Question of the Day - 14 February 2025

I do not agree with suggestion to get rid of buffets.  They are an essential part of Vegas IMHO.  As with all things in "modern" vegas, they are becoming more rare, and much more expensive---far from the spirit of what they once were.  If a few people sneak out a snack--whatever.  

If the casinos can charge for parking they can get rid of buffets. I think the current types of Vegas visitors will accept anything put in front of them. 

Watched a couple at a Buffet in a Colorado Casino Make at least 5 trips each, coming back with plates mounded with Crab Legs (nothing else). they were doing a lot more shelling, than they were eating!  Couldn't see it, but I know they were filling Ziploc bags

But if you got a comp on the buffet, how else are you going to win back the $500 it cost you to get the $49.00 comp?

Please tell me where $500 in play gets $50 in comps? 10%? That is a almost a positive play?

I like a breakfast buffet, but I miss the heyday of the all day passes etc. Not for me but for the thousands of other people.  After the pandemic there's been long lines in the food courts and they cut instead of increased staffing
 

As I eat at the buffet, I approach being full, but will grab a few cookies or a couple of brownies, wrap them in a napkin and sneak them in my coat pocket. Yeah, I feel a little guilty, but not that much. I could eat those before I leave, but don't want to feel over-full. On the other hand, several Chinese buffets (there are many here in Milwaukee) feature signs that say "Eat all your can, but finish and please leave. You not stay and sit for hours and keep eating!"

I'm not above sneaking out a few cookies to enjoy later with a cup of tea at a slot machine. And because many of my buffets are comped I tip the servers well. Casinos would attract more players if they brought back more buffets. 

One of my lasting memories of my first trip to Vegas in the early 90's was at the buffet at the Excalibur. While eating there all of the sudden the manager starts screaming at this table to remove all the food they had in a bag and put it back on the table. The whole room could hear this guy yelling at them. Yes, they seemed like the down on their luck kind of people and I understand the rules but was it right to embarrass them in front of the whole place, as well as disturb every other customer's experience? It certainly had a lasting impression on me as I still remember it. I guess he was trying to make a lasting impression on them as well. 

I have a Vegas friend who stole buffet food for years. He would conceal meat or other items in napkins and slip then into an oversized coat. He used the purloined products to feed his dogs. 

I generally take an ice cream cone or a cookie as I leave the buffet and have never had it questioned.

Buffets were a great attraction. I think the casinos made a big mistake eliminating them. 

The new Vegas motto:"E Pluribus Gougem"

Taking a few cookies or a banana or so I'm not concerned about. I'm more concerned about the idiots that take plate full after plate full and just pick at them and waste more than they eat.

My dad used to sneak out a few cookies or deserts, noting too big.  He got caught one day and told he couldn't do that.  He never got embarrassed but my wife with him did.  I miss him

That wasn't $500 in play.  It was $500 in losses.  I hope that's different.

If this were a big problem, say 25% of the people taking food out of the restaurant, I can see measures being taken to combat it. 

However, I can't see this truly costing the restaurant much, if anything, in the long run. 

First, A LOT of the food in buffets gets tossed at the end of the buffet hours. Second, it would likely result in those thieves returning to the crime to indulge again, but also paying again! Third, if the food is good enough to steal, those people are probably telling others how good it is, whether in-person or through social media. 

Not a problem, in my opinion.

The point of buffets, besides the attraction, is to have a food hall that feeds tons of people in a casino during a meal hour and get them back to gambling.  Traditional sit-down restaurants are important attractions, may have less waste, less stealing, but getting rid of buffets would optimize away their primary purpose.

I always have a ziplock bag with me when I eat at a buffet. Never take more than 2-3 cookies to enjoy later.  
However, I observed a friend of mine take an entire prime rib and some of the trimmings! S/he said that s/he made an entire meal of it the next day, either at home or in her/.his hotel room. Personally, I think that was a bit excessive but I wasn’t about to turn in my friend. 
One note about servers squealing to their bosses about the taking of a few cookies:  if the cookie “thieves” figure out who ratted them out, what do you think that would do to the tip?  For that reason, practically all servers ignore these petty thefts.  😉

From the replies, many of you either need to find better friends to hang around OR your friends do! Read that again. I was taught that HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING. IOW, YOU either are an honest person OR you are not. There us. No in-between. 

At Beau Rivage in Biloxi MS buffet, you pay when you enter, of course.  The hostess then says "When you are ready to leave come back and I'll give you a go box."  The go box wasn't huge but enough to put a piece or two of cake and some cookies in (or whatever else you wanted to take out).

Candy


  

 Look around any buffet and you will see several huge people who paid the same price as me for the buffet. Being 5" 10", 160, I don't need or eat a lot. But I see these "buffet busters" piling the food on their plates, making 2-3-4 trips thru the buffet and leaving a lot of uneaten food on the tables. My rational is that if I want to take a couple of cookies or donuts or a banana as I leave, I see nothing wrong with my decision. Now some will not agree with me, and that is your right. But I am comfortable with my decision. 

I know it's not a popular opinion here, but I'm on team Dump the Buffets.

The best buffet food I've ever had would have never been served at an above-average restaurant. The worst buffet food I've ever had should have been prosecuted as a crime against humanity.

The only draws buffets have ever had was (1) the ability to eat a ridiculous, uncomfortable amount of food at (2) a low price. #2 isn't really true anymore (anywhere, not just in Las Vegas), so buffets have lost their reason for existing.

I never pick up extra food to take home, but recently I asked at the carving station server for a small piece f ham and got a huge slice, that could hardly fit on my plate. I eat there often and they know me. I showed it to my waitress, ate half of it but there was no way I could finish the whole thing.

So I told her that I know you can't take out food but once it has been on your plate they have to throw it in the trash and I didn't like to waste it. She gave me a large styrofoam cup for my "drink". 

Buffets don't have to go boxes, but most of them don't mind guests taking their drinks out to the casino and provide cups for that since they don't want to lose their glasses. 

Happened to me even at the Wynn and several buffets in Reno. When the Mirage buffet still included bottomless drinks they had this nice Asian lady by the exit pouring people's drinks into cups and keeping the glasses.

Most Asian buffets sell food by the pound if you want to take it home with you and not eat there. Sometimes it is handy to grab some food, stick it in a styrofoam box, and eat it at your leisure. A few cookies or siu mai is not going to be an issue, but taking home large pieces of meat is classless at best.