Las Vegas used to be the land of buffets. Every casino used to offer them as a way to draw in customers, who would then spend lots of money gambling. They used to be terribly cheap. That’s no longer the case. Every casino still has a buffet, but the majority of them are extremely expensive. Even a cheap buffet like the Luxor’s is $20 for dinner, with most of the better ones averaging around $30. I think the only reason why they can get away with those prices is that most of the restaurants on the strip are grossly overpriced, going off the strip requires a car, an expensive taxi drive or an uncomfortable bus ride. They have you.
All that said, I sort of wanted to go to a buffet during our trip to Vegas. I got a 2-for-1 buffet offer with my MGM Grand room, but the MGM buffet gets such terrible reviews that I didn’t want to try it even at the reduced priced. I decided upon trying the Spice Market Buffet mostly because it was at the Planet Hollywood hotel, where I wanted to go to check the “rainstorm” attraction, and because at $23 after a $5 off coupon I found online, it wasn’t terribly priced. Plus it got decent reviews. In all, it wasn’t a bad choice. The food ranged form OK to good and given the prices in Las Vegas it wasn’t a bad value.
The Spice Market Buffet portrays itself as an international buffet, and while the food stations are arranged by cuisine (“seafood”, “American”, “Italian”, “Asian”, “Mexican”, “Middle Eastern”, “bread & salads” and “desserts”), in reality all the “ethnic” food are American favorites from other cuisines. For example, Mexican food included fajitas, tortilla chips and guacamole – not a mole poblano or a pollo al pibil. Similarly, there was no chance you’d encounter a Persian stew or Syrian kibbeh at the Middle Eastern station: hummus, pita bread and a chicken curry was more like it. Still, there was a lot of food, much more than anyone could possibly sample on just one visit.
I did try a variety of things, and three, in particular, were quite good: the braised short ribs (from the Italian section, I believe), the bbq’d spare ribs (from the American section) and the steamed pork buns (from the Asian section). I’d greatly recommend them. The piece of prime rib I got was also quite good, if not extraordinarily so. My husband, however, got a dry, overcooked piece from one of the ends of the roast. I advise you to keep and eye on this station and get your prime rib when it looks good.
Many of the other dishes were less successful, however. Linguini with a garlic butter sauce lacked flavor, though my 9-yo liked it. The meatballs were too dry and not worth the calories. The sauce on the chicken marsala was nice enough, but the chicken was so dry as to make it inedible. The beef on both an Asian stir fry and Mexican beef fajitas was also dry and tough, though the flavors were OK. The guacamole had been clearly mixed with some extender.
Mike got some crab legs and also found them profoundly disappointing: they were very, very dry. A crab-stuffed-sole had been left for too long under the heat lamps and had become too tough. The Italian sausages he had were quite good, however, and he enjoyed the shrimp. Indeed, the plain, cold shrimp is all Mika (my 9-yo) ate. She had a craving for shrimp that night, and was happy to fill up on them. As the kid’s buffet price is a steep $15, I was happy she did so 
Camila, my 6-yo, a much lighter eater enjoyed the lasagna, the pizza and the bread. She was particularly fond of the cotton candy served as dessert, as well as the frozen custard with your toppings of choice.
Unfortunately, I think the desserts were the weakest part of this whole meal. They looked gorgeous, no doubt about it, but most of them had little flavor and were not worth the calories. The best were probably the banana cream pie (with fake topping, however), the creme brulee and the cheesecake (when you removed the two sweet berry topping), but even these were just “average”. The chocolate eclair, chocolate pie, cannoli, bread pudding and everything else I tasted were not worth even one bite. Indeed, I hated leaving so many barely touched desserts, but it’s truly their fault for making them so inedible.
The buffets come with sodas (or pay an additional $15, I think, for unlimited beer & wine), and our glasses were frequently refilled. Service was very good and prompt.
In all, we had a very good meal. We got there around 7:30 PM, I think, on a Sunday evening and didn’t have to wait to be seated. The line grew long by 8:30 PM, however – so come early.
Spice Market Buffet
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
3667 Las Vegas Boulevard. South
Las Vegas, NV
702-785-5555
http://www.planethollywoodresort.com/casinos/planet-hollywood/restaurants-dining/spice-market-buffet-detail.html
Marga’s Restaurant Reviews – Outside the Bay Area
