Fine Dining - Golden Corral: The Ribs Were Trash, the Chicken Slapped, and There's a Party Room!

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

🍽️ This Place Sure Had a Lot of Food Items Score a 1-out-of-10 🫠 This week, we return to Golden Corral - this time, to eat. Joined by comedian and podcast host Ben Cassil (@bencassil), I finally test the buffet itself, from rock-hard bread to surprisingly okay tacos. We found joy in the strawberry shortcake Fanta ICEE and the sheer chaos of none of the food being accurately labeled. Also, someone talked to their mom on speakerphone…from the toilet. This one had layers. 🍖 Ribs That Made Us Regret Everything 🍗 Chicken Fried Chicken That (Kinda) Slapped 🍞 Bread So Hard You Could Knock on It 🧙‍♂️ An All-Senior Magic Show (Is *THIS* Your AARP Card??) 🕹️ Claw Machines Everywhere 🧊 Strawberry Shortcake Fanta ICEE = Low-Key Amazing 🚽 Maybe DON'T Make Calls from the Toilet? 📍 Yes, This Was All Inside a Former Circuit City (But Who Is the Dreamer?) 📊 Golden Corral’s Final Score: Better Than Chili’s? 💬 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: We dig into the Midwestern legacy of Gino’s East of Chicago and how Chicagoans aren't just sitting around eating deep dish all the time.

Golden Corral. The chicken fried chicken was deliciously seasoned, but the ribs were so leathery, I shoved half a rack in my back pocket and sat on it by mistake. It's got every food to please a seven-year-old, but a man took a call on speakerphone while sitting on a toilet. They had a sign that said, Welcome to the Party Room, leading to a dance hall, but there was also a sign on the front door suggesting we had to wear a shirt and shoes, and I don't like being told how to dress, Dad. In a world where we know in our heart of hearts that Chili's is the most mediocre restaurant in America and as such can be used as a measuring stick to determine if a chain is good or not good by comparison, we would be imbeciles to not put Golden Corral

through the Chili's test. Will this buffet chain often associated with a clientele in the twilight of their lives overcome the peddlers of the triple dipper? Let's find out together. This is the Fine Dining Podcast. Your table is ready. Take your seat. The flavor of the day is mediocrity. Wouldn't you like to try a vibe?

Guarantee it'll be the perfect but. Fine tiny. Better than you thought, worse than you hoped. Fine tiny. We don't treat mediocre as a joke. Breaking every single place we've been. Compare it to the perfect 5 out of 10 Hello and welcome back to fine dining The Quest to Compare All Restaurants to Chili's.

I am your host, Michael Ornellis, and this is the show where I'm using Chili's, the perfectly in the middle 5 out of 10 dining experience to measure what is good or not good by comparison. By the end of this episode, we will be able to authoritatively declare an answer to the question on everyone's mind is Golden Corral better than Chili's?

You can tell me what you think the answer to that question is right now in the comments, if you like, but we're going to break down our experience there today into what was good, what was not good, and what was just there before we score Golden Corral at the end of the episode. Joining me today to talk Golden Corral once again is improviser, comedian, host of the podcast live from the Big Apple, and The Lighthouse that draws me to shore on the foggiest of nights, It's Ben Castle. Whoa. Welcome to the party room.

Welcome to the party room. I was literally looking back at the footage of it. And I was like, it says welcome to and then to the party room. And I was like, wait. You know, I had an observation about welcome to, to the party room. Yeah. A lot of fun signs at this restaurant. A lot of signs.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to just get into it? Because for me, it's stuff that I liked. So we're just going to jump in and talk about all the things that were good. This is the good done like it should be best up that spank and licking or sticking the land in this is good I knew that you could This is the good things that are good You know what? Yeah, let's make that the song

No, the song is so good. I just I love the songs on this podcast. Thank you. Yeah, I do too and they're they're delightful. James McInelly, huge shout out. So yeah, the signage. There was an, a Amundant amount of signage. Welcome to the party room. Great. Yeah. But that one on the front door. And the one up above. Oh my God.

Huge banner up above. Yeah. A big pancake on the banner, I believe. Endless breakfast. Mm-hmm. 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. That's an end. It's an existential dilemma.

When something is endless, but it only lasts three hours. Which is it? Yeah. Cold and Corral. Yeah. It boggles the mind But I would love to experience it And see if it truly is endless

Within a time scope of three hours It's kind of like the TARDIS From Doctor Who Yeah, you're just like inside of this place Where like time and space Cease to be Yeah, it's Golden Crowl's bigger on the inside That is true.

Yeah. Have you ever been at a buffet When they change over From like breakfast to lunch Or lunch to dinner? No. Weird experience. Sounds like a changing of the guard

Like someone comes and like pulls a flag down It's crazy you say that because it's exactly the same. There's beef eaters, and they come in, they got big hats, and they look like toy soldiers, right? And they stand in front of the eggs, and they're just like... And they're carrying rifles. That's right.

And they're by the pleasure of the queen. I know it's the king now, but they're by the pleasure of the queen. It's part of it. Yeah, I adored that sign. It's weird putting it in the good because it's like, It's like a so bad It's good movie But there are a lot of things

About this experience That were kind of like It was like the room of restaurants Oh, I wish I knew that quote I can't remember You're killing me You're tearing me apart Lisa There we go

You're tearing me apart Lisa I understand that That makes a lot of sense I also genuinely There was an advertisement For a talent Was a magic show Oh God

Yeah Okay July 9th On a Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., there is a magic show at this golden corral. And it says all seniors. And I don't know if that's the audience, the performers, or both. It's got to be performed. They're not excluding a child who wants to watch magic.

No, no, no. Unless you have your AARP card, you don't get to see, is this your card? Yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good. You know, you can, fun fact I learned recently. Yeah. You can join AARP 18 and over. Yeah.

Join AARP today. Support the troops. All right. We don't have to bring that back to me. Immediate. We can evolve. So saying support the troops is something you should immediately like. Take it back.

Take it back. Yeah. Also, what was another sign? There was, um, well, there was no shirt and shoes required. shirt and shoes required and these are not signs that get made until they've been infracted if they were signs for

hypothetical future events you'd put pants on there but your experience says everybody knows pants which by the way bold risk they're taking that's what I'm saying that's how you know it's from experience they're they're leaving you know their fighting stance

leaves that rib open you know someone's going to pop them with a hook oh yeah yeah yeah you you know Jeff box where he's coming in there like pantsless i can't he didn't say in the rules here's your card a arp card and then like lots of wall decor which uh let me let me crack open my journal let's see how i actually had this categorized because we are talking about the good and there were good pieces of decor yeah but you know a lot of it like it was uninspired so i will talk about it later but uh i will talk about the party room party yes did

you go in there uh i i snuck a peek in there yeah i also enjoyed there was a preteen who used it as a hiding spot to to scare his sibling i didn't notice that happened behind you and i did not point it out because if i called attention it would have ruined his little scare the um the entrance to the two to the party room is next to the soda fountain yeah so his uh it's like a family there and this preteen like kind of sidles into the party room dead eye contact with me and he's like don't say anything yeah no he was just he gave me a little like look right yeah um and then he's waiting and he's waiting for minutes uh and i just kind of am glancing up and then i finally see his older brother come up and start getting coke and he's like wah and the older

brother's like uh like very small reaction yeah yeah yeah but the buildup did not yeah pay off he was waiting in there for a while yeah party room huge which Which, by the way, that is always how I'm going to jump out and scare someone pranks go. Something happens in the universe to where they lose all priority they had to keep things moving. Yes. You duck down for a hiding spot. Your legs are falling asleep. Yeah, yeah.

