[Me] That's flank steak right? [Chef] Flank Steak [Me] Can I get a thick cut of the prime rib? [Chef] You want thick or thin? [Me] A thick one [Chef] Ok [Me] Ohhh... thank you [Chef] Yes sir Hey everybody, it's July, 18 2021. It's
Sunday morning in Las Vegas.
Although not all buffets are open, particularly the station casinos, which are locals' favorites, some of the major ones are. The problem is that a lot of the buffets, as you would expect, are pretty busy. The Bellagio buffet is also open. And I know that they serve a brunch in the mornings. And these days I haven't been to any of the major buffets, but Bellagio used to be one of my favorites. And I know that all the staff and the people that I used to know there are really excited that they're
back. I was excited to be coming back to the Bellagio. And during this visit, I also felt the energy and excitement from the staff as well. I arrived around 8 30 a.m on
Sunday morning for the brunch. And as I expected, the lines weren't long at all. The buffet was in full operation mode. And they had just about everything you could imagine. Let's take a look. One of the things that I love about the Bellagio is that they have just about everything you could imagine. And I also got to try things I had never tried before from around the world. Because Bellagio's variety is very extensive. And although this is a brunch they had everything out. I mean everything. A lot of times it's usually about mid-morning before they bring out the meats at the carving station, but they had everything out already. Everything from prime rib, to flank steak, Bbq ribs, and sausages. They had interesting items as usual... their chicken and waffles... Before I started eating, I wanted to just do a walk around... just to take a look at everything. And buffets usually have all kinds of stuff. The variety is what keeps me coming to these buffets. Because you have so many choices. Whatever you're in the mood for... even pizza. The pizza at the Bellagio, if I remember, is pretty good. On this visit, I didn't try any of the pizza. They even had their usual seafood items in the usual spots. The jumbo shrimp wasn't quite as big as I remember. And they did have crab legs. They had a plate of king crab... although the size of the king crab was just about the same size as the regular snow crab. But they still had very interesting looking dishes and the variety was immense. So if I remember Bellagio, they usually had seafood and meats and all kinds of stuff from around the world... Chinese food, Italian food, and some other things that maybe you haven't
seen before. Like this... this is called a "Shak Souka" ... "Shaksouka" ... I don't know if I'm saying it right. And I don't even know what it is. The eggs benedict section at the Bellagio is what I used to love at breakfast or brunch at the Bellagio. And they had all kinds of eggs benedict. I'm definitely gonna have to try some of these. And they have your classic breakfast items such as French Toast... and these are blintzes, I believe. They also have an omelette station. At the omelet station you can have your omelets custom ordered, And they can even just make up some over-easy eggs or sunny side up eggs if that's what you want. The scrambled eggs are already out on the trays so you don't need to order that at the omelette station. They even have egg whites, if you're trying to watch your cholesterol. As for me and my cholesterol, when I usually eat at the Bellagi, I probably wind up eating about six to seven eggs and about 10 pieces of bacon. So it's not really good for my cholesterol. But if I wanted to be more disciplined,
they do have a variety of yogurts and fruits and grains... and everything you can imagine. Even the bread, the bagels, along with just about every item you can think of that you can eat with bagels. They even have cold cuts. They have everything. And I love the Bellagio for the variety. The desserts were also out. My favorite place for desserts are at the Wynn Buffet. So I will give an edge to the Wynn Buffet. But to me, the Bellagio buffet seems a little bit less crowded. And I can usually find the usual items and I'm pretty happy with the things they have at the Bellagio. For my first round, I got an omelette. Let's see... I think I got ham, bacon, onions, mushrooms, and cheese. And along with it, I got some potatoes, bacon, and sausage. And I love to get omelets at these egg stations... made to order. At most of the buffets in Vegas the omelets are really good. It's just that they're pretty filling. So if you have an omelette with sides like bacon and sausage and potatoes, you're going to be pretty full. The omelet was good. The sausage and bacon and potatoes were pretty standard. I was just hoping that I'd have room for some of the other items. I was pretty excited to try the chicken and waffles. This is an item that I hadn't seen before at the Bellagio. But if you're expecting something to be incredible, sometimes you have a let down. The chicken and waffles were just okay .And this is lox. This is smoked salmon, capers, bagel, cream cheese. I never knew what lox was until I started eating at the Bellagio. This is the place where I first tried lox. It's actually pretty good if you're in the mood. But the eggs benedict, I always have to get. And they have some interesting ones. I also got that dish... uh the shaksouka. But I started with the classic eggs
benedict... and I love eggs benedict because the creaminess of the poached egg... where the yolk is a little bit runny... and it mixes with the hollandaise sauce... and you have a delightful creamy mix of egg yolk and hollandaise sauce, with the soft egg whites of the poached egg... and with a little bit of Canadian bacon. This eggs benedict is probably one of my favorite breakfast items. It's just that they usually cost a lot. And they have some interesting ones.
