Went to a Golden Corral a couple years ago & refuse to ever eat in one again. If people knew what goes on behind restaurants with closed kitchens, you’d probably never eat in a restaurant ever again. Cleanest restaurant I ever worked in was a cafe style restaurant with a food counter & you could see inside the kitchen.
I visited the Golden Corral in Midland, Tx back in 2014. The “clean” plates on the dish rack as you came in were stuck together with dried food, and the utensils had clumps of food stuck to them. I asked a waitress what was going on and her reply was, “The dish washer broke.”
I’ve never been back in one. The Cracker Barrel chain is rapidly headed down the toilet too.