In praise of the buffet

Let's get this out of the way: Some people are not fond of buffets. I've never had a discussion with any of these people, but I guess their objections are these:

1. When I go out to eat, I want to be waited on.

2. There's too much food; it's an incitement to gluttony.

3. The quality of the food is not that good.

I can't argue with No. 1. That's a matter of personal preference, and if you just don't like the concept of a buffet, I can respect that.

For some people, No. 2 is a legitimate concern. Some people will sometimes eat more than they should, given the opportunity. I have been known to do this myself.

No. 3 is sometimes true. It is also sometimes true for sit-down restaurants. In both cases, the problem is with the individual establishment, not the concept.

Now, here's what's great about at least some buffets, particularly those in casinos:

1. Value. Often the buffet is expected to be a loss leader whose purpose is to get people in the door. In Las Vegas, Station Casinos appears to have adopted this approach. Add to this the fact that appetizers, accompaniments, desserts and soft drinks (sometimes even beer and wine) are included for one price, and the value is hard to beat. Some very good dinner buffets can be had in Vegas in the $15 range, which won't cover a sandwich, soft drink and dessert in most cafes.

2. Discounts. At most casinos, anyone with a player's card gets a dollar or two off the price of a buffet. At many, those with higher-tier cards get bigger discounts. Coupons with substantial savings are available from various sources, including the Las Vegas Advisor and American Casino Guide. And a buffet comp is the easiest food comp to get.

3. Speed. Since you don't have to wait for your food to be prepared, you can get out quickly. Getting in can be more of a problem. If you have a VIP-level player's card, you can get right in at many casinos. Many have shorter lines for those with comps than for customers who pay directly, rather than through their casino play.

4. Variety. If you're with a group of people who are in the mood for different cuisines, a good buffet can satisfy them all. If you want to mix Italian, Chinese and Mexican food in one meal, the buffet is the place. Also, the buffet offers a no-risk opportunity to try dishes you might not want to pay for individually at a sit-down restaurant.

5. No limits. If you want the soup and the salad, go for it. If the first portion wasn't enough, take a little more.

6. Healthy choices. As my brother recently said, "The buffet can be the worst place to eat, or the best place to eat." Most have salad bars, lots of fruits and vegetables, and other healthy options. I recently decided to make a serious effort to lose weight and improve my diet. I have found that my favorite buffets allow me to do this. I have found that the Asian stations often offer tasty and healthy choices. Some buffets have Mongolian grills. My move there is to load up a bowl with vegetables and have it cooked without any meat. With a cup of brown rice, this can serve as a main course.

Buffet rules:e  Take a new plate every time you go to the line. No eating while serving yourself food. No taking food out of the buffet. Certain violations to this last one are sometimes tolerated, such as eating a piece of fruit or ice cream cone on the way out. But concealing and removing food could lead to great embarrassment if you're caught, and the presence of surveillance cameras in casino buffets means you could be caught. I would not risk it.

Buffet strategy: Survey the entire buffet before taking anything, even if you've been there before, even if you've been there recently. Take only a little bit -- some things aren't as good as they look, and if it is good, you can always go back for more. Look for opportunities to combine items from different stations. Also, some types of items may be scattered, such as soups at the salad bar and ethnic stations, such as Chinese.

Odd fact: At many buffets, the station with Mexican food is labeled "International," not "Mexican." I have no idea why.

Tipping: I generally tip 10 to 15 percent, minimum of a dollar, If I take an unusually long time or use a large number of plates or otherwise make more work for the server, I'll leave a little extra. If the buffet is exceptionally cheap, I'll tip a little more. If I have something custom-made, such as a plate at the Mongolian grill or an omelet, I'll leave a dollar.

Favorite and least favorite buffets: The best -- and priciest buffets -- in Vegas are on the Strip. I haven't tried them all, but of those I have, my four favorites are the Wynn, Bellagio, Caesars Palace (Bacchanal Buffet) Aria and Mirage. 

Off the Strip, one of the best -- and again, priciest -- is Studio B at the M Resort. Friday, Saturday and Sunday dinners and Saturday and Sunday brunches are $40. The good news is that you can get a free buffet by earning same-day slot or video poker points. That $40 weekend buffet requires 2,000 video poker points, which is $2,000 coin-in. On that casino's best video poker games with skillful play that's an average loss of less than $20 -- a very good deal. Weekday dinners and lunches require fewer points, and the requirements for points earned on slots are considerably less than for video poker.

