One of the biggest changes to casinos that came out of the pandemic five years ago was the buffet. Many casinos made the decision to shut down their buffets, oftentimes replacing them with “food halls,” a fancy way of saying a food court, but more expensive.
Certainly the swap makes sense based on the type of food being carried – buffets were considered a mass appeal offering, and the food halls that are replacing them are trying to serve a similar audience.
But as it turns out, the buffet is far from dead. Take Las Vegas – while the number of casinos with buffets have certainly decreased, some haven’t given up on them, and the list isn’t short either: multiple MGM properties, Wynn, Caesars Palace, Main Street Station, Palms, South Point…
The list is long enough that someone visiting for a week could sample at least one new buffet every day and still have some options left over, and that’s just at the core casinos around the strip, downtown and nearby.
Some things have changed. Buffets have crept up in price, an acknowledgement that what was once a loss leader can’t be for every casino. Food prices have also increased – what we feel in our day to day lives is no different from what casinos feel when stocking their pantries.
The high-end buffets are many times the ones that stuck around – the Bacchanal Buffet is as popular as ever, even with a price point now approaching $100 a visitor.
And the funny thing is even casinos that aren’t set up with buffets anymore are tinkering with ways to offer them – M Resort, Resorts World and Mandalay Bay are among casinos that have at least one restaurant offering some sort of all you can eat option on their menus at certain points.
Buffets, like slot tournaments and other player-friendly offerings, are less available than they used to be. In some markets, you won’t find buffets at any casinos at all. But some companies have continued to be more bullish about their role in their business than others.
The key local-focused casino companies in Las Vegas walked away from offering buffets at most or all of their properties, as did Caesars. But MGM continues to offer them in Las Vegas and their property in Atlantic City. Hard Rock has been slowly adding them back to their casinos over time.
So while the death of the buffet was lamented a couple of years ago, it turns out they haven’t completely gone away. Like other key casino perks, players can vote with their wallets, in some cases choosing the casinos that have buffets if that’s something they want access to enjoy.
