Fare game

The year: 2002. Our Best New Restaurant winner: Golden Corral.

By Steve Lange

What We Wrote Then: “Golden Corral has separate buffet plazas, beginning with a ‘Fresh Produce’ market offering an abundance of freshly made salads and soups. A Grill and Entree plaza finds busy chefs turning out everything from right-off-the-grill Philadelphia cheese steak sandwiches to a Yankee pot roast you’re certain your grandmother made. ... Bottom line: Great food served fresh and fast at a bargain price.”

How They’re Doing Now: In late 2007, owners Jerry and Dean Nelson left the Golden Corral franchise behind and transformed the space into Gorilla’s Family Fun and Food, a “buffet with a video arcade.” In mid-’08, the place was revamped into Gorilla’s Sports Bar, Grill and Arcade.
What those in the know say: “We retired people enjoyed the lower-priced early afternoon buffet,” says former P-B food critic Pauline Walle. “I miss the many stations where you could watch chefs and bakers at work. One could have just soup and a loaded baked potato, or the whole works.”

Our Take: Golden Corral, Old Country Buffet. Old Country Buffet, Golden Corral. I know we’ll get our share of arguments from readers, but these two places went back and forth in our Best Buffet category and seemed pretty interchangeable—to us, anyway. And while the Gorilla’s Family Fun and Food was a step up for families, the multi-hour (and big dollar) commitment to a full buffet just to access the arcade was a bit much. But we think they’ve got it right with the Gorilla’s Sports Bar, Grill and Arcade—we can take the kids to the best arcade in town (check out the Wednesday Family Nights) while picking and choosing from the solid bar food menu. Or we can leave the kids at home, and play the video version of Deal or No Deal until last call.