For the money, I don't think you can beat the buffet at Green Valley Ranch, which also has one of the most attractive dining rooms. Dinner there is $15, more on Friday and Saturday specialty nights. Another good buffet in an attractive room is at the Silverton. Unless you are a diamond or platinum player, expect to wait on line on Mondays, when seniors get two buffets for the price of one, and on other days when similar promotions are in effect.

My favorite low-end buffet is Fiesta Henderson, where dinner every night and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays is $9. This buffets features a Mongolian grill and the best fried chicken I've had anywhere in town. My spouse says the turkey breast is exceptionally good. There's a good salad bar and usually several vegetable selections, but not much in the way of fruit.

At the higher end of the price spectrum, the Rio offers a seafood buffet that is quite good but pricey. The Rio also has a comprehensive buffet, the Carnival World. The last time I ate at the Palms buffet, not recently, it was quite good and extensive, much improved since the George Maloof days (about the only thing there improved since new management took over).

At the places I play regularly, my least favorite buffets are at South Point and the Gold Coast. (The Orleans, under the same ownership as the Gold Coast and only about a mile away, has a better buffet.) The difference between a mediocre buffet like these and a good buffet is the difference between being able to find something to eat and being overwhelmed by all the attractive choices.

Final note: A comprehensive listing of Vegas area buffets, including hours and prices, can be found at LasVegasAdvisor.com.

Casino gifts

One of the standard marketing tools of casinos, particularly locals' casinos, is gifts. Typically, a particular gift will be offered to invited guests on a particular day. Other customers may have an opportunity to earn the gift by playing a certain amount.

There's no doubt that gifts are popular. They get people through the door, a big part of the job of increasing a casino's business. But I have often wondered whether, from the casino's point of view, the typical gift program is worth the trouble.

Regularly giving gifts puts a casino in the retail business, along with all the other businesses its in -- hotel, restaurants, banking (the cage and credit), entertainment, etc. The stuff must be stored somewhere, and employees must be paid to distribute it.

Most locals' casinos do not require that customers entitled to a free gift (is it really a gift if it has to be earned?) to play on the day they pick up their present. If the guest doesn't play, what has the casino accomplished? Not much, I would say. And what about all the customers who don't want the gift? They won't come in, defeating the purpose of the offer.

And then there are mystery gifts given in various promotions. Sometime customers get a choice, sometimes not, Either way, they are often disappointed, again defeating the purpose.

This time of year, the two high-end Stations properties, Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch, are running a special gift program called the Holiday Shop. Adopted to year-round use, this idea could be the basis for a better-than-usual kind of casino gift program.

This is how the Holiday Shop works. A variety of gifts are offered, ranging in price from 750 points to 500,000 points. Players get one Holiday Shop point for every regular point earned ($1 coin-in). Players keep their points. All gifts must be earned in a 24-hour period. There is a limit of three gifts per day. All players can get a minimum of 250 free points a day by swiping their card at a kiosk.

This system benefits customers by giving them of a variety of gifts from which to choose on any one day. It benefits the casino by giving customers an incentive to play.

If this approach were to be adopted year-round, players could be awarded differing amounts of credits on depending on their level of play, as opposed to the usual system on which everyone gets the same gift. They could also be given additional credits for their play. Casinos might allow regular player club points to be used to buy gifts.

Another alternative I'd consider is doing away with gifts and awarding player club points or gift cards instead. The idea to is give customers something everyone can use, and to eliminate the trouble and expense of an ongoing gifts program.

A "must hit by" progressive fails to hit

An interesting thing happened at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino Thursday night.

That casino has a slot progressive called the Fortunato, which is a bit unusual in two ways. First, most slot and video poker progressives accumulate a pot that can grow (theoretically, at least) without limit. The Fortunato has four meters, all of which have upper limits. The big pot starts at $5,000 and must hit by $10,000 -- or so the sign says. Second, it is what's called a system progressive. The pot does not grow on the machines and a player need not hit the top-paying combination on a machine to win it. The way it works is that a signal is sent out when the meter reaches a randomly predetermined amount. The player at the first machine it hits with a player's card inserted wins the jackpot.

