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| - The Skinny: meager selection with 2 outstanding items for a regular $30/person brunch or $40/person dinner (2) service/ambience: okay, kind of inconsistent service with bad live music at dinner (2) value: okay if you are a local and take advantage of their 2 for 1 deal...otherwise too pricey for what you get (2)
FYI - they serve Pepsi products here.
We came here to experience the 2 for 1 locals buffet deal. We came in at the tail end of the brunch to take a look at their brunch items and their dinner selection.
Considering the bounty of high end buffets on the Strip, the relatively meager offerings for the price was the first thing that struck me as I checked out the selection. However the main question is does the quality make up for it?
The hubs tried their cold cuts and cheese selection which were a decided pass. The salads were okay while the smoked salmon selection were surprisingly bland. Snow crab legs were plentiful. Oysters and cooked mussels were offered during dinner that I did not try. Checked out their Italian section which consisted of 3 types of pasta (meh) and some really anemic looking pizza.
Sauteed vegetables were not good. Zucchini were cut haphazardly and too large to cook evenly. Not a fan of the super charred cauliflower. The broccolini with almonds were okay.
The Indian offerings of chicken makhani(poorly spiced, not smoky and not rich enough), cauliflower curry (bland), chicken biryani (dry and scary looking) cannot compare to any standard $11 Indian lunch buffet in terms of quality not to mention price. And this takes up a good amount of space. Sushi was okay - your standard AYCE joint off Strip is still way better due to pre made too long factor at the buffet. The Chinese food was slightly better quality than your regular buffet offerings however still not great.
For roasted meats, I was surprised that the prime rib was so overdone. The closest to rare was basically medium well. Ribs were too dry.
The only savory thing that was outstanding for me was their Peking chicken (yes, chicken! No duck) The five spice powder/ crispy skin made for a flavorful combination.
During brunch they did have some fruit available however with dinner there was no fruit to be found.
Dessert was a disappointment in general. For the diabetics, there are no sugar free options.Their brownies were more cake like. The peach cobbler used canned peaches with too much nutmeg and it had this really bad greasy pie crust on top. That is not peach cobbler! To be honest I am not sure what to call it. Bread pudding was too texturally mushy while the panna cotta was overly solid.
Cupcakes were a wash. The so-called Boston cream cupcake were plain flavorless yellow cake mix with substandard chocolate frosting. No custard or pudding....WTF? Red velvet with cream cheese frosting was also quite bad and rather bland. Yeah, don't ask me how that happened but there it is.
The crepe batter was weird. Not enough butter and eggs made for a poorer texture. The cold goopy caramelized bananas did not help as well and would have been better just cut fresh. The crepes themselves were misshapened and relatively uneven in thickness.
The ice cream/gelato selection was limited to about 6 flavors of which none were really worth going back for (tried Nutella, mint chip, strawberry, cookies and cream). Artificial and icy in texture, Haagen Daz or Talenti from the supermarket tastes better.
The best thing here was the fried mini donuts with cinnamon and sugar. Light and crispy, we waited an hour into dinner service before this was available. Glad we waited for it.
Our server was quite good in the beginning however she was slow to refill glasses and remove our plates after about an hour. Seeing as how the restaurant was only 50% capacity, it was kind of weird. Ambience wise, they brought out some bad live music performer who did crappy covers of Eric Clapton and George Michael during dinner service. Unfortunately it was rather loud especially when he failed to hit the high notes.
Given how we paid half price, the experience was okay for what we paid. However at full price? Definitely not worth the price of admission. Considering your plethora of options out there, I would rather pay more for a better quality product. Instead making rather poor renditions of various ethnic food that is done better and cheaper elsewhere, they should really focus on improving the quality of their basics first (ie, roasted meats, pizza, pastas, ice cream offerings) and add a few kid friendly items like a really good macaroni and cheese.
The buffet shows signs of struggling as they now only open 3 days a week (Friday-Sunday). I guess that is why they are offering 2 for 1 for locals. As much as I'd like the new kid in town to succeed, I still would have to give it a 2 star review in comparison to much better options around town.
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