Worst buffet

Quote: Wizard

It is hard to pick just one, but if forced, Arizona Charlie's.

Terrible's buffet lives up to its name. I'd add an extra R, because it's terrrible.

There would be several considerations in evaluating a buffet as being bad much less in nominating it for the designation of being the worst in town.

Buffets can be judged on the food, the delays involved, the blandness of the overall casino experience, the price, etc. I think its often a question of the food and the expectations involved.

I've heard rumors of the Wynn buffet having markedly deteriorated of late, but I'm sure its quality is fairly good when not being judged in comparison to prices and expectations.

My vote would go to Terribles as being the worst. Yet, I think it might be borne in mind that its a lousy casino, with lousy dealers and lousy drink service. Therefore expectations concerning its buffet would be low yet even with those low expectations, it would still get votes for being the worst in town.

Now that buffets are often an "all day" enticement for a gambler to remain at a particular casino, perhaps quality will improve in some casinos. One thing is certain: I am never going to go back to Terribles for any reason at all, much less to do a taste test of the worst buffets.

I'm not a big buffet kind of guy (coffee shops are more versatile), so I can only remember being to four in town. They're close, but here's how I'd rank them:

1. Gold Coast (all meals)
2. Santa Fe Station (breakfast)
3. Eastside Cannery (lunch)
4. Fremont (breakfast)

The Fremont is at the bottom of this list, but I didn't actually think it was bad.

I've tried two buffets for breakfast: Sahara and IP. Both were edible, if not particularly good. At IP I settled on the omelette station and some hot grits. I've tried others for dinner, none of which were remarkable, but the Stratosphere and Golden Nugget were rather good.

When I stayed at the Sahara you got a discount for the dinner buffet if you had a players card. I tried it once. I didn't try it a second time.

My paretns and grandparents, who visited Vegas in the 70s, 80s and 90s, would talk a lot about buffets. Mostly they talked of the quantity of food available and how cheap it was. It's still cheap for the quantity you can consume (all you want, really). But then in the 70s and 80s Vegas dind't have dozens of high end restaurants.

If the overall quality of the legendary Vegas buffet has gone down, it may be due to those high end eateries. I'm sure the latter have a higher profit margin, and they certainly required a larger investment.

I work in food suppy and services. I know a little about how massive amounts of food are prepared. One common trick of the trade is to use lower quality supplies for things that are going to be blended, mashed or pureed. So for example lots of spotted, pitted and bruised tomatoes wind up being used in spaghetti sauce or in salsa while the pristine and pretty ones are used in salads. For meat that will be overcooked, used in a stew or will stay in a hot table some time after it's prepared, you use tougher, lower grade meat. And you don't want to know what can go into a burger.

Freshness and serving temperature also make a big diference. Even the finest cut of meat made by the best chef won't be as good thrity minutes after it's cooked. The serving temperature is important because a large part of taste is actually smell. When you eat something you inhale molecules that evaporate from it, and you "taste" those with your olfactory receptors (yes, you inhale through the mouth, some of it winds up in smell receptors in the nose). That's why cold soup doesn't taste as good as hot soup, and why iced tea tastes diferently from hot tea.

So it would be a waste of a fine cut to be left waiting 40 minutes or more on a hot table. Not to mention you won't get as much money for it as you would in a restaurant with a hard to pronounce name. And I'm not even considering the number of meals sold per hour of operation yet.

Best bet: stick to buffets with live cooking stations where you know the food will be freshly made; avoid items from the hot tables unless they can withstand that kind of treatment (like, for example, breakfast sausages); salad bars are ok, since raw veggies keep fresh a long time; liquid items like soup, chili or porridge can be left in a hot container for a long time without much degradation (except a well-made french onion soup; that's got to be fresh and with melted cheese on top). Desserts should also be ok.

Nareed -

Excellent insight on the food service industry.

I have my own rules about buffets: The wetter the item is, the easier it is to keep hot on a steam table, and therefore, the better it's going to taste.

If there is a tray of sliced steak for example, if it's sitting in gravy, it's going to keep longer and taste better than dry items. Fried chicken is fine for a few minutes. But avoid it if it been sitting there. Pancakes and waffles should only be taken the instant the staff puts them out - and even then, they're gonna be cold by the time you get to your table.

Moisture / liquid is the key. It maintains and transmits heat better than air.

The steam makes the tray hot, but only the portion of the food that touches the tray benefits. If the tray has liquid in it, then the liquid gets hot, and THAT keeps the food hot. That's why soup is never a problem.


On a side note, when you have a picnic and you have a barrel full of soda and beer filled with ice, add some cold water. The ice keeps the water cold and the water keeps the bottles cold. Otherwise, the ice only cools the bottles where they actually make contact....until the ice melts enough, etc.

Quote: Nareed

...And you don't want to know what can go into a burger.

My grandfather was a Health Inspector for New York City. He used to yell at me when I ate hot dogs: "You're eating lips!" I still eat hot dogs....

Quote: Wizard

We've talked about the best buffet, now the flip side. In my opinion the best candidates for worst buffet are the Sahara, Riviera, and Arizona Charlie's Decatur. It is hard to pick just one, but if forced, Arizona Charlie's.

It is gone now, but New Frontier's was awful. Before I came to Vegas to visit the first time I heard about the "cheap food all over the place." Well, when you ate cheap you got cheap. $13.99 at the time, price looked good but there was some bad looking prime-rib, a bunch of bad looking sides, and nearly no deserts. I passed.

It wasn't a "true" buffet as you ordered coffee-shop fare in the same dining room. Some other people ordered the buffet and within 15 mins they closed it for the night. They complained to the manager, who to his credit comped them instantly.

I think when it comes to buffets in Vegas or anywhere you can tell if it is awful at a glance. Though similar ones can be deceptive. When I stay at the Flamingo I go down to Harrah's for the breakfast buffet. It is just better by a little.

Big strip casino? Excalibur by far.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

On a side note, when you have a picnic and you have a barrel full of soda and beer filled with ice, add some cold water. The ice keeps the water cold and the water keeps the bottles cold. Otherwise, the ice only cools the bottles where they actually make contact....until the ice melts enough, etc.

I'm at work and short on time, so I'll comment some mroe later. Meantime, what you say is indeed so. But there's an even better way to keep kegs, bottles and cans cool: fill the cooler with ice and then add some salt on top of the ice. This way the ice melts quickly but retains its temperature. If needed add cold water.

The Mythbusters did that one on a show that tested various types of cooling. The fastest way was to hose the cans down with a CO2 fire extinguisher, it was also the most expensive. A good second is to place a bottle in the freezer for ten to 15 minutes. Mind you, a plastci bottle. Never a glass bottle or a can. Those will blow up when the fluid inside freezes.

I'm not picky and like most buffets, but Terrible's is one that I won't go back to. Ironically, I like the rest of the property. Their coffee shop is pretty good.
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Gold Coast/Orleans are cheap AND good. Silverton is the best of the "upper-middle class" buffets.
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Palms isn't particularly bad, but it's VERY weak for the type of property they purport to be.
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I was shocked at how good/extensive Rampart was for the price. Definitely worth checking out if you are out there; the property has a lot to recommend it.

Fitzgerald's buffet was really bad when I ate there three years ago. On the strip, my vote goes to Flamingo for being the worst.

Someone mentioned Harrah's Lake Tahoe. It's been ten years since I've been there, but it's probably the buffet with the best view in America. I don't remember what the food tasted like, but the scenery was breathtaking.