7 Reasons People Were Supposedly Kicked Out Of Golden Corral

Getting kicked out of Golden Corral is harder than you think, but we've uncovered 10 reasons people have been asked to leave. Some have been kicked out mid-buffet, while others were asked to leave before they even started to eat. One moment, a customer is eating or anticipating eating mountains of food, and the next moment they're on the outside looking longingly inside. While Golden Corral doesn't make our list of best buffet restaurants in the U.S., we've found it to be predictably decent. So, it's surely a disappointment to get kicked out of the establishment.

While you probably imagine that most people who have been kicked out of an all-you-can-eat buffet either stocked up on too much food or overstayed their welcome, there are other reasons, too. Most are either related to being obnoxious or creating an environment that might have been unsafe or offensive to other guests. There are some other reasons, too. Not everyone got their money back, and at least one incident resulted in a lawsuit. If you want to avoid getting kicked out of Golden Corral, be sure not to do these seven things that have gotten others removed and sometimes even banned from the restaurant altogether.

One reason that people get kicked out of Golden Corral is for obnoxious behavior. There are always going to be people who go buffets and break unwritten buffet etiquette rules. However, they shouldn't be surprised if they're asked to leave. YouTuber @Brendaniel recounted a tale of obnoxious behavior at Golden Corral that got him banned. We're not sure how much of his story is true, but it mostly sounds like something a kid would do rather than a grown-up. So, banning him was inevitable.

Some of the reasons he got banned are related to his actions around the dessert bar. First, he claims that he tried dunking pizza into the fountain instead of ordinary items like strawberry skewers. Unfortunately, some of the pepperoni slices fell off the pizza and ended up stopping up the fountain. Another obnoxious thing he said he did at the dessert buffet was to put his mouth on the orange sherbet machine. He also experimented with creating new desserts by filling a plate full of macaroni and then topping it with ice cream and ice cream toppings.

There were some other things he supposedly did, too. He claims that he annoyed the waitstaff by continually asking whether or not the steak was free range. Plus, he claimed he started hitting the steak at the grill to try to tenderize it. He also says he brought in his own bags of cereal and assorted sauces to the restaurant.

Getting kicked out of Golden Corral for eating too much is rarer than you might think. In fact, we only found one customer who claimed they were actually asked to leave Golden Corral for overdoing it. So, maybe it's not always an all-you-can-eat buffet, but it usually is.

Plenty of people have come in with lofty eating goals, putting away dozens of plates of food. YouTuber @Airrack brought 50 competitive eaters to a Golden Corral, and the management prided itself in being able to restock the buffet even though the customers ate a total of 500 pounds of food. At one point, there was a rumor going around that a morbidly obese man was kicked out of Golden Corral for eating 50 to 70 pounds of food, causing him to sue the chain for $2 million. The man had different names in different articles, and the rumor eventually proved to be false.

However, a man named Chris Dubuc did go on the record on a WBUR National Public Radio podcast about the time he was kicked out of Golden Corral for eating too much. He loaded each plate with around five pounds of food. After his sixth plate, the waitstaff was starting to comment on his excessive food intake. After two hours and nine plates, he claimed that an employee asked him to leave to make room for more customers. At the time, there were plenty of empty tables remaining in the restaurant.

One Golden Corral manager, @wedgiewoman69, took to Reddit in 2019 to tell the story of why she kicked a lady out of the restaurant. While the amount of food the lady was consuming was immense, it was the circumstances around her soiling herself that got her kicked out. Further actions resulted in her getting permanently banned.

The lady started out by piling two plates about a foot high each with unhealthy food. She even visited the chocolate fountain to cover potato wedges in chocolate. Her body seemingly wasn't able to handle that much food being shoveled into it at once, and before she was two-thirds done, she was running to the restroom in digestive distress. She didn't quite make it though, and as she ran, she began to soil herself and her path with feces. To make matters worse, the sight and smell of feces made another customer throw up.

