Comparing the Bellagio Buffet to the buffets proffered at other casino hotels isn’t quite akin to comparing a Bacchanalian festival to a swinish feeding troth, but it might be close. That’s because the difference in quality between the Bellagio Buffet and its nearest competitor is several degrees of magnitude.
It’s the one buffet in Vegas in which you might actually see the gentrified and the affluent condescend to mingle with the rabble. It’s also the one buffet in which some of the patrons don’t look like they parked their hay wagons in front of the casino and walked in.
Being the very best, the Bellagio Buffet seemingly brings out the best behavior among its dining patrons who at other casinos might jostle and push their brethren just like European tourists do (and by the way, some of them put the much-maligned and stereotyped “ugly Americans” to shame).
There are many other Vegas buffets which offer greater variety, but where the Bellagio stands out is in its lavish presentation of cuisine as opposed to chow, fine dining as opposed to smorgasbord and culinary creations as opposed to caloric caches.
While other buffets have action stations usually featuring thematic (such as seafood) or ethnic (Italian, Mexican and the like) foods, the Bellagio has a singular, continuous procession of wondrous indulgences along with detached islands of salads and desserts.
In no other Vegas buffet will you find barbecued wild boar ribs, chicken Wellington, leg of lamb and more–and that’s just during the lunch buffet.
The Bellagio Buffet serves nearly one million pounds of prime rib per year. It serves more than five hundred pounds of seafood daily and it’s all flown in fresh daily from all over the world. The lunch and dinner buffet serve ten different potato dishes.
The daily dinner bounty includes Alaskan king crab and other extravagances not available during lunch–and even that’s not as opulent as the buffet gets. Weekend gourmet buffets are even better while holiday offerings include Kobe beef. Bacchus himself would be proud.
Every item we sampled save for the sushi (pre-made) has been good to very good. The beef in black bean sauce, one of the few Chinese entrees on the buffet, was among the very best we’ve had. Ditto for the four cheese pizza and I can’t stop thinking about those barbecued boar ribs.
While other buffets might offer soft-serve ice cream, at the Bellagio, you might find soft-serve raspberry and peach sorbet and it’s as fresh and delicious as if plucked right out of nature herself. The desserts are first-rate!
When you’ve had the best, why settle for the rest? It will be hard to visit any other Vegas buffet after visiting the Bellagio.
Bellagio
3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV
(888) 987-6667
LATEST VISIT: 1 June 2008
# OF VISITS: 2
RATING: 21
COST: $$$
BEST BET: Wild Boar Ribs, Chicken Wellington, Black Bean Beef, Four Cheese Pizza
Kay and I tried the Buffet at the Belagio this week and were profoundly disappointed. It was huge but a lot of the offerings were over cooked to the point of being inedible–salmon in steam trays too long so it fell apart when you stuck a fork in it, Kobe beef done til it was solid brown without a hit of pink, a crime for what must have once been very good beef. The king crab legs were sliced in half so cracking was no problem. However, they were so wet they left puddles of water on the table where the legs hung off the plate and were difficult to eat. Gimme whole legs and a cracker!. We saw nothing as sophisticated as wild boar anything. The deserts were quite good but I don’t pay ~$32 a head for deserts, Give it a miss.
I had heard many wonderful things about the buffet at the Bellagio and finally when I had a chance to go I went. I called before to find out what the price was and what time they opened. The girl that answered told me 11:00 am and $25 per person for lunch. Ok…cool…let’s go. Well we got there at 10:30 and there was a horribly long line already! We waited 2 hours in line and when we finally got to the cashier we were shocked when she told us $80! $40 per person! The girl on the phone basically lied about the price, but after waiting two hours and pretty much starving and figuring that we would be coming here again, I decided to pay the extra $30 and try it out.
The food was good…not fantastic…but good. Not as a much of a selection as I thought it would be, and drinks were extra(you would think with exhorbadently high prices, at least a glass of wine would be included). Anyway, on a scale of 1 to 10 I gave this buffet a 7.5. Mostly because I was lied to on the phone about the price and selection was not as varied as I would have liked.
In retrospect, I would have gone to Prime Steakhouse in the Bellagio instead.
Agreed: Bellagio’s buffet has no equal … not even the Wynn. While the Wynn buffet may be just as good in entrees, it’s navigation is cumbersome and it’s dessert selection is weak and industrial.
I`m crazy about wild hog ribs made on Rufus way http://pie.im/37f8
Any similar recipe?