Author: LVA

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Sphere: Postcard from Earth

Sphere: Postcard from Earth 3

Since the first digital displays started illuminating the outside dome on July 4 and especially after it opened on September 29 for the first U2 concert and October 5 for the premiere of the movie Postcard from Earth, Sphere has garnered international acclaim as the future of entertainment. We checked out the “Sphere Experience,” as the whole movie-going adventure is called, as soon as we could.

We attended the 7 p.m. show and parked in the Howard Hughes garage (see below for a link to the parking details). It’s a 10-minute walk to the arena, but the exosphere displays build the excitement every step of the way.

Sphere: Postcard from Earth

The world’s largest exterior screen, it comprises 580,000 square feet of fully programmable LED bulbs, 1.2 million of them, each about the size of a hockey puck and holding 48 diodes that can accommodate 256 million colors. (This screen has more than four times the surface area of the Fremont Street Experience.) The closer you get, the more the display dissolves as the individual bulbs gain definition; it’s amazing each combines with the rest to produce such high resolution.

Since the 7 p.m. show was the first of the day (there are also 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. shows on some days), the doors were open before the start time on the ticket; we don’t know exactly when. Inside, the eight-story Atrium offers a number of attractions and concessions. Overhead is a massive mobile of metallic hoops. Five humanoid robots, dubbed Aura, hold court and gather large crowds; each focuses on an aspect of human development (connection, innovation, creativity, longevity, and productivity).

The lobby also boasts two 360-degree “avatar scanners”; these scan your entire body, then email you a video of your avatar in a virtual world in 3D (very long lines by the time we got there). Plaques scattered around the walls display some of the equations used by engineers in Sphere’s construction.

The most attention-grabbing display was a 50-foot-tall hanging holographic structure that changed continually into bright and unusual images.

You get an hour (or more) in the Atrium before the movie starts, exactly an hour after the ticket time. If you want to eat or drink, the concessions consist of several bars, three cuisines, and snack bar. Everything, as you can easily imagine, is pricey. The Atrium Kitchen offers hot dogs for $8, waffle fries for $7, and burgers, bulgogi, poke rice bowl, chicken tenders, and andouille sausage $14-$20. The Cantina serves chicharrones with lobster guac tacos, and steak torta $16-$19. The Taphouse’s tri tip, fish and chips, and tenders and fries are $17-$20. Peanuts, popcorn, and snacks are $6-$10, while beer is $18-$19, cocktails $15-$16), margaritas $20, Red Bull $8, and water and soda $7.

When the time comes, you head up the dizzying escalators, find your seat (and find another link for the seating details below), and get ready to watch the most immense, immersive, and impressive movie the world has ever seen.

Postcard from Earth starts with a spaceship taking off from Earth, one male and one female sleeping deeply. We won’t give away the plot, but the “postcard from Earth” is a way for them to remember where they come from. We also won’t give away the first effects, other to say that they are, in a word, astounding. The ultra-high 16K resolution (meaning 16,000 vertical and horizontal LED lights) on a curving 270-degree 160,000-square-foot, screen, almost four acres and 20 times larger than the largest IMAX screen, largest in the world) is an experience you won’t soon forget.

The “postcard” returns to Earth with helicopter-eye views of panoramic land and seascapes—mountains, forests, plains, the Grand Canyon, underwater—as the movie delves into the history of the planet and starts to develop the theme of “life inventing itself.”

Every frame of footage was shot via a lens that combined 11 individual cameras to create a one-foot-diameter wide-angle fish eye for the massive super-clear views at 170 million pixels of resolution. In addition, thanks to the haptic effects (vibrating seats and 167,000 speaker drivers, amplifiers and processing channels for the audio), you can actually feel the footsteps 100-foot-tall elephants and the stampede of a herd of humongous horses.

After the idyllic naturescapes, the scenery turns decidedly human, culminating with cars, planes, and pedestrians accelerating to hyperspeeds to illustrate the pollution and destruction of Earth, “mankind ignoring every warning.”

From there it’s ruins, cemeteries, floods, deserts, and storms, with more special effects enhancing the action on the screen, then it’s back into space to rejoin the intergalactic travelers, waking up, heading out onto their new planet, doing the Garden of Eden, reinventing life. The inevitable conclusion is, to us anyway, a bit melodramatic, but it’s certainly life-affirming and green! The movie is 50 minutes long, though it’s so riveting, it feels like 15.

The future of entertainment? Postcard from Earth is certainly the biggest and highest-resolution movie anyone’s ever seen. You’ll also see in our seating post, however, that the prices are nothing if not prohibitive. That didn’t stop thousands from attending the movie with us or the horde who lined up in the hallway all the way back to the Venetian we all passed by as we were herded out.  

One detail we’ve seen is especially intriguing: live action. The Sphere’s creative team has confirmed that they’ve placed cameras in Antarctica, with plans to install another on the International Space Station. A real-time surround-view live hookup to a working space station 250 miles above the Earth? If that movie shows up at Sphere, we’ll be there to experience it—prohibitive prices and all.

Here’s your link for the parking details. And this one’s for the seats and prices.

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Seating at Sphere

Seating at Sphere 3

We went to Sphere and saw the movie Postcard from Earth a couple of weeks ago and here are our observations and a recommendation about choosing seats.

You can an escalator from the lobby up a long way to the 200-level seats, then another up to the 3090- and 400-level seats.

We read about an overhang problem, in which the three balconies obstruct views of the screen overhead, but we didn’t really see one over the seats available for the movie. In the corners of the 100-level seats, there’s a bit of an overhang, but seats for the movies are only on the second (200), third (300), and fourth (400) levels. The 100 seats are for the concerts, on the floor and closest to the stage.

The bigger issue for us was with the 200-level seats. They seemed a bit low in relationship to how much of the dome the screen covers, two-thirds of it in total. In other words, it’s like any movie you see in a theater: The closer you are to the screen, the more you have to look up at it. And this particular screen stretches over four acres of dome surface! The screen towering over the 200 seats might not be an issue, but to us, it seemed like it could be.

Also, those seats cost $249. Each. True, the entire “Sphere Experience” is two hours, but the movie, definitely the main attraction, is only 50 minutes.

We paid $68 for our 300-level seats, the lowest price available at the time, but a check for this post showed that prices have gone up considerably since early November. Our 300-level seats now cost $99, while the lowest price for a seat is $89 in the 400-level nosebleed section. We did find $68 seats still available, but it looks to us like those are outside of the 10,000-seat section where you get the haptic effects (vibrating seats, wafting scents, and breezes) in conjunction with the action on the screen. 

Needless to say, we weren’t prepared to pay $500 for two to see a movie, spectacular though it may be (and it is; it’s the most unbelievable movie experience we’ve ever had), and we sincerely hope you’re not either. So we say buy the least expensive seats you can get; you’ll see the screen just fine from the 400 level.

We do need to add one other note of caution. Getting to the upper-level seats in this arena requires a fairly steep climb. The landing is between the 300- and 400-level seats; you climb down to the 300 seats (and up on the way out) and up to the 400 seats (and down on the way out).

Either way, if you have trouble on stairs, this will be a challenge for you. We watched unsteady moviegoers gripping the handrails for dear life. But breaks in the rails allow passage between seating sections and those were scary for a number of spectators. More than one asked for help from people seated near them, which proved a bit hazardous for both parties. 

We do recommend the movie and you can see our review here (as well as our recommendations for parking), but it presents a couple of tests: financial and physical.

Click here for the review of the Sphere Experience. And here for the parking details.

