I took my daughter and her friend out to lunch here. I thought they would eat a ton and I had received a food credit which made the meal free, hence the one star. We waited for our drinks for quite some time. This is a Wednesday afternoon after the lunch rush so it was not too busy. My kiddos headed off to the buffet. I head over to the area they have labeled as smoke house. I grabbed what they had labeled as a slider. Sounds yummy and easily a good start. It was presented as a half of a hamburger cut down the middle. Not really a slider but easily a good first choice. I took my slider back and my daughter's friend asked if he could try a bite. He jokingly called it "horse meat " I tried it and and spit it out as i must agree it did taste awful. My kiddos asked me not to say this but it tasted like a horse meat covered in an expletive. Of course my kiddos laughed as i gagged. I tried 2 other items before i quit as the food was so poor and low quality I was truly afraid. Ceviche which was a no. Then a macaroni dish that was dry as my heels in winter. The kids ate the chips and guac. They thought that was good. We moved onto dessert. My daughter tried the jello and she thought it tasted like air freshener. I tried a dry brownie. David had chocolate ice cream and that was even bad too. I mean a 10 year old not liking their chocolate ice cream, this is huge. I wish the GSR's food was a good as their decor. I would rather pay more for good food. Vegas' worst buffets have bragging rights over what I experienced today. read more

We enjoy Grand Sierra's buffett. Service is always quick and good. My favorite part is the dessert! Meat bar and pizza area is nice too.

We visit Reno annually and usually drop by Touscan's buffet in Atlantis casino for seafood on weekend. We didn't want that this time so tried the buffet in the Grand hotel and it was nice. the PRIME RIBS was juice, and soft. This was definately good and the price was cheaper even though the crabs weren't as big. the rest of selections is better and seemed more fresh than the other one. i'm a fan for now. read more

I love this place. Great service, my family love to come here...we just stopping by for the weekend. Best place to hang out as well.. read more

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pretty large buffet with not alot of seating in my opinion. they did offer all sorts of different varities of food. from pho to pizza... to dessert... they have a meat carving station as well. they offer a 20 percent senior discount which was nice to see. my wife, mother , and myself came here before the comedy show. we all left full! mission complete read more

We usually come here at least once during our stays. The food is decent but the staff isn't all that great. One waitress had an attitude and rolled her eyes incredibly rude because I asked for a high chair after the booster that she gave me was unsteady in the booth seat and I couldn't get my child close enough to the table without falling on the floor. Also the young girl that took our money when we walked up was incredibly offensive by asking a member of our party if they want a senior discount. This person was not even close to old enough. I think part of it was a language barrier but clearly they need some training on manners. read more

My husband & I are locals and have not been to this buffet for about 3 years. Today we went to a Sunday buffet and I was amazed!!!! Great selection of quality foods and the champagne was excellent! The decor is updated and the service was excellent. The selection is fantastic. If you can't find something to make your tastebuds happy here then you are waaaay too picky. We both loved it and plan to visit again very soon. GOOD JOB GS!!! Your new updated casino and restaurants are a big plus for Reno. read more

Came for seafood buffet on Friday evening. Crab was terrible and tasted old. In general the food was of poor quality. Pasta bar where they make it in front of you was the only bright spot in this otherwise tasteless and horrible dining experience. read more

I waited in line for 2 hours for a table for 1. The food was bland. All of the beef and chicken was dry. The buffet wasn't replenished in a timely matter. I was very disappointed. If only I could have my 2 hours back read more

This buffet had a variety of everything. Southwestern, Italian, soup, seafood, American, salad, fruit, bread, Mexican, Chinese, smoke house meat, soul, Japanese, omelette, pasta,fancy desert, do it yourself dipping chocolate, ice cream stations. It was worth the money I paid for it. read more

