12 Big Scandals That Rocked Buffet Restaurant Chains

The scandals that surround buffet restaurant chains aren't all necessarily what you'd expect. Considering how much buffet food gets handled by so many people and kept at dubious temperatures, you'd expect all the scandals to be related to food poisoning. While several are, that probably could have happened to any restaurant unlucky enough to have received tainted food products. Other scandals at buffet restaurant chains range from sexual abuse and workplace discrimination to underage alcohol sales and even a mass murder.

Despite all the scandals, financial struggles that led to bankruptcies, and the devastating effects that COVID-19 had on buffets, all of the restaurants on this list still exist in some form. Nothing seems to keep people away from buffets forever. However, most have far fewer locations than they did in their heyday, and one now exists only outside the U.S. Let's take a deeper look at the scandals that have rocked the world of buffet chain restaurants and what has come from them.

In July 2013, an employee at the Golden Corral in Port Orange, Florida, posted a YouTube video supposedly highlighting what the chain did when an inspector came around. Brandon Huber's video shows restaurant-grade trays of raw hamburger patties and baby-back ribs that the manager asked employees to take outside to avoid a bad inspection score. The wheeled rack full of meat trays is covered with a heavy plastic sheet and sitting beside the trash bin. Flies had already descended on the meat in the sweltering summer heat. Removing possibly tainted meat during an inspection is one thing. However, Huber told WKMG-TV News 6 that "after the inspectors left, they wheeled it back into the restaurant, and they tried to put it back into the coolers. They wanted me to cook it, and I refused to."

Eric Holm, the owner of the Golden Corral franchise in question, issued an official statement saying that none of the food near the Dumpster was served to diners. Instead it was destroyed. Holm further said that Huber helped with the disposal process. Huber didn't actually release the videos until the day after he was part of the meat disposal. Holm also said that he fired the manager who asked employees to remove the meat during the surprise inspection. No matter what exactly happened, customers told News 6 that they didn't want to eat at Golden Corral if there was a chance of potentially getting unsafe food.

Over the years, we've gotten used to handing over our credit cards and debit cards when we pay for something. However, any time that you let your card out of your sight, you put yourself at risk for what happened at a Sheridan, Colorado, HuHot. In 2014, police reported arresting Michael Stephens for credit card skimming at the HuHot Mongolian barbecue grill where he worked. 

He might have gotten away with it for longer if he hadn't decided to brag to a fellow employee about what he was doing and show her his skimming machine. She didn't find it as amusing as he thought she would, and she promptly reported the crime. When the police started investigating, they also found several gift cards with the card skimmer. Their theory is that, instead of leaving a trail of purchases from the stolen card numbers, Stephens had used information from them to purchase gift cards. Then, he used the gift cards in place of cash to make purchases.

Overall, the FBI estimates that card-skimming thieves end up stealing $1 billion per year. However, a lot of these thefts happen without releasing your card to anyone. Instead, a thief may attach a skimmer device on top of a legitimate card reader at a gas pump or ATM terminal. So, you don't have to hand off your card to end up the victim of a skimming scheme.

You probably haven't seen many Old Country Buffets these days, which could be partially related to its reputation being ruined by salmonella outbreaks (plural). In 2010, a man named Christopher Gage suffered severe side effects from salmonella poisoning that had been traced to his visit to an Old Country Buffet in Wyoming. His body responded to the salmonella infection with sepsis, and his kidneys failed, among other issues. He ended up with debilitating injuries related to digestion, mobility, and brain function. Ultimately, he was awarded a $11.4 million judgment that was helped by the fact that the restaurant had been written up just the day before Gage ate there for 18 health code infractions it obviously didn't fix.

In 2014, salmonella struck again at an Old Country Buffet in Minnesota. This time, it sickened 36 people over several days, one of whom ended up in the hospital. Ultimately, the source of the outbreak turned out to be dinner rolls, which healthy authorities think were probably contaminated with salmonella from raw chicken in the kitchen.

In 2016, Old Country Buffet filed for its third bankruptcy, which was related to the $11.4 million judgment awarded in 2015 from the 2010 salmonella case. The chain also started to see a decline in sales, which was likely because of the ick factor related to going to a buffet that had such a big salmonella outbreak recently.

The Pizza Ranch sexual abuse scandal involved several young male employees and their boss. According to court filings with details of the case, Pizza Ranch co-owner Lawrence Vander Esch told some of his teenage employees that he would pay them for semen samples for scientific research. Only there was a catch. The teens would need to ensure that there was no air in the sample, so they'd need to collect it in a condom. And Vander Esch insisted he needed to help them to get the proper sample collection. He placed the samples on ice to reinforce the research story. One of the young men even traveled with Vander Esch to the University of Iowa Hospitals where he claimed he had to "deliver" a sample, records showed. Of course, it was all a ruse.

During the criminal investigation more than a dozen former employees alleged similar abuse by the businessman over a 20-year period, according to the Sioux City Journal. Vander Esch pleaded guilty in 2001 to four counts of third-degree sexual abuse. He then appealed his conviction, claiming he wasn't at fault because he got permission from each of his victims, even if the teens granted that permission under false pretenses. He was sentenced to prison for 10 years and served almost five years before being released for good behavior, according to the newspaper. In 2006 a judge vacated his convictions, citing a change in the law by the Iowa Supreme Court. 

You know a scandal is bad when it has a book written about it. "The Black O: Racism and Redemption in an American Corporate Empire" by Steve Watkins tells the story of Shoney's racial discrimination problems. The "black O," according to a summary of the book, refers to the practice the company had of filling in the "O" in "Shoney's" on employment applications to indicate that it belonged to a minority and should be filed in the trash can. 

A 1989 complaint in Pensacola, Florida, referenced evidence against 211 managers and other top figures who followed these and other discriminatory practices, according to the Washington Post. However, some managers protested this practice and enough other instances of racial discrimination came to light to warrant a civil lawsuit against the chain. Black employees spoke of working for the chain for years without promotions, being forced to work out of sight in the kitchen, or being fired for racially related reasons.

Ultimately, about 40,000 employees, former employees and job applicants benefitted from the $105 million settlement that cost the company $132.5 million once legal fees and court costs were factored in, according to Greensboro News & Record. This was a landmark win in the fight against racism in restaurants.

The E. coli outbreak at two Sizzler restaurants in Wisconsin in the summer of 2000 sickened hundreds of people, hospitalized dozens, and ultimately claimed the life of a 3-year-old girl, which is what makes this case so tragic. Four people (including the toddler who died), contracted hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which destroys red blood cells and causes the kidneys to shut down, with kids under age 5 and people with compromised immunities being most susceptible, according to the New York Department of Health. 

When officials tested the E. coli from the two restaurants, they were genetically related, which means that the bacteria found at both locations came from the same source. Ultimately, officials traced the source to raw taco meat and raw sirloin tri-tips, which had contaminated items on the buffet salad bar. One of the main culprits seemed to be the watermelon, which is ever so tempting for young buffet-goers.

It took 12 years for a lawsuit between Sizzler and its meat supplier, Excel, assigning liability for the outbreak to be resolved, according to Food Safety News. Jurors found that Excel was 80% responsible for the outbreak while the remaining 20% went to the restaurant's management company. Multiple lawsuits filed by people who got sick as well as the family of the toddler who died had been previously settled. Sizzler also paid medical bills for anyone who got sick. The outbreak was estimated to cost Excel about $35 million, Food Safety News reported.