Golden Corral has closed several restaurants across the U.S., including its Boise location, due to various factors like lease expirations and rising costs. Despite these closures, the company plans to expand with six new restaurants under development and expects continued growth into 2027.<\/p>\n
Is Golden Corral closing restaurants? Yes, but the popular buffet chain isn\u2019t going out of business.\n<\/p>\n
At a Glance:<\/p>\n
Golden Corral closes Boise location in September
\nSix new Golden Corral restaurants in development
\nClosures due to lease expirations and rising costs<\/p>\n
Several Golden Corral restaurants have closed across the U.S. in 2026, including longtime locations in Florida, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and Idaho. The franchise closures have attracted new attention as consumers search for which restaurants are shutting down and whether more locations could be affected.\n<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another side to the story. Golden Corral told USA TODAY that six new restaurants are in development and that many shuttered locations could reopen under new franchise owners. The company also said it expects to continue expanding into 2027.\n<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know about the Golden Corral closures, which restaurants have shut down and whether there are closures in Idaho.\n<\/p>\n
What Golden Corral locations have closed in 2026?<\/p>\n
At least six Golden Corral restaurants have closed across six states this year, the locations are:\n<\/p>\n
Canton, Ohio: Closed in February\n<\/p>\n
Alton, Illinois: Closed in April\n<\/p>\n
Davenport, Iowa: Closed in July\n<\/p>\n
Boynton Beach, Florida: Closed in July<\/p>\n
Boise, Idaho: Closed in September\n<\/p>\n
Brownsville, Texas: Closed in September\n<\/p>\n
Why is Golden Corral closing restaurants?\n<\/p>\n
There isn\u2019t one reason behind all of the closures. The circumstances differ by location, ranging from the expiration of a lease in Boynton Beach to sustainability concerns in Alton and renovation and rising-cost pressures in Brownsville. Other locations closed without publicly specifying a reason.\n<\/p>\n
Golden Corral told USA TODAY there have been more closures this year than normal and that the reasons largely depend on individual franchises.\n<\/p>\n
Is Golden Corral going out of business?\n<\/p>\n
No indication from the company\u2019s current expansion plans suggests Golden Corral is going out of business. The company told USA TODAY it has six new restaurants in development and expects to continue expanding into 2027. It also said many shuttered restaurants could reopen under new franchise owners.\n<\/p>\n
Restaurants are currently under construction in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Kissimmee, Florida. Four more are in the pre-construction phase in Baytown, Texas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Spanish Fort, Alabama; and St. Petersburg, Florida.\n<\/p>\n
None of the six closures identified in the recent national report are in Pennsylvania or Maryland. The affected restaurants are in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Florida, Idaho and Texas.\n<\/p>\n
The Golden Corral location in Nampa is still open.\n<\/p>\n
For customers trying to find the closest restaurant, Golden Corral maintains an online locator where users can search by city or ZIP code.\n<\/p>\n
Reporting by Maria Francis, USA TODAY NETWORK\/Delaware News Journal, via Reuters Connect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Golden Corral has closed several restaurants across the U.S., including its Boise location, due to various factors like lease expirations and rising costs. Despite these closures, the company plans to expand with six new restaurants under development and expects continued growth into 2027. Is Golden Corral closing restaurants? Yes, but the popular buffet chain isn\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[5222,1729,31710,11564,42129,42130,4539,5202,5200,5198,5201,5199,34179,6076],"class_list":["post-57946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-idaho","tag-boise","tag-boynton-beach","tag-brownsville","tag-davenport","tag-expansion-plans","tag-franchise-owners","tag-golden-corral","tag-idaho","tag-idaho-dining","tag-idaho-food","tag-idaho-grocery-stores","tag-idaho-restaurants","tag-kissimmee","tag-knoxville"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117477582026298518","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}