InspectLens
Breakfast and family

Golden Corral

Golden Corral's Florida stores average +0.29 high-priority violations per routine inspection relative to their county baseline (95% interval -0.04 to +0.63), above the county baseline. Rank 6 of 9 breakfast and family brands, counted from furthest below the baseline.

+0.29vs county baseline, 95% interval -0.04 to +0.63
1.34 vs 1.05raw high-priority violations per routine inspection vs the baseline its stores face
32stores in 23 counties, 127 routine inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26

The food: where these dishes come from

Golden Corral is known for Southern fried chicken. The stories are about the dishes, not the brand, and live on PlateTales.

By fiscal year

00.92FY2016-17: 0.39 (n = 64)16-17FY2017-18: 0.49 (n = 59)17-18FY2018-19: 0.30 (n = 69)18-19FY2019-20: 0.06 (n = 66)19-20FY2020-21: 0.30 (n = 61)20-21FY2021-22: 0.19 (n = 54)21-22FY2022-23: 0.32 (n = 52)22-23FY2023-24: 0.07 (n = 47)23-24FY2024-25: 0.39 (n = 43)24-25FY2025-26: 0.46 (n = 37)25-26FY2026-27: 0.92 (n = 21) partial year26-27*

Relative to the county baseline, first visits of routine inspections. Open circle and * = fiscal year in progress (data as of 2026-11-09). Hover a point for n.

Most-cited violation codes

Citations per 100 routine inspections, Golden Corral vs all Florida inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26 (n = 127). Descriptions are DBPR's.
CodeDBPR descriptionGolden CorralFloridaRatio
36Floors properly constructed, clean, drained, coved113.439.92.84x
22Food contact surfaces of equipment and utensils clean55.943.61.28x
14Food contact surfaces designed, constructed, maintained, installed, located53.546.91.14x
03Food Out of Temperature48.035.01.37x
29Plumbing installed and maintained41.716.92.47x

Outcomes

16.5% vs 19.6%routine inspections that needed a callback visit, vs all Florida (raw)
3.15% vs 1.01%routine inspections ending in an emergency order recommendation, vs all Florida (raw)
33%of 27 stores with 2+ inspections score below their county baseline after shrinkage toward the brand mean

Emergency closures

3 closures of Golden Corral stores in DBPR's weekly extracts (2025-12-29 to 2026-11-06); latest 3 shown. Reasons are DBPR's own wording.
ClosedCityCountyReason (DBPR)
2026-10-20ZephyrhillsPascoRoach activity
2026-09-14HialeahMiami-DadeRoach & rodent activity
2026-07-08Royal Palm BeachPalm BeachFly activity

Other breakfast and family brands

Ranked breakfast and family brands, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26.
RankBrandvs county95% intervalStores
1First Watch-0.27-0.36 to -0.17143
2Cracker Barrel+0.14-0.05 to +0.3460
3Bob Evans+0.17-0.01 to +0.3738
4Waffle House+0.21+0.10 to +0.31191
5Denny's+0.25+0.12 to +0.39123
6Golden Corral+0.29-0.04 to +0.6332
7IHOP+0.31+0.15 to +0.4884
8Perkins+0.79+0.48 to +1.1130
9Keke's Breakfast Cafe+0.79+0.53 to +1.0668
Look up a single Golden Corral location

Golden Corral elsewhere

Golden Corral franchise costs and FDD: FranchiseLens Where Golden Corral locates: PlazaLens

Store-level matching: a store counts for Golden Corral when its DBPR business name matches the reviewed aliases in InspectLens's brand list. Co-branded units (for example KFC with Taco Bell) are not counted for either brand.