Las Vegas Dining and Restaurants

Some people eat to live, while many others live to eat, and therefore Las Vegas would not be the major attraction it is, and casinos would not be able to keep their customers happy, without a major dining scene. Las Vegas dining options range far and wide. The body of Las Vegas restaurants includes anything from cheap food court fast-food places to fine celebrity-chef upscale restaurants.

In recent years Las Vegas has been experiencing a fine dining and upscale restaurant boom. Like many other things in Las Vegas, this trend is casino driven. Major casino resorts realized that in order to attract high rollers, they need to provide them with the best quality of dining and restaurants. Consequentially, some of the nation's top chefs, including celebrity chefs with television shows and frozen food lines, were brought in to make Las Vegas fine dining a reality.

These days, most major casinos have gourmet restaurants with which to pamper their high roller customers. Ironically, the high rollers, who are the ones most capable of paying their own way, are also the ones most likely to get free complimentary meals at those upscale Las Vegas restaurants. Casinos, of course, give their best customers, the high rollers, all sorts of free things in the hope that they'll stay longer and lose larger sums of money.

If you'll choose to eat at a casino-hotel gourmet restaurant as an ordinary guest, you will most likely be paying top dollar. In additional to the upscale environment and food, you will also be paying for the convenience of eating in a restaurant located inside a casino and paying to subsidize the meals of those who dine for free as the casino's special guests.

The good news is that complimentary meals given to high rollers, take those who are willing to pay the most for their meals away from standalone Las Vegas restaurants that are not a part of a casino. This keeps a cap on the prices standalone restaurants can charge.

Therefore, if you want to experience fine Las Vegas dining, but not pay to the max, stay away from the celebrity-chef run and gourmet casino and hotel restaurants. Another good way to save some money on gourmet dining is to go to these restaurants for lunch. During lunch time the menus are often not very different but the prices are more reasonable.

All-you-can-eat buffets are just about everywhere in Las Vegas, as the city officially abolished the sin of gluttony. ;-) The Las Vegas buffet phenomenon started in the 1940s when the El Rancho Hotel started offering all-you-can-eat for a dollar.

While you can find buffet bargains, just like other Las Vegas restaurants, many buffets have gone upscale as well. Some of the fancier buffets can cost over $20, while the cheaper ones can go for under $10, and the quality of food varies accordingly.

The greatest problem with this form of Las Vegas dining is the long entry lines that are all too common. The popular buffets will have long lines for dinner and sometimes lunch, so plan accordingly. Off peak times, during weeknights (Sunday-Thursday) before 6pm and after 9pm, are less likely to have a crowd. If the buffet is in a hotel during a busy time, such as a convention, going at those times might still pose a problem. So you may either want to come extra early or late, or go someplace where you can make a reservation, and avoid the buffet for dinner.

Food courts in Las Vegas are about the same as they are in malls all across America. So if some moderately priced fast food is what you desire, you may want to visit the La Piazza Food Court at the Caesars Palace Hotel, the food court at the Fashion Show Mall, which is north of the Treasure Island hotel, the food court at the Monte Carlo Resort, or the Mardi Gras Food Court at the Riviera Hotel. The New York - New York Hotel also has some food court style restaurant scattered throughout in a way that gives it a streets-of-New-York atmosphere.

During weekends and convention times Las Vegas restaurants are very busy, so it's advisable to get a reservation ahead of time, should you want to dine in style. The Las Vegas Shows Web site also provides for restaurant reservations. Just choose your date, and the site will show you which restaurants are available. It also lists restaurants by type such as sea food, Asian, gourmet, etc., and includes a short review for each one.