Usually when a Vegas buffet announces it is closing for a multi-million
dollar renovation, it reopens with better food than ever, more selection, and
lovely decor. Look at the transformation from Mirage's so-so buffet into
gourmet Cravings, or Harrah's pretty good buffet into excellent buffet, or the
Rio's always enormous buffet into an even more enormous buffet that is probably
among the city's top 5 Best Buffets.
But take the Palms renovation - PLEASE! What were they thinking? They
weren't! Are they kidding? Are they nuts?
The new decor has nice new chairs and tables, and (finally) a durable
flooring. But the rest of the decor, while an improvement on the old, is nothing
special. But it is okay - so fine. One good thing, there is a slight barrier
cutting off the buffet from the rest of the casino -- resulting in less
noise. Since we find the music in the Palms generally awful, it was good to be
able to eat without hearing much of the music. Still the overall acoustics
weren't great, so the place is still somewhat noisy compared to most other
buffets.
But the food! ??? Actually the lack of food! Instead of having at least as
much selection as the old buffet (prior to when it was cut in half for
supposed renovations that never fully occurred), it has far less.
Can you believe there is no Mexican section at all? Vegas has a large
Hispanic population. Though I personally am not a big fan of Mexican food, you'd
think there would be at least a little section. During tonight's buffet we
found 1 Mexican item - period. Maybe they are thinking people wanting Mexican
food would just go to nearby Guardino's. But hey, Palms buffet designer --
this is a buffet!!!!!
And no Middle Eastern Food at all!! This was one area that set the Palms
former buffet apart from other buffets. Gone! (But they told us it will
reappear on weekends. But hey - I sometimes eat Monday to Friday!).
Peel and eat shrimp - Gone! Chicken gone -- unless you count chicken
fingers. Maybe these reappear on weekends, but I don't know.
Despite advertising in a Palms flyer "Watch as Bistro chefs prepare
sumptuous samplings from around the world then dig into specialities like Deep-Dish
Bacon and Apple pancakes, Slow Roasted Prime Rib and our made-to-order English
Trifle." We didn't see any of those dishes tonight. And we really couldn't
see the chefs any better in the new buffet than the old. When I asked about
Prime Rib, I was told it will be there on weekends. True, they did have a
very very good flank steak or some other similar steak/roast, but no prime
rib. I also asked about the Trifle and was at first told it wasn't there. As
we were about to leave, a hostess said they did have the Trifle, and offered
to get it for me. When I asked about it, it was described as Pound Cake with
strawberry (or another type) sauce on it -- that doesn't sound like a proper
English Trifle to me. But apparently something was there -- somewhere. As
for "samplings from around the world" - well if your World is America and
China and Italy, maybe that was what they meant.
The flyer says "It's an all-you-can-eat dream come true, with or without the
unbeatable prices." Maybe a bad dream!! The price for the dinner buffet is
now $16.99 - so they have actually increased the base price.
The variety at the Gold Coast buffet across the street is far better -
perhaps 2 to 3 times as many different dishes -- at a lower price!
When we first went into the buffet I at first thought there had been an
improvement as I looked at the salad bar, which is now spread out instead of on
the old little table. However I think the number of new items on it is
probably only about 2 or 3 additions, such as chopped eggs. Then came fried
mushrooms and fried shrimp, and two soups, and I thought, this is pretty good.
Followed by a full section of Chinese food which included tofu and sausage
(without the sausage this would have made a good dish for vegetarians, but again,
they weren't thinking), eggrolls, rices, Lemon Chicken, and Egg Foo Young.
No fried wontons, no wonton or miso soup.
But then I realized that the old Stir Fry section was -- Gone!
We found some fried fish, strangely put into a paper bag, sea bass, beef
stroganoff, salisbury steak, overcooked kalua pork (still I was glad to see
that back), the flank steak or whatever it was, turkey, several kinds of pasta
with several sauces, vegetables and potatoes, but suddenly I was in the desert
section. There were also some warm crab legs, which might have been a plus,
but when I tasted them, they didn't taste very good. Drawn butter was not
on the counter - you had to ask for it.
I had to go back to find one basket of rolls (hidden under a red napkin).
There was a selection of melon and canned fruit.
But I began to think of all the food that wasn't there. No kugel (Jewish
dish made of noodles - always one of the things I used to look forward to).
None of those Middle Eastern items such as hummus and stuffed grape leaves (I
loved those). No chicken! I searched in vain for some baked chicken or
rotisserie chicken.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that many of the missing
items were those that were more expensive to have - such as the duck they used
to have in the Chinese section. No sushi rolls. No peel and eat shrimp.
I'm not sure, but it is possible that the number of individual dishes was
actually just about the same number that had been there while the buffet had
only been half open. Chinese was missing then, now it was back, but it had
replaced the Middle Eastern items. So the number of items hadn't really been
increased.
As for deserts -- pretty much just the same pies and cakes, but now with a
guy to cut them for you. The same old 2 flavor ice cream machine was there -
but the toppings I loved were gone. (I was told a dispenser was coming
soon.) The excellent bread pudding was gone too -- just a deep dish apple
cobbler for those who like that sort of warm desert. There were some small petit
four type deserts, labeled as gourmet deserts - but they didn't look all that
great to me. The brownies and cookies were Gone. One thing I'd been hoping
to see back wasn't there -- those crepes they used to serve, which had been
their best desert. But no, they weren't back.
In my mind's eye I kept comparing the variety of dishes to those that used
to be in the old Palms buffet -- and there was less. Then I thought about the
variety at the Gold Coast - which is a good comparison buffet -- nope,
nothing like it. Take the Gold Coast's Italian section, which included not just
various types of pasta and sauces and meatballs and garlic bread (all these
were here), but also contains things like Chicken Piccata, some sort of
eggplant, ravioli or lasagna, and a couple more. Point for point, section for
section, Gold Coast buffet had more items.
In fact, just about every buffet in Las Vegas has more variety!
As for quality -- the food was so-so. The ranch dressing had been changed -
not for the better. The fried mushrooms were delicious, as was the flank
steak. The Chinese food was also pretty good. The salisbury steak was not
good, the stroganoff recipe didn't come from Europe, the other dishes so-so.
The deserts seemed to be from the same supplier they used before - in my
opinion most of these were very bland - not great deserts. I did try coconut cream
pie, which may not have been available before, and it was good. No banana
cream available.
Palms buffet was always one of the weakest in town. But at least if you
loved Middle Eastern, you had something to look forward to. And they had the
basics such as chicken, peel and eat shrimp, etc. But with less selection than
they used to have, and the same mediocre quality of food, this buffet has
gone downhill.
You have to wonder why they spent millions improving the seating, without
giving one iota of thought into improving the food!
The only thing the Palms buffet has going for it is a cheap price if you are
a member of the Palms slot club. If you are an All-Star it costs $12.74,
MVP $8.50, Hall of Famer $4.25 in comps. But if you are going to pay $16.99 --
head across the street for the Gold Coast or anywhere else in town. And
maybe even $4.25 isn't low enough to make me want to eat at this buffet more
than once a month.
When we complained, we were told there had been numerous "comments" (i.e.
complaints!) and that they were planning many changes. The new buffet has only
been open a week - impossible to change it that quickly. It is nice that
they are taking comments into consideration - - but you just have to wonder --
who could have designed a new buffet to be worse than the so-so one they used
to have (prior to all the half-open days)?
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