For the bad experiences I have read here I can't say mine was too bad, maybe it was the fact that I read these reviews while lining up to pay, or maybe, just maybe there have been others that have complained and the place has taken notice by actually improving the food. Located right beside Persona's, facing the #1 highway, this buffet is tucked deep in the casino, I came, not with a 2 for 1 coupon, but the fact they gave a free voucher to my mom cause it was her birthday in the month of March. Because of that, we decided to eat here, and as people have said, it's about $23, but if you have an Encore membership card you get $3 off, so you take your paid receipt and sit where you want in this buffet.
This buffet is one of the smaller ones I have ever stepped in, let's put that out first, it's like a small restaurant that doesn't have that much seating, but it's roomy enough. The staff working here are very curteous, friendly, and cleared the tables everytime you had a plate empty, as there is not that much floor to cover (not bad, never a leftover mess!). On to the food, now the closest you are able to compare to is probably the River Rock, and this is a way lesser buffet than that, but quality wise, as I have heard the name Uncle Willy's, there is better food here, trust me on this one. From what I remember, they had two soups to choose from (Italian wedding and bacon, potato chowder on this night), to start, many bowls, soup spoons at the station, and a ton of prepackaged Ritz crackers. The next portion is the 'build your own' salad, with a choice of romaine or mixed greens as your base, with many additions to your healthy meal of choice, from adding 'real' bacon bits, olives, feta, parmesan, raisins, croutons, mixed fruits, and three dressings (ceasar, thosand islands, and Italian on this day). There is more that is offered, I'm just going off memory, but not bad, I ended up going back for salad near the end.
Now you come to the cooked food, not as vast a selection as bigger buffets, as stated, but a good variety, I noticed some Chinese style foods, which I dodged as AYCE food of that ethnicity is already at home for me, so no thank you, I will try the other stuff. Baked baby potatoes, buttered corn, some peas, some fried rice that looked like Uncle Ben's, some sloppy tomato sauce'd spaghetti, some cut up rack of ribs, lemon dill chicken, turkey sausage patties (not good), honey garlic meat of some kind, baked salmon and a white sauced pasta (looked and tasted like Alfredo sauce to me), and once you reached the end there was a big slab of roast beef with a good hot pot of gravy for your drenching needs. With the roast beef at the end only sometimes was there a guy there, as he was also in charge of changing up the food and watching what was getting empty in the buffet, but if you waited for him to get back you could get him to cut up a pretty good piece.
At the end, off near the front was the smallest dessert station I have ever seen for a buffet, 4 items, not much variety at all, but I ate enough where I was just picking at it a bit with my mom eating most of the sweets. There were cream puffs, chocolate cake, and two other variations of cake, no jello for all those who are wondering, and if your looking for fruits as desserts... go back to the salad area... it wasn't bad! (much variety in the fruit salad mix, from oranges, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple and grapes.. from what I remembered).
One last thing, they have a drink area, filled with a pop machine that is serve yourself, and on the side of that a hot drink area filled with boiling water, tea bags on the side and coffee, seems like I was with the elder crowd tonight, as there was no coffee cups and everyone was talking a hot drink on this evening.
If you take it for what it is, this buffet offers enough for the size of the place, sure this is a casino, but doesn't have the foot traffic of the more popular River Rock. I didn't see much food wastage from the people who were eating here, and also they ration out the food good here where it's not sitting out too long and they don't put too much of one thing out, just enough for the people who are eating here. I would not call this a steal of deal but if you are just looking for a buffet to gorge down food, the quality isn't that bad, and you have to remember you are getting all you can eat, the days of cheap buffet's are over, but if your comparing this with the River Rock buffet, it does fall short. read more