It's a bad choice. And then you check the time on your phone and they pass by and you're like, ah, I missed it. I missed my chance. The other thing about the party room I didn't think of is. Dance floor. There is a dance floor. It's a party. So we're talking wedding receptions.

This is, which, my God, I'm, I don't want to, no, I don't want to punch down. But like, also, who's, who's thinking Golden Corral? I would be into it. No, no, no, no. That's such a big life moment. But it could happen. Like Bar Mitzvah, sure, do a Golden Corral Bar Mitzvah. For some people, this is, well, let me say this.

When I was a kid, this was not like our first choice, but it was like a fun night. out it's a fun it was a fun restaurant for sure as a kid did you ever get the party room i did not we didn't have a party room at ours okay uh but i would say like that wouldn't have been a terrible birthday party for me at like 10 11 you get all the food you want you get a little dance i've had pizza hut birthday parties back back when they had the buffet that's a good birthday party good when you're not discovery zone but oh man it's good discovery zone that's the best one dz where kids want to be that's my friend kelly was a guest on this show and she reminded me that that was the slogan. And I think

about Discovery Zone now from time to time because of her. Very good. I had my ninth birthday at Discovery Zone. At the time then, the slogan was we're going DZ at Discovery Zone. And I don't know what that means, but we were going Dizzy.

It's like crazy, but it's Dizzy. It's Dizzy. Yeah. This place is Dizzy. Dizzy nuts. That's what it meant. Excuse me. DZ what DZ and they're embarrassed that's why they're out of business now you can't say that in a kid's place um I will also say that if you're in that party room you're really far from the from the food you got a walk a hike and you're already burning the calories from the dancing

so honestly the party room should be right up against the buffet or they should get a mini buffet wheeled in there I agree there's space for it you're at net zero calories with the walk though. And the dance? So you're doing good. It's like eating what is it that you eat? Salaries. Celery that where you like burn as much as it gives you. Yeah. Yeah, that's the dance floor at Golden Corral.

Another fun or good. Which, by the way, no it's not. There's no amount of exercise you can do in a Golden Corral that is putting you at net zero. I, for one, I'll speak directly into each camera. I don't appreciate this assault on science.

it's a net zero if you dance at golden corral and then walk to get your food yeah and then walk that adds up to chicken fried chicken well because you said it passionately i guess i'll let you i'll let you have it you seem to really care the barbecue that was good there's a there's a grill out there oh not the actual barbecue food no no no no no presence of a barbecue grill that you can win in a raffle yeah i was like i love this there's a little set making that's fun well it was a it was a giveaway for like if you donate a certain amount to camp corral you get an entry into this raffle where the prize is uh like a four burner grill or so it looked nice if we're in good atmosphere stuff though yeah um i think the list it's there no is there other good atmosphere stuff there i don't know uh seats were fine your seat was not as good yeah my seat was a little bit broken um i will i will say this place was remarkably like clean yes you're right cleanliness is huge

yeah it was uh but but i chalked that up to it just hasn't had hasn't been broken in yet it's only a year and a half two years old it's very true they have way too much carpet in there for what that plate we saw a worker cleaning um some i think some like meringue or something off

of a like a dessert off the carpet and he's like dumping water we had a steaming cup of water yeah that he's just standing in the middle of a walkway like there's no like cordoning off or anything and he's just pouring scalding water water very unscientifically. First of all, bend down to it.

He's got a rag on the ground and he's scooting that rag with his foot. And he's dropping scalding water from like four feet up. And I was just like, there's got to be a more precise way. I mean, anything is better than that. But they were also, they mopped a lot, very lax on the wet floor signs. So I did, it was a little slippery from time to time. Where? Wasn't it all carpet?

No, there's a nice foot and a half of linole. or tile at the buffet line. So, like, right in that space, they would come through with that mop like every half hour. It must be like a food safety thing. They would also like wipe down around the serving trays like constantly.

Good. Because you see how people are just like spilling gravy everywhere. Yeah, it's not an elegant system. And honestly, big props to them for that. Yeah, very clean. I agree. From a service standpoint, it was interesting

because for the most part, Like I had no memorable interactions with anybody, which is usually a criteria I have for like, did I like the service? Because I like that human-to-human connection. But everyone was very like efficient. No one seemed to be like lazy. Yeah, everyone was pleasant. So it's like, yeah, the service by definition was good. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. And no one called me dog. That's good. I like, yeah, everybody was nice and pleasant. It was efficient. Yeah. Which is what you wanted to buffet. I had a couple little interactions with staff that were all good.

And then I witnessed several that were outstanding. There was one of those funny teens from the scare. I think the older brother approached the buffet where there's all the like classic American food, that side. And he goes, he just goes, hey, mashed potatoes. And the workers like, excuse me? Like not in a rude way. they were very, I should, I can't do the line reading right that they did, but it's kind of like, oh, excuse me?

Like, I would like to understand what you mean. Yeah, like, can I, they were like, excuse me? And he's like, mashed potatoes. And she was like, do you need help finding them? And he's like, no, they're out. And she was like, oh, great, we have a new tray coming in in just a second. He was like, thank you very much. It's like, it's crazy how context helps.

Yes. So he, I mean, he was being to anybody. You just go mashed potatoes. But, but the, she, the worker very, kindly shepherded that person through learning how to interact better with a service worker, which is nice. Use your word. Yeah. I don't know

that I would have been that kind, but I was impressed with the kindness. So, yeah, then let's jump into food. First thing I got was sharded into a cup. I got, they had two strawberry shortcake

Fanta, icy. Oh, yes, that was loud. How it came into your, like, Like, it was, it really arrived. It felt like an impact in like a Nickelodeon slimy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was very like, like I just held a little, I just wanted a little sample of it, and I tried it. And you mentioned that you like the, the Coke icy flavor, because it has like that little bit of carbonation. And because of the fanta, this had that and a strawberry shortcake, uh, that's right.

And it was really enjoyable, uh, which I didn't expect because I'm not a big icy person. usually I tend to prefer like a milkshake or something if I want I want something like a cold you know drinkable treat yeah that looked pretty good I will say my my iced tea was good your ice tea was very I had a unsweet ice tea that I don't think was unsweet but it was good and I had a decaf coffee that was also very good yeah very exactly what you want at this place is diner coffee yeah tastes like Denny's which is a

compliment so if we're scoring my strawberry shortcake icy I'm going 8 out of 10 Wow Ice tea I think yeah pretty high 7 out of 10 decaf coffee If I scale it on diner coffee Like a 7 out of 10

Okay yeah yeah so they're both fine I've had way worse diner coffee Of course But on a scale of coffee It's like a two Diner coffee is what it is Diner coffee is its own category Do you know what I mean?

