Question of the Day - 09 October 2025

A bus tour group at Harrahs Laughlin was raiding the buffet and I saw a woman lick her plate clean and put it on top of the clean plates. She probably does the same at home.

I don’t have a buffet story to tell but some of these stories are kinda scary. All I’ll say is I miss the old  M Resort  buffet. 

When I saw the QoD yesterday, my first thought was about unusual food on a buffet.  Way back when the Mirage first opened, we ate at the buffet there and they had purple mashed potatoes!  Funny thing was, that I had recently read an article about different kinds of potatoes, which included purple potatoes.  My husband asked, now what did you get? He's not an adventurous eater, but I do like to try new foods.  So my usual goal is to find something that will evoke that same response.  I must admit that pants falling down certainly is the craziest thing!  

My Father was absolutely possessed when it came to good table manners.  Thanks to him I can eat in public without looking like some hillbilly who just wandered in off the pike.

Had Dad witnessed Donzack's mention of, "I saw a woman lick her plate clean and put it on top of the clean plates" there is no doubt that Dad would have needed to be restrained.

I once licked jell off of my knife.  ONCE.

Thanks Dad...you did good!

We once sat down to eat and noticed a couple at the next table with 5 or 6 plates of empty crab leg shells.  The man continued to eat 8 more plates full as is wife fell asleep in the booth.

This happened in the 90s so I don't remember where this buffet was.  It was a buffet where you still had to order drinks.  I was in a group of 4.  After asking for refills on our soda twice, the server brought us a pitcher of soda.  She did it as a joke but we ordered 1 more pitcher before we were done.  I believe not long after that they started doing self serve drinks at buffets - except alcohol.  (Imagine all you can drink alcohol at a buffet).

Saw a man take "only" 10 navel oranges to his table from the Trump Plaza buffet in AC. He proceeded to eat all of them, and nothing else. Also, I've frequently seen large wedding parties in the Main Street Station buffet.

Buffet managers use some clever tricks to keep people from loading up expensive items. Usually there's a big tray full of shrimp at or nearby the salad bar for people to scoop up as many as they want. 

But the Cosmopolitan presents 2 shrimp with a bit of cocktail sauce in little pans and it's impossible to put more than 3 of them on a plate. 

The Bacchanal did something similar. When they opened after COVID I had dinner there with Anthony Curtis and Scott Roeben. The scallops were presented on the original shell which is many times larger than the edible part. We could barely fit 3 of them on a plate and had to get back for more. They also had a person with a cart going round serving lobster bisque, but he never made it to our table. Both were discontinued after the first week.

It's also common to hide expensive items. South Point has the cheap snow crab legs right up front, but the Dungeness crab is in the back corner.

At the Wynn the seafood is all the way in the back.

I was in Vegas for the first time for my 21st birthday back it the 80s and stayed at the Flamingo.  Mom and I played slots until well after midnight and we were hungry so we walked to the old Holiday that looked like a riverboat  (now i thinks its Harrahs).  Their buffet was open 24 hours back then.so we went in for a decent meal at a good price.   At the next table was a man who seemed pretty intoxicated.  He kept nodding his head down and security came over to check on him.  He said he was fine but just as they started to walk away he finally went to sleep and went face first into his mashed potatoes and gravy.  Security turned back around, picked him up, semi cleaned his face with a napkin and then hauled him off.  The staff came to clean up his area and commented that even they hadn't seen someone flop like that.

40 years later mom and I still laugh about that experience. 

A few years before Cravings (my favorite) at the Mirage closed, one poor lone soul had gathered enough energy to wake, pack his bags and gather some breakfast before he passed out at the table obviously from a long night and little sleep. He was still there when we left an hour later. No one bothered him

I still think of the grossest things, and crazy, yes, I've seen and still see is people licking their fingers at the buffet. They pick up the buffet serving utensils, put food on their plate, and lick their fingers. And of course touch the next buffet utensil everyone uses to get their food and repeat over and over. Beyond the fact about 50% of the population don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, and who knows what else, and they lick their fingers? And then their saliva is now on everyone else's hands? To them and others, I think that's as disgusting as it gets and beyond rude. And of course at the table you see people licking their fingers like there's no tomorrow without washing them after touching the buffet utensils. Not good on many levels. Finger licking good E-coli "fun" anyone, courtesy of about the 50% who don't wash their hands after taking a dump and then touch and use the buffet serving utensils? Yes, blunt, but that's reality.