This is a smoked salmon eggs benedict. The egg yolk was a little bit cooked a little less runny than I would like it to be. It was sitting under the heat lamp for a while. But regardless of how the eggs are cooked, it's still good. Eggs benedict is just a great tasting dish. As far as the shaksouka, I don't know if I'm saying that right. Once again it's... it was kind of like
a salsa with a poached egg. It was just okay. This brunch at the Bellagio cost about
$50 with tax. And because of that reason I felt like I had to get my money's worth. Was I full? Uh, almost. But I had to try the lunch items because I already paid for it. and I
wanted to get my fifty dollars worth. And how can you say no to prime rib? Especially, all-you-can-eat. They didn't have au jus, but they had some kind of a red wine sauce... a couple other different sauces. I went with the red wine sauce. The prime rib looked pretty good but I wasn't
expecting anything. Because I have experience with Las Vegas buffets. If you want a really great
steak or prime rib, you have to go to a steakhouse. The shrimp was good. It was
chilled and it was fresh. It's just that the size of the shrimp used to
be a lot bigger. But these were still pretty good sized shrimp. And they went well with the
lemon and the cocktail sauce. It was pretty good. But if you have experience with Las Vegas
buffets, you have to understand that this is a huge operation. And they are producing massive
quantities of food. So, sometimes the quality is not going to be the best you can find. The
prime rib was pretty good for a buffet prime rib. But I knew what to expect. The prime rib
was not as tender as I would like it to be. But you could still find decent bites, and
it was okay. It's just that I wish I had au jus. They did have horseradish, but they
didn't have the creamy horseradish. And this particular roast had a large string of
gristle, that made it kind of hard to cut. But I was able to work around it and still manage to get a
good prime rib meal. And I was debating whether to get the crab or not. because of the work involved
in getting the meat out of the crab shells. The crab cracker didn't really work because the
shells didn't crack. And for all that crab that I got, this was the amount of meat. Oh this one was
just a shell. Also they had some meat at the base. But this is what I wound up with and I
didn't know if it was worth the effort. Because it took me a good 20 minutes to get the
meat out. But king crab meat, once again, I forgot how good king crab was. Especially with the drawn
butter. The butteriness of the drawn butter and then the sweetness of the king crab meat... it was
really good. But it is labor intensive. And even though there was a lot more food that I haven't
tried I was pretty full. So I decided to just finish it off with a dessert. I usually love
the chocolate mousse that they have here. And this is an item I've never seen before. It was kind
of a chocolate mousse topped with more chocolate... and some chocolate chips. I was finished around
10 30 a.m. So I ate for about two hours. And at 10:30 a.m. there was still no line. But as I was leaving,
it did start to get a little more crowded. The Bellagio buffet brunch is pretty good, and
it is less crowded. They do offer an alternative to some of the more crowded buffets. But that's
gonna do it for this one. We'll see you next time.
