LAS VEGAS – This town is known for providing a place where you can do here what you wouldn’t think of doing at home. Unless you’re a restaurant reviewer.
Las Vegas, billed as the city that never sleeps, has a long tradition of excellent buffets. They began in the 1940s when El Rancho Vegas Hotel owner Beldon Katleman wanted customers to stay after the second show. He started the “Midnight Chuck Wagon Buffet – All you can eat for a dollar.” Soon, other hotels copied his idea and Las Vegas had a tradition.
If you log on to the Las Vegas Review Journal’s web site, www.reviewjournal.com, you’ll find a list of 25 buffets on the strip, 27 off the strip and another 12 out of town. During my recent visit, my friend and I narrowed our choices by going to my friend’s favorite, Texas Station, and planning on going to mine at the Rio.
At Texas Station, which is off the strip, you’ll find down-home cooking and will mingle with the locals. According to Scott Kreutz, assistant dining room manager, 80 to 85 percent of those dining at Texas Station are local residents.
There was hardly a line when we visited at 6:30 on a Friday night despite the restaurant serving 3,000 to 4,000 people a day. Texas Station is a little older than other glitzy spots on the strip and Kreutz said it’s intentional.
“We know that most of our customers are locals and we appreciate that,” he said. “We want to keep our small-town feel.”
At $4.99 for breakfast, $6.99 for lunch or $9.99 for dinner, who’s going to complain about too little glitter? Texas Station makes almost every night special. On Mondays it’s Tuscany night, the Cattleman’s Roundup is on Tuesdays, Wednesday’s are billed as country kitchen night, a seafood buffet is served on Thursdays ($12.99), and prime rib and shrimp are featured on Sundays.
There’s no special on Friday nights at Texas Station, which is when my friend and I visited. It didn’t matter. My friend heaped his plates with Salisbury steak, beef burgundy, potatoes au gratin, crab salad and corn on the cob, then added a cup of clam chowder.
I enjoyed Texas favorites such as barbecue pork ribs, black-eyed peas filled with large chunks of ham, steamed crawfish, glazed sweet potato halves and dirty rice. Sadly, I didn’t have room for the house-made chili, catfish fillets, boiled red potatoes or stewed okra.
For dessert, we skipped the three different pie choices, cherry cobbler and bread pudding, and went for the slices of watermelon.
Everything was scrumptious and the friendly staff whisked away empty plates and also made sure that we had plenty of ice tea and water. After all, it was 107 degrees outside when we entered the cool dining room that’s decorated with wagon-wheel lighting and cowboy gear.
For our second buffet, I selected the Rio, which is also off the strip. It’s billed as the world’s best buffet and I fell in love with it on my first visit to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, when we arrived on Sunday afternoon, the wait was 90 minutes. We decided there are too many buffet choices in Las Vegas to wait in line for 90 minutes. As we headed back to the strip, my friend asked, “How about Mandalay Bay?” Why not? We hadn’t toured that casino yet.
Our wait in the buffet line was about 40 minutes, which is considered short for Sunday brunch. But, I hadn’t eaten in … I didn’t know how many hours. It was all a Las Vegas blur of seeing my first live boxing match, searching the casino floors on the Strip and downtown looking for a blackjack table my friend liked, live music, watching the gambling and very little sleep. I just knew it was 1:30 in the afternoon and I wanted food. Now.
I don’t remember a sweeping view of the tropical water garden, which the hotel promotes as the focal point of its Bay Side Buffet. I do remember a heap of crab legs and shrimp, bagels spread with cream cheese and topped with lox, scrambled eggs, cheese blintzes with strawberry sauce and complimentary champagne. That was Round One. I followed it with fresh and lightly steamed asparagus spears, creamy risotto and a baked fish filet. Everything was prepared like dishes in a fine-dining restaurant.
The Bay Side Buffet, unlike the first buffet we visited, has a chef’s station where guests can order omelets during breakfast and pasta specials for lunch. My friend requested a Denver omelet, which he described as excellent, and added his favorite – sausage links.
Because we arrived late for breakfast but early for lunch, we were able to sample dishes from both meals. The hotel begins changing the menu from breakfast to lunch beginning around 2:30 p.m.
From the lunch selections my friend chose meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn.
We didn’t do the breakfast or the lunch spread justice. There’s an all-dessert room and a carving station that features leg of lamb, prime rib, roasted pork loin and turkey. There’s game hens, cornbread, mountains of salads plus seafood like grilled halibut, salmon, mussels, clams and scallops. Never mind that’s in the middle of a desert.
Mandalay Bay’s buffet is more expensive at $22.75 for adults but, after all, they turn a buffet into a competitive event. They try to outdo their neighbors and challenge you to make it to the finish line.
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