared. It's gonna be an incredible time at the Medidrum. I love fear as a part of my meals. You know, there are not many like dinner, we don't have to do it enough. There's not fear. Yeah. Yeah, I want that full spectrum of emotion at my dinner. You come out a changed person.

There will be a show where there's witches, they'll interrupt your dinner, and they'll make tawdry comments because the witches are pretty funny and silly. They'll make potions, much like, they will come to your table and make witches brew, which is like, it's a bunch of suicides. They take the dishes that you have, mix it up, remix it.

You thought you had a great lamb stew and a drink. They dumped the drink into the lamb stew. They mix it up with your potatoes. Now you have a lamb stew. I see. That's great. And that's good. That actually sounds so disgusting. What? I see that's great, and that's good that actually sounds so disgusting What Yeah, so that's the mended drum. Okay. Can I sign you up? Look I signed before That's the thing about contracts. How does anyone say you can't just like add stuff in?

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I already got your signature. Yeah, you got it. I got three units to burn. Thanks for going over all of that with me, Ben. I now have a better insight into what you dream about. Ha ha ha! When I fall asleep to your butt. One last time, not the full song, just the last line. of restaurants of your dreams. Dib-dib-dib-dib-wop. Now let's bring things back to reality and see what other people think of the golden

corral we went to in this week's Yelp from Strangers. We need a little yelp, a little yelp, a little yelp from strangers A one star, two star, three star, four, or five, yi So get a little yelp, a little yelp, a little yelp from strangers A little yelp, a little yelp Give us those complaints while you literally whine and die Yelp! This is Yelp from Strangers, the segment where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite one...

Word? Nope, nope. Our favorite one... Star? Our favorite one... Two? Three? Four?

And five! Star refused! Oh my god. I love that we got there. One, two, three, four, and five star reviews! Oh my God. I love that we got there. Yeah. Did you know the whole time? No. Well, we got there.

I would never do that to you. We can count to five. I'm good. All right, do you mind if I start us off with the first review? Please. One star review. This is a one star review from Jeff D from Baldwin Park,

California written May 15th, 2025. Absolute madness. This place is so terrible. It's crazy. It's laughable. They're playing music that's talking about cocaine and pussy. The manager referred to me as a dog, which was weird. But then when my wife walked up he called her a dog too What kind of place is this they put the very bare minimum minimum amount the place is empty This one should be shut down terrible absolutely terrible do not come here as a corporation you guys should feel embarrassed About this location. Absolutely embarrassed.

There was no punctuation in any of that. I could feel that. Yeah, yeah. This is for the Covina location that we made at. Yes. Pretty cool. I got to imagine though, this has the ring of a person who is not interpreting

things the way they are meant. So here's my, would you play that reviewer coming, I'm the manager, you're coming up to me to complain like that interaction they described. Hey dickhead. Oh, what's up dog? You're right, it totally could have just been that. And then his wife, excuse me, what'd you say?

Oh, hey, dog, how you doing? Exactly. If you're not versed in that type of slang, you're just like, he called us dogs. Oh, man, I almost stepped on your joke, but I was trying to accurately be that guy going to management. That is that guy. Yeah.

And I think that's what you wanna do when you want good service, what's up dickhead? That's a good, that's a method. Yeah, I didn't love our time. Well, I loved our time. I didn't love that golden corral, but I will say it is not worthy of that type of vitriol. I agree, I agree.

Yeah, yeah. It's like you kinda know what you're getting when you go to a chain buffet. Absolutely, yeah. This thing met my expectations even though my expectations were not high. Yeah, my expectations were low as well. And yeah, it's like, hey, it was edible food.

That's kinda what you're, I feel like buffet is quantity over quality for sure. For sure, that is what they food. Yeah. That's kind of what you're, I feel like buffet is quantity over quality for sure. For sure. That is what they are. Yeah. It's quantity and variety. Yeah, and you know somebody's gonna call you a dog and that's fine.

They might bark at you too. Yeah, hey, ref ref baby, give me some mac and cheese. Three star review. This is Noel C from Arcadia, California. This is a three out of five star rating from July 20th, 2024. Warning, potential food poisoning alert.