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Parking at Sphere

Parking at Sphere

Sphere is located at the intersection of Sands Avenue and S. Koval Lane across Koval from the Venetian Expo. With the 580,000-square-foot screen, largest in the world, lighting up the exterior of the dome, trust us when we say, you can’t miss it.

There is some street parking on Manhattan Street (east) and Westchester Drive (south) of the arena, but you’d have to get there very early and be very patient to bag a spot. At six p.m. for the 7 p.m. ticket, we saw a line of cars double parked on Manhattan Street, hoping for someone to pull out. Actually, someone did and there was a mad dash from the lanes in both directions; we say you want to stay as far away from that chaos as possible. 

Six on-site self-parking lots and one valet lot are all also east and south of the arena. In total, there are 307 parking spaces for an arena with a capacity of 20,000. Absurd. Worse, only two are currently available; the rest are still occupied by F1 grandstands and on the ticketing site, there’s no indication that they’ll be opening up anytime soon. 

Lot S charges $75 for the movie. Ridiculous. You can also valet park in the adjacent lot $125 (plus tip, preposterous).

There are also four garages across Manhattan Street at the Howard Hughes Center with 2,000 spaces. Though they face Manhattan Street, you access them from a single entrance on Howard Hughes Parkway (one long block east). That’s where we dropped off our trusty steed. There’s a pretty good view of the exosphere from the top of Lot 1. And from there, it’s about a 10-minute walk to the building.

We bought our parking ticket in advance on Ticketmaster — and if you don’t have that app on your phone, you should; these days, many if not most tickets are QR codes on your phone. So we don’t know how it works if you don’t have the code, though we assume an attendant can assist. For us, we showed the code and flowed right in. Though the initial price you see on Ticketmaster is $40, the final price is $20 (at least at the time of this writing). Not bad for an easy into and out of a highly popular attraction. 

Here’s the link to the Ticketmaster parking page.

We imagine that prices rise for self-parking at the Wynn and Venetian on Sphere concert nights, but so far at least, neither has changed the pricing structure for the movie. The Wynn is $20 for the day, but it’s a fairly long walk through that large property and across Sands Avenue to Sphere. The Venetian charges $15 for four hours and a walkway from the hotel takes you right to one the west entrance to Sphere. 

If you’re walking from elsewhere on the Strip, four of the five entrances to the arena are along Sands Avenue; the fifth, the Plaza entrance, is east of the building on Manhattan Street opposite Lot A. That’s the one you enter when you park in the Howard Hughes lots. 

Click here for the review of the Sphere Experience. And here for the seats and prices.

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Luxor’s More Buffet—Good Spread, Too Bad Otherwise

Luxor Buffet—Good Spread, Too Bad Otherwise 5


When we eyeballed the Luxor and Excalibur brunch buffets a few months ago, both looked good enough to try, but Luxor’s was less crowded on a Saturday morning, is in a nicer room, and seemed to have a bit larger selection. So we determined to return and try it.

On a Wednesday at 1 p.m. the week before F1, we walked right in; not one person was in front of us. The cashier said there was a line from opening until around 12:30. Breakfast is served from start to finish (8 a.m. to 3 p.m.), but she said that it seemed to her that the crowds treat it as more of a breakfast buffet, so to avoid them, it’s better to get there around lunch time.

It offers plenty of breakfast fare: fruit and melons, French toast, waffles, pancakes, apple crepes, cheese blintzes, biscuits/potatoes and gravy, scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon and sausage, oatmeal and grits, bread and bagel station with a toaster, donut bar, and an excellent omelet station.

The lunch menu includes a Chinese station with egg foo young, orange chicken, chicken and green beans, egg rolls, steamed and fried rice; Mexican nachos, rice and beans, paella, albondigas, chorizo and scrambled eggs, peppers and onions; five kinds of pizzas; mussels, shrimp, and crayfish; roast beef, turkey, ham, and sausage at the carvery.

