Cheap food at Las Vegas hotels?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife and I recently returned from our honeymoon, which we spent in Las Vegas. Before we went, everybody (and I do mean everybody) told us how the food at the various hotels was simultaneously high quality and dirt cheap. The common wisdom seemed to be that (a) the hotels were built around casinos, (b) the hotels want to encourage people to spend as much money as possible gaming, © they don’t want people “wasting” all their money on food, and (d) they don’t want people leaving the hotel to look for good food elsewhere.

Well, this isn’t what we found during our stay. For what it’s worth, we stayed at the Venetian, which is a high quality “Resort” hotel, and it didn’t even have a buffet. It did have a number of very high quality (and VERY expensive) restaurants that we couldn’t afford to eat at. It also had a very nice food court that offered affordable (but by no means “cheap”) food.

During our stay, we walked up and down the main strip and checked out a numnber of other hotels. We found some that offered deals such as Prime Rib for $10.99 or Steak and Lobster for $12.99. Aside from the fact that these prices aren’t all THAT good, however, the quality of the food we tried at these places wasn’t all that good, either.

The buffets we saw tended to cost anywhere from $9.99-14.99 for lunch, and $12.99-19.99 for dinner. Again, not all that cheap, and the ones that cost the least had the worst selection and quality. Our best experience was at the Aladin hotel, which had a fantastic selection of extremely tasty food. At $19.99 a person for dinner, however, it wasn’t exactly what I would call “cheap.”

We were also surprised to see that the vending machines at some of the hotels were selling sodas at airport prices ($2 for a can of Coke? I don’t think so).

Now, maybe we just didn’t go to the right hotels (we tended to avoid the real dives and only visited the “resort” hotels that had nice attractions and themes). My theory, however, is that the hotels get a percentage of EVERYTHING that is sold inside, whether it be gaming or food, and that they really don’t care what you spend your money on. The whole “cheap good food so that you will spend all your money gambling” is, in other words, just another urban legend that is passed around.

So, has anybody found these storied Las Vegas hotels with the incredibly cheap, yet delicious, food? Or is it just an urban legend after all?

Regards,

Barry

2

We found the dirt cheap breakfast, but not in a hotel. And it wasn’t the lap of luxury, either. I think the cheap food thing was more prevalent years ago. But it is there. We found prime rib for six bucks, but again, not at a hotel. I think you have to go outside the hotels for the deals.

3

I don’t have any proof for this, but I think you’re right. In fact, unless you go to one of the established restaurants with a well known chef (which are also very expensive unless you’re getting “comp’d”), the food is neither cheap nor good in Las Vegas. I can only assume at some point it was, since it has that reputation, but I have yet to see it be true in three years of hanging out there.

I do remember $1.99 steak and eggs at 4 in the morning at one of the generic casino restaurant diners. That was definitely cheap, and a fair amount of food. Not that good, of course, but at 4 am who cares.

And, purely IMO, the buffets are definitely not what they’re cracked up to be. Usually $8.99 or more, and the food is truly grade school cafeteria level. The only advantage is you can have as much as you want…

4

I have found some good buffets but they aren’t cheap. The best I have found was at the Rio hotel. It was around $20 but I thought the food was above average for a buffet.

5

If you want cheap eats, you’ll have to get out of the resort/casinos. Those cater to the glitz and glamour seekers, which is what Vegas is veering toward more and more these days. More money to be made that way.

If you want better deals, you need to head off the Strip and into the residential sections.

That said, some of those resorts offer great deals on hotel stays, if you hit them at the right time. We managed to get a suite at the Venetian for something ridiculous like $60/night. Of course, this was just after Sept. 11th, when the whole travel industry was desperate to anyone to spend money. More recently, we got rooms at Mandalay Bay for just over $100/night. I think the local Motel 6 is $54.90/person! We made reservations and kept checking their internet site. When the price dropped (and it did 3 times within the 2 weeks before our visit) we’d call and ask for that rate, which the hotel honored without question.

6

I live in Las Vegas and you are right and you are wrong.

Basically, you get what you pay for.
There are still the cheap buffets. Circus Circus, Boardwalk and a few other older Strip hotels offer them. A lot of places have late night specials that are pretty good.
However, the casinos have discovered that people don’t mind paying more for quality as well as quantity.
The Paris buffet is spectacular - all French food, pastries and bread - as well as the Prime Rib and shrimp and Alaskan King Crab. I believe the lunch is about $15, but you certainly get your money’s worth. Bellagio and Aladdin are two other places that fall into the somewhat pricey, but damned good buffet category.

Almost all of the locals casinos (off the Strip) and most in the older downtown area offer the really cheap buffets like in the old days. Some of them are actually pretty good - but a lot are really bad. The Golden Nugget is very good and I think lunch there is $7.99.

Again, the rule of thumb is that the further the casino is from the Strip, the cheaper the buffet. Next time, try any of the Station Casinos (a chain of locals casinos that not only has better food for less, but higher odds of winning at machines), or Orleans, or Palms, or Rio or Gold Coast, etc.

There are also late night deals at some casinos - steak and eggs for $2.99 from 11pm to 5am.

But congratulations: of all the hotels, you found the one with the worst selection of budget food in all of Las Vegas! While The Venetian is a great hotel, you have pointed out all the drawbacks of trying to eat there.

7

I stayed at the Excalibur, which is a resort hotel, but not one of the newer ones. It’s attached to the Luxor and Mandalay bay (you can go from one to the other without going outside). I seem to recall that the breakfast buffet there was like $6.95/person.

