Category: Las Vegas Advisor

by Peter Bijlsma

Of the five buffets operated by MGM Resorts, this one, at the Cosmoplitan, offers by far the best experience for the price. Those at MGM Grand, Excalibur, and Luxor are pretty mediocre and Luxor’s will be closing soon. Bellagio has gone downhill since it opened again after COVID, with no more king crab and caviar and snow crab legs only for dinner, not at the brunch. The servers don’t serve anything, they just collect used plates. You have to get your own beverages at a drink station or buy at the bar.

The servers at the Wicked Spoon are friendly and attentive. They bring a bottle of cold water to every table without even asking for it and take orders for soda, coffee, beer, wine, and cocktails. A beverage menu on the table shows the available drinks with prices. Bottled beer is around $11, wine $15, cocktails $18, and bottomless pours of wine, mimosas, and Bud Light $30 with a 90-minute limit.

At the Wicked Spoon, they’re also focused on keeping food waste to a minimum. Many items are presented in individual dishes rather than in bulk and that includes sauces and melted butter, discouraging guests to load up more on their plate or bowl than they’ll consume. Personally, I like to sample, picking up little bites, knowing that I can always go back and get more of something I like. Of course, you can’t do this in a regular restaurant.

There’s too much to list every item separately. Here’s a summary with some highlights.

The salad bar is on a separate island that includes the charcuterie section with cut cheese, salami, etc. The shrimp cocktails are also there. You get two large peeled prawns in a little dish with just enough cocktail sauce and a piece of lemon. There’s a good selection of fruit, several types of bread with a toaster next to it, and soups. Also smoked salmon with cream cheese, capers, onion, and tomatoes. And small dishes with tuna crudo and beef carpaccio. Little bags with corn tortilla chips and guacamole for dipping. Individual portions of salad, including Caesars.

In the main buffet, there’s an egg station where you can order an omelet with a selection of additions, such as bacon bits, cheese, ham, shrimp, onions, peppers, spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms. They also have eggs Benedict, scrambled eggs, bacon, and breakfast sausages. Around the corner are individual dishes with what they call “angry” mac and cheese.

At the Carvery are chicken, turkey, ham, several types of sausage, pork shoulder, tri tip, New York strip, and leg of lamb with a choice of sauces and gravy. Don’t fill yourself up on potatoes, pasta, and pizza; there’s more good stuff coming.

The next section starts with the crab legs, clarified butter, and some Asian dishes including a selection of sushi. Also fried rice, roasted bok choy, spicy shrimp, and cute little take-out boxes with steamed white rice. Finally, there’s a stack of bamboo steamers with dumplings and some more dim sum items.

The separate dessert island features a large variety of pies, cookies, cakes, and ice cream if you still have room left.

When I visited, they had a special offer for Nevada locals on Wednesday: $38 instead of $47 with a state ID. On top of that, there was also a half-price or 2-for-1 promotion for MGM Rewards members, valid until Memorial Day, so I paid only $19 plus tax — best deal in Las Vegas for any brunch buffet, even without crab legs. Club members can still get the 2-for-1 deal until May 26, the $38 price for locals on Wednesdays is ongoing, regular prices are listed on our buffet page. You can barely get a single lunch item and a soda for $19 anywhere on the Strip since Ocean One closed.

Directions: The Cosmopolitan has two towers. The Wicked Spoon Buffet is located in the western one, known as the Chelsea tower. Take the entrance to the parking garage at West Harmon Ave. I prefer to park at level B4 or B5. There’s a loading dock for delivery trucks at B1, AVIS uses part of B2 for their rental cars, and the Jockey Club has reserved spots at B3. Try to park as close as you can to the Chelsea elevators. Once up at the casino level take the nearby escalator to level 2. The buffet is at the end of the hallway.

MGM Rewards members Pearl and up get free unlimited self parking. Nevada locals get 3 hours. To get upgraded to Pearl tier get the First Bank MGM no annual fee MasterCard. You can fill out an application at any MGM Rewards desk. Insert your Pearl or higher card into the slot when you enter the garage. The gate will open and you don’t get a ticket. Do the same to exit. All others have to push the button for a ticket.

This is a newish restaurant at the Commercial Center on E. Sahara. We generally don’t pay much attention to these eateries, since they don’t seem to last too long (except for Lotus of Siam and that has yet reopened more than seven years after the roof collapsed in 2017). What caught our attention was the Manhattan clam chowder on the PK menu, which we rarely see in Las Vegas. A quick search turned up two mentions in LVA, one from way back in 2003, the other not much more recently in 2005.

We first tried the house salad ($8) and steamed clams ($20); the clams came in a choice of white broth or red sauce. We’d never seen clams served in a red sauce, so we opted for the novel preparation. The strong sauce definitely overpowered the delicate clams (but more on that in a bit).

We prefer the red chowder over the white, though being the Advisor, we also tried the white for comparison purposes ($12 each). They both come in a bread bowl with the top cut off and the middle emptied out. You can also get them in a regular bowl, which we should have; both chowders were gloppy enough without the added dough. And frankly, neither was recommendable. More like stews than soups, they were bland and very thick, with way more (undercooked) celery than clams.

