What: MGM Grand Buffet
Website: Click here
Where: 3799 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, USA
Rating: 
Why:
The first dining venue to the left if you enter the MGM Grand from Las Vegas Boulevard, after the Centrifuge and just past the Sports Book, is the rather unimaginatively named “The Buffet” – which is fitting really because the buffet really was quite unimaginative.
Its presentation is clean and well-lit and space does seem to be used well. The seats at the tables and in the booths are reasonably comfortable so it’s an easy place to rest for a quick bite before moving on.
Otherwise, the buffet is a little forgettable. Not bad, not great, definitely a buffet – but that’s pretty much it.
A kind description might be passable food at a passable price with barely passable service. Another description might be a low-rent dining experience with underwhelming service at a second class price in a second class venue in a first class casino.
All whining aside, the service was efficient and mildly sociable – not cold, not warm, but still there. Great friendly service would probably be wasted on a plain buffet like this one, although the guy tending the bar was quick with a smile and a joke – he was straight out of a Billy Joel song, although we didn’t hang around long enough to find out if there was “some place he’d rather be” … and there probably is.
It is a fixed cost to dine here and you are required to pay upon entry. In a tipping country, this places you into an interesting position because you are asked whether you want to pay the tip up front or pay it afterwards. Call me picky, but a tip is to indicate the level of service you got, not the level of service you hope to get – so we opted to pay that later. This was lucky because we’d feel pretty miffed to have paid a 20% tip for the absence of service we received in full. Granted, there’s not too much they need to do given that it’s a buffet and you are technically paying for all you can eat and it’s all ready to go, and perhaps the staff are quite used to being ignored or mistreated by drunken people who just lost their money at the craps tables – and we’re certainly not needy patrons, but surely it’s not that difficult to sustain at least a fake smile for more than a fleeting second and make eye contact at least once while regurgitating the usual spiel you probably said a thousand times today.
Perhaps if you pay the tip up front to the person on reception (who is not the person who shows you to your table and/or “serves” you), the service might be a little more professional like in every other venue in this casino, but that seems unlikely.
In fairness, there was actually some quality food available if you include the decent sized prawns/shrimp and crab legs, and the lamb and beef cut from the bone while you wait are also good quality. Otherwise, though, the food was regularly refreshed and passable – not bad, not incredibly tasty, but paled into insignificance when compared with the better offerings.
For the USD$39 price, you would probably expect slightly better, and we also had a discount of USD$25 thanks to some freebies offered to us elsewhere in Vegas. So, we really only paid a net of USD$14 each, which was pretty much value-commensurate. However, the food filled us up and was satisfying at least to that extent. That should be at least the minimum provided, but then again, that is what this venue provided.
There were some tasty things available, but it’s probably a “visit once only, and only then if you get a discount” place.
