Comparing Golden Corral in Enid and Riverside Café in Derby, Ks
My spouse and our Granddaughter want to have a family day on Sundays. Today they wanted to go out for brunch at "Golden Corral" here in Enid, Oklahoma. Since they are advertising brunch until two in the afternoon, and it was eleven thirty, why not? I didn't consider the possibilities is why not.
We got there well before noon and got our table. Our drinks and silverware arrived quickly and I went to the omelet bar. After standing there with nobody working the station for a while, I stopped the manager. I asked if the omelet bar was being worked. He replied that it was and I told him there was nobody at it. He went into the kitchen and I could hear him say somebody needed to man it. He left the kitchen and time passed.
Now, at this point, I might remind folks that I am over seventy years old and handicapped. I can walk short distances, but standing for long times is very painful. By this time some ten to fifteen minutes had passed. I gave up and went to get the pre-scrambled eggs, some bacon and hash browns. No bacon being served, no hash browns. I settled for scrambled eggs, one biscuit with sausage gravy, ham and an Italian sausage from the sausage and peppers.
My bad.
The "Golden Corral" cooks their scrambled eggs until there is no moisture left in them at all. Then they put them over a hot bath to dry them out even further. They were egg jerky. The ham was baked dry also. This may be the traditional way to cook wherever this chain started out. Because the Italian sausage was also dry as a bone. The biscuit was about a quarter of an inch thick and crisped through. The only redeeming bit on my plate was the sausage gravy. I broke the biscuit in half horizontally and smothered it in the gravy.
I don't want to say this was the worst breakfast I have ever had, but it is in the top two. I saw a cook get shanked for better food than this in a Texas prison.
The topper on this is the price. For two seniors, one adult and three drinks the total came to over fifty dollars.
At "Riverside Café" in Derby, Kansas, you can get the "Hungry Man" breakfast for $12.99. It consists of three breakfast links (Big, moist, well flavored links), three slices of crisp, not overcooked, bacon, three sausage patties larger than an English Muffin, three eggs cooked to order, three slices of buttered toast, average hash browns (nobody is perfect), and your choice of a half order of biscuits and sausage gravy (full sized biscuits) or a pancake that has to have a separate plate. For three I would have gotten out for thirty nine dollars. A savings of over ten to fifteen dollars and an immensely more palatable breakfast.
The cost of the drive would have been worth it. read more