Golden Corral, Freehold, NJ - A Hit and Miss Golden Corral

Yes, it has been a long time since the last article. I have not wanted to keep writing about the same places and there are so few buffets to write about any longer - in fact, even the old standbys seem to be closing.

I am often asked about the Golden Corral in Freehold, New Jersey. We have been there many times in the past and the one thing that holds true is that one visit can be great and another visit not so good. This Golden Corral opened with some problems and during that first year it was to be avoided - and that was some time ago. It got better - but it remains inconsistent.

We were just there again. We had not been there for a number of months. This is not near us. It takes two expensive bridge tolls and a lot of traffic to get to this Golden Corral - the closest Golden Corral to the NY Metro area.  We had business in the area and decided to spend time until dinner to have dinner at Golden Corral.

We had been to the Golden Corral in Whitehall, PA for dinner not too long ago. That was nice! Our experiences there have been consistently good. The price for dinner there was $13.99 - less for Seniors.  We walked into the Golden Corral in Freehold and the price for adults was $15.99 with a Senior price of $14.99!!! This was not on the weekend. This was a Wednesday night!  This Golden Corral has always been more expensive - but never this high! Drinks are almost $3.00. This is now quite an expensive meal with nothing really different from what they have ever served before.

I like Golden Corral, in general, for the steak. It is the best of the buffet steak - thick sirloin - and when there is a grill chef who knows what he is doing will cook to order as you request - and you get your piece of the steak the way you want it. The grill chef on this night at the New Jersey Golden Corral was one I have seen there before.  I like my steak rare - not raw - but red inside and crispy cooked outside - and often I get it this way just by asking for rare.  I asked for a rare steak. He took one off the side of the grill from a pile of steaks and started cooking it again - OK - he was going to heat it back up (I guess). He cut a piece off the steak - did not show it to me - as they usually do - and put it on my plate. It is best described as medium/well.  Tasty? Yes. Grizzly? No. Overdone? Yes - for me.

We start our meals with soup and we both like the chicken noodle soup that Golden Corral serves. Unlike other chicken noodle soups the noodles are thick and doughy - great. The soup has pieces of chicken, carrots, and celery in a nice chicken broth - USUALLY.  This chicken noodle soup tasted like someone in the kitchen dropped a full container of salt into the chicken noodle soup. It really was beyond edible for the salt. This is not usual in our experience with this soup - there or in other Golden Corrals.

My wife likes meatloaf - as do I. She likes brown gravy meatloaf - as opposed to tomato sauce/ketchup covered meatloaf. On this night it was brown gravy meatloaf - burned on the top. We both took some. This too was so salty it was hard to eat it. My wife says that the next tray they brought out - which was not burned on top - and she took some - was not salty. So what happened to that first one? Not good!

There are special features on the menu this month - the one most intriguing on the television commercial is Slow Smoked Sirloin. On the commercial this looks like steak. In photo ads it looks like sliced sirloin.  In each ad, it is pink and juicy looking - nicely pink and juicy looking! When I saw this I knew I had to get to a Golden Corral to try this - and was looking forward to this when we came in that night.  it was on the side of the grill counter - a large blackened chunk of beef to be sliced by one of the grill people. I went up for a piece and eventually someone came over to slice it - they had been slicing in advance before I came up. He sliced off about an inch thick slab of grey meat with a thick crust and a small pink ring around the edge under the crust. I figure that was the "smoke ring" and the crust was the "bark" - all smoked BBQ terms.  The nice pink and juicy smoked sirloin was just on the commercial and the photo ads. This was more pot roast than anything else. It was tender - at least while it remained hot. As I was getting to the end of the piece (reluctantly) it was fast becoming tough and not chewable. There was a seasoning on the outside - and on the meat - that was a bit overwhelming - and not good. I did not finish the piece I was given.  I just could not eat any more of it. Is this representative of this entree in all Golden Corral's - I hope not - but maybe it is. I regretted not taking another piece of steak instead of this not good featured slow smoked sirloin.

The other features are Peel and Eat Shrimp, Golden Fried Shrimp, and Cajun Shrimp Boil. Of these I only saw the peel and eat shrimp and that was on the side of the salad bar. My wife missed that completely and when I told her about it she thought I was talking about the tiny boiled shrimp that are always on their salad bar. The other two - ? - if they were there they were not obvious, but I was not looking for them.

Between the too much salt and the price and the not so properly cooked steak and the not so good slow smoked sirloin this was one of those better not happen too often OFF nights at Golden Corral, Freehold, New Jersey.

My wife was even more unhappy because for some reason they need to pour a thick butterish oil over the cornbread and rolls and soak it in - making that not very appealing. it is not butter - and there is plenty of butter available to put your own butter on the rolls and the cornbread.

Dessert - the selection is limited - and my wife likes to take the apple cobbler and put the vanilla soft-serve over it - which she says has been good at other Golden Corrals - and even at this one in the past.  The apple cobbler was fine but the soft-serve machine was putting out white ice and not vanilla soft-serve ice cream.  I had a small cube of chocolate frosted chocolate sheet cake - which was just OK.

Service here - in our experience - has mostly been good and it was good on this night. The server went out of his way to keep checking in with us and while it took him a little while to get to our table when we first sat down, he was good during the meal. He also was covering too many tables and was  constantly carrying more stacks of dishes than he should be expected to. Another server was needed in this section.   Many were not tipping him. I did - as always.

Cleanliness was just OK. There were too many dirty plates coming off the clean stack and when you pick you a plate check the top and bottom of that plate and the bottom of the plate that was under it.  Since plates are now out to take (and not brought to your table by your server as they were at Golden Corral in the past) there is a problem with finding a clean plate.

Will this be the last time we go to this Golden Corral?  No, it won't be. We will go back again as the next time could be very good.  Why was this time like this - there really is no explanation or excuse. It was not crowded. We did not arrive late - in fact we were earlier than we usually are at most buffets - just after 6 pm.  The price, however, will be a concern. For the cost of this dinner for two I could go to a non-buffet steak chain and save the gas and tolls.

Do I caution those who have never been there from going? Yes. Expect that it could be great or a bumpy meal!  But do definitely expect it to cost a lot.