Luxor Buffet—Good Spread, Too Bad Otherwise 2
Luxor Buffet—Good Spread, Too Bad Otherwise 3

For dessert, it’s pastries, croissants, cakes, muffins, torts, brownies, cream puffs, and soft-serve for dessert.

Luxor Buffet—Good Spread, Too Bad Otherwise 1
Luxor Buffet—Good Spread, Too Bad Otherwise

All in all, both the variety and quality are recommendable.

For the weekday brunch (Wed.-Thurs., closed Mon.-Tues.), it’s $30.99 before tax and tip. But — and it’s a big but: You have to add in $15 for parking, $20 on the weekend when the brunch is $33.99.

You could, conceivably, get in and out in an hour to avoid the parking fee, since the buffet is located close to the casino entrance from the parking lots. We kept an eye on the clock, but we were going back for thirds and hadn’t hit the dessert station when our hour was up. Besides, hurrying defeats the whole purpose of a buffet. Still, unless you’re walking in, you’ll be paying a mere $1 less for this buffet and parking than you would for the superlative seafood spread at South Point ($45.95 with a club card and free parking). Sorry, but for us, that simply doesn’t compute.

Bottom line: For a good-enough brunch buffet, we’d go to Westgate (LVA 4/23). Parking is free and Westgate also gives us a coupon.

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Rooms for NYE

Rooms for NYE

This year’s rate check was conducted on Nov. 29 and turned up 90 casinos that have rooms available for New Year’s Eve, compared to 79 last year. The number of nights is the minimum required stay; the dollar amount is the total cost; resort fees aren’t included. 

1 night: Buffalo Bill’s $110, Longhorn $188, Arizona Charlie’s Boulder $200, South Point $215, Silverton $223, Suncoast $224, Westin Lake Las Vegas $227, Arizona Charlie’s Decatur $229, Silver Sevens $239, Aliante $242, Palace Station $243, Gold Coast $248, Sunset Station $249, Sam’s Town $249, Skyline $255, Serene $256, Boulder Station $269, El Cortez $269, Gold Spike $269, Santa Fe Station $279, Binion’s $279, Hilton Lake Las Vegas $290, Downtown Grand $293, Orleans $298, Cannery $299, the D $299, Lexi $300, Rio $319, Fremont $320, Tuscany $320, OYO $323, Main Street Station $325, Four Queens $329, California $330, English $339, Circus Circus $368, Tropicana $379, Strat $399, Ellis Island $415, JW Marriott $441, Circa $459, Westin Las Vegas $484, Westgate $420, Sahara $445, Green Valley Ranch $499, Red Rock $499, Planet Hollywood $799, Four Seasons $970, Caesars Palace $1,011.

2 nights: Plaza $303, Railroad Pass $342, Palms Place $588, Casino Royale $640, Excalibur $665, TI $679, Luxor $707, Golden Nugget $708, Harrah’s $718, Horseshoe $718, LINQ $718, Flamingo $758, NY-NY $798, Mandalay Bay $807, Park MGM $808, Platinum $858, Palms $868, Mirage $868, MGM Grand $893, Cosmopolitan $898, Delano $958, Cromwell $1,058, Trump $1,086, Vdara $1,098, Resorts World $1,132, M Resort $1,198, Aria $1,238, Durango $1,298, Bellagio $1,348, Nobu $1,548, Palazzo $1,598.25, Venetian $1,598.25, Waldorf $1,651.30.

3 nights: Hotel Jefe $450, Virgin $874, MGM Signature $1,052, Elara $1,270, NoMad $1,627, Encore $1,697, Wynn $1,697, Paris $1,797.

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Show Holiday Dark Days

Show Holiday Dark Days

Many shows are on hiatus this month. Following is a list of dark days (no performances) for the major productions. All dates are in December and most shows are dark Dec. 31.

