The Buffet at Wynn

Alright folks, I've eaten at a lot of buffets in Vegas, and the one at Wynn is number 1 in my opinion.  Why?  Many reasons.  First, I love that it feels like you're in an upscale restaurant not at a buffet. Second, I love the decor...ostridge leather seats, tasteful colors, flower arrangements that include fruit and vegetables, huge and elaborately decorated cakes drawing you to the dessert area...the list goes on.  Third, and most importantly, I love the taste of the food.  

There are usually a couple of food items that I particularly like at every buffet, but no other buffet can compare to the flavor of the food at Wynn.  I've eaten here during breakfast, lunch and dinner, but my personal favorite food selection is during lunch, mainly because of the flank steak.  It's juicy, tender and so flavorful.  It's just perfect.  I ate at least 4 slices during my last visit to the buffet.  I'd be happy if the buffet only had flank steak on it.  It's a bonus that there's so much more great food available.  For example, at the carving station, besides flank steak, they also have fried turkey, and during dinner, they replace the flank stead with prime rib.  I'm not a big prime rib fan, so I always fill up on the flank steak before dinner starts.  

As with many buffets in Vegas, this buffet doesn't close between meal times.  You know about this Vegas buffet trick, right?  You arrive during the last hour or so of lunch and stay for dinner.  Dinner usually costs about $10 more than lunch, so it's a good value (if you're willing to eat an early dinner...dinner usually starts around 3:30pm), and you get more variety since you get to sample lunch entrees and dinner entrees.  If you time it right, your first trip up to the buffet will be lunch food and your second trip will be dinner food.  I tend to like lunch food at most buffets better anyway, but it's always nice to wait and grab a few crab legs when the dinner food comes out.  It works the same for breakfast as well.  You can arrive at the end of breakfast and stay for lunch.  Really, you could probably arrive at breakfast and stay until dinner, but there's too much to do in Vegas to spend the whole day eating at one buffet.

 

We arrived during lunch and stayed for dinner, mainly because my husband loves creme brulee, and they don't bring that out until dinner.  The creme brulee was good, but it's even better at Caesar's Bacchanal Buffet.  At Wynn, the creme brulee was very shallow, so there was hardly any per serving.  What was there was good, but it wasn't deep enough.

At dinner, I loved the lasagna.  My husband and I make a really good lasagna, so it takes a lot to impress me, and this lasagna did just that.  It had a little bit of spice to it, which I liked.  I also enjoyed the eggplant Parmesan.  

My only disappointment was that they didn't have pumpkin ravioli on the buffet.  That was my favorite entree on the buffet when I was there in January.  Maybe it's seasonal, but I had been looking forward to eating it again and really missed it.  Wynn, if you're reading, bring back the pumpkin ravioli!  

I really make a point of trying things at buffets that I would never try otherwise or have never had the opportunity to try before.  Pumpkin ravioli was one of those foods, and it was a new obsession.  I tried and failed to make it myself, but I came up with a cheap substitute as home...Trader Joe's butternut squash triangioli has a similar taste.  Still, it's not the same, and I hope it's back on the buffet the next time I'm in Vegas.  

During this visit, I did try a couple items that I hadn't tried in the past.  I particularly loved the Tequila spiked watermelon and the Malibu rum spiked pineapple salad.  Yum!

For dessert, I couldn't get enough of the cream puffs.  I had at least 4 of them.  All of their other desserts are good too.  They have an almost-too-big selection of cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and even sugar-free desserts.  

They have delicious gelato.  The selection is bigger at the Wicked Spoon buffet at The Cosmopolitan and at the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace, but there's enough variety to satisfy your taste buds at Wynn.

There are lots of other items to rave about (the meat and cheese selection, the salmon, the herb roasted tomatoes, etc, etc).  The selection and variety is bigger at a few other buffets, but none of them have across-the-board amazing flavor like at Wynn.  Put your salt and pepper away, ladies and gentlemen.  You don't need it here.  

Happy eating!