Yeah Like a Folgers or a Maxwell house. I guess I'm of the opinion that like some foods can't reach a 10. And that's what I score them. Like if you're like for a diner coffee, it's a 10. But diner coffee peaks at a 3 for you. The score is a 3. I think for me, diner coffee probably peaks at like a 6 or a 7.

Okay. But but this one, yeah. So like of all coffee, there's some delicious coffee in the world. And I don't expect that at a gold to crel and it would be foolish. Who expected? Yeah. But yeah, beverages, I think, were on point. All the carbonation was good the whole time.

Yeah, nothing was flat. I had a Dr. Pepper as well, which like I'm usually not rating like drinks you can just like buy in a store. But like, yeah, for a fountain, it is a gamble. Yeah. When you go to places of like, is this going to be flat? Is it going to be okay? It's another, it's kind of like McDonald's, they shine at fountain drinks. Yeah.

It's not McDonald's level, but it looked like really well taken care of. I've worked at a lot of food service places and I can tell they clean the nozzles. Yes. And they clean the tray, which a lot of places don't. Well, yeah,

because that's where you get a suicide at the end. That's right. You just dump out the tray. Give a little sippy poo. Trash person. That's me. I'll also say on the good for food. Yeah.

For me, shrimp. So I also put the shrimp in the good, not nearly as enthusiastically as you did. I would say the texture was perfect. Yeah, crispy. The taste was okay. For me, also for deep, it's deep fried heavily breaded shrimp.

Yeah. This is like Walt's famous shrimp at Red Lobster. Yeah. To me, this is a solid seven. And I gave it a six. Yeah. So I wasn't in love with it, but I did like it. Did you go cocktail sauce with that?

No, I didn't. Do you like cocktail sauce? I didn't trust any of the sauces. And we'll get into it later. but you know why. Yeah, yeah. The cocktail sauce pretty good, I would say. Okay.

Not spicy. It was like a mild cocktail sauce. Okay, okay. I would have tried it. I just, I, yeah, I get it. I couldn't have reliably. Yeah.

Found it. Yeah, there's no labeling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I want to do a deeper dive into that and the not good. The corn bread. Yeah, that was good.

I thought was better than some southern places I've had. Yes. Which is also kind of to say, I think cornbread is on a large scale, an overrated food. I think people tend to like the idea of cornbread more than the execution. And more often than not, cornbread tends to disappoint. Yeah, it usually needs butter. Do you like a sweet cornbread or do you like a classic dry cornbread? I don't like dry.

Yeah. I like moist no matter what. It doesn't have to be sweet or not sweet. I don't care. Okay. I like both. I just need it to have the texture. To me, cornbread is a texture first food.

Yeah, there's a swath of the Midwest and South where a lot of people hate sweet cornbread and other people really like sweet. It's kind of like tea. Yeah. But yeah, I thought it was good. It was a sweet cornbread. It was pretty good.

I went seven out of ten. Yeah, I would put that. What's the edge is six? Yeah, for good. Yeah. I would say six. And it was also like, it was like a triangle. It was like a slice of cake.

Mm-hmm. It was like, yeah. So it was like kind of in a big round. tin and just kind of cut into a little bit, yep, yep. But the real star of the food for me is the chicken fried chicken. Okay. With a caveat. And I told you this caveat when we were there.

It had diminishing returns. But that first bite that I got, the skin was perfectly seasoned. The meat was so juicy. Yeah. And it was, uh, it was white meat. Yeah. And I was like, this is what this is supposed to be. I boldly proclaimed this is what KFC is trying to do.

Yeah, you were into that chicken. I was really into it. And then the more I ate of it, the more like little bones get stuck in your mouth, the more dry bits I found, the more spots where like the skin wasn't as seasoned as I would have wanted. But like, hey, a first impression hits hard and carries a lot of weight. I still went seven out of ten. And I do think it was the best of the food items.

Yeah, it sounds like kind of a keyboard. with a broken return key diminishing returns for you like it was I think that joke would it worked better if I said enter key and then said diminishing returns that's a little oh yeah yeah yeah it did feel very

say the same word twice redundant yeah that is not in my good column chicken fried chicken but better than a lot of the other meats yeah but fine I would say yeah it's like a five for me the chicken fried chicken also do people know what chicken Have you covered this?

You know, I can't guarantee that every listener is listened to every episode. It's like the breading from a chicken fried steak put onto a chicken, which is incredibly funny. It feels like English almost. Chicken fried chicken is so silly. Stupidest name of a dish there is. I love it. It's so funny. I couldn't like every food should have a dumb story.

Yeah. I like it. Yeah. I am on record multiple times. Every time I've tried chicken fried steak on the podcast, I thought it was an abomination. Really? Every single time. That,

I think I've had it for like three or four times. I had it at Dick's Last Resort, I think. Oh, yeah. I had it at Denny's. I had it. Yeah, you don't get a steak at this. I had it at Cracker Barrel. Yeah.

That's a place you would get it. I would say, yeah, Cracker Barrel or like my, my thing with chicken fried steak is going to be a Midwest like steakhouse. That's where I would go. Or Texas. Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah.

a one of one place, not a chain. That's what I would do for that. But I don't love chicken fried steak. But as far as this type of cafeteria food, like everything is from Cisco, like cool, the girl. That was a staple for me at like a like college dining room, the cafeteria, you know? If they had chicken fried steak, it's like we know the consistency because it comes frozen. Yeah.

Like it's fine. Yeah, yeah. And you always, did you have gravy on it? Yeah. When you did it? Yeah. It's a weird day. missed.

And chicken fried chicken is consistently better to me. I agree. I often think chicken is better than beef. I think that if this had been a chicken fried chicken completely boneless, it would have hit every, it would have checked every box. But I think the getting constant little nibbles of bone and like the small bones, I would like bite in and you have to like pick them out of your mouth. I do think chicken fried chicken boneless, I would not like it be too dry.

But I love, I just prefer bones and teeth. chicken. I like the bones. Hot take. Yeah. Imagine just a chicken like amebically just like sloshing around no bones.

You don't want to see that. I'm sure there's some PETA video where they like captured a bioengineered chicken looking like that. That's sad. I might cut that. Yeah. And then I only have one other thing in my good category.

