Food News

I am definitely not a foodie, but I do have to eat.  However, I don’t live to eat, but eat to live.  Therefore, you will almost never read anything I write that talks about gourmet meals or celebrity chefs.  I would never watch a whole show on the Food Network, but occasionally when I’m browsing I see some chef yelling and screaming and generally acting rude and wonder why that helps anyone choose what they want to cook or where they want to go out for a meal.  But that’s just me.

However, I will talk about eating when I need to help people choose frugal food options in a casino.  In my last blog I talked about the new buffet at the Palms, called A.Y.C.E, and how you could use the popular money-saving technique of timing your visit toward the end of one lower-priced meal and then staying for the next one with a higher price.  (The Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace is one where this method will save you big-time!)

Now I can give you the details on a promotion which could possibly save you even more money on the Palms buffet.  Advertised as running in January and February, on Tuesdays and Thursdays you can get a free buffet voucher by earning (but not having to redeem) players club points:  200 for breakfast, 400 for lunch, and 600 for dinner.

Now I immediately wondered if this could be a double-dipper on your promotional ice cream cone, because they are also continuing the Tuesday movie and Thursday carwash promos for earning 300 points.  So, I did an experiment last Thursday, checking to see if you could use the same points for two freebies.  I wanted to eat lunch at the buffet so I earned exactly 400 points and went to the kiosk and printed out my free carwash coupon.  I had heard the buffet offer would not be on the kiosk; you had to go to the players club desk.  So, I went to the club and gave them my carwash coupon and asked if I could also get my free lunch buffet coupon or did I have to get 300 more points.  It was explained to me that probably the casino did not mean for points to do double-duty, but that was the way it was set up. My 400 points covered both promotions.

I do not guarantee that the casino will change – “fix”? – this before the promotion ends, but in the meantime, this is one of those times – at least for now – that a savvy player will be able to combine promotions.  I think some players may even be able to make this a 3- or 4-dipper, if their free play can also be picked up on those days and/or their multiplier bonus-days hit those same days.

By the way, Brad and I liked the buffet better this 3^rd time we ate there.  We took a little more time to really scout all the many offerings.  There are so many to “figure out.”  We found more hot items that hadn’t cooled down too much, and I found the majority of my really-likes in the salad section.  The sliders still got a big fat “F” – make them smaller – someone who wants that as the main dish could take two – the rest of us want to just have a small “taste” of a lot of items.  And get rid of hard stale tasteless big buns – think small and moist, like White Castles, or artisan, like tiny flavorful pretzel buns.

Brad still thinks some of the food in this buffet is weird but he is able to find enough he likes to satisfy him.  However, I can’t get him near the Palms coffee shop, the Lucky Penny – even with a free coupon.   We ate there twice and he decided that this was the most bizarre place in which he had ever eaten since he was served a hot dog on a hamburger bun in Portugal 20 or so years ago.  In yesterday’s  R-J there was a glowing review of this restaurant describing a couple of meals that “upend tired coffee shop images.”

“Upends” is a good word to describe this place.  They put together items in an unusual way that makes the menu actually unreadable – you just don’t know what you will get when you order most things.  I don’t think the reporter ordered the potato soup. So, they want to make everything different?  You will get a big bowl in which the bottom is filled with a few tablespoons of “soupy” pinkish-orange liquid that had no identifiable flavors and then dumped on top is a large order of French fries like you would get at McDonald’s.

It is enough to get us back to the Food Court where the food may not be gourmet but at least you know what you are ordering.  The big problem is that I  suddenly found out this is no longer as option if you have a food coupon.  Now all Rewards Dining Offers you punch out at the kiosk have this in the printed details: “The Eatery/Food Court excluded.”

I must confess that this recent major change caught me by surprise because I did not heed my own much-repeated advice:  Always read the fine print every time because you never know when the casino will change the details of an offer.