The employees had to clean up both messes. Meanwhile, the lady returned to her seat to continue her meal despite her clothes being soiled and without a single sign of remorse. The staff and customers were so grossed out by the entire situation that the management told her to leave. After the incident, the manager said she left a negative Yelp review saying that she'd been fat shamed and bullied. She even returned to the restaurant demanding a free meal. In response, the manager banned her, with threat of police action if she returned.

Various news stories recounted the tale of a family who was asked to leave Golden Corral because one of the kids looked contagious. When Danielle Duford of Garden City, Michigan, and her four daughters visited Golden Corral in 2011, they never expected to be kicked out. Three of the young daughters have epidermolysis bullosa, and the baby had scabs all over her body because the disease makes it easy for skin to blister from slight friction. 

Understandably, the employees were concerned. The mother tried to explain the genetic disease to Golden Corral employees and the fact that it wasn't contagious. However, the management asked the Dufords to leave because they still weren't convinced that the disease wasn't contagious. Plus, the sight was making other diners nervous. When the girls' father showed up at the restaurant and discovered what was happening, he refused to leave, making a scene and leading the manager to call the police. While nobody was arrested, the family wasn't allowed back into the buffet to continue their meal.

After Golden Corral kicked the family out of the restaurant, the U.S. government filed a lawsuit on their behalf. The lawsuit was based on the restaurant violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Not only did the a United States District Court in Michigan award the family $50,000 in damages, but the restaurant had to pay a civil penalty of $10,000 and undergo ADA training, among other things.

Golden Corral takes customer complaints in mind when it comes to who they kick out, and several times it has been related to what customers were wearing. In 2019, Sueretta Emke had invited family and friends to Golden Corral to celebrate her 3-year-old son's birthday, but she was asked to leave before the meal ended. The problem turned out to be with how she was dressed. The manager who asked her to leave said another customer had complained that Emke's clothing was too risqué. So, he asked her to change or cover up so as not to offend others. Of course, Emke wanted to know exactly what needed covering, but the manager wasn't willing to make that distinction. 

Emke was dressed in a pair of shorts and a low-cut crop top that left a swath of her belly showing as well as visible cleavage. She had felt confident in her clothing choice, which her husband had encouraged her to wear. The image she posted on social media shows her wearing an outfit similar to what we've seen people wearing in various public places, including in casual restaurants. However, Emke felt the difference was that she wasn't thin.

After she was made to leave that day, her story hit various news headlines. Golden Corral ultimately apologized to her since the restaurant doesn't have a dress code. The employees received training against a repeat of the incident, and Emke got gift cards to compensate.

There very few people getting kicked out of Golden Corral for staying a long time, but it happens. While there's no stated time limit for staying and eating at the Golden Corral buffet, many people have put it to the test by staying for hours and eating plate after plate. Not everyone had to leave before they were done, but at least one person swears she was kicked out for staying too long.

We've seen several social media videos of people consuming endless plates of food, mukbang style, at Golden Corral. The idea of mukbang is to videotape yourself eating a lot of (often unhealthy) food over an extended period of time. However, none of the Golden Corral mukbangers we found on social media were kicked out of the restaurant, although many expected to be. One mukbanger from TikTok even had employees arguing over whether or not he was allowed to stay, with the final decision being that he could continue eating.

While some people have managed to stay a while without consequence, at least one has been kicked out for hanging out and eating for an abnormal amount of time. TikToker @sophysawyer presented a comedy sketch about actually getting kicked out of Golden Corral for staying too long, and she swears the account is true. It took her five hours to outstay her welcome, but she was eventually asked to leave. But it was just as well since they'd run out of banana pudding.

Staying at Golden Corral for a few hours is completely different than trying to stay all day, which is a true feat of endurance. When we looked at our local restaurant, we saw that on some days it's open from 7:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., serving three meals. So, it's entirely possible for customers to try to stay to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some have been successful, while others have been noticed and asked to leave.

TikToker @ugh_madison had no problem staying 12 hours in her local Golden Corral in Indianapolis, Indiana. She came in at 8:30 a.m. and paid $12 for breakfast. While she was asked to switch tables once, she didn't have to leave or pay again. She ultimately stayed through all three meals and only left at 8:30 p.m.