The apple pie that I had at the end. It tasted like it was straight out of like a grocery store bakery but that's not a bad taste it was a six out of ten it was fine for a pie pie's good apple pie being one of the most reliable consistent pies yeah

I had um was it blueberry was it blueberry was it blueberry blueberry blueberry I had a blueberry uh slice lit I'm trademarking that um so I had a blueberry slice lit and it was also six just fine yeah like it's on the edge there but I mean like I think you

said this in there is a it's a Ralph's yeah or a Vaughn's yeah it's straight out of the grocery store yeah did you have anything else in the good category anything six or higher I'm done with mine my other six is salad bar I think there's salad bar uh judging

on a salad terms or salad bar terms as far as like components they had goods they had uh I had spinach um romaine and uh and arugula I believe yeah out of there made a little salad with some peppers and their dressings were good not always labeled so yeah and the cheeses on the the cheeses

were fresh and good i had parmesan and i had gorgonzola um and some croutons everything was good everything was like exactly what i hoped it would be from that salad um my plus up to that salad bar would be like get some olive oil get some like um balsamic vinaigrette out there just in little bottles people would love that. But yeah, it was for, I was a little scared about it when I made a salad and everything was good. So six on that.

Six of a salad bar. Just a full bar. Nothing else is over six for you. Nope. All right. That's all the good. Yeah. At Golden Corral.

Now we got to talk about all the things that weren't. We're going to go into the not good. Not there. Not there. What is the middle? Just there. Putting them together the not there. We're just going to talk about things that weren't at this golden corral.

This is not so good. I'm not quite sure about. It could have done without it. Something brings down the mood. This is just not very good. You know what wasn't at this golden corral? The circuit city that this building clearly used to be based on the shape of it. You're right.

I didn't clock that. It's a plug. Absolutely. That's a plug. Used to be a circuit city. Jeez, that was bothering me. Thank you. It was really,

so it's that classic circuit city front where there's a big old triangle. It's a plug that they used to have in those commercials that it would plug in your circuit city. I loved circuit city. Yeah. And then you walk through one of the holes in that outlet. And we were walking in there and I was like really weird. The doors are weird. Yeah.

Also, atmosphere, speaking of bad, they have claw machines. which is fun. I love that's very cool. But you can't pay cash. You can't pay cash. You have to go to a machine and get a game card. Crazy. This isn't Dave and Busters.

And by the way, the only game they have is like 15 claw machines. Yes, it's all claw machines, which a lot of people love them. And where I live in the San Gabriel Valley, there's a lot of businesses that are just claw machine businesses. That's all it is. Just throw away your money.

Yes. Some people are good at them. Not me. but I will say like if I'm getting a game card throw in a pinball machine throw in a driving game like I want a little variety I'm not getting a card just to do claw machine over and over that's what I'm saying yeah it's that's a wild choice yeah um that's got to be making money like if they keep that many because they probably started with one well they're also probably just such low expense to keep yeah yeah you fill them full of bad toys yeah yeah um that's low expense I did notice right when we walked in that there was like a like a fountain. Yes. Like a waterfall

walls. A waterfall wall. A waterfall wall. I like art. But it's like you can see the plugs. It's a freestanding thing. There's a lot of that. Which just felt like

blended in with the scenery. A little have it like have its own spot. Like seeing like an extension cable at the bottom. I don't love that. Near water. Yeah. And I think the water I would have Imagine the idea is, hey, let's, let's cancel out a little outdoor noise.

Yeah. Because it is like there's two big roads there that are pretty loud. Do you want to know my dumb theory on what it is? They got rid of the chocolate fountain and they're like, well, we got to at least have a fountain when someone's like, the fountain. And you're like, use your words, mashed potatoes. Fountain? There. Yeah, we have it.

Put your cup under there. Oh, no. So, yeah, I didn't love that. I don't love that. lighting bad lighting all overhead i mean it's not like i would say not i would say it's um neither here nor there the lighting it's not like aggressively bad but it could so easily be so much better yeah um i will say uh and this is like a not good that became a just there yeah walking in yeah noticing the lighting being like where should we sit and i was like i bet it gets so much sadder the further back you go yeah yeah yeah

and then we did turn a corner and then all of a sudden a bunch of the booths were like orange and bright and well lit and I was like you know what? Pleasantly surprised I came in with a notion that was not true. Yeah it was a it was a decent vibe in there very sterile and like there's a lot of things they could plus up atmosphere

wise I get it it's an efficiency model yeah but yeah just put some sconces in there have a little something on the tables but very clean is the good part and also nothing but country music the entire time well it's because they

got the review that called them out for having songs about cocaine and pussy. That might have been one of those songs you heard. Who knows? Cocaine pussy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, one of my faves. Yeah. Yeah, it's George Strait. Yeah.

I will say the absence of the chocolate fountain did bother me. There's no show stopper at this place. But they got away with they're known for this. Yeah, they don't have So they have a carving station here that was rarely Occupied like tended to yeah Like they just had a full ham out

Yes uncarved You have to flag someone down to ask them to carve it But they're like not near it Yeah it's very strange I have to say my previous experiences with Golden Corral First of all this was if you can believe this Very small for a Golden Corral Oh okay

Usually like that that little middle section where there's the ham and the pork ribs at ours, huge. Like, and we're talking like, there's like four or five choices to get carved. Yeah. And then like that taco bar would be twice as big. I mean,

I've been to probably two or three golden corrals and mostly went to one. But it was like, like they talked about in the history that you ring the bell and it's fresh. Oh, okay. Uh-huh. Like they have like a bakery.

Yeah. At the golden corral I was used to. This one did not have a bakery. Yeah. Like that bread. was bad. Okay. Yeah,

I want, let's, can we, can we dive into the bread? Yeah. So the golden rolls, as they're called. Yes.

They're like yeast rolls. And I picked one up and started, uh, recording a video of me eating one. And in the process of taking my first bite, realized that the underbelly of it is so much harder than the rest of the roll. And I knocked on it. Yeah.

And I'm not. Talking about like, oh, he's being over dramatic. This thing was sturdy. Yeah. It was like knocking on a door or something like that. And at that moment. A chip in a tooth on there. Yeah.

At that moment an employee came by to bus and was just, and I just felt so put on the spot of like, she like, come back later, please. Like, I'm, I'm clearly like in a moment where I have a negative feeling. about your food and I'm documenting it. And your influencer in the wild. The last thing I want is to then feel like I need to apologize. Oh, I love that. For these roles.

So I would have a different takeaway from that. Okay. If I'm that server or a buser and I see you doing that, I got to think in my head. I'm like, tell me about it. Tell me about a dog. Yeah. And then you're like, rough, rough. Woof, woof, woof, me?

