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| - There were four of us dining at Cravings Buffet at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. After reading the Yelp reviews with a "Yelp sort", we knew we could not go wrong at Cravings. Yelp sort is interesting. You always seem to find higher rated reviews on top, which is the first thing a viewer sees, so when a reviewer writes that Cravings Buffet is one of the best on the strip, you can't help but put faith in the review. Wrong thing to do. Sort by the most recent reviews and read everything for the past few weeks.
We arrived at Cravings Buffet and were greeted with smiles from the cashier to the hostess to employees on the floor. Eleven food stations were filled with fresh, perfectly seasoned and delicious foods to tantalize even the most sophisticated palate. From Asian to Italian, each station duplicated authentic ethnic cooking.
The second paragraph written above is more of a fantasy and not reality. Our experience was the exact opposite. I have given Cravings a one-star because that is the lowest Yelp allows. Had there been an opportunity to give a negative 1,2,3, etc, it would have been rated the absolute lowest and for good reason.
The old saying, "you get what you pay for" does not apply when dining at Cravings Buffet in the beautiful Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas. The buffet is one of the more expensive on the Las Vegas Strip, so anyone reading the Yelp reviews and other expect at least good food, if not exceptional.
We arrived at Cravings just a few minutes after 3 PM when the dinner menu began. Prices increase considerably if you arrive at 3 PM instead of 2:58 PM or 2:59 PM. That is the difference between their Friday brunch and Friday dinner.
First impressions are lasting ones and the cashier was not too friendly, though not nearly as rude as the seating hostess. Okay, so you only deal with those two for a few minutes before moving onto more disappointment. My husband went straight to the seafood station, while I headed for the Asian cuisine. His crab legs and mussels were terribly overcooked and had no seasoning. He drank one of their cheap beers from the bar before trying the crappy red and white wines. Veronica was working the floor when she came to the table to ask if everything was okay. My husband told her the crab legs were rubbery and she said that is the way crab is prepared at Cravings. I grabbed some rice, chow mein, Asian dumplings, sushi, and a few other things to sample. Of course nothing tasted good. Everything was mushy and bland. Sad, sad, sad.
A few tips to Cravings Buffet management at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas:
1) Train or retrain your staff in customer service. When employees are rude to customers, they will likely not return.
2) You have a serious issue with food quality. If your chefs are preparing the food according to the recipes, then change the recipes and purchase better quality ingredients. If not, hire chefs with formal training. That applies to your pastry chefs as well. Your desserts are not worth eating.
3) Train your serving staff, especially at the carving section. First they should be knowledgeable about the products they are attempting to carve. The carver should know the type of cut and the difference in temperatures. When a customer requests medium rare, and the options are medium rare or well-done, it should be served as ordered. If your procedures are to have both temperatures available and they are not prepared properly, then your chefs should have caught the error and corrected. Second, when someone asks to have meat cut thin, that does not mean 3/4" or more. Their carving knives appeared to be capable of carving properly.
4) Even when customers have a horrible experience, a good floor manager can make things better if they tried. Again, that wasn't the case with us. One of the other diners in our group requested the manager come to the table. An older frumpy woman came, along with an assistant chef to hear some of the issues. She explained to both that the food was grossly over-cooked and was terribly bland. Salt and pepper is cheap, so why not use to help make your food taste better. It was one of her birthday meals and she ended up spitting out
everything she put into her mouth. She told the manager it was some of the most disgusting food ever attempted to eat and was truly disappointed with the experience.
While three of the four at the table expressed to your personnel that the food was crappy, the only thing done was the manager refunded money for one person. A good manager at a reputable restaurant would have refunded the entire amount, apologized for our unfortunate experience at Cravings Buffet, then ask us to return one day after they improve on their shortcomings and nothing less.
You totally failed with food, customer service and value for price paid. Shameful.
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