Alexis Park: Flashback 21, 30; King of Diamonds 21, 24, 27-29; Wonderland All except 2, 23, 25

Bellagio: O 25

Excalibur: Australian Bee Gees Show 22, 23, 29, 30; Spice Wannabe 19, 26; Thunder from Down Under 24, 25

Flamingo: Piff the Magic Dragon 19, 20; RuPaul’s Drag Race Live 25; X Burlesque 24

Four Queens: Mike Hammer Comedy Magic Show 16-25

Harrah’s: Donny Osmond All of Dec;  Hyprov 12-25; Menopause the Musical 16- 25 & 31; X Country 31

LINQ: “Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club” 21

Luxor: America’s Got Talent Live 1-19, 25; Carrot Top 18-25

Mandalay Bay: Michael Jackson ONE 11

MGM: “Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club” 24, 25; David Copperfield 7-16; Jabbawockeez 5, 9, 12; KA 13; Tape Face 7-15, 18-21

Miracle Mile Shops: The Mentalist Live 2, 3, 5, 9, 26

Mirage: Beatles Love 19, Jan. 1-10; “Center Stage Comedy” 22-23, 29-30; Shin Lim 5-20, 27

NY-NY: Mad Apple 19; Terry Fator 3, 8, 12-18, 25

Orleans: Adam London Laughternoon 24; Marriage Can Be Murder 11, 24; Late Night Magic 11, 25

Planet Hollywood: Criss Angel MINDFREAK Live 6-14, 24

Rio: Penn & Teller 4-22; WOW 17-18

Sahara: Magic Mike Live 24, Jan 1-7

The STRAT: Banachek’s Mind Games 3-4, 17-18, 25; Rouge 19

Tropicana: “Laugh Factory” 25; MJ Live 25; Murray the Magician 25; Rich Little 25

Tuscany: Haunted Vegas Ghost Hunt 9, 20; Jew Man Group 30; Rat Pack is Back 30; Vegas Mob Tour 10, 24, 25

Westgate: Comedy Cabaret 1-30; Soul of Motown 7-16, 24; The Magic of Jen Kramer 1-16, 24-30.

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Rosati’s Pizza

Rosati’s Pub

For several years, we’ve had an MRB offer for $25 off at Rosati’s Pizza. It’s an excellent deal, but not one we sought out. Rather, it was brought to us by Rosati’s owner, a long-time LVA member. Though grateful, over all this time, we never went out to try the place, for two reasons. First is the location—Rosati’s Pizza Centennial Hills is located at 8001 N. Durango Drive, which is quite a ways from the Strip. Second is we keep hearing good reports from those who’ve tried it, so we didn’t feel the need to check it out. This month we did.

Rosati’s is another good pizza joint with Chicago roots. The pizzas are round, but the slices are cut in squares. There’s a choice of crusts—crispy thin, double dough, and Chicago-style—but what really stands out are the toppings, with a big selection of meats (pepperoni, sausage, Italian beef, Canadian bacon, meatballs) and fresh veggies. Large specialty pies come in at about $30.

We can easily recommend this pizza, but we were even more impressed with some of the other items we sampled, including excellent hot wings ($10.95/6), breaded mushrooms ($9.95), and a meatball parmigiana sandwich ($13.55) that’s one of the best we’ve had in town. There are lots of seats and an outdoor patio. The kitchen is open10 am to midnight. This is a terrific play with the MRB deal.

There are nearly 200 Rosati’s restaurants in the U.S., but as you’d expect, the Las Vegas version figures to be a bit different. Along with being a good place to eat, Rosati’s Pizza Centennial is also a 24-hour bar. And a good one. The TVs are all tuned to sports and there are specials on food and drinks during football and Vegas Golden Knights games (try a Petrifier if you dare). UFC PPV events are shown for free (call for a reservation).

Join the players club and get a play-$20-get-$10 sign-up bonus. The best game is 6/5 Bonus Poker (96.87%), but when we were there, every quad got a wheel spin. That’s something we haven’t seen before; it raises the return percentage above 98%. 

