Spice Market Buffet Review

Went to the Spice Market buffet last saturday for a brunch. I had purchased a groupon for 2 for 1 including the all you can drink.

To preface this I have gone to the Spice Market every time I have been in Vegas. I have always returned because it has been good food and great service.

We got there around 12:30 with no line so got seated fairly quickly. Did the quick tour around and it seemed like there were fewer choices. (oh well)

This was my girlfriends first trip and she is pescatarian so I went in hoping for the best. (Aria the day before was amazing)

We got our first round of food and first round of drinks.

And this is where everything went south. The food that we got was lukewarm at the best. A majority of the seafood was actually cold. I thought maybe we just caught the tail end of the pans of food. However when we went back up for a second plate, (leaving most of the food on the first because of the temp) I noticed that most of the stations were full of food.

Yet again on the second trip most of the food was warm. A few things were hot but that selection was limited. For the girlfriend the selection was dismal.

Trying to get a server back to refill our drinks was near impossible. We had to flag down servers to get any attention. We would flag down someone, who would then disappear to go find our waitress. She would then maybe appear or we might have to repeat the process over again. Once we even had to stick out head into the servers station to get someone to come to our table.

To top all of this off. I spent most of the day with a very upset stomach I'm guessing from something that I ate. The gf barely made it back to our room before getting violently ill from something. I called and let them know but there was little concern.

I'm disappointed. This used to be one of my favorite buffets. I will won't return now.

 

Your experience is almost a mirror of mine the last time we ate there. At one time it was one of the best in town, it seems that it has fallen down in recent years, although some people report wonderful experiences there. It's no wonder you had problems if the food was only luke warm. Not getting the food to the proper temperature is an invitation to problems.

Glad to hear your good experience at Aria. I'll be there in a couple weeks and anxious to try the buffet at Aria. We are planning to try to get in just before dinner on Friday and eat slowly until the dinner choices come out.

 

Not to sidetrack this thread but Aria was nothing short of amazing. We went for lunch. All of the dishes are out in small portions. No huge pans of food. Everything was steaming hot. They happily answered all questions about food ingredients. I would say over 50% of their items were gluten free.

I will be posting a review of that buffet later this morning.

Back to the original topic.. I'm waiting for a response back from the message that I sent them thru groupon. If I don't get a response from that I will be writing the casino directly. I don't want anything... I don't go to vegas often enough for that. I just want hopefully for the message to be heard

 

Good to know. That Groupon has been available for a long time and we were thinking about it for the next trip. Now we'll pass.

 

It's a shame - I've eaten there more than any other buffet and it used to be one of the better ones- , but has certainly gone downhill. At one point they got rid of most of their deserts and just had different colored cupcakes. Not sure if that is still the case.

I've gone off buffets. Watching how many crabs legs someone can fit on one plate gets a bit tiring! I tend to eat at Wynn buffet once during a trip , but that's about it.

I once went to the Buffet at Excalibur - I don't think I'd feed my dog some of the stuff they served up there!

 

That is the case.... at least for the brunch. I don't know if they change it for dinner. There was the usual assortment of pastries, and a crepe station, some cotton candy and a bunch of what looked like dry cupcakes. Just not what I was expecting or wanting to eat

 

Count me as another person who thinks the Aria kicks PH's arse in the buffet category.

 

Weird, during my visit in Nov, I found the Spice Market Buffet decent and The Buffet at Aria kinda ho-hum in comparison.

The hostess in Spice Market was an ass trying not to let us all sit together cuz we all had Groupons saying it was a union issue....that is until a lovely Asian waitress told us she didn't care. We tipped her nicely.

The Buffet at Aria's selection is horrible in comparison but they are both fine.

If you catch a deal, the Spice Market is well worth it. Otherwise, either is skippable for better fare.

Buffets can suck one day and be better another.

 

You could let the health department know about your experience.

 

I can't completly attribute it to Spice Market but it was just a strange coincidence that by the time we were done eating. (and we didn't eat much at all) both of us were feeling under the weather.

I am writing Planet Hollywood just to let them know about the incident. I really wish that I had gotten the server's name also

 

Food borne illness does not happen right after eating. It kicks in a few hours later.

 

Yup.... I survived the day with only a upset stomach... that could have come from just about anything. The girlfriend in the 12 hours following probably had 5 bathroom stops that included a revisit the wrong way of lunch.

 

Sorry to read about your bad experience at Spice Market. Similar experience for us last trip. We had a meal there in September. Probably our 7th visit. It sucked. Mediocre selection. Mediocre food preparation and taste with every dish we tried. Service was good. Real shame that we wasted TR points to pay the tab.

later, GVJ

 

We had that Groupon along with the Buffet of Buffets pass for free. After the groupon we didn't bother going back. In fact that trip confirmed we just aren't buffet people.
The only buffet we do is the Paris breakfast due to the freshly cooked food made to order.