Most places like golden corral, ponderosa, sizzler, and so on buy extremely
cheap cuts of meat. The meat gets marinated in a beef-flavored mixture from
ADM (Archer Daniel Midland, I believe). They are a huge agricultural and
chemical suply firm. they make millions of gallons of this 'marinade'
annually so that when you buy the 3.99 steak dinner you think you got a
great tasting steak. Well, it was great tasting cause they designed it to
taste that way. I'd bet the restaurants keep the stuff on hand to dip in,
as well.

Sort of seems like cooking brisket in the oven and then dipping in a liquid
smoke sauce and calling it BBQ. But then again, youcan feed a whole family
steak dinners at these restaurants for the price of one good certified angus
brisket!