Grand sierra are growing every time I come visit. I would like to start off by stating, that I am extremely picky when it comes to. Buffet's. most of the time the food is sitting there for a long time and there never proper utensils for each dish. Now this buffet has workers at each station making new food. Keeping it clean and organize and food tends to go out very often. They also prepare there food for each stations which prevents contamination. The employees are extremely friendly. The selection of food is amazing. It's really an international buffet. They had. Italian, American, mediterranean, seafood, meats, pho, awesome salad bar. Wait there's more. The dessert station at least 10 different gelato's and pies and cakes. I couldn't stop eating and even when I wanted to leave I saw something else that I wanted to try. The staff were extremely punctuational regarding removing old plates. I would return again. It's a must visit. Oh!! Did I state the food was yummy!!! read more

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I love buffets, blame my parents for raising me that way- no shame! I have visited the new Grand Buffet twice since the renovation and I give them two thumbs up! According to our hostess last night, Monday's are surprisingly their busiest night, with Friday and Saturday being the slowest. I didn't believe her at first, but she explained the buffet line has reached as far back as Lex Nightclub on busy night. WHAT! That's crazy. I've visited on a Thursday both times and the line had just started to wrap around the corner of the steps leading into the buffet, where we waited about 30 minutes to be seated. The line for elevated players club status naturally moves faster, but the Regular-Joe line sat at a standstill for quite some time as customers are shuffled into yet another line to be seated after visiting the cashier. My first impression- wow they really upped their decor. The signage, seating area, food displays, and food stations have really improved and are on par with some of the nice Las Vegas buffets. I found a great selection of international foods and a very large and diverse selection of desserts! The pizza was delicious and I also enjoyed the salads and soup. A lot of dishes had meat; for example, individual small cast iron skillets with macaroni and cheese with beef, bow tie pasta salad with seafood, and chow mien with pork. Unfortunate for me as a vegetarian, but everyone else loved it. The price has increased; ahhh the good ole' days of the $7.77 GSR buffet are long gone. Swiping our players card at the kiosk during our first visit gave us a two for one coupon, but last night our card didn't produce any coupons, so we asked for a discount at the cashier and she gave us a 20% local discount coming in around $18 each. Will I be back? Yes, but definitely not on a Monday! ;) read more

Stay away!! Unless you like food poisoning, then by all means enjoy. Four of us ate there, three of us are still sick from it. I literally got a headache while eating there. You've been warned. read more

There were a loooot of food choices. I loved that they have a lot of desserts too. It's my favorite buffet place. The quality and taste of the food is really great even though it is buffet. I never felt like the quality is being sacrifced. Will definitely come back!!! read more

With the recent remodel came a slight alteration to their schedule. They now open past the time I can get in before work, which sucks because now the ever-expanding (excuse the pun) ranks of the Fat Boy Club can no longer feast before work. I'm sure the food is still good though. read more

I'm very very disappointed at the moment due to my plate having a bug the size of a bean mixed in it and at first there was no follow up with me until I ask would not recommend at all horrible service read more

Note: This review is for the Elements buffet. (I believe it was re-named) This buffet definitely surpassed my expectation by tons. I can even say that it might be better than some buffets in Vegas, since the quality of the seafood was still a little lacking. The variety was incredibly vast at this buffet, with everything and anything from American to Mexican, to Asian food, and my favorite part, oh yes, BREAKFAST! I came here during brunch hours and was pleased to find all the amazing choices I had for breakfast, considering the fact that it's my favorite meal of the day, I couldn't be happier! I feasted on oatmeal, french toast, eggs, sausage, and corn bread, while filling my lunch cravings of tacos, sushi, and dessert as well. The food quality was pretty good, but I wouldn't describe it as top notch. The taste was above decent, and I was happy with what I was getting at the price of $13.99, especially since we had a buy one get one free coupon from the hotel room, but it wasn't amazing. I really do appreciate the variety it had though, from pastries, to fruits, to salad, and etc, for someone who loves taking a bite of everything, I felt like I was in heaven. The best part of all this was, service was superb and there was no wait! There's also an awesome make you own omelette bar during brunch hours and you can basically put whatever you want in there, even items that isn't part of the selection like crab meat and shrimp! You just have to peel your own shrimp and crab first though, but it was pretty amazing. Overall, it was a great buffet with great prices and I would definitely recommend and come again since there doesnt seem to be much food choices around Reno. read more

