My family has been to Golden Corral many times in the past. Sadly, over the years, the food quality keeps going downhill and the staff care less during every visit (for example, the time a server dumped our food while we were in the bathroom and didn't even apologize). Tonight was the make-or-break dining experience that finally made me say Eff it, we are not going back.
When I walked in with my husband, there was a line all the way from the register to the front door. Okay, they were busy. We made our way to the counter, and the kid working there didn't even look at us until we were almost past him. Finally, instead of saying hello or even smiling, he asked, "What do you want to drink?" Wow, have niceties gone out the window just because you have a line? Then another young kid was just standing behind the counter looking at us like we were aliens. He, too, just asked, "How many?" instead of saying hello. From the opposite counter, he yelled how much we owed, then slapped our credit card down and told my husband to sign it. What the eff was going on tonight??
After we paid, a woman who I assume is the manager, was directing patrons to different open tables. When it was our turn, she gestured us forward and said, "Okay let's go," while barely looking at us, not smiling, and didn't say hello. AGAIN. The table she pointed to was in the back middle of the left section (when you're facing the food line), and it was DIRTY. There were scraps of paper laying on it and visible ice cream drips all the way across. WHAT? You just let me sit down at a table where little kids were spitting their food out, and I also got to sit on a chair that had to be wiped first? Is no one paying attention over there??
I'm not even done yet, though! My husband put his sweater on a chair because, you know, that one time a server dumped our food and we were still in the building. We went to the salad bar and made up a plate for ourselves. By the time we came back, there was still no silverware for us to eat with. They have this stupid new process where the servers drop it off rather than having it readily available near the plates. A female server came by several times and my husband finally asked for forks. No one ever approached us to greet us, introduce themselves, or leave their business card. We returned to the line and got our entrees, and during that time, my husband's cup was emptied while mine was down to less than half. We had seen a male server walking around as well, clearing plates and filling drinks. We were sitting amongst the dirty plates from our previous trip as well as two still empty glasses, and both servers were assisting the diners at every table but ours. I kid you not, I was beyond bewildered and upset when neither one of them would look me in the eye or acknowledge that I was staring holes into them while they worked.
I finally had enough, with my husband's soda empty for 20-25 minutes, we had not spoken with a single server the entire meal, and nobody would even look at me when I tried to catch their eyes. Without finishing our food, we stood up to leave and the male server FINALLY said, "Have a good night," I was so pissed, I blurted out, "We won't! We didn't get any service the whole time we were here!" While I was in the middle of the sentence, he literally raised his hand and waved me away without saying a word. I kind of stood and stared at him for a second, trying to comprehend whether he really did it. He never looked back at me or said a word, so you bet I stormed out FUMING.
And that's how this post was born. Never in my life have I EVER gone somewhere and been blatantly ignored for the entirety of my visit. We spent our money to go there and eat, we don't cause trouble, and we were there for at least an hour. How on earth do they get away with treating people like this? I'll certainly not pay them to disrespect me again, especially after seeing them give foot massages on the table last Mother's Day. I'm done sitting down and allowing myself to be demeaned - I hadn't even spoken to a server, so I KNOW I didn't do anything wrong. I'm just outraged and plain done setting foot in their doors. read more