Loved all the positive responses about great Vegas buffets, and found bad reviews intriguing. Would anyone care to elaborate on what makes a buffet bad? I would like to know what to avoid and where, such as limited food selection, bad food (please specify!), poorly organized food stations and lines, etc. Thank you!

Bad buffet:
poor to mediocre quality food (think little pools of grease all over everything, bland flavor, etc)
messy serving stations
messy eating areas
loud, bus station ambience
stomach ache within 1 hour of leaving


Truly, you get what you pay for.
But for foodies, you'll have a hard time with ANY buffet in LV IMO.
Even the Bellagio's buffet is crowded, cafeteria style serving and eating areas, good but not great quality prepared foods (hard to ruin crab/lobster etc), I was disappointed by the quality of the desserts, too.

If you want good food in LV go to a decent restaurant. There are dozens upon dozens.
If you want to overeat and pack in as much food per dollar spent as you can, don't expect top quality food. I believe the management people who oversee the buffets know that even relatively picky buffet regulars are after volume first and quality second.
And I believe that's exactly what they provide: volume before quality.

I'll tell you what makes a buffet bad and that's lots of small children running around and squeezing in front of you so they can get what they want. I do not understand why parents let their children go to the buffet lines alone. It is difficult for little ones to manuever a plate and a serving utensil. I witnessed one little girl remove bacon -with her hands- from her sister's plate and return it to the bacon tray informing her sister that she had gotten too much. I agree that Bellagio's buffet could use some improvement, starting with the decor. For such a nice hotel, the buffet's variety is small. The service could use some improvement too. One buffet that I would suggest you try is The Village Buffet located in the Paris hotel. The layout is nice, the food is seasoned, and the service was great. You will see more kids at breakfast than you will at dinner.

don't questions about all you can eat buffets in LV belong in one of the "fat american" threads?

Holly:
You must be one of those stick people whose motto is "I eat to live." So, munch on your trail mix and buzz off. Buffet dining does not necessarily equate to fat people.

The MGM buffet is so disappointing. The food was like an old style cafeteria in a nursing home. Greasy food with no flavor. Powdered mashed potatos and undercooked chicken.

to NotFat:

Relax - it was a joke. i've never had trail mix. and i love to eat - i just don't "live to eat".

Sorry NotFat, but buffets are for gluttons who wouldn't know good food if they tasted it. I live to eat also, but I prefer quality, not quantity and yes this thread does belong in the Fat Americans category!

Call me crazy but I like to sit down and be served off a menu if I am going out to dinner. IMO all buffets are bad. Who would want to get in line and load up their plates with food left to sit on a warming table that has been picked over by other people?? What a repulsive idea. I guess I just don't get the attraction.

Gluttonluv:
Obviously you have never eaten at the Four Seasons brunch buffet.

Oh say it isn't so! While I have eaten breakfast at the Four Seasons in Nevis and Atlanta, you're right, I've never eaten at their buffet. Which of their properties has a buffet?

Well, LT, let me break it to you gently: the part of the buffet you may wish to avoid, except aboard a very first class ship, is the buffet itself. I know, I know ... this will strike some as elitist ... and yes, I'm certain a case could be made. But buffet to me spells trouble on a lot of fronts, not the least of which is your own. For buffet is bulking up ... except for the very picky eater a veritable training table, mass produced. Buffet in Vegas ... the image gives me an unsettled feeling. How can you be sure how food on this scale is handled? And left out there, open to every ailment that happens to flit or crawl by, airborne or other. If you want to remain buff and feeling A, put it together and avoid it. Menu please ... and seat me facing away, puleeze! Ciao, L

Gluttonsluv:
Oh how true. At home I have a French chef. I insist that the servants bring everything promptly to the table hot and fresh. I would never eat with those awful people. Sometimes they have a buffet at the club, but that's different.

There's a more troubling image than Vegas buffet, and that's buffet at the club, by the pool. Ah, what a life you. Ciao

You're not kidding Leone, I'm with you all the way on this one. If there is one word that I read in connection with a restaurant that will send me running in the opposite direction it's "Buffet".

Let Them,
We don't use the term "servants" anymore. The politically correct term for people employed to assist you in the household would be "help".

I'm with curious and Leone. Got to have that table service with food prepared just for me. If a restaurant says so much as salad bar I'll skip it. Seen too many adults and kids touch the food. Don't know where those hands have been.

Isn't "buffet" a euphemism for "Lots of fat people wearing their very best spandex while loading up their plates and trying to stuff as much food into their mouths as possible for the least amount of money"?

Suzie and the rest of them:
you don't think your food isn't touched by the people who prepare them? you think the cook who made your meal wears gloves back there in the kitchen? Get off your high horse and face reality, sister. If youre gonna eat out, buffet or no buffet, youre gonna risk the fact that anyone could be touching your food. Even the white tablecloth restaurant where they serve champagne with a fine linen. In the back, they serve filet mignon with a booger.
Bon Apetit

Gluttonsluv:
Thank you for the correction. I must confess that I have trouble with this political correctness thing. Why not call them servants. Isn't that what they are?
Gluttonsluv, I can see by your knowledge that you are one of us. May I recommend that when you go to Las Vegas you get one of those nice suites they save for us. You can get one that comes with a butler who will make all of your food arrangements for you. It makes for a much more tolerable experience. The thought of having to eat at a buffet just makes my skin crawl.

Let Them, I wouldn't go to Las Vegas If Julia Child herself accompanied me. Not our kind of place, you know.