The service here is excellent. I have had Pudi 2x, and she is so attentive, informative, kind, and accommodating. The only drawback to the buffet is the lack of variety of complex carbs. No brown rice, no quinoa, no sweet potato. Its is a buffet, but CLEAN EATERS LIKE BUFFETS TOO! :) read more

I am local and will NEVER step foot in the GSR again after DECADES of patronage. They simply DO NOT CARE. I've been visiting this place off & on since 1991 (remember Bally's?) but they've now lost me as a customer. They keeping trying to reinvent themselves - their bars, clubs & restaurants are constantly being revamped & renamed because they are so terrible. It is so bad that I really do wonder if this place is simply a tax write-off to its owner(s) - that would explain a lot. Today was the last straw for me. My husband has literally had to talk me into going to their buffet (forget the New name) the last 3 times I've gone due to their consistently dry, old, overcook, bland food. My hubby SWORE to me that things had changed over there, so we went. We arrived at roughly 10:15am. I did not see ONE food item that looked appealing or IN ANY WAY fresh - most items were OBVIOUSLY dried out and old (rice, sausage, quiche - everything). Not even the bacon looked appealing - even cheap bacon doesn't deserve the abuse it gets here. It's REALLY hard to ruin bacon for me, but this was one step above charcoal & somehow all stuck together in clumps of 3 or more pieces (like they were pressed together while being cooked well beyond crispy). ANYWAY, I got my hungry 4 year old a clump of bacon, a dried waffle & a chewy pancake - then accidentally drenched it because the syrup was so watered down. I didn't get anything for myself, not from a lack of being hungry, but because I wasn't hungry ENOUGH to eat anything they had. After several disappointing trips there I finally decided to speak up (how would they know how bad it is if no one complains, right?). I talked to the Manager (I think her name was Debra?) & voiced my utter dismay at the CONSISTENTLY AWFUL food they offer - & how sad it is because they have the ability to do so much better. Debra was nice & apologetic. She took a lap around the buffet & then came back to our table and said that I was correct - the food was indeed dry, old & had zero visual appeal. She apologized again, but then made the excuse that "it's hard to keep breakfast foods fresh", "it's almost lunch anyway" (so I guess that makes it okay?) and "no one else complained this morning". I told her that most people wouldn't take the time to complain, they just wouldn't come back. She said that they would start bringing out the lunch items at roughly 10:30-10:45 & that I/we could wait and stay for lunch. I was pretty hungry at that point, so I figured another 20 minutes would have to do. When I finally saw them putting out fresh trays I went back to take a look. Each station had 1-3 people working - removing old food, wiping things down, etc. I picked up a pork chop (thin & well-cooked, but I was getting seriously hungry) & went to another station. The next one had, from left to right - veggies, empty tray, fish, chicken, empty tray, empty tray, marinara sauce, pasta tray - none had serving spoons or tongs. As I stood there salivating, Gal #1 finally put a spoon with the veggies, fish, sauce and pasta - so I grabbed a piece of fish & stood in front of the chicken. Gal #1 kept working on other things there, so I finally asked if I could have tongs for the chicken. She told me that I had to wait (!!!), that it wasn't time for lunch yet & then she disappeared. As I stood there waiting in front of the chicken (getting upset again & REALLY HUNGRY) Gal #2 came by & started fidgeting with things. I asked her NICELY if she could get me a pair of tongs, and jokingly added "or should I just use my fingers" (which I was seriously considering at this point). She shot back that lunch was not ready yet, that it would be a few more minutes & I had to wait. With that I was ABSOLUTELY DONE. I went back to our table, told my husband what happened & that I wanted to leave immediately - never eating ONE bite of food. I briefly talked to Debra (the Manager) on our way out & told her about the last incident. She apologized again, but did nothing to try to remedy it. BTW - I was NOT expecting a 5 (or even 4) star buffet here, but I was expecting edible food, which it lacked. Thanks GSR, you've shown way too many times just how much you value return business - you'll never see mine again. read more

came for dinner and it wasn't bad crab-the best thing at the buffet carving station prime rib was too chewy for me other meats were dry lots of variety like make your own pho, pan roast, pasta etc dessert bar.. pretty good on a diff trip we found out we get free buffet mondays comps.. too bad we didnt get to use it that time around i want to check out the other casino buffets before coming back here read more

Delicious! So many food options and such a great atmosphere. I look forward to going back.

