Gone are the days of the $1 buffet in Las Vegas. Now $175 buffets offer luxury dining

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Eighty years ago, the first Las Vegas buffet opened with the $1 western-themed Buckaroo Buffet that offered cold cuts and cheese. Today, visitors can drop $175 on luxury buffets with lobster tail, prime rib and limitless drinks.

The old Las Vegas buffets didn’t make much money, but they allowed people to eat cheaply and quickly, giving them more time to spend their money on the casino floor.

But the number of buffets has dwindled to around a dozen on the Las Vegas Strip. Many shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic and elected not to reopen with rising prices.

Before the Carnival World Buffet at the Rio closed in 2020 and was replaced with the Canteen Food Hall, it touted itself as Las Vegas’ largest buffet with over 300 international dishes to choose from. It had just about everything you could eat for around $30, said Jim Higgins, a Las Vegas food tour guide.

ARIA’s buffet, which stood out in its offering of Indian dishes and fresh-baked naan, also closed for good in 2020 and reopened as the Proper Eats Food Hall. The food hall offers several options, including ramen, sushi and burgers. Last March, the pyramid-shaped Luxor’s ancient Egypt-themed buffet closed. It had cost around $32, but many people ate for free with a casino comp.

Many of the city's old-school buffets have been replaced by trendy food halls and pricey celebrity chef-driven restaurants — and the so-called luxury buffet, making it now an attraction in and of itself. The rise of Las Vegas as a foodie town drove demands for higher quality dining, said Al Mancini, a longtime food journalist in Las Vegas and the creator of a food guide called Neonfest.

Longtime Las Vegas visitors liken the decline of buffets to the disappearance of the 99-cent shrimp cocktail, another iconic offering that had contributed to the city’s reputation as an affordable vacation spot.

“You wander in, you eat, you stuff your face, and then you stumble on out to a slot machine. It’s just part of the culture, and it’s sad to see that change,” Arizona resident and frequent Las Vegas visitor Ryan Bohac said.

History professor and Las Vegas native Michael Green remembers the days of the $1.99 buffet, where he’d pile his plate with fried chicken, corn and desserts. An advertisement for the Old West-themed casino Silver Slipper’s buffet painted that picture of plenty with the line “Tomorrow the diet, today the great buffet."

Las Vegas is a city where visitors like to pretend they have more money than they do, and buffets allow people to live like a king, giving them a “visceral thrill” when loading up a plate with crab legs, Mancini said.

Jeff Gordon, a frequent Las Vegas visitor from California, likes the “grand spectacle” of the high-end buffets like the Wynn’s buffet or the Bacchanal at Caesars Palace, which display mountains of crab legs and elaborate carving stations with prime rib and smoked brisket.

Still, Gordon misses the affordable buffets that were once plentiful.

“It’s like going to Costco and buying a $1.50 hot dog,” Gordon said. “You may not just buy that $1.50 hot dog, but you may be spending like $150 in Costco and other things that maybe you do need, maybe you don’t need.”

He thinks the decline in affordable buffets has contributed to the city’s growing reputation as becoming too expensive. Gordon thinks it’s hurting tourism as a whole, and discouraging middle-class Americans from visiting.

Locals say buffets have adapted to meet the needs of a city that is constantly changing.

“It was a great option in its day,” said Jim Higgins, a Las Vegas food tour guide. “I think the city has just moved on.”

“A Las Vegas buffet is an attraction at this point, and you’re going to pay for an attraction,” he said. “You’re not going there to get deals.”

At the Palms' A.Y.C.E Buffet, visitors can pay $80 for endless lobster, shrimp cocktail, sushi, snow crab legs and fresh pasta like lobster mac 'n' cheese. They offer specialty themed nights where hula dancers or mariachi perform. Occasionally a lobster mascot walks around.

It’s almost like a circus, said Marcus O’Brien, the executive chef at Palms Casino Resort.

Mancini said buffets will always be part of some visitors’ Las Vegas experience, and they’ll evolve alongside the restaurant scene around them in order to succeed.

“The Las Vegas buffet will never die,” he said.

A person picks out dessert at the A.Y.C.E Buffet in the Palms resort-casino Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

People are served food at the A.Y.C.E Buffet in the Palms resort-casino Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

People eat at the A.Y.C.E Buffet in the Palms resort-casino Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

People eat at the A.Y.C.E Buffet in the Palms resort-casino Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A person serves lobster tails at the A.Y.C.E Buffet in the Palms resort-casino Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Mark Marquess, a National College Baseball Hall of Famer who coached Stanford to a pair of national titles over 41 years beginning in 1977, has died. He was 78.

The school announced Friday that Marquess died, but provided no details on the cause.

A fixture for more than four decades in the dugout at Sunken Diamond on campus, Marquess guided the Cardinal to consecutive NCAA championships in 1987 and ’88.

Long known as “9” for his No. 9 jersey, he retired in 2017 and ranks as the fourth-winningest coach in Division I history with a 1,627-878-7 (.649) career record.

Marquess typically arrived on campus in the wee hours of the morning when most were still in bed, then would go to sleep early to get ready for the next day.

As the wins piled, Marquess remained humble and grounded — he certainly wasn't keeping track of where he ranked among the best of all-time — determined never to get too high or too low.

“Really, I don’t think about it,” Marquess said in early 2008. “It’s just a matter of you get busy and as a coach you worry about the next one. You worry about the ones you lost, too much. ... When I think about it, it just means I’ve been coaching a long time.”

A former first baseman, he played both baseball and football for Stanford when he arrived at the university in 1965. Marquess would go on to become a three-time NCAA Coach of the Year — in 1985, ‘87 and ’88 — and a nine-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year. Along with the two College World Series titles, Stanford made 30 NCAA Tournament appearances, reached six NCAA Super Regionals and won 18 regionals during his tenure. The Cardinal also won the conference regular-season title 11 times.

“This man was Stanford baseball,” said David Esquer, Stanford’s current coach who played for Marquess on The Farm. “He was my coach, and like a father to me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. This is a great loss for the Stanford community, the Stanford baseball family and myself. I love that man.”

Marquess was also a member of the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame, the American Baseball Coaches’ Association Hall of Fame and the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.

Marquess, who played in the Chicago White Sox organization from 1969-73 and reached Triple-A, also coached USA Baseball to an Olympic gold medal in 1988 when the sport was a demonstration event in Seoul, South Korea.

He always loved his role in the the college game and so appreciated working at someplace like Stanford, taking great pride in not only finding players himself along with his staff but also developing them — many into future pros.

“One of the things, at the professional level a manager can say, ‘Well, I’m just not getting the players, it’s the general manager.’ You can put blame elsewhere,” Marquess said. “In our game, I recruit them, I do everything, so it all falls to me. You can’t blame it on somebody else. The nice thing about Stanford is it kind of sells itself academically, the campus. I mean, what’s not to like?”

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

FILE - Stanford coach Mark Marquess smiles before practice at the Sunken Diamond in Stanford, Calif., on March 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

Stanford coach Mark Marquess cheers on his team during a baseball game against California in Stanford, Calif., on March 2, 2007. (Darryl Bush/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)