It was AWESOME. Huge vats of every breakfast food I could imagine. I have never seen that much bacon in one place. The lunch/dinner buffet at Harrah’s was also excellent. I think it was more like 10-12 bucks per person, but there was every bloomin’ thing under the sun on that sucker. We ate 'til we couldn’t eat anymore.

I’ll look back in my accounting program when I get home. I should have a record of what I paid. This was in June of 2000.

8

The buffets generally blow. The Bellagio’s, OTOH, is worth the ~$20 lunch and the $20+ dinner. Truly spectacular and even if you just sample each dish it’s way more than one person can eat in one visit.

I heard that the Aladdin now has a Todai, which is all you can eat sushi and seafood (all you can eat lobster - can’t beat that). I love Todai. :slight_smile:

9

I should point ouyt, BTW, that the WORST buffet we went to was at the Luxor. From the waiting line it looked like there was a huge selection, but infact it was just the same 10 or so items repeated at 3 or 4 different stations. And, even though this was at 6:00 or so, all the food was sitting under heat lamps and was dry and tasteless.

The wife and I had a good chuckle, though, upon seeing written on the menu, “Votest best buffet.” Best buffet where? In the hotel? And voted by whom? The guests staying at the Luxor?

:wink:

Barry

10

I just got back from Vegas - and I had heard the same thing. I was expecting high quality food for cheap prices. Yeah - didn’t happen.

Oh well. We ate well anyway - the Prime Steakhouse in the Bellagio, the Italian restaurant in Treasure Island (Francesco’s ?), and a nifty little cafe (also in the Bellagio) called “Nectar”. Average dinner check for two including minimal wine was $60-80.

C’est la vie!

11

Lived in Vegas in 85 and the food was good and cheap. As has been pointed out, the marketing has now shifted focus to a different group of people. Lived there again from 90-96 and you could see a shift away from the .99 shrimp cocktails and 4.99 lobster tails. Off the strip was still pretty cheap if you knew where to go. Binion’s downtown was a late-night bastion of the 1.99 New York steak. The Rio kinda set the trend for the “Mega-Buffet” costing around $20.

Went recently and its like going to Hawaii. Be prepared to dig out them dollars in big quanties.

(I was dating a manager in food service at one of the biggies, so got to eat free anyway. Thats always cool!)

Never kiss an animal that can lick its own butt.

12

I go to Vegas every couple months. The only way I can afford it is to book my rooms through Vegas.com (cheapest I’ve found) and read the cheapovegas.com pages on where to stay/eat. My gf and I usually pay about $35/night, and we never spend more than $20/day on food. (Those prices are totals for two people. YMMV) If you’re in the mood for a drink, sit down at the penny slots at the Sahara. I rarely eat at buffets, and I don’t eat fast food. You’ve just got to know where to look (away from the new strip). It’s the cheapest weekend get-away around.

13

Did you investigate what sort of restaurants everybody usually eats at?

If all of them eat at McDonald’s, then yeah, they’ll think the casino food is great. I’ve been a few times and have yet to be impressed. Then again, I am an acknowledged food snob. Almost everything that you will see at one of those cheap buffets comes out of a can or bulk pack. You will be lucky to sample any preparation methods that can’t be found in a common school cafeteria. Haute cuisine it will most decidedly not be.

Liquor, on the other hand, is something that you can find in both quantity and quality. The last time I was in Vegas, I enjoyed dollar shots of Benedictine Brandy and French Cognac, triples were three dollars. The reason being that the markup on liquor is already so astronomical that a dollar a shot still pays the bills and turns a profit.

Next time you go, print out a copy of this thread and follow the recommendations of the locals that checked in here. Once again, where does everybody that gave you this advice dine?

14

Nope, I didn’t poll all my friends, family and coworkers to determine whether they were qualified to render an opinion as to the relative quality of restaurant food. Silly me.

Hmmmm… Pity neither of us drink. Oh well.

Next time? What next time? We only went this time because I promised my wife that after blowing more money on the honeymoon than we did on the wedding itself, we would save money and never go back again.

Once again, I’m not privy to the dining habits of all my friends, relatives, and coworkers, and I think it would be terribly rude to ask about them in order to gauge the quality of their culinary suggestions. But that’s just me. See the sig line for more details.

Regards,

Barry

15

No prob, GT. Not trying to be rude. Just curious about what the decision making process was based upon.

I heartily concur with you about not making too many return trips to Vegas. There are so many other really beautiful and far more interesting places to visit than such a glitterdome.

16

A last minute aside…cool but inexpensive things you can do in Vegas: If you havce a car, DO go to Red Rock Canyon. The beauty of this park is beyond belief…and admission is Free (5 min outside Vegas. Bring bottled water/soda…she gets HOT! But take out what you bring in after).
PS- If there’s a ‘pink piece of garden hose’ left by a ‘litter-bug’ on the road, don’t stop to pick it up. It’ll move off on it’s own. <rattle>

17

Crap, sorry, I paid cash. But still, I’m pretty impressed that I have a record of my atm transaction going back to 1998.

Sorry I couldn’t add to he discussion.

18

I am in Vegas once every 3 months or so (just a 3 1/2 hour drive from here) - the absolute best deal is the $4.99 steak dinner at Ellis Island - yeah the place is a pit, but you can’t beat the price.

CheapoVegas is a very entertaining review of Las Vegas Hotels. Its sister site Las Vegas on 25 cents a day is just as amusing. Both pages are absolutely mandatory reading before you head to Las Vegas.

Phouchg
Lovable Rogue