I'm not a dog. Yeah. Yeah, I. so disappointed by the rolls because you had heard this they are usually so good because they're baking them all day and they're only serving

them fresh out of the oven. They have these huge ovens that like fit a whole rack like a rolling rack and they're baking these and they pull them out and then they ring a little bell and it means the bread is fresh and everybody goes up and grabs one and it's like hot out of the oven it's those rolls that they had

but they're good. Yeah yeah. So this place is like either skimping or they don't have a bakery and they're like baking them off side or something like I don't know conceptually these rolls seemed good they're like a Kaiser roll it was very pretty big very yeasty on the half the top of it that was like it was pillowy but then you get to that bottom part and I'm like what is happening yeah it's like a heavy shortening roll that is typically great this is bad it was bad it just it it felt stale yeah like it did taste okay but just for that texture missing I'm going to go four out of ten yeah oh for the roll for the roll i'm going one you're going one it was it should that shouldn't happen yeah rolls shouldn't be that hard it was like imagine you get a big mac and the top of the big mac is rock hard yeah like that's a one at a ten that's bad i guess it's an essential part of but i'm balancing that texture experience with the taste and the taste wasn't bad so that i think that is the thing giving it a few points

points for me. I hear you and I ate two of them. But it's a one baby. I'm sorry. You went back for seconds for something that you're scoring a one. I love that. This is something to calibrate my scores. I eat bad food. Okay. But I but it was bad. Okay. Yeah. The spaghetti with tomato sauce was just like a yep. I took it and I'm like I know this is going to be bad, but I kind of have to know how bad. Yeah. That was my thing. It was like, look, this is going to be a knock against it, but the curiosity of just, like, how, to what extent can you butcher spaghetti? So they missed the mark on texture. Like, imagine hard spaghetti, but not al dente.

Right. Like, I don't know. Because it's sitting out. I don't know. I went two and a half out of ten. Yeah. Could have been worse. And I do have things that were worse.

Yeah. But we're going to go in reverse bad order. Yeah, I hear that. So I throw it to you. Around that level was the fish There's a breaded fish It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be I got it knowing I was scared

Yeah, and I did get it with tartar sauce Which the tartar sauce was fine But three out of ten Rubbery Not inedible But not good Yeah Yeah

All right I'm gonna go with the steak fries Yes I had one of these Oh my God I put lame no seasoning Not crisp But like hard.

Yeah, hard. But not in a crispy way. I had one hard and one too hard, one too soft. Yeah. You didn't find that

Goldilocks fry. No, I didn't find it. Two and a half out of ten for me on the fries. Yeah. Oh, for fries for me, another one.

They're bad. I mean, that's the thing like for a fry, it's a one, because fries are so good. But like, man.

If it's an, if we're judging on freezer fries that you throw in the oven, that's probably like a three or two. Yeah. But a bad for a freezer fry, don't serve that in your restaurant.

Don't do that. Mac and cheese for me three or four like somewhere in there because it's one scoop I had was better than the other that's not good.

No. I must have replaced it. So mac and cheese wasn't good. Yeah, mac and cheese not good. Oh,

I also had another not good which was clam chowder. Risky move. Another risky move. Big risk. I think 0.5. It was pretty rough.

0.5 out of 10? A dish that is easy. to ruin so I get it but it was and I that's rough I had like four spoons of it which is a really bad choice that is not a a flight I'm willing to board I couldn't tell what was a potato and what was clam that that's not a good sign yeah risky move for a clam chowder right yeah I went with what I felt was like the safest move and ended up with something that was really not good the brownie yeah yeah they had like a little snack thing of browning and like I think there was just like a bunch of leavening in there, something to just literally fill up space.

I wrote, this tasted like if Wonderbread was chocolate. Yeah, it's like sawdusty. It was so disappointing texture. I love brownies. The brownies and the meatloaf were indistinguishable visually. Yeah. That's a problem. That is a problem.

Two out of ten on that brownie for me. But I have two things lower. I have one. I forgot in the good. Strawberries, eight. Oh, just. they were really good just a food from nature

they were good all right they were sweet um okay so I tried fried rice and my only note here

that I wrote is no in all caps and I scored it a one out of ten beyond that I think I've blocked out the memory of eating the fried rice it looked um hard was it hard

in the in the thing it looked hard it wasn't hard I think it was just like a taste thing. I didn't write further notes and genuinely I do think I'm blocking out trauma. I don't know why I hated it that much, but I wrote no, one out of ten. I had a similar experience with what were labeled refried beans and in the taco bar. They were not refried beans. It looked like a mixture of pinto beans and another bean. Yeah, yeah. That I don't, like a baked bean or something. Absolutely inedible. Did you try these? No. Really bad. And it was like it looked good. So it looked like pinto beans and some other darker bean, not a black bean, with like pico de gallo sprinkled in, or

something like that. But I tried it. I mean, it tasted like it had been sitting out for years. May it have been. This was the only thing I only had one taste of and vile, zero stars. Like, it was very bad. Wow. And after, I had to have a strawberry.

Had to cleanse the palate. Yeah. Before I talk about the thing that I thought was the worst, nothing was labeled right. Nothing. was labeled right. It's such an easy thing to do. And especially like when you have sauces and there's like eight and it's just like there's no labeling and

then everything else was mislabeled. Yes. A lot of mislabeled, a lot of no label. This is a solvable problem with a system of labeling that's interchangeable. It's okay. And many buffets do that where they're like, oh, this was mac

and cheese in this spot yesterday. Today it's chicken fried chicken. Slap that label on there. Yeah, yeah. But they didn't have that. They had permanent labels, which also tells you something about the variety at this place. They also need to, like, label the chef's side or the... Yeah.

I mean, I'm sure they do, but people were ignoring it or I don't know. It was crazy. But there were multiple things like where it was like, yeah, the cocktail sauce was labeled lemons. Yep. This is, like, there's no, no one cares. Yeah, the fried shrimp was labeled onion rings. Yes, and I asked and heard.

several people ask for different dishes, hey, is this chicken? What is this? And most of the time they knew right away, but a couple times, two different times, an employee had to say something like, one second, really look at the dish. You shouldn't have to study. Look under the thing. Oh, that's pork.

Food should be kind of apparent. Yes. Yes. And to that, my carneasada. That's what that was? No. Oh, no. But it said carneasada, but I was like, I'm pretty sure this is ribs. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

Yes. And so I took a half rack of ribs labeled Carnayasada, knowing it was ribs, but also it didn't look incredibly recognized as ribs. It had an element of, I have never seen skin on pork ribs before that looked so much like skin. Yep. And I don't mean that as in like a food way. I mean that in like a living being kind of way. Yeah, it shouldn't happen because it's not close to the skin.

It looked like leather. It looked and tasted. It looked like old ketchup. Okay. What is crazy that you bring up ketchup because I wrote tough skin was leathery, tasted mildly like ketchup. It looked like ketchup. So that is a thing too in the Midwest.

I will say there's an excellent barbecue sauce that's made with ketchup and Diet Coke. Really, not a bit. It's very good. But so people cook with ketchup in the Midwest quite a bit. And that looked like a failed version of that. It definitely was a failed thing. It's like meatloaf sauce on ribs is what it looked like. I'm going to go 0.5 out of 10 on this.