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Peter Luger Steakhouse (Caesars Palace)

Peter Luger Steakhouse (Caesars Palace)

We’ve been waiting for this one. Anthony Curtis has eaten at the original 136-year-old Luger Brooklyn several times and rates it as one of his favorite steakhouses. Naturally, he’s been waiting breathlessly for the Las Vegas version to arrive at Caesars Palace. There was a long delay following the original announcement, but Peter Luger Las Vegas has arrived, opening its doors in late October.

Two components make Luger Brooklyn such a treat: the food, of course, but also the ambience. The Brooklyn restaurant has been operating since 1887. It’s a red-brick standalone building located at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge in an old neighborhood with a whole lot of, let’s call it, “grit.” Inside are separate dining areas upstairs and down and wooden bars and tables. It’s simple, but people are dressed up and the vibe is something special. Sorry, but there’s just no way Caesars Palace could have replicated that. Give them credit for trying, though. The former Rao’s space has wood floors and a cool center bar. It’s not Brooklyn, but it’s not really Vegas, either. It feels good.

As for the food, it’s right on the mark. Similar to New York, the menu is minimal—steaks and some famous appetizers and sides. You can also order lamb chops, fish, shellfish towers, and a few other for-Vegas additions, but you go to Luger for steaks. Big porterhouses, to be specific. They’re dry-aged, brined, and cooked in garlic butter, then served cut in Luger’s distinctive style to dole out in portions. Fantastic!

Most famous of the sides is the salad, which comprises simply beefsteak tomatoes and slices of sweet raw onion with Luger steak sauce on the side that you drizzle on top. It’s a must. Luger is also known for its German potatoes and the plate of thick-cut bacon slices. There’s a good bread basket to start things off, the service is top notch — a delicious experience. It’s also expensive.

First, a comparison with prices in NY show about a 5%-9% mark-up at Caesars. “Single steak,” as it reads on the menu, is $71.95, but most order in multiples: steak for two is $148.95, steak for three $215.95, and steak for four $285.95. The tomatoes & onions side is $17.95. The bacon (three slices) is $24.95 and German potatoes are $14.95. Our bill for three was $582, but we did it up with drinks, including a bottle of wine. Realistically, you’re looking at about $120 to $150 per person before tip, depending on the drinks. Or are you? It was just a single sampling, but our steak for three was almost twice as much as we could eat. Unless you want the take-out, basic strategy appears to be to order one down—e.g., three in a party orders steak for two for a $67 saving. Or maybe a party of two orders a single steak and you’re out easily for under a buck-fifty total.

Luger Lunch

Another cost-saving strategy is to go for lunch and its two less-expensive options: the Luger burger for $25 and a steak sandwich for $30. We went back, tried them both, and were less impressed. The burger is just that, a burger on a bun with a slice of onion. No lettuce. No tomato. Heck, not even mustard, ketchup, or salt and pepper (we had to ask). Good burger, mind you, but we wouldn’t call it $25 good. The steak sandwich, however, was a disappointment all around. The bill for both specials, one slice of bacon ($8.95) and the tomato-onion side came to $90 (with tax, before tip). Whoa. If you go for lunch, you can order all the dinner fare discussed above; we don’t recommend it for the specials.

Luger Math

Don’t try to beat ’em on a portion premium. Usually, buying more of an item lowers the per-unit cost, but that doesn’t apply here. Following is the per-person breakdown for the steak options.

  • Single steak $71.95
  • Steak for two $74.48 per person
  • Steak for three $71.98 per person
  • Steak for four $71.48 per person

You do better with a single steak than with two of the three multiple-person options, though maybe the presentation isn’t as cool.

Finally, unlike at the original Luger in Brooklyn, which is all cash, this one takes credit cards.

