We arrived on a Friday night right at 6 p.m., thinking we might have to wait in line for 20 to 30 minutes to get into the only downtown buffet, which serves dinner Fri. and Sat. nights only. Au contraire! We didn’t have to wait even 20 seconds. We just walked right up to the cashier, paid, and had plate in hand within a minute.
Where was everyone? It couldn’t be the $29.99 price (with club card; the price has gone up $4 since reopening) for a marginal spread, could it? We were about to find out.
Main Street Station’s Garden Court Buffet was a perennial favorite before the pandemic and the only one that Boyd resurrected afterward. The room has always been tasteful and spacious and the offering was just as we remembered it, a superbuffet of sorts with a big salad bar, Italian with several pizzas, American, Mexican, Asian, Hawaiian, carving station, and desserts. As it turned out, dinner is as good as breakfast (LVA 10/21) and both are as good, if not better, than they were before COVID.
So where was everyone? We thought it might fill up later, so we took our time, walked out around 7:15, and it was just as dead. The room was barely a quarter full at its busiest and we had a six-top table all to ourselves.
It might have been an off night during an off week, but if it’s like this all the time, you can’t go possibly go wrong here.
The salad bar had plenty of fruit and vegetables, including beets and melon. Along with all the pizzas were calzone, garlic breadsticks, and pasta with meatballs and sausage. Out of several kinds of seafood, we were surprised by excellent steamed clams and linguine and clams.
The chef was carving ham, rotisserie chicken, beef of the day, and sausage. The buffet chicken was also baked, fried, and shoyu’ed. For American were BBQ ribs, potatoes, stuffing and gravy, baked yams, and fresh broccoli. The Mexican station offered chili Colorado, enchiladas, fajitas, and tacos. Spring rolls, lo mein, stir-fried vegetables, and sweet and sour pork filled out the Asian station and mahi mahi, beef stew, manapua, kahlua pork, and spiced cabbage attracted the mostly Hawaiian crowd, such as it was.
We liked everything, but went back once for the grilled fish, chili Colorado, stir-fry, shoyu chicken, and beef stew, and twice for the steamed clams. Coconut cream pie, chocolate cake, and soft-serve with peanuts and sprinkles topped off the meal.
As for the price, only the Rampart and South Point dinner buffets are less expensive and not by much; hell, even the Circus Circus buffet is $3 more (no club price). If you want a buffet like the old days, this is the place.
Also, you can validate your parking ticket at the buffet cashier and it’s good for four hours.
MSS needs the clients in the casino to keep the buffet busy. They gutted their video poker and canceled their table games except on the weekends. I eat where I gamble.
Sorry, but totally disagree with this review. The choice is severely limited compared to pre-covid with the back area closed off. Quality is lower than before (especially carvery options) and price is a lot higher (almost 2 x) for lunch and the discounts are for Emerald and above only. Room and service are still good. I did visit in August but more for nostalgia reasons than for the food.
Before the Plandemic I played 9/6 JOb and drank the Micro-brew beer at the bar. We always went on Wednesday night. They had a great buffet with Oxtail and all the other favorites.
But the VP has been decimated and even the keno at the bar sucks. It is no longer worth it for me to drive downtown.