I must say the food is ridiculously atrocious to my taste. I recommend some individuals to just save their money

Breakfast! Better than we expected! Omelet station was great. I can recommend but get your coffee at Starbucks first.

We decided to come here since we were staying at the GSR. They offer a military discount and players card discount which is nice. The line gets pretty long around dinner time and we waited for about 40 minutes. The service was ok. They had a decent selection of food and desserts. Everything was just mediocre. A little bit on the greasy side but that's buffet food for ya. Probably won't be back here. read more

They have really overhauled this buffet from what it was a few years ago. Ate there the other day and although the line took about 20 minutes I would say it's worth the wait if you are in buffet mode. The high points.... Great desert bar, they have pho, lots of meats, and some unique items like little casseroles and a small selection of international foods. With local ID you even get a discount. I'd go back, but only when I feel the need to really chow down. read more

At $25 a pop for the non-VIP customer, this is a ceremonious rip-off. To be clear, I've been to this joint twice, so I know a bit of what I'm talking about. The first time the food was underwhelming for the price, and the second time it was practically inedible. And no, this is no obligatory Yelp dig. The side of corn was as bland as an unseasoned dumpling and the fish, barbecued meat and oyster were so salty they should be served with OTC a sides of Alka Seltzer. I exaggerate not because I care about words. The only thing going for the buffet is that it is a smoke-free sanctuary in the fumigator's tent that is the main gambling pit just outside the glass doors. And oh, the matronly waiters are unfailingly nice ...... and I always tip them generously. But that's just not enough for me to come back to this White ElePHANT of an eatery. Come to think of it, the entire Reno-Carson area should be declared a culinary disaster zone. I kid you not. I've looked far and wide and the only place worthy of honorable mention in this wasteland is a lowly gourmet burger place named "Burger Me" on Sharlands Avenue in Reno. For about ten bucks. Yep for about $10, you get a highly edible gourmet burger. Add another $4 for fries and a refillable fountain drink and you are doin' pretty good for about half the price of the scalping $30 @ The Elements (non-edible) buffett. , you get a highly edible burger with a side of fries. Insist on the "Dirty Bird" burger for your initiation and you'll swear off casino buffets forever. The decor @ Burger Me is unpretentious, but there are also no "tobacco fumigator tents" within a mile of the place. And to top things off you get free Wifi along with unfailingly friendly & attentive service. (Burger Me has another location in Truckee off of the connecting I-80.) The Grand Sierra Resort, with its understated bling, may be one of the more tolerable pits in Reno, but I won't be eatin' there anytime soon. "Surely some revelations is at hand ...." (W.B. Yeats) If this bland eatery was not catering to gambling addicts, it would go broke ......... along with the rest of Vegas. Ya hoird me. C-Max (You can get a quick review Burger Me restaurant by clicking on the live link of my name above.) read more

Very good and lots of great selection.pacific rim is great sauté omelette made to order

The wait is ridiculous. The only buffet I've ever been to that has two cashier's. In what world is that acceptable . Just awful customer service by making people stand in line for almost an hour. Gsr you honestly can't afford another cashier. read more

