Gone are the days of the $1 buffet in Las Vegas. Now $175 buffets offer luxury dining

LAS VEGAS– Eighty years ago, the first buffet in Las Vegas opened with the $1 Western-themed Buckaroo Buffet, which featured cold cuts and cheese. Today, visitors can spend $175 on luxury buffets with lobster tail, prime rib and unlimited drinks.

The old Las Vegas buffets didn’t make much money, but they allowed people to eat quickly and cheaply, giving them more time to spend their money in the casino.

But the number of buffets has dwindled to around a dozen on the Las Vegas Strip. Many closed their doors during the COVID-19 pandemic and chose not to reopen in the face of rising prices.

Before the Rio’s Carnival World Buffet closed in 2020 and was replaced by the Canteen Food Hall, it billed itself as the largest buffet in Las Vegas with more than 300 international dishes to choose from. There was just about everything you could eat for about $30, said Jim Higgins, a Las Vegas food guide.

ARIA’s buffet, which stood out for its offering of Indian dishes and freshly baked naan, also closed permanently in 2020 and reopened as Proper Eats Food Hall. The food hall offers several options, including ramen, sushi, and burgers. Last March, Luxor’s ancient Egyptian-themed pyramid-shaped buffet closed its doors. It had cost about $32, but many people were eating for free with a casino.

Many of the city’s old-fashioned buffets have been replaced by trendy food halls and expensive restaurants run by celebrity chefs – as well as the so-called luxury buffet, which now makes it an attraction in itself. Las Vegas’ rise as a food city has spurred demand for higher-quality restaurants, said Al Mancini, a longtime Las Vegas food journalist and creator of a food guide called Neonfest.

Longtime visitors to Las Vegas compare the decline of buffets to the demise of the 99-cent shrimp cocktail, another iconic offering that had contributed to the city’s reputation as an affordable vacation spot.

“You go in, you eat, you gorge yourself, and then you come across a slot machine. It’s just part of the culture, and it’s sad to see this change,” said Ryan Bohac, an Arizona resident and frequent visitor to Las Vegas.

History professor and Las Vegas native Michael Green remembers the days of the $1.99 buffet, when he filled his plate with fried chicken, corn and desserts. An ad for the Wild West-themed Silver Slipper casino buffet painted this picture of abundance with the phrase “Tomorrow the diet, today the big buffet.”

Las Vegas is a city where visitors like to pretend they have more money than they do, and buffets allow people to live like royalty, giving them a “visceral thrill” when they fill a plate with crab legs, Mancini said.

Jeff Gordon, a frequent Las Vegas visitor from California, loves the “big show” of high-end buffets like Wynn’s Buffet or Bacchanal at Caesars Palace, which feature mountains of crab legs and elaborate carving stations with prime rib and smoked brisket.

Still, Gordon misses the affordable buffets that were once plentiful.

“It’s like going to Costco and buying a $1.50 hot dog,” Gordon said. “You might not just buy that $1.50 hot dog, but you might spend about $150 at Costco and other things that maybe you need, maybe you don’t need.”

He believes the decline of affordable buffets has contributed to the city’s growing reputation as being overpriced. Gordon believes this hurts tourism overall and discourages middle-class Americans from visiting.

Locals say the buffets have adapted to meet the needs of an ever-changing city.

“It was a great option at the time,” said Jim Higgins, a Las Vegas food guide. “I think the city has just evolved.”

“A Las Vegas buffet is an attraction at this point, and you’re going to pay for an attraction,” he said. “You don’t go there to do business.”

At the Palms’ AYCE buffet, visitors can pay $80 for endless lobster, shrimp cocktail, sushi, snow crab legs and fresh pastas like lobster mac and cheese. They offer specialized theme nights where hula dancers or mariachis perform. From time to time, a lobster mascot walks around.

It’s almost like a circus, said Marcus O’Brien, the executive chef of the Palms Casino Resort.

Mancini said buffets will always be part of some visitors’ Las Vegas experience and will evolve with the restaurant scene around them to be successful.

“The Las Vegas buffet will never die,” he said.