But more importantly, dishes like this should be criminalized in the sense that something died to become that. And it's like, look, I eat meat. I eat animal products. I also am way more cognizant of food waste when it comes from something that was living. Yeah, our global warming is happening all the time. Animal products are a huge contributor to that. There's an ethical dilemma, like you said,

with a living being who gave their life so we could have this food. You're going to, like, desecrate that rib by slathering ketchup on it, leaving it under a warming tray for hours. Like, come on. Like, put a little... Put some effort into it. and no no um shade to the people working there they're not paid well no of course not this is the company i don't think you are i'm just like like to be clear like that's not what it's about it's this it's

the system that it's in that's crazy you're you're treating it like it's uh i mean it might be sourced as low grade meat and then you put low grade effort into the preparation of it and it's not one that can take it seasoned taco meat can stay there yeah or all day yeah uh one day, unlike those beans. Yeah. Yeah. But that can't, you can't do that with ribs. You make a rib, you got to eat it within two hours.

Ribs are a food that excite people when you, I made ribs. Yes. Kind of like, and I'm texting. Yeah. You know, I do have a barbecue standard, but like I'm also not a crazy snob about it. I just like barbecue. Yeah. I really do.

It's, to me, ribs is a crazy move. Ham makes way more sense. They have that big ham. ham's usually preserved it can sit out there all day yeah it can sit out there for a long time as long as you refrigerated overnight but ribs come on what are we doing you can't reheat yeah this yeah uh anything else in the not good for you uh overall salt i mean i have this issue with fast food sometimes uh just like a lot of stuff way too much salt every like um prepared casseroly type dish was way too salty the fifth

and the shrimp, even though I like the shrimp, the batter was really salty. Yeah, just that happens a lot with cheaper prepared food. It's like you compensate with salt, but I thought that was nuts. But I will say other than a few missteps, overall, the food felt safe to me. It did feel safe, but it didn't taste great. Yes. So, like, I will say, if I had to have this in an airport, I'd be like, okay, I have calories. I guess.

I'm okay. I'm not excited about it, but like, I'll rip the band-aid off. up on those shrimp and strawberries. What a crazy mix. And then before moving away from the not good, the last thing to bring up, what was the guy saying on speakerphone in the bathroom? Oh, my God.

So you walk in, right? Bathroom mediocre at best, I would say. It's clean enough. Ice in the urinals, always a weird thing. I don't get it. Yeah, it's a little game. The entire time I was in the bathroom, uh a man on the toilet in the stall actively doing what you do on a toilet in a stall and

loud on the phone his mom uh i i don't arguments contentious or no uh no he's looking for advice clearly about a job situation i don't think they respect you there i think you should have gotten that promotion blah blah blah and he's like i don't know mom and in the bat like he's why this is a this is an employee at golden kraal it's got to be i would love it so much. It's not, but I would love it. I will vomit now. In retrospect, knowing if that was

of an employee. Don't treat him with respect. Workers' rights. That's a nuts move because it is not, like he's in a public bathroom. So if he is talking about his own job, like any of his employee or any of his fellow employees are in there. What are they going to do?

We recorded you. Oh, yeah? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Entrapment. But he's entrapping them into... I refilled the ice and the urinals. Don't get mad of me. All right.

Yeah, so that's everything that was not good for me and for you as well, right? Cool. Now let's just talk about all the things that were there. They didn't affect just one way or another. This is a weird one.

I'm not quite sure what to say about it. Uh, yeah. This is for the stuff that is just there. The chicken tender, not to be confused with the chicken fried chicken. Yeah. I got two different forms of fried chicken because I was like fried chicken and chicken fried chicken.

Yep. I want to see what the difference is. And this fried chicken tender was dry, markedly worse than the chicken fried chicken. I agree. But squeaked in at a four out of ten. So that's where I would put it was like four, four and a half for that chicken tender. Yeah. Chicken tenders can get really bad.

And that one was edible. Yeah. And like fine. And the season was fine. Was it good? I got to say that to me, this is going to, you're going to think I'm nuts. Or you might not. I haven't seen it up here.

That, not a lot of space between that and a Raising Canes. I think Raising Canes is vastly overrated. What's going on there? I don't know. Are they serving that dog? Yeah, I think Raising Canes is like, we have a sauce people like. It's all sauce. I, not as much, but I lean that way with Chick-fil-A-2.

I'm like, that place is sauce. It's, it's more unique than a Raising Canes. Raising Cains, I truly don't understand why this is huge. There's only a few locations in L.A. area, but the lines. Every time they open up, it takes like a year and a half for like that area to become normal again. Yes. To a point that they like closed off a neighborhood was like, this is like, you're not allowed to drive down this street unless you live on this street now because. of the Raising Cain's line would go

fully down that that route. Yeah. So. For me, as I'm calling this segment, uh, the Bob Dylan, I'm not there. Uh, I'm not there for, just rename your segments. Uh,

Hey, I'm not there for the bread pudding. Okay. Bread pudding. Just nothing. I like how you talk as Bob Dylan the way Bob Dylan sings. Because he like doesn't talk like that, right? Uh,

I feel like in the 60s he kind of did. And now he kind of talks like, the bread pudding was a weird one. Oh, thanks, Mr. Dillon. Later, Bob Dylan, I don't know how much of that growl is real. I mean, he smoked at some point. At some point, it's like, this is what the people expect of me.

I love Bob Dylan. He's one of my favorite artists of any type. But he has so many layers of facade at different times. Like, he puts on personas. I don't know. He's no Maynard James Canaan. See your little mashup?

I don't know enough tool, but do you get... I don't know enough to do it. Yeah, great, great, great. Not there for me. Just there. Oh, my God. I wasn't doing the bit at that time. I know.

I could tell. This is nuts. Ketchup. The ketchup was just okay. It was like room temperature. I don't like that. What do you mean? It was out of a bottle.

Of course it's room temp. Oh, that ketchup. I must have got something else. I got ketchup at the bar. Label your sauces. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's our issue. They had, they had sauces at the salad bar.

Yeah. So they had like not olive oil, some other oil. And then they have like white vinegar. Both of those are labeled, which also, who wants white vinegar on a salad? Get balsamic. And then they have two other things, different colors, no label. I'm like, I have no idea what that would be. Yeah.

And that persist throughout the restaurant. Yeah, it was, yeah, it was not enjoyable to just like, I don't know, I'm guessing what I got. Yeah, I don't like that. Mashed potatoes with poultry gravy, too basic to get off the ground. It was, it was like, it wasn't offensively bad. I've had some bad mashed potatoes recently. But it was just like, it offered nothing. Yeah.

How about them apples? Is that a Boston, is that a Goodwill hunting? Yeah, baby. Five out of ten. Did you have the potatoes? I did. Yeah, I got to say four out of ten. I'm pretty picky with a mashed potato, but it didn't offend me.

For me, Mac salad, did you have a Mac salad? I love Mac salad, and this was, yeah, it was just there. I like how you're trying to, like, you're trying to shoot eyes at my camera, which can't see you. Just a little peak of my hair probably got it to frame. Okay, so the biggest surprise for me was two things that I'll talk about together that I really thought would be terrible. Yeah. They're Mexican food. They had like tortilla chips and then they had like hard shell and like just a platter of taco meat where it's like come get yourself a scoop taco meat and we got like a little thing of pico.