We've been waiting for this buffet to re-open for quite some time. At one time, about 10-12 years ago it was our very favorite. At that time they had a great chef and all the food was so well prepared and just delicious....well, as with everything, that changed. We stopped going because it just got so bad. We actually stopped going to the whole place...casino, hotel, etc. It all got really bad. Now they have new owners and they've really turned the place around. The new remodel is really terrific...the whole casino/hotel has been transformed. About 3-4 months ago we started going back, thanks to a renewed effort on their part to get some of their old customers back, I think. We started getting a lot of free offers...free rooms, free play and food deals. Since my hubs is a big buffet fan, we started off trying the one they stuck downstairs while the regular buffet was being remodeled. That was not so good. Finally though, on our last visit, the new Grand Buffet was open. We tried it twice for dinner and once for breakfast. It's very clean, new and modern looking. Very nice. Some of the food was really good. some of it was just OK. Overall we liked it with a few exceptions. Here are some of the Pro's and Con's for us: Pros: ~The prime rib was some of the best we've eaten in the Reno area in a very long time. It was melt in your mouth delicious. ~If you're into meat, they have quite a few selections at the carving station...brisket, turkey, sausage, steaks, bbq ribs, etc. ~They have a few different items, like a little Indian food...the Naan was delish.. ~Fresh pasta station is nice...you can grab items from the salad bar and ask the cook to add them to the ravioli or pasta of the day. ~Really nice salad bar.. ~They have a large selection of soft drinks that I believe you can help yourself with or have your server provide.. ~ Good Gelato station. ~The service is excellent. Every server we had was spot on doing their job. Cons: ~Overall the set up is a little disjointed/disorganized. Things are not where you expect them to be. Instead of keeping related items together they have things spread all over. For example, one of the TexMex selections was Carne Asada, next to it a small pan of folded flour tortillas but all the condiments were scattered. The salsa, sour cream, guacamole, cheese, etc were all in different places. I missed most of them so wound up eating a dry carne asada soft taco. I noticed later that the sour cream and shredded cheese were in the soup area, have no idea why. The salsa, guacamole, sliced olives, green onions, etc were spread around the salad bar. I noticed people (including myself) wandering around looking for things that should have been conveniently located and weren't. ~Biggest complaint we heard from other people was there wasn't enough of a selection of foods. The Mexican & Chinese foods shared the same area and there were no more than 4 selections of each. Small seafood area. Italian section had 2 pasta dishes & pizza. It shared it's space with the Indian food which was minimal, maybe 2 items. None of the stations had an abundance of choices, except the carving/bbq area. Maybe they're trying to cut cost/waste by not offering as much of a selection but most people go to a buffet for a reason, because a big selection is exactly what they want. We heard people at various tables complain about this, they didn't feel it was worth the money because there weren't enough choices. ~The desserts, with the exception of the Gelato station, were really disappointing. Lots of little pudding/mousse style mini servings. None of them very good. Mostly artificial whipped cream, flavorless things. No good cakes, pies or anything of quality. We had some really good desserts at the buffet they set up downstairs when this one was being remodeled. It was the only good thing at that buffet so we were looking forward to having a nice dessert at the new place. Didn't happen. ~The breakfast buffet was pretty basic but had some healthier choices like yogurt bar with fresh blueberries, granola, etc, milk options like almond and soy. Best banana bread ever! But For $15 per person, weekday, there should be more choices. They provided a 4 slice toaster with some mini plain bagels & sliced bread, but 2 slots of the toaster didn't work so you had to stand in line to get bread toasted. A modern, upscaled buffet like that should provide a more professional grade toaster. Overall the food we ate was good & we will go back but I can see why some would think there was not enough of a selection, especially for the price. 6/30/16 Update: just returned from Reno again. Had breakfast buffet today. Both sides of toaster now work, but NO bagels, worst breakfast sausage ever, hard, greasy & tasted really bad, lots of food was cold or barely warm. Overall not as good as last time. Seems more supervision is needed. read more

OK, the GSR plain flat out sucks! Nothing but bad experiences there, but see my separate review for that. However, since I'm a Legend member and a local, I get a free dinner buffet each Wednesday, and free is free. Elements isn't actually half bad. I'd say the best feature of Elements that's unique to the other Reno buffets is their grilling station. There's always several types of grilled meats, including london broil, pork chops, t-bone steaks, grilled vegetables, marinated mushrooms, and things you don't often see at some of the other properties. This is also where you can pick up filet and lobster tail add-ons that are available for $5 each, totally worth it. The taco bar is awesome, salad bar and pizza station pretty mainstream, carving station is great. Customer service here has never been a problem (actually, the ONLY place within the property that's never been a problem!), but they seem to be having a lot of issues with their throughput these days - lines, wait times, and drink service seem to stay incredibly long, even when not busy. I've heard comments from some of the staff members that kind of like everything else at the GSR, so many changes are made on an hourly basis, nobody can keep up with them. Yup, that's the GSR for you... The only thing that needs massive improvement are the desserts (with the exception of hand scooped ice cream and spumoni) - not necessarily the selection, which is always plentiful, but it seems like everything always stays covered with some type of sticky gelatin-like film, as if it's been sitting out too long. It's very noticeable with the cheesecakes and anything that's got strawberries in it. Not a half bad place for being on this property, but I would never pay full price for it. read more

