We don't seem to gave these in New England, but whenever I travel on business, they seem to be everywhere.
We don't seem to gave these in New England, but whenever I travel on business, they seem to be everywhere.
Vegas buffets, and pretty much everything else, used to be cheap when the Mafia owned & ran the casinos and took their cut from the gambling. The Mafia were forced out, but are still there and now control pretty much everything else — construction, transportation, food suppliers, sanitation, etc.
I’ve been to LV starting from 1977 until recently for a least 50 times. I’ve stayed in a whole bunch of Casinos there up and down the strip. My job before I retired me visiting the area.
Buffets and all the amenities that were once cheap for the gambler fell prey to the family vacation gambit, where parents would bring the kiddies to ever increasing family attractions, supposedly to spend a lot of money in doing it.
It turned out, they were frugal and didn’t really gamble much IMO, and casinos started raising prices to compensate for the lost gambling revenue. In recent years with this failed family vacay theory, LV has started getting back to catering to gamblers.
IMO if you want a family vacation, go to Disney World or Sea World.
F4, Flame on....
The article glazes over the labor issue when talking about costs. It speaks of scientificly analyzing how chicken pot pies are presented, and 5 to 25% waste being normal... but besides food costs, AYCE buffet businesses count on one thing... cheap illegal labor cooking the food. It is far easier to just hire a family of Honduran cousins to work the kitchen turning chuck steak into “sirloin tips” than it is to get portioning or pricing exact. The $4 buffet and the $8 buffet have the same food... and the same illegals cooking it.
Sadly buffet- cousin cafeterias have pretty near disappeared. They were the mainstay of traveling families when I was young, though never got into the northeast.
Bunch of casinos on MS Gulf Coast and their buffets are overpriced (with a taxing slew o of other ways to pay through the nose). The only way to get your money’s worth is to eat way too much.
I occasionally visit Las Vegas on business, and when I do, I rarely go to buffets, because there are so many good eateries—Cugino’s delicatessen for authentic Sicilian cuisine, Blueberry hill for old-fashioned American food, Rincon Criollo for Cuban fare and Mint Indian Bistro for subcontinental cuisine. These are all located in the “real” Las Vegas, away from the gambling areas.
gluttony and poor quality
Bring me a bucket.
The only buffet I have really enjoyed going to was a local Chinese buffet that closed down a few years ago. When one of the kitchen workers would come out to refill the line, it was usually a Mexican. lol
The downhill slide of Vegas started with the family themed Circus Circus. Kiddie games and a cheap and barely edible buffet. Problem is that parents towing kids around aren’t dropping quarters into the machines. Some resorts now exclude people under 18 from their premises all together.
Buffets are good as an unusual event, however, Americans tend to miss out on a lot by not varying *how* they eat as much as what they eat.
The “Midwest sit-down gorge” with either all the food on the table at once, or in a buffet line, was how farm families used to eat. At a given time, everybody would stop working, assemble in the dining room, and gorge until they were full. Then back to work.
However, when you have a more relaxed life, you don’t have to do it that way. You can have smaller meals that take longer, more often, and enjoy them more. For a main meal, you can eat in courses, even with breaks in between courses.
Currently, I can only recommend the newer one at Caesar's Palace - and it's very expensive - and the one at Bellagio. Everything else is extremely hit and miss, they have good and bad days depending on who is working. Usually, you are much better off getting a recommendation for a good off-Strip restaurant.
Way too many choices starting with which car to take to the GC. Yard full of cars. Ain’t it good ain’t it great! Good for the conomy too. we be Spending to prosperity.
Way too many choices starting with which car to take to the GC. Yard full of cars. Ain’t it good ain’t it great! Good for the conomy too. we be Spending to prosperity.