And it was tolerably enjoyable. I went you made a taco I went five and a half on both of them and I'll say this the chips they had like an oiliness to them in like a good way yeah I love that

and I was like I did three trips from the Little Mexican food section over to the sauce area of the salad bar hoping to find a salsa and they just did not have a salsa and I'm like you're giving

chips and you're not giving salsa or guac which I don't know if I want golden corral guac but salsa I'd try yeah such a missed opportunity because these chips were very good and could have been elevated to like a truly good rating if they had like something to go with it

I like how hip you got there for a second I don't know if you caught this at home viewers I'm getting in the habit of addressing the camera now I know you're you've become a monster with power at home viewers notice Michael was like hey you're giving chips Pretty hip, he's hip. I know the lingo.

And I know that because I'm hip. Yeah. Man, that is addictive. I'm right down the barrel. Are you free July 9th? Why? It's a Wednesday at 2 p.m. There's a senior magic show.

I know the place. I know the place. Yeah, I would love to go to that. That'd be really fun. This, I, the taco bar in my recollection from my Missouri relocation of golden corral had like a um carafe i guess like a

giraffe of salsa and in that bar it would run up against which this one did it runs up against the um baked potato bar and a lot of shared stuff that you can put up so it would have you know like your um shredded lettuce you're like uh green onions and you're like

um oh like everything so and and yeah avocado sometime uh well probably not they'd probably have like a weird Bacon bits. Oh, yes, bacon bits. They'd have like a weird avocado spread.

That's what you get in the Midwest. But yeah, they're too cowardly to just do avocado. They think you can't shit. All our avocados are from Chile for the most part. They think it can't make it to Missouri. They're all frozen.

Anyway, those tacos to me in my recollection are very like, oh, mom made tacos. It felt so much like my mom's taco bar. And that's good. That's fine. It's not.

It's a different food than tacos. Right. But for that food, it's like, yeah, I would agree with five, but I didn't have it this time. Yeah. That's it for the just there for me. Was there anything else for you? No, a lot of bad. Not a lot of just there.

Cool. Yeah. Well, we need to put all of this together into a final score. But before we can do that, Ben, this is your first time on the fine dining podcast. You haven't gone to the 100 plus restaurants that I've been to. You're just not as calibrated as I'm. am, but luckily for you, we are going to give you the opportunity to do so. Chili's perfectly five in the center, but we need to know your zero and your ten as we jump

into this week's Calibration Station. Yeah, it's all train theme before I remember. It's all train thing. Zero or 10, your best restaurant experience, your worst restaurant experience that you've ever had. Let's define them so that we can determine where Golden Corral is. Worst, I have short memory for bad experiences, which is a learned trait.

But the first one that comes to mind is yard house. Are you familiar with this chain? I am familiar. I've only been one time. Their thing is like they have a million beers on tap. I think 99 or a lot. 100 at every location. Yeah.

And so we went there one time with friends after like a class and my wife and I are set and she orders sliders. You're supposed to get three sliders. Her sliders come. It's three buns with onions in them and no meat. Crazy. Normal, mistake, right?

Like, that's a mistake. Somebody was making, was prepping. They thought somebody else would put the meat on, whatever. Yeah, yeah. It's a bad mistake, but it's a mistake. What is it a factory? Yeah. How many?

Hands does your food touch? It's a gigantic place. Yeah. Yard House. Like, it's like the size of eight bars all jammed together. It's way too big. And their food is never good. But this was exceptionally bad.

I got a soda. I didn't get beer. And it was like room temp to warm Coke or something like that. So that's very bad in the first place. And they wouldn't replace it. And then the, uh, the server to her being like, um, hey, there's no meat on these. Can I? And he was like, what are you?

want me to do about it. That's wild. It was, that's wild. It was wildly rude. I think the AC was broken in there. What do you expect this to be fixed? Crazy loud, playing like ACDEC over

and over. Same song. Yeah, just miserable. We didn't, we didn't enjoy ourselves. And then after all that, going back to the car, look at the receipt. They get overcharged just by like $30. $30. And then your car was stolen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's that kind of day.

So I did go back and I think I got the receipt fixed because at that point in my life, that was a fortune. Yeah. But yeah, that's probably the worst yard house in Pasadena. And Paso, putting them on the last. We know which one to avoid. Don't go there. They have like eight hosts. They're out of control.

They speak in unison. They're a hive mind. Hello and welcome to Yard House. That's right. They have a hive of hosts. They swarm out in front of the I pick theaters. Best is in. Have you been to California Adventure at Disneyland?

You're going to say California Pizza Kitchen. Yes, I have been to California Adventure. Carthace Circle, I think might be my best dining experience. Is that like the one with a really long wait list that's super fancy? Yes. Okay. It's a long waitlist day of, but you can usually, if you have a little forward planning, you can often get in. Oh, okay.

And they do cancellations and stuff. I would recommend if you can't get in, go to the bar. They'll let you just kind of wait in person for half an hour and then go into the bar. Bar is excellent. Everything about this place is what I love Disneyland. So it's in Disneyland. You're already winning. The theming is immaculate.

It's themed as Carthace Circle, which was a movie theater on Hollywood Boulevard. It hasn't been around since the 40s, I believe it got demolished. So it's art deco. It's gorgeous in there. It's a really nice reproduction of that vibe. This is the place where Snow White and the Seven Dwarves premiered.

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So that's why it's a Disneyland. there's photos of Walt up everywhere with his cigarettes photoshopped out which I think is hilarious and lovely it's a nice like mild revisionism that I can get

fine. It's very funny and silly of like this guy didn't smoke what are you talking about? He's pointing and everything with two fingers have you ever heard of the Disney point this is a real thing is that what they're calling it? It's not a bit at Disneyland no one will point like employees cast members

will not point like this ostensibly because it's rude to point at someone so they point like this or like this. I've never understood the cultural norm. I don't get like yeah if don't stop that like I don't understand like

try it again yeah I get what you're saying I don't know it just doesn't bum me out now if someone's pointing at me and whispering to the person next to them like something and it's like across a room yeah I'm going to be like okay, maybe that's a little bit rude, but like in general.

Like cheese like that. That's exactly what I'm scared of. So that two-finger point, there is a conspiracy theory that that is because people will say like, that's the way Walt pointed. And everybody's like, he's not pointing like that in those pictures because it's because there's a cigarette that's been edited out. Yeah. Interesting.

So I love Carthay Circle. The bathrooms, floor to ceiling stall doors, you love that. It's all like rich mahogany everywhere. There's leather. every dish outstanding the people are jazz

to be working there they clearly get paid well they're happy those are the best it's so fun I haven't had like a moment of bad experience there

it's just like elation for how nice and how good to services and that it's inside a theme park I think the price is reasonable

for those things yeah I've eaten on Christmas there I've eaten on Thanksgiving there and multiple birthdays it's an incredible

place somewhere between the yardhouse in Pasadena. Yes, zero. And California Adventure Pizza Kitchen. Ten. Carthay Circle? Yeah, Carthay Circle. Lies Golden Corral.

