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Customers at America’s biggest buffet chain can pile their plates high with steak, shrimp and comfort food favorites, but behind the all-you-can-eat spread is a carefully calculated balancing act, according to a new report.
Golden Corral has developed a sophisticated system to keep the buffet model viable despite challenging economic conditions, The Wall Street Journal recently reported.
The chain, which has roughly 350 restaurants across the U.S., predominantly in the South and Southeast, offers about 150 different buffet items. What customers might not realize is that they are carefully arranged into “modules” that mix expensive and inexpensive foods, CEO Lance Trenary told the Journal.
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Pricier items like meat and seafood are paired with lower-cost items like hush puppies and french fries. Meatloaf goes side-by-side with potatoes, gravy and green beans, for example.
Golden Corral offers roughly 150 items with its buffets, ranging from sirloin steak and shrimp to potatoes, rice and other sides. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“We have to be pretty creative in the way that we present our menu,” Trenary told the Journal.
The chain also has to adapt to changes in the market.
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As beef prices have shot up, Golden Corral added a bone-in fried pork chop as a cheaper alternative to sirloin. The pork chop costs the chain only about 40% of what the sirloin costs, so every customer who chooses pork instead of steak helps reduce Golden Corral’s overall food costs.
Quality also matters more at a buffet, where customers can simply discard a poorly prepared dish and return for something else.
Keeping food fresh and minimizing waste are key parts of making Golden Corral’s all-you-can-eat model work. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Golden Corral tries to prevent that by keeping food fresh, making about 80% of its buffet items in-house and preparing only what it expects customers to eat. The chain uses demand data to forecast needs in 15-minute increments rather than cooking large quantities in advance and leaving them under food warmers.
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But the careful approach doesn’t mean it has been smooth sailing for Golden Corral.
“This has been a difficult year for us, don’t get me wrong,” Trenary said. “We are trying to at least tread water.”
The buffet chain pairs higher-cost foods such as shrimp with more affordable options, including hush puppies and french fries. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
About 38 cents of every dollar Golden Corral brings in goes toward food, while the chain is trying to keep its dinner buffet priced below $20 at many locations.
Selling drinks separately helps bring in additional revenue, but rising food and other costs are making the all-you-can-eat model increasingly difficult to sustain.
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Still, the promise of getting more food for a set price remains appealing to budget-conscious diners and other restaurant chains have leaned into that appeal, according to industry data.
Golden Corral is trying to keep dinner buffet prices below $20 at many of its restaurants despite rising costs. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Red Lobster, Applebee’s and Olive Garden are among those offering different types of unlimited promotions.
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Major chains rolled out about 150 such deals in the first half of 2026 — roughly four times the number offered in 2021, according to Technomic data.
Fox News Digital reached out to Golden Corral for comment.
