So I was back in Vegas and determined to hit up another buffet after my last buffet debacle at Mandalay Bay. The Aria has a better reputation overall and I even checked out the restaurant the night before to ensure that the menu seemed like it would be a better experience. With my jetlag, I showed up at 8AM on a Friday and there was no line and the place was half empty. My first impression was that it was leaps and bounds better than the buffet at The Mandalay Bay without even tasting the food. The line-up was much more diverse and of better quality. The different stations ranged from the seafood bar (New Zealand Mussels, shrimp cocktail, ceviche, and seafood chowder), the Asian station (dim sum, fried noodles, fried rice, and pork buns), the Mediterranean station (I didn't get a good look at this station but it looked like a grain bar), the Indian station (curries and tandoori chicken), carving station, omelette station, mini fried chicken and waffle station, standard salad bar, fresh fruit/yogurt station and American breakfast station of eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. Even though it was really early in the morning, I went straight for the seafood and dim sum station because that's what seemed most unique and the best bang for your buck. They had a super cute mini dim sum steamer with 3 kinds of dumplings inside. It wasn't amazing but for buffet dim sum, not horrible either. It clearly didn't taste like it was freshly made but honestly I wasn't expecting it. I did appreciate the fact that the dim sum came in these individual portions to try to mitigate the issue that most buffets have tons of food sitting out there. I then headed to the raw bar and piled up on the mussels and shrimp cocktail. Yes, it is kind of weird to be eating seafood at 8AM but for good seafood, I will eat it any time of the day. Given that this was positioned as a raw bar, the mussels and shrimp cocktail were served cold - which was fine for the shrimp but I still don't love mussels cold. I still prefer them slightly warm in some broth. But for buffet seafood, the quality of the seafood was totally acceptable, to the point where I actually got seconds.
I then felt like I had to try some traditional breakfast food and I got the buffet scrambled eggs. They were very wet, which is the way I actually like my eggs but I totally get that it's not everyone's cup of tea because it kind of has this undercooked quality to it but I was totally into it. Since I had just came from the gym, I felt like I couldn't go too crazy, so I opted out of the bacon, sausage, the individual sized eggs benedict, and the super cute individual fried chicken and waffles - I exercised a LOT of self control. I did try the steamed clams and honestly those were not as good as the mussels. I usually like steamed clams in a very clean broth but this one had almost this weird curry taste to it and the broth was very yellow, so that was kind of a turn off. I had really wanted to end my meal with a fresh fruit plate and this is where the buffet disappointed me the most. For a place that had so much variety and options, they had the lamest fruit line-up ever. It was heavy on honeydew, cantaloupe, and grapes. I was hoping for watermelon or mangos to cleanse my palate. Instead, I went for a bowl of cottage cheese which tasted like your basic cottage cheese you would get at the grocery store. I did also get a bowl of pre-sliced grapefruit which was nice but they tried to fancy it up with thin shavings of mint which I wasn't really into.
All in all, this still wasn't the buffet of my dreams but it was way better than my previous buffet experience. Also the fact that I was under a pretty tight timeline and had to be in and out of the buffet in an hour probably didn't really work in my favor either. If I had more time to leisurely enjoy my meal and fully explore and indulge, then maybe I would have rated it higher, but given the quality of the food, probably not. By the time I left breakfast there was a line out the door, so I would recommend getting there early if you don't want to wait in line for too long. Total bill: $23 with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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