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South Point Seafood Buffet

South Point Seafood Buffet 7

The Friday night seafood buffet at South Point is so popular, the first time we tried to get in, the line was two and a half hours long. That got our attention. We also know an LVA member who goes to this buffet every week. Yes, every single week. Could it be that good? How good could it be? Recently, the opening time was bumped up from 4 p.m. to 3 and we heard that the wait time was cut in half. So we determined to find out for ourselves.

Now we know. But first, about the line.

When we arrived at 3 p.m. on the nose, the line was back to the escalators. It moves forward around 50 feet to the front of the buffet and another maybe 20 feet beyond it, then wraps around and comes back the same 20 to the cash registers. We expected the line to move quickly when the buffet opened, but it didn’t; at least it wasn’t around the corner and all the way back to the race book (another hour at least) like it was the last time we checked. From the escalators, it took 20 minutes to get to the front of the buffet (under the sign), then another 30 to make the turn and get to the head of the line.

At a bit before 4 after a 55-minute wait, there were plenty of available tables when we got in.

Meanwhile, the back of the line had moved up a lot. At 4 p.m., the wait looked to be perhaps a half-hour (and we’ve heard from others that’s usually the case). The bottleneck at the 3 p.m. opening is over and tables are still available. We kept an eye on the line and around 4:10, the end was well on the near side of the cashier, maybe 20 minutes long.

Anyway, once seated, plated, and reseated, it was exactly an hour from end of the line to food, glorious food.

And the verdict on how good it is: OMG! What a buffet!

There’s no lobster and that was just fine with us; with the immensity of the seafood selection, we didn’t miss it at all. Check out this line-up of ocean delicacies: steamed cracked crab legs, cold Dungeness crab claws, cold cracked snow crab legs, three kinds of salmon, oysters Rockefeller, clams, peel-and-eat and fried shrimp and shrimp ceviche, cioppino, swai, tilapia, fried cod, black-bean calamari, and more, plus live-action stations of shrimp tacos and build-your-own pasta with red and white clam sauces, and Manhattan clam chowder, which we can’t remember ever seeing at a buffet.

A line inside is always 10 deep for the big crab legs and if you want to see gluttony, even for a buffet, watch as people empty entire steam-table trays of crab on as many plates as they can balance. Meanwhile, the Dungeness crab claws are there for the taking, no waiting, and are as good as we could’ve wanted.

But it’s not just the voracious crowds and variety of seafood that astounded us. Check out the rest of the choices: fruit and melons; Caesars, potato, BLT, caprese, jicama, chicken, and spinach salads and four soups; beef broccoli, pad Thai, barbecue pork, sweet and sour, Chinese vegetables, egg rolls, fried and steamed rice, etc. at the Asian station; pizza, calzones, sausage and peppers, chicken parmesan, and the pasta station for Italian; the usual Mexican; house-smoked garlic salmon, maple-glazed salmon, ribs, rotisserie chicken, and prime rib at the carvery; even a Mongolian grill with beef, chicken, and shrimp and all the toppings!

After so much variety and so many good things to try, we were loaded down and had room only for one return trip for seconds, when we usually go back three or four times. All we had any room for again were the smoked salmon (excellent with horseradish sauce) and the crab claws.

For dessert, an action station serves warm apple strudel, along with a half-dozen pies, cakes and cheesecakes, brownies, eclairs, crème puffs, cookies, soft serve with toppings, the perfect choices to top off the pigfest.  

Oh, and did we mention you get two tickets? One ticket equals one drink (beer or wine) from the bar.

All that for $45.95 (plus tax and tip) with a club card, an insane value (especially considering that the marginal MGM Grand brunch buffet is only $9 less expensive).

On our way out at 5, the end of the line was all the way back to the escalators. By then, the buffet was completely full, people weren’t leaving, and when they did, it took some to clean the tables, so the wait was back to at least an hour.

We say the play is to come right at 4 p.m. and hope for the best. But however long you have to wait, this buffet is all that and more.