The Frugal Buffet

The days of the truly awful buffet are behind us. Such purveyors of fine slop as the Riviera, Boardwalk, Imperial Palace and Fitzgeralds are now but a memory. And while a bad meal or some questionable dishes are possible at most of lower priced Strip buffets, most every place now serves serviceable and mostly palatable food. What would have been thought of as as outstanding spread a generation ago is now mostly standard fare. Sadly, they are priced that way with $20 a starting price point, even at breakfast or brunch. To get the best values, you’ll need to get off Strip a bit. Downtown, it is hard to top the Garden Court buffet at Main Street Station. It’s pretty darned good, has a beautiful setting and the regular dinner tops out at $12.99. For purely functional food, it is hard to beat the value at the Gold Coast. How about a hearty breakfast for just $7.99? And it’s just a mile off the Strip next to the Palms (which also sports a good value buffet.) If you have a car or a sense of adventure, you can do better. The Feast buffet at either Green Valley Ranch or Red Rock Resort is actually very, very good and, get this, ranges from about $10 to $20. Of course, prices and quality can change over time but these are some of the least expensive options for good food and a lot of it. Tomorrow we ask how much is too much!