This type of progressive becomes more valuable the closer the jackpot amount gets to the maximum. I was at the Ranch late Thursday afternoon and noticed that the meter was over $9,600. I saw a total of maybe three or four people playing on the 16 machines. I decided to do a few other things on my list and return to the Ranch on my way home, hoping to get on the progressive as it got closer to its maximum -- and knowing that it could be hit before I got there.

I arrived a little after 9 p.m. The meter read $10,018! I had grossly misjudged when the meter would reach $10,000, All the machines were taken, and a few people were still playing. Apparently some slot attendant told them they could still win.

I hung around for a while, talking to some players and other observers. The big question was what the casino should do for the 16 people who were playing when the meter reached what should have been its maximum. Gaming Control was called to make this determination . The names and player's card numbers of all who were playing were taken down, and the machines were all shut down.

One man thought all 16 people who were playing when the meter hit should get $10,000. All of them, he argued, had a chance to win that amount, and the malfunction cost them all that opportunity.

No way that's going to happen, in my opinion. Only one person was going to hit the jackpot. There is no way of knowing who that was going to be. The other 15 people would get nothing. The average of $10,000 plus 15 x 0 is 10,000 divided by 16, or $625. My guess is that gaming will order the Ranch to pay each player that amount. (This assumes all 16 people had a player's card active. Anyone not playing with a card was not eligible to win. If anyone was playing without a card, that share should be divided among the other players.)

This would be a practical solution, but it is not perfect. It doesn't do anything for all the people who played with a card from the time the meter started at $5,000 until it reached $10,000. This took a number of weeks. Everyone who played the progressive with a card during that time had a chance to hit the jackpot, but that chance was very small. I doubt there's enough information available to calculate what the failure to hit actually cost these people, but my guess is for most of them it is a matter of cents, not dollars. Anyone who put in a lot of play in the last day or two might reasonably claim a bigger loss. (How much anyone actually lost is irrelevant, because that loss would have been the same if the jackpot had been hit by $10,000. What we're talking about here is the loss of the chance to hit the progressive, not any loss on the machines.)

If I were the boss of the Ranch, I would add some slot club points or free play to the accounts of those who had played the Fortunato before it should have hit but who were not playing when it reached $10,000. I would give a little more to those who played it more and to those who played it the last day or two, because they had a better chance of hitting it and therefore "lost" more.

There is precedent for this. A few weeks ago at Fiesta Henderson, another Station property, a drawing scheduled for 4:15 p.m.was delayed for about an hour and half due to technical problems before it was rescheduled for 8;15, when a second drawing was held. We were surprised to get a letter of apology and points added to our accounts -- a very nice gesture. (Incidentally, I'm surprised at how often computerized drawings are delayed because of technical problems. That never happened with drums full of paper tickets.)

One last point: How could the Fortunato screw-up have happened? I'm sure it had something to do with a change made after the last time it was hit. The big meter used to start at $10,000 and run to a maximum of $30,000. Apparently someone screwed up in reprogramming the system to accommodate the new $10,000 limit.

If I can find out what Gaming orders the Ranch to do, I'll let you know.

A welcome sign at Green Valley Ranch

Since Green Valley Ranch Station Casino closed its cafe, there hasn't been any place to eat in the casino late on weeknights except the Fatburger (a fast-food place) in the food court. On weekends the Turf Grill by the Sportsbook has been open all night, but its menu is limited. In the casino last night I saw signs announcing some welcome news: China Spice is now open until 1 a.m. on weeknights and 3 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, serving American as well as Chinese cuisine.

Las Vegas has long had a reputation as a 24-hour-a-day town, and a part of that was the cafes or coffee shops at most casinos. In the past couple of years, to reduce costs, many casinos have closed or outsourced their cafes or cut back the hours they are open. Station Casinos, for example, replaced the cafes in its two Fiesta properties with Dennys and some of the cafes in its Station branded casinos with Coco's Bakery Restaurants.

This has created a bit of problem for Vegas residents who are used to eating at the cafes and paying with their slot points. Station points, for example, can be redeemed at company-owned restaurants at a rate of 600 points for a dollar but at non-company-owned restaurants at 1,000 points for a dollar, the same as for free play. Station's closing its cafes deprived their customers of a 40 percent discount.

So the recent move by Green Valley Ranch does more than give its customers the option of getting a nice meal at a sit-down restaurant late at night. It gives the casino's loyal players another option for getting good value for their slot points.