Again, you had read these before we ate. Yes. Okay, great. Just checking. What am I gonna do, change restaurants? I'm writing this review to warn others and seek confirmation if anyone else experienced similar issues. On Friday, very specific, on Friday, July 19th, 2024,

at approximately 4 p.m., approximately, I dined at this establishment for the first time. The service was good and the food appeared decent. Looks can be deceiving. I ordered a variety of dishes including- We're about to read them all. Breaded whole fish, fish fil fillet two types of sausages spaghetti fried chicken wing meatloaf dinner rolls with in-house made butter zero sugar blueberry pie one slice a

small amount of pudding macaroni salad two two tablespoons, lemonade, zero sugar. It had a swampy aftertaste. I think you found the culprit. Let your lemonade swampy? It had a swampy aftertaste? What aftertaste should lemonade ever have? Sugar? What is your taste memory

to even be able to pull swampy? Everything's good good two tablespoons of macaroni salad. I'm loving it. Let me have a little lemonade Don't Just a bunch of villagers are like Just this cool scene in his mouth he's like,, oh yeah, that's what happened after the lemonade. Oh, that's how Shrek was filmed. They zoom into this guy's noel C's mouth. Unfortunately, about eight hours later at around bedtime, I experienced a horrific night of diarrhea, oh no, and vomiting that lasted until the next morning.

I'm reaching out to see if anyone else who dined here at the same time, July 19th, 2024, around 4pm, experienced similar symptoms. I want to confirm if the food from the establishment was the cause of my illness." End quote. Is someone like adding him as a friend to be like, oh, I was there July 19th, 2024, at 3.56pm. That's, That's I like I got the same thing. Like what's the expectation is as you think that's the expectation is somebody he thinks this is a public forum. Everyone checks after they die.

You're able to add friends, but like Yelp is avoid you yell into. Absolutely. And if I'm going to Yelp, it's for a place I have not been to. It is not for a place I have been to to check if other people had my experience. Yeah, you think he's refreshing the page? Yeah, absolutely. And I say that knowing I'm reading a Yelp review of a place I just went to yesterday. Uh, one person loves this, four person, oh no,

two people helpful. Hmm. That's nice. Yeah, I two people helpful. Hmm. That's nice Yeah, I think do you think helpful literally means I didn't dine there because of this review. I Think I would think so. Yeah, no Yeah, I think when you all most people aren't reading past warning potential food poisoning alert, I think that's enough Oh, I want the details Yeah, I do like that he's not definitive with it.

He's a scientist. Yeah. He's saying like, give me your data. Let me corroborate that with my data and see if this was the culprit. And if anything else had a swampy aftertaste, we found it. What's a swampy aftertaste?

Like what is it? I think you nailed it. You got it. Yeah, yeah. Did you like those two Yelp reviews? You can get three more over at my Patreon. That's Patreon.com slash fine dining podcast.

In addition to that, I do an exclusive episode every single month. Recently, I did an episode on A&W, A&W root beer ahead of the Septemberger tournament. It will be one of the competitors, so you can see how that stacks up. They have an amazing root beer float as well.

I also covered the Halal Guys for the month of May. It's my first time dabbling in Middle Eastern food for the podcast. And for the month of June, I will be going to Boston Market. I have to fly all the way to the East Coast to cover it. But I did find a Boston Market that's still existing. So you can check out all of that and more at my Patreon. Hope to see you there.

And that's part one. Tune in next week as we tell you all of our thoughts about our visit to Golden Corral. In the meantime, Ben, thanks for coming on. Where can people get more of you online? Easiest place is at Ben Castle on Instagram. Check that out. It's spelled B-E-N-C-A-S-S-I-L. And then, hey, check out, you mentioned it before, check out my new podcast.

I got a podcast with another comedian, July Diaz. The concept is it's like a fictional version of SNL. And we're two former castmates who are sitting down with other cast member or musical guest, and we're talking about this old show. But it's all made up and silly. What? Yeah, it's pretty fun.

Check out one of your friends of your pod, Dave Tooney, on an upcoming episode. He plays a former cast member of Big Apple Live, who also is a centaur. Naturally. Yeah. Honestly, if I could cast anyone as a centaur, Dave Tooney's a hell of a pick.

Yeah, so check that out. Our fictional show is called Big Apple Live, and the podcast is called Live From the Big Apple. And you can follow this show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast, Blue Sky, finediningpodcast.bsky.social. I have a Discord server if you want to go and just chat and have fun and talk about the episodes,

ask me my dumb food opinions that are not authoritative in any way. And yeah, so much more. So I'd love to have you there. And also if you want an exclusive fine dining episode every single month that you can, that are not authoritative in any way. And yeah, so much more. So I'd love to have you there. And also if you want an exclusive fine dining episode every single month that you can only get there, I have a Patreon and you get the full Yelp

from Stranger segment so you can hear all the reviews. That is it for this week. That's the history. We're just gonna be sitting here waiting on our table. I will see all of you next week. Have a fine day. Waiting on our table, waiting on our table Join us next time we're stuck in line Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We're so hungry, tummy's grumbling

Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We gotta continue our search for mediocrity Yeah Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We'll be waiting and dissipating Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We're sleeping in this week or digging in Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table

We've got an appetite but just sit tight Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table Search will continue when we see you next week He-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-he We're waiting on our neighbor, waiting on our neighbor Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm