All-you-can-eat deals at top US chains quadruple since 2021, Technomic says
Golden Corral, which The Wall Street Journal calls America’s biggest buffet chain, has roughly 350 locations and organizes its buffet lines into “modules” that pair high-cost shrimp with cheaper hush puppies and french fries, and meatloaf with potatoes, gravy and green beans, as record-high beef prices, fuel surcharges and labor costs squeeze the economics of all-you-can-eat dining.
Consumer demand for bottomless deals has climbed alongside pressure on the operators offering them, with Golden Corral, Olive Garden and Red Lobster expanding or reviving unlimited promotions even as food, labor and fuel costs rise.
Trenary said Golden Corral does not hide higher-price items, but does organize its buffets around meal “modules” that combine more expensive and affordable dishes. “You can’t fool the customer,” Trenary said. “We have to be pretty creative in the way that we present our menu.”
Cash-strapped consumers are clamoring for endless amounts of chips, fries or shrimp, and Golden Corral and restaurants such as Olive Garden and Red Lobster are trying to capitalize, rolling out all-you-can-eat selections on their menus. The deals are drawing in traffic, location-data firm Placer.ai said, as well as generating some needed buzz around the brands. Yet making money off bottomless offerings has never been harder.
The pressure on operators comes from several directions. Almost every supplier has tacked on fuel surcharges to Golden Corral’s bills as diesel prices have shot up this year, Trenary said. Food costs have risen, starting with record-high prices for beef, and labor expenses have grown as servers shuttle endless refills to tables.
Food costs account for around 38% of Golden Corral’s sales, higher than the average restaurant, Trenary said. Labor costs are lower, with self-service buffets needing fewer servers than a traditional restaurant. To keep costs manageable, operators need to keep utilities, rent and other overhead to around 10% of sales.
To combat climbing beef costs, Golden Corral recently introduced a whole, bone-in fried pork chop that costs about 40% as much as its sirloin steak, helping to shift some customers away from its priciest sirloin option. Golden Corral charges from $15.99 to $18.99 for endless plates of sirloin for dinner.
Quality is key to reducing waste and repeated trips, Trenary said, so operators use demand data to know how much food to prepare down to 15-minute increments. The company eschews cooking ahead or food warmers, as that would degrade its quality and lead people to load up on other options. Operators also make around 80% of the items on the buffet in house. Golden Corral buffets average 150 food items.
To succeed as a business, all-you-can-eat depends on high traffic, particularly in locations with expensive rents, Trenary said. Losing 500 diners a week can spell trouble. Golden Corral lets its franchisees know where they rank in the overall system as to traffic and cost as a percentage of sales to keep them on track with their economics.
Its refillable in-house beverages sell for around $3.20. Most customers end up choosing something other than water for their meals. Red Lobster, which had a viral unlimited shrimp deal until declaring bankruptcy last year, brought back the promotion for a limited time on Mondays earlier this year and has since extended the deal, now offering it throughout the week for dine-in customers. Red Lobster has encouraged servers to sell Nauti Peach Long Islands and Lobster Punch drinks with its return of Endless Shrimp.
Another key to the all-you-can-eat equation: take-home is not allowed. “That would be really tough,” Trenary said about the profit implications of unlimited doggy bags.
American buffets began on the Las Vegas Strip in the late 1940s, where they were typically money-losers that helped keep patrons gambling rather than leaving to eat. Restaurants elsewhere adopted versions of the format. Olive Garden started offering unlimited breadsticks, soup or salad soon after it opened in 1982. Texas Roadhouse’s founder aimed for customers to get hooked on the smell of its fresh rolls served to all customers. Golden Corral started as a North Carolina steakhouse in 1973 before shifting to an all-you-can-eat format in the late 1990s.
The trend extends well beyond Golden Corral. Only 13% of casual-dining operators offer all-you-can-eat options, but 53% of consumers are interested in such promotions at those types of restaurants, according to a survey by market-research firm Datassential. The biggest U.S. chains offered 150 all-you-can-eat deals in the first six months of 2026, roughly four times 2021 levels, Technomic said.
Applebee’s offered unlimited wings, riblets and shrimp this summer, while Cracker Barrel is serving all-you-can-eat pancakes on Saturdays. Olive Garden just brought back its Never-Ending Pasta Bowl for another season, inspiring diners to load up their bowls and document their meals on TikTok. As competition from all-you-can-eat deals grows, Golden Corral this month began offering 25 Bone-In Buffalo Wings or 50 Boneless Buffalo Bites for $25 for delivery.
Golden Corral has kept U.S. sales stable in recent years, Trenary said, though a drop in Hispanic consumers has hurt business more recently. Sales plunged by more than half after the pandemic restricted indoor dining in 2020 before largely recovering. Some of the chain’s busiest restaurants now ring up $7 million in annual sales.
“This has been a difficult year for us, don’t get me wrong,” Trenary said. “We are trying to at least tread water.”