Thanksgiving in Vegas

I hear Vegas is a great place to do Thanksgiving. Is it true?

How are the crowds?

How are the buffets?

What are the best places to eat a Thanksgiving meal? Would prefer a Thanksgiving buffet to the uber fancy Pre Fixe menus I found online.

Thanks!

Vegas is a great place to do any holiday...or any other day of the year  =)

Crowds are not bad at all on Thanskgiving.    Almost all of the buffets will put a special menu out in line with their regular prices (give or take).      

When you think about it traditional Thanksgiving items are not very expensive.   So if you just want the basics (Roasted tuyrkey, Mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie) then even the lower tier buffets will hook you up with a solid meal.   I did Boulder Station 2 years ago and their turkey was as good as the one I make in my oven.     Obviously, the higher tier joints will go beyond that and have better stuff.

Thanks, PJ.

One more thing...

I read somewhere that the wait at the buffet lines on Thanskgiving is an hour. Is that true?

Not at the places I frequent  =)    I'm sure anecodetally there are examples of that but I dont think the crowds are worse than normal.   You can wait that long on any day.    The good thing is they tend to offer the Tanksgiving meal from lunchtime forward ...so  going  early/late might yield a smaller crowd.

have fun.

An hour?  How about four at the big Strip places, which people seem to think is worth standing in line that long for.  Insanity. 

I agree the uber Pre Fixe meals are often disappointing.  Overpriced, overcooked, stale (from being set up hours ahead of time for faster serving).

One suggestion:  Plan to eat later in the day, like 3 pm.  Buffet the lines will have shortened.  Restaurants won't be as swamped. 

We had a good experience at Le Cafe ile St. Louis in Paris (two years ago).  Nice sit down place and their Thankgiving meal was good enough and not terribly expensive.  We just happened to notice it around 2-3 pm, no line but plenty of diners (so maybe it would be good?  It was.).

A few years ago I read that Mon Ami Gabi was offering boxed Thankgiving (or was it Christmas?) dinners.  Had to reserve ahead of time, I don't know how far ahead because we didn't do it.  I was thinking that would be great to eat up in the room after a long day in the casino.  A hot bath, jammies, a bottle of wine, watch TV while we eat...fall asleep.  Yeah!  

Thanks for the intel, Candy. We were thinking of staying at the Aria, but four hours in any buffet line would be murder for my family haha.

Here is an excerpt from my trip report last year that covered Thanksgiving:

"For Thanksgiving  dinner, I stayed away from the buffets.  The lines at the casino buffets such as the AYCE Buffet at the Palms and the Orleans Buffet had lines stretching as far as the eye could see. This is the day, if you are smart, to not go to a buffet since many locals take their families and apparently use their player points to pay for it all.  Since they can pay with their player’s club points, to them it is “free”.  But the price you pay is that you w--a--i--t in a nearly endless line for what appeared to be hours. For anyone coming in from out of town my recommendation is to not go to a buffet in a casino property on Thanksgiving here unless you want to wait in line for at least two hours, may be more."

"I went to Blueberry Hill, a non-casino off strip restaurant just a bit west on Flamingo Dr. (I think there are three or four of them in Las Vegas). They are not franchised but are owned and operated by one owner. I had a turkey dinner with a salad and all the fixins, a soft drink and pecan pie for $16.60. The turkey and fixins were all excellent as was the pecan pie (though the waitress was bit harried having been given too many tables to wait on). They were very busy, but I only waited a couple of minutes for a table with no reservation (I don’t think they take reservations there)."

I've been to LV a number of times during Thanksgiving in prior years. I would get away from the strip, as that is where throings of locals go on this day. Another place that is more upscale at which I have had good luck was Twin Creeks Steakhouse at the Silverton Resort that like most restaurants offers a special Thanksgiving menu as well as Todd's Unique dining in Henderson.

Most of the better restauarants will require a reservation.

On the strip,  a few places that will likely be good without breaking the bank is Wolfgang Pucks Bar & Grill at MGM or at the Fashion Show Mall: The Capital Grill or Maggiano's again all of these will have special Thanksgiving menus without gouging you.

Wow, thanks for digging up your review for me. Those are very helpful tips.

And thank you to everyone else.

As it turns out, my family decided they want to go to LV right after Christmas instead. Guess I need to start a post Christmas, pre New Years thread next LOL.

BTW, Some of the shows will be dark around the holidays.  You can find out if you have a particular show in mind.

Good tip. Thanks again, Candy :)