Thoughts on The Buffet
Written: Dec 04 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Price
Cons: Limited selection, only decent quality
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| collin_ong's Full Review: LAS VEGAS HILTON |
The Las Vegas Hilton is located pretty far away from the Strip, about two (big) blocks south of the big strip of mega-casinos, and at the older (Eastern) end of the strip as well. I was staying at Paris-Las Vegas and wanted to go to the Hilton to check out the Star Trek Experience, which for years has been pretty much to only reason I've wanted to go Vegas, since I'm not a gambler. So I set out from my hotel and was scared off the long taxi line, even on a Saturday morning. I decided to start off with a morning stroll and headed down the Strip in the general direction of the Hilton, with the vague idea that I'd catch the strip trolley or a taxi somewhere along the way. But the scale of the signs and buildings along the Strip can be deceptive. It makes things seem much closer than they are. I kept checking my map against the signs I saw coming up, and kept thinking, "Man, I'm almost there...why should I catch a taxi now?" After an hour, I really was almost there as I turned right off the Strip after the Riviera and covered the final two lonely blocks to the Hilton.
After an hour and ten minutes of walking (counting a couple of stops at the Venetian and Treasure Island to check out the sites), I was pretty hungry, and hit "The Buffet" before going into the Star Trek Experience. It took me a while to find, as it's way in the back next to the sports book, but it only costs $12.99. Not bad for a buffet, I thought.
Well, you get what you pay for. At most. The Hilton's buffet is pretty thin, even for the relatively low price. I got there at around 12:45pm on a Saturday. The right side of the main course serving area was dedicated to hot breakfast foods, including bacon, scrambled eggs, eggs benedict, and some others. The left side was lunch foods, and had only two "main course" type dishes: BBQ chicken and a chicken breast dish. In addition, it had a number of side-type dishes like mashed potatoes, sage stuffing, gibblet gravy and some vegetable mixes. The center "meat" area had roast beef and ham sliced upon request. Other bars included a salad bar, including stuff like pasta and potato salads, a desert bar with apple and peach pies, some cheesecakes, cakes, cookies, muffins, and vanilla/chocolate soft serve ice cream. The fruit bar included a selection of canned fruits like pineapple cubes, pears, etc, and sliced melons, like honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon.
Ok, so what about the taste? I started with the BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. The chicken was drenched in bright red sauce that was tangy but not very spicy or flavorful. The sauce's flavor was also only on the surface; the meat hadn't been marinated very long to soak in any flavor to the meat. The mashed potatoes were very smooth and tasted good with the giblet gravy. The sage stuffing had a mild sage flavor, but was a bit oily (you could see the pooling liquid grease in the serving pan). On my next pass, I went for a couple of slices of roast beef. The meat was a bit salty for my taste. I like salty, but it tasted too much like straight salty, not a salty gravy or au jus kinda flavor. I went for some canned fruit, which tasted like...canned fruit. I finished off with some apple pie and vanilla soft-serve. The apples in the pie were a bit too tart, indicated they weren't stewed enough or with enough sugar. The soft-serve was as expected.
The only self-serve drinks are fruit drinks that you dispense into miniature cups (typical of a buffet). A waitress will bring other drinks like soda upon request, and another cocktail waitress type will pour champagne upon request, though I'm not a drinker so I didn't try it out or notice what brand.
Bottom line, the Hilton-LV "The Buffet" serves up a limited selection of decent quality food, but didn't provide enough differentiation from better-quality college dorm fare in terms of quality or variety. Skip it for a more creative buffet like "Le Village Buffet" at Paris-Las Vegas instead. If you're coming to the Hilton for the Star Trek Experience, you might want to go eat a "Quarks" inside the exhibit for that "living in an Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" experience. I regretted wasting my stomach on the buffet when I could have tried eating trek-style.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
collin_ong
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Member: Collin Ong
Location: Sacramento, California
Reviews written: 98
Trusted by: 47 members
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