However, we found an account of two other customers who tried the same thing and were asked to leave before completing a whole day. In 2016, YouTuber Aaron Won One shared about a time he attempted to stay all day with friends. They arrived when the restaurant opened for lunch and moved to the other side of the space after eating. Eventually, they were noticed, taken aside, asked to show their IDs, and banned from returning. Another YouTuber, Jizzle Jake, attempted to stay at the restaurant all day in 2023. He got there around 10:30 a.m. but was kicked out after almost six hours when someone noticed him and told management.

Another reason you can get kicked out of Golden Corral is for being homeless. In 2023, Paula McDowell (@jus_me209) shared a video on TikTok after a homeless person was kicked out of Golden Corral in Modesto, California. As of 2024, Modesto has around 1,600 unhoused individuals, and it doesn't appear as if they're always welcome at the local Golden Corral.

The man that Golden Corral employees kicked out came in on a cold December day and paid $45.69 to eat a hot meal inside the warm restaurant. So, it was no small amount that he had paid for the privilege of getting to enjoy the Golden Corral buffet. He was even accompanied by a friend. However, the employees couldn't see past his unkempt appearance and kicked him out because his clothes were dirty. In the video McDowell shared, she tries to advocate for the homeless man with Golden Corral employees to no avail. The employees seem to stand firm on their decision despite taking his money with no food in exchange.

This doesn't appear to be the only Golden Corral taking money from people without any to spare and then kicking them out without a meal. A person commenting on the TikTok video said they'd seen the same thing happen in their city as well. So, it looks like the Modesto restaurant is not the only one willing to take a homeless person's money and then kick them out before they can eat.

It appears there are multiple types of clothing that have the potential to get you kicked out of a Golden Corral if they offend fellow diners. In 2017, Riek Mock made the news for getting kicked out of a Bellevue, Nebraska, Golden Corral for having profanity on his t-shirt.

Just like the homeless man previously mentioned, the man with the offensive t-shirt was kicked out after he had already paid for his and his family's meal. And just like the lady who was kicked out for wearing a skimpy outfit, the action was taken after another customer complained about his clothing. While the shirt said "F*** Trump," the issue didn't appear to be political. Instead, the manager sided with a guest who didn't think it fit the restaurant's family environment. 

While it's legal in Nebraska for cities to ban cursing, there's no law against profanity on clothing. Mock said that he'd worn the shirt to the restaurant before with no problems. He indicated that he just liked being able to exercise his right of free speech. He'd even voted for Trump. Despite his determination to wear what he wanted in public, Mock was ultimately escorted out of the store by the police. Golden Corral also escorted a man out of a Georgia restaurant for wearing a similar shirt of the opposing political party. So, the chain doesn't seem to play party favorites when it comes to banning profane political shirts.

You can also get kicked out of Golden Corral for making a fuss while paying. Jose Barron and his family were supposedly kicked out of Golden Corral in 2024 before getting to eat because of issues with the bill. Barron explained the whole experience he had at a Golden Corral in Aurora, Colorado, on Facebook. The decision to kick the family out seemed to come after a couple of arguments escalated while paying to get into the buffet. 

One argument occurred when the waitstaff kept asking what type of drinks they wanted, even though they'd stated several times they just wanted water. The family was also surprised when the bill came up to $92. Looking a little more closely, they realized the restaurant had charged them the adult price instead of the older kid price for their 12-year-old daughter's meal (about a $7 difference). With emotions escalating, the cashier didn't seem to like being questioned about charging the 12-year-old for an adult meal. 

Rather than call a manager to get the problems ironed out, the employees had security escort the Barron family outside, where they were promised a refund. Security also photographed their license plate. Based on the Facebook post, it appears as if the family never got their money back. Barron claimed the employees didn't think that $92 dollars was a big deal and called the family names. Barron also ended up calling the cops, but they didn't come because it wasn't an emergency.