This was a disappointment. It used to be the best buffet in Vegas, but tonight we had dry salmon, hard-to-chew "Kobe" beef, overcooked prime rib, and sushi on undercooked balls of hard, unseasoned rice that came out of a machine. The sea bass was good (flavorful and tender) but you have to get the ones that are super-fresh right when they put out the pan - my husband got his piece when it had been sitting for a while, and mine was much better.
On weekend dinners they have a caviar bar and some kind of upgraded sushi offering, but neither of these were that good - I suppose it's a buffet so you don't expect it to be truly gourmet, but at least serve these items with the proper accoutrements. To be fair, the sushi fish was decent, and I asked for a plate of just the sashimi, but they said I had to take the lumpy, sloppily crafted nigiri off the serving plates and then I felt bad leaving the rice balls uneaten to be thrown away so I just moved on to something else. I mean, the rice had hard, crunchy grains in it. Yuck.
The best offerings (and the reason this isn't a one-star review) were the pesto shrimp pizza, beef ravioli in mushroom cream sauce, pesto tortellini, and the desserts. There was a delicious chocolate dome and yummy mango/coconut panna cotta that was the perfect firmness and sweetness.
The one thing I'll say about the desserts is that it would have been great to have a more sophisticated ice cream and cookie offering. Other buffets have a large selection of hand-scooped gelato or sorbet in yummy flavours and things like macaroons. I can get choc/vanilla soft serve and chocolate chip cookies at Soup Plantation, sorry.
Overall, it was convenient because we're staying at the Bellagio, and we were able to skip the humongous line because of our MLife card (if you don't have one, get one just for the VIP perks), but even with the less-than-$40 price, the value wasn't there.