Golden Corral is coming to town. Fresno has wanted this buffet restaurant for years

A Golden Corral buffet is coming to Fresno — finally.

The popular national restaurant is planning to open a location in the former HomeTown Buffet spot on West Shaw Avenue. It’s near Marty Avenue, in the same shopping center as Foods Co.

It could be months before the restaurant is ready to open. No opening date has been set, but work on the inside of the restaurant has started.

A Golden Corral has long been on the wish list of Fresnans, who seem to love their buffets. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Fresno Bee asked readers what stores and restaurants they wanted to come to the area.

Golden Corral was the No. 4 choice, behind IKEA, Cracker Barrel and another Trader Joe’s, but above a second Dog House Grill location.

Back in 2019, the company’s vice president of franchise development told The Bee that a location was “absolutely” coming to Fresno. He even mentioned a timeline of nine to 15 months. The franchisee for the area was looking to ideally buy land to build a restaurant or lease an existing space.

But then the pandemic happened. It upended the restaurant world — especially buffets with their shared spaces — and companies pulled back on expansion plans. The Sweet Tomatoes chain closed all its locations in the area.

All that left some Fresnans wondering if Golden Corral would ever come to town at all.

All-you-can-eat buffet

Now, the company lists the franchised Fresno location on Shaw as “coming soon” on its website.

Golden Corral’s corporate office did not return several messages seeking comment.

A permit was applied for Dec. 15 with the City of Fresno for construction of a new buffet area and to replace some of the kitchen equipment inside the existing 9,000-square-foot building.

Construction workers have just started work inside, with lots still to be done.

When it’s finished, the one-price, all-you-can-eat buffet will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its menu offers everything from an omelet station to burgers, fried chicken and posole.

The HomeTown Buffet on the site closed several years ago during the pandemic. The Clovis HomeTown Buffet location closed in 2016.

Longtime locals may remember that Golden Corral once had a restaurant in Clovis. It was on Shaw Avenue near Minnewawa Avenue, where the Mitsui Buffet is now, and closed more than a decade ago.

Reedley once had a Golden Corral Family Steak House that closed in 1995. The company got its start under that name serving regular entrees before transitioning to buffets starting in the 1980s.