Sunday 20 March 2011

Las Vegas All-you can eat buffets

One of the many things that are synonymous with Las Vegas are the buffets offered by each hotel. These buffets offer morbidly obese people a chance to fulfill their wildest desires and offer those of us who are thinner the opportunity to gain weight rapidly. Of course, this is assuming the food is good, and in that respect the situation is decidedly mixed.

I ate at four buffets in Las Vegas. One was excellent, two good and one terrible. My introduction to the Vegas all-you-can eat experience was at the Paris Hotel. I hoped that the theme of the hotel would translate into excellent French food. I was mostly right. It was wonderful to see such French staples as cassoulet and crème Brulee available, but at the same time disconcerting to see Latino waitresses dressed up in French peasant clothing.

At Caesar’s Palace, I hoped that there would be an Italian theme. Alas, it appears as though the Paris was an outlier. The food at this buffet was not as good, and the selection was much smaller. Some of the food items were also suspiciously similar to those offered at the Paris. However, the ambience was better here, and there were actually windows.

The worst buffet, but the most memorable one was at the Excalibur Hotel. It was also the cheapest. Basically this buffet had the food placed on a long counter in the middle of the room that resembles a trough for piggies to eat at. In fact, it was mostly pig-like people eating there. I have never seen more obese people in one spot stuffing poor quality food down their throats. While some of the food was passable – much of it was disgusting, including the pasta options. Strangely enough, the deserts were on par with those offered at the Paris. The best thing about this buffet was clearly not the food, but rather the people watching.