Tag Archives: Buffet

Wynn Breakfast Buffet

Restaurant: Wynn Breakfast Buffet

Location: 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, NV 89109.  (702) 770-7000

Date: September 24, 2011

Cuisine: Breakfast Buffet

Rating: Quantity over quality

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What would a Foodie Club trip to Vegas be without at least one buffet. Being as we were staying at the Wynn Encore, and the Wynn buffet should theoretically be one of the nicer ones in town (and it was comped) off we went. This is the weekend brunch.


The room is pretty enough (by Vegas standards). The buffet is fairly reasonable at $32 on the weekend, $10 extra for all you can drink cheap champagne (we skipped).


Just part of the main service hall. This buffet goes for serious quantity and variety, at the expense of quality. Not that it’s bad, but it isn’t superlative either.


Fruit.


Salad.


Cesar salad.

More fruit.


Soups.


Meats.


Bagels.

Cheeses.

Salmon in pastry.

Fish dishes.

Fish cakes and potatoes.


Heat lamp pizza, four types.


Pancakes, waffles etc.

Sauces for above.

Pastas.

Eggs and good old fashioned pig products.


Pulled Pork sliders. Actually pretty good.


Veggies.

Prime rib, super fatty bacon, etc.


Sketchy mexican dishes.

Toppings for nachos.


Cerviche. Had me frightened.


Eggs with chorizo.


More mexican.


Chung King Chinese.


Now this is different. Congee. For those that don’t know, congee is a typical Chinese (and other Asian) rice gruel (like oatmeal) that you spice up with toppings. They didn’t have grubs, but they did have 1,000 year old egg. In China, I often saw grubs.


A few bits of dim sum. The center pork thingys were okay.


Cereal.

Veggies.

Lox and toppings bar.


Shrimp. Not the best shelled shrimp in the world, but edible.


Various cold salads.

The usual assortment of mediocre sushi rolls.


A made to order omelet bar.


Now dessert fared a little better. Maybe because cakes are more forgiving of sitting around.


I’ll let the pictures do the talking here.

Candied apples and chocolate covered marshmallows.


Gelato. That was interesting. It wasn’t up to Italian Gelato standards, but wasn’t awful either.


Chocolate covered marshmallows.


More cakes.


Cakes. The Dulce de Leche was pretty good.


Cookies and cupcakes.


More goodies.


Fruit. Eww!

Pastries.

More.

And even more.

Cinnamon buns and coffee cakes.


Fat is flavor — my plate.


And a dessert sampling.

Overall this buffet suffered greatly from too muchness or quantity over quality. The LA based Tres buffet is an example of trying to do much more with many less dishes. Here, dabbling into every conceivable type of cuisine (Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.). So much that nothing could be well done. They should have just concentrated on classic brunch food perhaps. Who knows. But a lot of the stuff had that scary sitting around in chaffers factor. Yes, I’m a snob. Still, I was able to find some perfectly edible items. It just wasn’t great. The desserts were pretty decent though.

For more Vegas dining reviews click here.

Eating Milano Marittima – Palace Hotel Breakfast

Restaurant: Palace Hotel

Location: Cervia / Milano Marittima, Italy

Date: June 9-11, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great hotel breakfast

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The Palace Hotel in Cervia fits into an interesting class of European hotel. It’s a beach resort, and elegant, but hosted in a building from the 1960s or 70s that has been newly restored. This is not the kind of old school Belle Epoque place like say Le Metropole in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. But it is very nice and well run.


Breakfast is outside on the beach/pool patio.

Another view. The Adriatic beach is right behind that hedge.


This breakfast puts the typical one at the Hotel Real Fini to shame, but it follows the same basic format of large cold breakfast buffet and a few hot items. Here are the jams and spreads!


And more of them, plus teas and a few other odds and ends.


Then cereals.

Juices and additives for yogurt or cereal.

Have a few Fruits.

Champagne, more spreads, lox, cheeses.

Close up of the cheeses, mostly local.

Some meats, like salami and prosciutto. Note that they have the same spam-like spreads!


Then the regular breads and self-use toaster.

Now we really get our sugar going with the huge sweet pastry table. A lot of these are local too.


And the other side! This selection changed a little every day. There were all sorts of nut, chocolate, creme, and fruit tarts.


Finally there is the hot station. With omelets or eggs made to order, pancakes, and some various hot sausages. Plus you can order fresh squeezed juices and coffee done any way (cappuccino etc). All of this is included with the room! And this is actually just typical of a good larger Italian hotel too.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Eating Modena – Real Fini Breakfast

Restaurant: Hotel Real Fini Via Emilia

Location: Modena, Italy

Date: June 5-8, 2011

Cuisine: Breakfast Buffet

Rating: Typical Italian Hotel Breakfast

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Italian hotels almost always include breakfast. The Real Fini in Modena’s is extremely typical of mid range hotels.


Cappuccino is always available, and unlike in the states is free and not $8. Plus, they know how to make a decent one at nearly any place in Italy.


There are very few hot items, just some scrambled eggs and a meat or two (sausage or ham). But there are lots of typical dry northern Italian cakes and cereal.


A couple fruits.

Yogurts, meats, cheeses. Often regional.

More bread products and jams. There’s always nutella, which makes anything better.


Biscuits and yogurt.


And this unusual selection of different “tinned” meats.


Like this Pate di prosciutto. Better than spam!


And a couple juices.

Click here to see more Eating Italy posts.

Riviera Country Club – Gluttony with a View

Restaurant: Riviera Country Club Sunday Brunch

Location: 1250 Capri Drive Pacific Palisades, California 90272. Ph: 310 454-6591

Date: Nov 21, 2010

Cuisine: American

Some member friends of ours graciously invited us to join them for some Sunday gluttony at the Riviera Country Club. Someone at the table must be a member to eat here as is typical with most clubs

The day was gorgeous too, the “rain” (LA has these little midnight drizzles we call rain) had washed the air clean and left us with a brilliant clear day. The old club house is gorgeous.

They have a rather extensive buffet brunch. Some good raw bar fare. Not the frozen stuff. Oh and Larry David was eating there too.

The extensive smoked fish section.

More smoked fish.

The obligatory introduction of “sushi” into nearly every buffet.

Beats, chicken, bay shrimp and avocado, and more.

Seared Tuna saldad, heirloom tomato caprese.

Terrines, meats, and cheeses.

Salad bar.

Round one of three — my plate.

The “warm section,” included eggs benedict, four types of sausage and bacon properly crisped.

Omelet bar of course.

The meats. Turkey because of the season, prime rib. I can’t handle carved meats this early in the morning.

The fresh waffle/pancake bar. The homemade glazed walnuts were killer.

My plate — round two. Notice the evidence of my preference for syrup on breakfast meats.  This plate was not recommended by my cardiologist. Sweet +  salty + fatty = Yum!

Half the deserts. Waffles were just a warm up.

More.

And the view right out the windows (the ocean is at the far end). A brief stroll burned off 0.05% of the calories. This was a very good traditional brunch. The quality level was extremely high. Like a snake, I will need no other sustenance for at least 24 hours!