Husband and I were at Gold Coast buffet last night (Sunday-01/18/16) for dinner (5:30 pm). I need say that I do not particularly like this buffet to start with, but things can always change. I now shall start at the beginning.
1. Price is OUTRAGEOUS for what is served.
2. More service people than people to service. Ordered our drinks & proceeded to check the line.
3. Checked out what was being served from the salad to the Italian dishes. Same old stuff last night or 6 months ago.
4. Female server brings our drinks, and two steak knives, 1 was dirty, husband asks for more napkins, she never returns. Someone else comes to the table takes her name tag and replaces with his, and walks away. (She went on break but never told us.)
5. Proceeded to get our food. I had chicken breast w/spinach, olives, mushrooms and cheese; green beans; and, stuffed manicotti. Sat down to take a look...tried the chicken breast but could not cut it. The topping was so hard it would not cut - removed spinach stuff and ate the chicken (mostly). Green beans were fine! Moved onto the manicotti, which was COLD in the middle! Not such a big deal ate one bite and gave it up. Awful tasting.
6. Go to the soup bar-cream of potato soup! GREAT - a favorite of ours. Filled two bowls and went to get soup spoons. I must have gone through 12-15 spoons all of which had sticky handles or food stuck to them. Went to other side and pick spoons. Proceeded to eat the soup - it was barely warm soup, potatoes were cold.
7. While seated and talking with my husband, our server comes toward us and it certainly looked like it had his finger up his nose and then proceeds to wipe his nose down his arm. I thought I was going to lose the little bit of food that I just ate.
8. Husband drinks some coffee and goes back to buffet - I stayed at the table and notice something red on the side of his coffee cup. My first thoughts were OMG - lipstick - than said nah. My first thoughts were correct. LIPSTICK AND LIP IMPRESSION ON OUTSIDE AND INSIDE OF CUP. Husband back at the table now and I tell him what I found while he was gone. Must note: he is left handed so the lipstick was on the opposite side of the cup, but still disgusting no matter what, and I don't wear lipstick.
8. I asked the hostess to please call the manager. She proceeded to ask why I wanted to speak to him. So she says she will call him. I waited, and waited, and waited....She comes back after 10+ minutes and tells us that he has to come from the other side of the building so it will take him a little time to get to us. All total - probably waited 15 minutes.
9. He finally gets to the table, never introduced himself, could have been anyone. He asked what the problem was, my husband and I told him and all that he was concerned about was refunding our money so the problem would go away. Well, I told him it wasn't about the money and it was not the point. He implied that we were lying and said everything is on tap and he will look at it. He also said he will talk to the chef and walks away...so we wait again - at least another 10 minutes and he reappears. He says he checked temps of the food, silverware was clean, spoke to the chef, and all was well. I said to him that his checking NOW was an hour+ later was a rather mute point since numerous people have eaten (1 hour later). Again, offering to refund our money, my response was still the same. He then says he will be right back.
My opinion and my opinion only, I DO NOT RECOMMEND anyone going there. When the Gold Coast was owned by the Gaughan family, it was a fine place to go, but now, forget it! Save your money.