Only came to this buffet because the hubby and I received two complimentary tickets for breakfast buffet upone check-in at GSR. I've definitly experienced better buffets. Also, for someone who is gluten free, I really only got to enjoy the omelette and some hash browns. The real negative about this place is the long lines to get food. If everyone who stays at GSR is going to The Elements for breakfast buffet then realistically, there should be two lines for each buffet station rather that one. The lines were ridiculously long that people feel discouraged to get back in line to get seconds. The desserts look delicious but don't live up to its look. Don't plan on coming here again. read more

Taste not good. Not much of choice. Most of the items on Yelp don't exist. Didn't meet the $31.99 class of casino buffet. Not recommended.

The food was exceptional, but the real treat was the world class service we received from Leslie and Georganna. Not only were they very attentive to our group, but also gave us some good recommendations on local activities. Also, the bussers were very attentive to all tables and cleared empty plates swiftly without being intrusive. We will be back for sure! read more

Update your site please! It is very upsetting to drive here just to see you have different time of opening.

I had the lunch buffet here and it was good for the price. It gave you a variety options and what I tried was pretty tasty. My favorite was the Pho soup with rice noodles. Other favorites were the stuffing, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy,salad bar, and red velvet cake. read more

My husband and I ate at the Buffett here over the Hot August Nights weekend. The food was fresh and displayed beautifully. They had a nice salad bar, an Meat slicing station with beef, sausages and more. Seafood, Mexican, Asian, American and it goes on and on! The desserts were fabulous and were perfect little pieces of art and they also had sugar free choices as well. The gelato bar is beautiful and delicious. read more

The ambiance is nice, our waiter is very friendly and helpful. We came around 530pm and my husband is very hungry . He hasn't eaten breakfast and lunch bec we traveled from California. It's dinner time in a weekend, lots of oysters, snow crab and cocktail shrimp. There's butter lemon and marinara sauce so u can create your own dip. I didn't upgrade the lobster since from the review they said only 1 tail for $5 plus I'm sure I will be satisfied with everything here. I went to carving station they have pork loin roast, turkey, and roast beef i got the pork loin it looks a little dry so I skip the rest of this station. But I heard from the nearby table that the turkey was so good. I got grilled ribeye and it's very moist and delicious , my husband ate a lot of this. Pizza is good, the finger appetizers are yummy, my mom got a pho from soup station where u may request to prepare for u. A lot of salad selections, barbecue ribs are so good. All of the items in the grill station are so yummy. There's a lot of selections of ice cream. And lots of different yummy desserts . Too bad I don't have room for all the desserts anymore. Contrary to other yelpers the desserts are not old , they all looked new and moist . My 4 yr old son only ate Mac and cheese and desserts and he said its yummy. So everybody's happy. And also since I'm eating a lot of oysters and so as most of the diners, I thought they might ran out , but they keep on refilling their stations We enjoyed the food that's all that matters. I don't know what it's like in a regular night and lunch time but I think it's better in weekend . Definitely coming back for more. . read more

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Never again!!! Nothing was good. Had the seafood buffet on Saturday night. Definitely not work the $40! 31.99 plus %15 gratuity that was added on automatically. If you wanna clear you're stomach in the worst possible way then eat at this buffet. It will have you feeling like you were taking shots of laxative powder!!!! read more

I knew the food was gonna be bad but it was free. so, why not. I came here for dinner. Every patch(food tray) they brought out from the kitchen, its either salty or dried. As for Asian section, dumpling is dried and undercooked inside. The only food I like was the roasted apple pork loin. its was perfect, tender and sweet apples taste. if free, ill come back. otherwise I'm not paying to eat there. read more

The place is good ! A lot of people but the wait was worth it !! The food was good also , this may be my favorite buffet right now .