Yes. So, we are going to put it to the Chili's Test. It's not to set scale. Will it pass or will it fail? Is it the worst? Is it the best? Let's put it to the Chili's test. I would love to go first, and I'm going to say straight off

the bat. I don't know what I was thinking with the score. It's way too high. But I think I was wowed by nostalgia. You're in a place that has memories, happy memories of a time when you're free to roam and make your own plate. Yeah. I talked to you a little bit about this at the restaurant, like this feeling you see when, especially kids, get up from the table to go get another plate of food at a buffet. It's like there's like a hopefulness on their face. It's like I am finally in charge. I don't, I have to do homework and I don't want to do it. I have a bedtime. Yes. But I'm the master of

my own destiny today. I can go get a piece of fried fish and dip it in ice cream. Yeah. I'm loose, baby. And they get this like self-assured, you get independence. And I think all those memories came flooding back. And that's how one starts smoking.

Those kids are now going to be like, I can do anything. Yeah. They're Disney pointing all over the place. Give me some bro, bro, burrow reds. Yeah. That's at the other end of the buffet. wouldn't be that surprising. It does feel like there should be smoking in that restaurant. It actually kind of feels like

the atmosphere would improve everything else would go down. Yes. Yeah. So I think at least a point, point and a half for nostalgia, but I'm at a four point. Now,

this might be weird to you, but I kind of get really specific with my score. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 4.52. 4.52. Yeah. Ben, I always give my scores

to the hundredth. But sometimes, Yeah. A restaurant comes along that is so definitively on a number. Yes. And that is how I felt about Golden Corral here just yesterday. The food for me, it was two thumbs down food. Like, you're, yeah, it's just not a great meal.

Yeah, strawberry's good. Even the stuff that tastes okay. Yeah. You can tell like, but this, like, it's not high grade meat or, you know, whatever. The service genuinely pleasant, but kind of unnoticeable. Yeah. And the atmosphere, like, also just, like, kind of thumbs in the middle.

Oh, yeah, at best. Fearing towards sad. Yeah. But, like, but not quite. They're trying. But it used to be a circuit city, you know? It used to be a circuit city. If I had known at the time, it would have helped me.

You're imagining there used to be, like, VCR is right where I'm sitting. Right? That's incredible. Yeah. Oh. They have keyboards. Like, you can buy a piano. You can buy a piano.

piano here today. That's right. Sometimes a full drum set. Sometimes a full drum set. There's no circuits. It's not electronic. Yeah. You know, I thought that this whole experience felt definitively. Yes. Like a three out of ten experience.

I'm with you. Yeah. Yep. So when you put your score with my score, Golden Corral goes up on the Chotchke of mediocrity at a 3.76. Wow. This is incredible. We're seeing a Golden Corral sticker be unveiled right here. Here's the crazy thing about this. I saw Michael buy this at Golden Corral. They sell these. The score is pre-filled in. That's what people don't know about these chains. They all sell. They know their place. Oh, my God. It's 3.76. But it beat out Sizzler. Better than Sizzler. That makes sense. These are friends. Shaky's another buffet.

Oh, my God. Better than Gattie Town, which is also a terrible buffet. And Shoney's had a buffet. Oh, my God. I am literally now just realizing that, like, five of my bottom 10 are buffets. Do you have any high-scoring buffets? Let's... Do you have, like, a...

Pasa Bonita kind of had a buffet thing that we paid for the Cliffside Dining so you actually get table service. we got to skip that. Oh, not good for you. You got Cliffside. You an iffy. It was only an extra like 20 bucks a person. Like it really wasn't that bad.

Luby's cafeteria, not buffet, but cafeteria. To me, zero. Really? But maybe that was location specific. Yeah. Have you ever heard of Hu hot? I've heard of Huat. Yeah.

That to me is, that is a buffet. It's Mongolian grill. I mean, that's in your 7.8 range. Anytime you put like a cultural cuisine on top of buffet, it's probably going to be pretty decent. Yeah, it's really good. And maybe, maybe like a sushi bar, maybe that's a buff, like a carousel. Like a cura.

Oh, Kuro would be up there to me. Like that's never been. It's really fun. They have robots that serve you. And I for one to welcome them. Well, all we know, definitively, Golden Corral is officially not as good as Chili's. Not as good. Objectively not so good.

They didn't have baby back ribs, just regular ones with cats. That's the song. It tastes it like it's leather. It's no maestro. 9.45. That's just truth right there. All right. Well, I'm going to go somewhere next week because I want to keep the show going.

And I want to get another restaurant to put up against Chili's to do so. I got to turn to the You Must Bowl. You Must Bowl is my bowl that tells me which restaurant I must go to. Oh, my goodness. It's full of tomato soup at the bottom. Oh, my God. Stop abusing the audio medium.

Next week on the podcast, I will be going to Gino's east of Chicago. That's going to be fun. That's going to be so fun. That's going to be good. Yeah. Duh, pizza. That's what they say when you walk in the door.

They go, dub dish. the wind refers to our politics that is true though that is true the S is silent in Illinois but that it should be because it comes from the Illini Native American tribe

We even have the fight in the line eye I feel like you're throwing too many things at me that I am trying to just provide the real facts to Springfield That's a place Yeah All right Ben

Well, you know, all right, if you guys want more facts about the state of Illinois, head on over to at Ben Castle on Instagram. That's right. I do, uh, Illinois History Month, uh, is every August. So that's coming up. So look forward to that. Yeah, follow me on at Ben Castle and, uh, check out my podcast live from the big apple. It's really fun. Uh, I hope you love it.

Amazing. And you can follow this show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast. find dining podcast.byskye. Dot B-sky. Social on Blue Sky, which I never used, but I have, but I have. But you have. But where I want to see you most is my Discord server. Come join the conversation.

Come just hang out, share pictures of food that you've got, talk new upcoming exclusive items that different restaurants are trying and stuff like that. We can talk food history. We can share Yelp reviews, crazy restaurant stories. And then I have a Patreon where you can get an exclusive fine dining episode every single month, as well as the full Yelp from Stranger's segments

and the occasional deleted scene and I'm gonna try doing like little food tastings there as well so you'll say you'll get an email that says welcome to to the Patreon welcome to the party Patreon

the party rion the parturion I botched that anyways that's another one in the books thank you so much for watching I will see you all next week have a fine day Well, there's another one in the folks. We judge the service up to the cooks.

And while we may have gotten a couple of dirty looks, though the journey can never stop, now from the bottom down to the top, we got a new and low and everything's unlocked. And that's because chillies do the letter to the tea. It's the perfect on a stone. I'm notherty, I'm sorry. So now we got a brand new kind of test

That's the ones we gotta know Could we should lay out in the air Triple Dipper got the ribs A main course Felt big little in the middle It's gone now it's got to be the lock For what we use When we put things up on the charge game

We are for day are a day So there's another one in the books, Yeah, there's another one in the books And we will see you next a week and next a week, baby Have a fine day