A few weekends ago we were wandering around City Center and the new Cosmopolitan and got a little hungry. Most of the fancy restaurants aren’t open for lunch; we didn’t want a $18 sandwich, so we thought we’d try out the Aria buffet. We aren’t too big on buffets, don’t eat enough to make all of that feasting worthwhile, but since there were several with us we thought it would be worth a try, after all, City Center is a fancy place, the food should be good.
City Center and Aria from the fountain courtyard.
The Sunday Brunch was running, cost around $26 per person, with a few bucks extra if you wanted champagne. It looked OK, and was one of the few buffets that actually had windows. Most of the time the buffets are located in the middle of a casino, under hotel towers with slots on one or two sides. A place to stock up and get back to gambling. But this one looked OK.
We were initially seated in the middle, but then pushed for a place by the windows. We ended up next to the dessert line.
My favorite part of the meal.
Food surrounded the main area on three sides, with cold crab legs and oysters over on one side. The ladies immediately headed for that, while I tried the meats and salads.
Unfortunately it was the Sunday Brunch, which meant a combination of breakfast and lunch, so a lot of space was taken up by breakfast stuff, such as eggs and meats and eggs Benedict and sweet rolls and cereals. I tried some eggs and bacon, but mostly hit the carved roast beef and ham. Not many salads were out, but that left more room for dessert.
Overall I wasn’t too impressed. Perhaps because it was the breakfast combination, but the variety wasn’t that great, and what was out there was not very impressively good. I want to be wowed by the food, and I wasn’t. Have to get back to the Rio and see if it’s still as good as I remember. My suggestion: skip the Aria Buffet. We had tried the Bellagio one a while back, and that was small, expensive, and not very good either. So if you are in the middle of the Strip and want a lot of food, I hear the Paris buffet is pretty good.
But there were windows. It was cold, but the big hot tub was just outside our table. No tiny bikinis, just a bunch of younger guys getting drunk, so the ladies had something to look at.
10 comments:
The ambiance appears sterile ... a bit like photos I've seen of 40-50s NY automats. And what that squiggle drop on the dessert plate?
I'm wowed by food anytime I DONT have to cook it. heh heh
*laughing at Pamela's comment*
Hmmm, the desserts look good and I'm always up for freshly fried bacon.
I love that you sample all of this and let us out of towners get the scoop. Heard the Sahara is going out of business - one of the few Las Vegas buffets I've eaten.
I never get my money's worth out of a buffet. I am a quality over quantity kind of gal. And yes, I need windows. xx
I'm like that too. I don't eat enough to get my money's worth as a general rule.
Interesting view from the window. :)
We never do buffets; thinking about all the people sneezing on the food is just a little gross. Don't care much for $18 hamburgers either but sometimes you've gotta do it.
I'll have to tell Ben!
I love buffets. I tend to go back many times for dessert.
Buffets are a great way to spend money on nothing, unless you pace yourself. If you can find one around $20 it's not so bad.
Mind you, looking at all that food, I'm somewhat hungry now... so I'd eat anything!
And I agree wholeheartedly with Pamela! :-D
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