Is the Las Vegas buffet dead?

Gone are the days of the $1 buffet in Las Vegas, and visitors now often see buffets priced as a destination experience rather than a bargain stop. The Associated Press report traces how the city’s buffet culture—once centered on cheap, fast meals—has been reshaped by closures, rising prices and a broader shift toward higher-end dining options on the Strip.

The story looks back at the first Las Vegas buffet, which opened about 80 years ago as a $1 western-themed Buckaroo Buffet offering cold cuts and cheese. It says those earlier buffets often didn’t make much money, but they helped visitors eat cheaply and quickly—freeing time and money for the casino floor. Today, the AP describes visitors paying as much as $175 for buffets offering choices including lobster tail, prime rib and unlimited drinks.

AP’s report says the number of buffets on the Las Vegas Strip has fallen to around a dozen. It attributes part of the decline to the COVID-19 pandemic, when many buffets shuttered and chose not to reopen as prices rose. The article also points to the replacement of some classic buffets with food halls and celebrity-chef-driven restaurants.

Before Carnival World Buffet at the Rio closed in 2020, it had promoted itself as the Strip’s largest buffet, offering more than 300 international dishes. It was replaced with the Canteen Food Hall. The report also says ARIA’s buffet closed for good in 2020 and reopened as the Proper Eats Food Hall, with multiple options including ramen, sushi and burgers. It adds that Luxor’s pyramid-shaped ancient Egypt-themed buffet closed last March after costing around $32, with some guests previously eating for free using casino comps.

Longtime Las Vegas food guide Jim Higgins said the buffet shift has to be understood as the city moving on. “It was a great option in its day,” he said. “I think the city has just moved on.” Higgins also characterized a modern Las Vegas buffet as more of an attraction than a bargain, telling AP: “A Las Vegas buffet is an attraction at this point, and you’re going to pay for an attraction,” adding, “You’re not going there to get deals.”

Not everyone views the change as progress for visitors. Ryan Bohac, an Arizona resident and frequent Las Vegas visitor, said the buffet experience used to work like a simple cultural routine: “You wander in, you eat, you stuff your face, and then you stumble on out to a slot machine. It’s just part of the culture, and it’s sad to see that change.” Jeff Gordon, also a frequent visitor, said the comparison to the modern dining experience is like buying a cheap item that leads to much larger spending: “It’s like going to Costco and buying a $1.50 hot dog,” Gordon said. “You may not just buy that $1.50 hot dog, but you may be spending like $150 in Costco and other things that maybe you do need, maybe you don’t need.”

History professor and Las Vegas native Michael Green recalled earlier buffet prices, including the days of the $1.99 buffet where he would pile his plate with items such as fried chicken, corn and desserts. He said an advertisement for Silver Slipper’s buffet captured that sense of abundance with the line “Tomorrow the diet, today the great buffet.” Gordon, meanwhile, told AP he believes the decline of affordable buffets has contributed to a growing perception that Las Vegas is too expensive, discouraging middle-class Americans from visiting.

The AP report includes examples of the upscale direction buffets have taken. At the Palms’ A.Y.C.E Buffet, visitors can pay $80 for what the report describes as endless lobster, shrimp cocktail, sushi, snow crab legs and fresh pasta, including lobster mac ’n’ cheese. The buffet also features themed nights that include entertainment such as hula dancers or mariachi performances, and the report says a lobster mascot occasionally walks around.

Marcus O’Brien, the executive chef at Palms Casino Resort, said the high-end dining experience feels like performance. “It’s almost like a circus,” he said. Al Mancini, a longtime Las Vegas food journalist and creator of a food guide called Neonfest, said buffets will remain part of some visitors’ Las Vegas experience and will continue to evolve as restaurant trends shift. “The Las Vegas buffet will never die,” Mancini said.