Also on the menu are fried shrimp, calamari, oysters, and catfish ($15-$20), five pan roasts ($25-$32), five gumbos ($23-$32), a few po’ boys ($15-$18), and specialties such as jambalaya, etouffée, bouillabaisse, and two pounds of “Voodoo pasta” ($19-$32).

All in all, the salad was the best thing about the meal, with the red sauce that the clams came in a close runner up. Even though it didn’t do the clams any justice, we scarfed the sauce on its own, slopping it up with some of the bread from the bowls, so we didn’t leave hungry. A good thing, since the bill for the salad, clams, two chowders, and a $5 happy hour beer came to just under $62 with tax.

Maybe the best thing about PK’s is the $1.50 oyster special on Wednesdays.

No complaints on this deal. All in all, though, there are better oyster bars around town.

In August, Yelp issued a list of the Best Sandwich Shops in All 50 States and Nevada’s was Panino, an Italian deli on S. Decatur and Sunset Road. We have to admit, the selection abashed us a bit, since we’d never even heard of it! Then again, we’re not familiar with every little mom-and-pop eatery in town and this is definitely one of those.

Of course, it went on our list. We got there a couple of months later and now we know why it earned the lofty distinction over such Vegas favorites as the Goodwich, Capriotti’s, All’Antico Vinaio, Earl of Sandwich, and plenty of others.

Panino (“Sandwich” in Italian) is a flagship of a small local fleet of eateries owned and operated by an Italian-Argentine and his wife; the Zucchiatis have lived in the U.S. for 20 years and in Las Vegas since 2017. Food-industry veterans, they know exactly what makes a great sandwich. First and foremost, the bread. Here, Italian hard rolls, French-style baguettes, and marble rye are baked fresh every morning and Panino smells like it, along with the distinct aroma of a great deli, which hits you when you enter. Second, the meats, cheeses, veggies, and sauces are top-notch and third, the bread and ingredients all work together in perfect harmony.

Panino being an Italian deli, we were compelled to try the classic meatball sub, the first item on the extensive menu. The meatballs came in thin slices and there was just enough marinara to make it tasty; it wasn’t sloppy or hard to eat. The toasted roll was crisp and crunchy on the outside, but not too hard, pillow soft on the inside, and held up well to the marinara. Exceptional chew! And here’s the clincher: Half the sandwich was plenty for us, but we kept eating till we finished. We couldn’t stop!

It was also the least expensive sandwich on the menu at $15.95. The most expensive is the Philly cheesesteak at $18.50. Even the pastrami melt, which comes with a pound of meat, plus cheese, peppers, onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and garlic sauce, is only $16.50. Other interesting combos include the chicken pesto, chimichurri-drenched steak, pulled pork, French dip, spicy Italian, and turkey, cranberry, and cream cheese.

Panino also serves soups and salads (Caesar, Cobb, Greek, antipasto, wedge) for $15-$19, pastas (ravioli, tortellini, gnocchi, lasagna) for $14-$16, 10 flavors of housemade gelato, plus cannolis, tiramisu, and Napoleans. Of course, stuffed to the gills from the sandwich, we’ll have to return to try any of the other offerings.

The storefront is casual, cluttered, and busy; while we ate at one of the seven tables, a steady stream of mostly working guys arrived for a hearty and affordable lunch.

They keep trying to sound the death knell for buffets, but new ones just keep showing up. The latest comes from Genting Palace at Resorts World. This isn’t a dedicated buffet—there’s full menu service in the restaurant—but the buffet is available daily except Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday it’s $50.88 and Friday through Sunday it’s $60.88, with several seafood selections added. Unlimited wine is optional for $35/$40.

The Venue

Located inside the massive Resorts World resort, Genting Palace is one of the many fine-dining restaurants that sit directly off the casino floor. It’s a high-end place with high-end service and all ages are welcome. We went with a 13-year-old birthday boy, who received a small cake with a candle, gratis.

The Food

We went on a Sunday for the more expensive seafood selection. Upon entering the restaurant, the buffet doesn’t look very impressive and most of the customers are ordering off the menu, so there aren’t any lines. Don’t be dissuaded. There aren’t dozens of selections, but there doesn’t need to be. And the absence of lines is a definite plus. The cold seafood line-up is a good one—medium shrimp, snow crab, raw oysters, scallops, and whelks. What are whelks? They’re sea snails (you can pick them out from the photo below). There’s also a big selection of fresh fruit. The steam trays are all labeled: braised pork brisket, shrimp fried rice, seafood noodle, mussels in black bean sauce, siu mai, minced beef soup. At the end of the serving line is the Peking duck. A server carves it for you and the crepes and accompaniments are there for you to prepare as you like. Among those accompaniments is the hoisin sauce that goes with the duck, but strangely, it’s the only sauce available. No chili sauce, not even soy, you have to request those from your server (there’s cocktail sauce for the seafood). It’s a buffet, go back as often as you want.

The Verdict

This is a good one. The skinny snow crab was somewhat disappointing, but the rest of the seafood made up for it. The Peking duck ain’t no Wing Lei at Wynn, but you also won’t find that at any other buffet that we know of. Our favorites from the trays were the mussels and the soup. Drinks aren’t included and a Monkey Picked Oolong Tea was $8 additional. It was a perfect outing for our birthday scenario and we’d have to call it a bargain, given the near-$90 price tags at the gourmet buffets. We didn’t do the wine add-on, but will when we go back to try the non-seafood version.