Why Has Caesars Not Brought the Spice Market Buffet back to Snuff?

So what happened to the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood? Once our favorite Buffet in Las Vegas, it has severely declined. Yelp, TripAdvisor, the Las Vegas Advisor, and comments in a recent Question of the Day all confirm this. While many other casinos around town totally renovate their buffets, Planet Hollywood hasn’t even opened the other half from a flood a couple years back. Why would Caesars Entertainment treat it like this?

A veteran of the Vegas food scene tells us, “Caesars Entertainment hasn't had a lot of renovations and new restaurants in the works in 2018. Other than Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen and Pronto by Giada, and a new Korean barbecue on the way to the Rio, Caesars has been pretty quiet.”

The lack of reinvestment by Caesars is pretty odd. It’s been sinking many millions of dollars into refreshing its hotel rooms along the Strip, especially after emerging from bankruptcy exactly a year ago. As Raving Consulting President Deana Scott notes, “Buffets are expensive to offer and typically a loss leader for the property, so many places are increasing prices or eliminating this option altogether.”

Repeated efforts to obtain an explanation from Caesars Entertainment met with deafening silence.

One possibility that occurs to us is that the company is trying to scrimp and save on guest amenities and is using the flood damage to Spice Market Buffet as an excuse not to restore it to its former glory (when it was one of Caesars’ best).

Anyone else care to conjecture why one of Las Vegas' former top ten buffets is now an afterthought?

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Comments

mofromto Oct-19-2018

Buffet decline

Caesars Ent has been in decline for years and I always advise people to try and stay and eat off-strip if possible as you'll either get gouged or be disappointed.

Sandra Ritter Oct-19-2018

Spice Market Buffet

The PH buffet was always a go to on our trips to Vegas.  We did go 2 years ago and were appalled at the condition and offerings. This year we decided to go to Paris (I used my $100 credit as a Diamond player) and feel fortunate that we didn't plan on the Spice Market.  I'll keep watching here to see if it ever goes back to being great.  Paris buffet is very good for anyone interested.  The food tastes more homemade and it has different offerings from other buffets.

ClarkKent Oct-19-2018

Buffets

I’ve been disappointed with the quality of buffets in general, so I have not frequented many here in Las Vegas. I did hear a news segment recently regarding Caesar’s and the Fertitta family that might explain why Caesar’s is not renovating the buffet. Something about a sale to the Fertitta’s....

salukidean Oct-19-2018

Downgrades at Rio Buffet too

It appears that Caesars is only really putting effort into the Bachannal Buffet.   Rio's Carnival World Buffet has seriously been downgraded as well (with only dinner service available during the week and half the selection it used to have).   With higher prices, less selection and lower quality, its definitely moved me away from eating at buffets (and my waistline is happy about that!)

Rick Sanchez Oct-19-2018

All about the $$$

New fee to add. $39.99/night surcharge for a decent buffet option.

Carey Rohrig Oct-19-2018

Surprise

This is Vegas, vacation somewhere else, I have.

Oct-19-2018

Never was that great

A few years ago I tried the Spice Market buffet after reading great reviews about it. I was seriously underwhelmed, and I criticized it in a post to the Skip Hughes Group. For once, my post seemed to have little or no effect, and people and places seemed to keep right on parroting the printed praises, even though they weren't deserved. So now this thing has "severely declined"? OMG, that would make it the worst buffet in Vegas history. It used to be bad, and now it's horrible. Nuff said.

Joseph Hupcey Oct-25-2018

Bad to worst

Decided to try SMB last week (before the article QOD was published) to see if it was any better, it couldn't get any worse: well it did get worst. It has reached the bottom of the barrel.  Less selection, mediocre quality. 
It's a shame, as it was one of the best until the Ceaser's bean-counters took over.
We also went to the Billaigo buffet, and was also disappointed. 
BTW the Wynn is still good.

Question of the Day - 19 October 2018

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