January 2002
For longer than most can probably remember, Station Casinos has been offering its Feast Buffets at its Station-branded properties around the Las Vegas Valley. The Feast buffets, it may be safe to say, are collectively regarded as solid, high-quality dining venues that help draw in the local customers who are the foundation of the company’s business. Employing a combination of decent food with some creative dining-room elements, along with aggressive couponing and other promotions, Station has described its buffets as loss leaders that bring customers in for a good meal and some gambling in casinos that rely heavily on video poker and other machines for the company’s solid revenue stream.
Except when using coupons from sources such as newspapers, the Las Vegas Entertainment Book, and the coupon book from the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter, visitors don’t have a lot of incentive to patronize the Feast buffets. But when they do, they generally pronounce themselves satisfied but not overwhelmed with the experience.
Now, along comes Green Valley Ranch Station Hotel and Casino (GVR), the company’s new, upscale resort located in Henderson just off the I-215 beltway, which makes it a relatively short drive from the Strip. And in keeping with the relatively affluent customer base Station is seeking, the resort includes a new Feast Around The World buffet that also takes their buffet product to a new level.
This is not to say that the GVR buffet is so lavish that it would now be compared with the buffets at Bellagio, Aladdin, etc. In fact, you might just call it the “Feast Buffet –Plus,” as I’ll try to explain.
The GVR Feast Buffet is open as follows:
Breakfast Monday through Friday, from 8 to 11:30 a.m., at a cost of $5.99, $3.99 for children aged four to eight, and free for children under four.
Lunch, Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., is $7.99, $4.99 for kids four through eight, and free for kids under four.
Dinner, seven days a week from 3:30 to 10 p.m., is $11.99, $6.99 for kids four through 8, and free for kids under four.
Champagne Brunch, served from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday is $12.99, $7.49 for kids four through eight, and free for kids under four.
A recent addition is the late-night breakfast buffet, served from midnight to 6 a.m., priced at $4.99, $3.49 for kids four through eight, and free for kids under four.
The late-night buffet features omelets, French toast and the like, including a variety of breads and pastries. Notwithstanding the question of why kids would be awake and eating at such late hours, the reason for the new late-night breakfast buffet is that GVR needed a place for patrons to eat after the Original Pancake House, the resort’s only 24-hour food operation, cut back to a 10 p.m. closing time.
When you visit GVR’s Feast Buffet without benefit of a line pass or VIP entry based on your Boarding Pass (player’s club) level or knowing someone, the likelihood of having to wait in line, depending on the hour, is much greater than at the nearby Sunset Station buffet. The reason is simple: seating capacity. The GVR buffet holds 55 percent fewer people (480) than at Sunset Station (746). While you are waiting in line, you might be entertained by the two overhead televisions installed there for that purpose, though management doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to what channel the TVs are tuned to. If you can read lips, you might enjoy a weekday soap opera like the one they had on one day when we were there.
Most Feast buffets are wide and deep, with most of the serving stations arrayed along the back wall and salad/soup islands in the middle. The GVR buffet is similar, but it is wide and shallow due to the reduced seating capacity. Patrons enter the buffet area in front of a handsome display of seasonal vegetables, fruits and nuts, which are real but for display purposes only.
Seating is again a bit more upscale than the other Station Feast buffets. Very comfortable, comfy chairs, rich earth-toned carpeting in the dining areas, and a clear separation of smoking and non-smoking areas.
This brings us to the food, starting with the soups and salads that are presented on islands in the room. The items we’ve found here are a collective example of Station’s efforts to crank up the creativity of its dishes to a small degree, including: romaine lettuce and field greens with a variety of dressings that included lemon-poppyseed, bleu cheese, Caesar, ranch, oil and balsamic vinegar, grain mustard; chicken liver paté; smoked salmon; pickled herring in sour cream; smoked turkey Waldorf salad; cranberry orange relish; gefilte fish (a first for us at a Station buffet); Mediterranean five-bean salad; nine-grain wild-rice salad with dried cherries; fruit salad; chilled wok-seared vegetables; assorted deli meats and cheeses; sweet potato and yam cubes; tomato, basil & buffalo mozzarella salad.
Starting along the back wall at the far right is the Dynasty Grill, this buffet’s name for the Asian-cuisine section, featuring: hot and sour soup; vegetable chow mein; black-pepper beef; kung-pao chicken; stir-fried vegetables; pork-and-vegetable egg rolls; roast duck; vegetable fried rice; potstickers; steamed jasmine rice; black-bean salmon.
This buffet also joins the ranks of those offering a Mongolian grill, wherein diners select their meats, veggies and seasonings, which are cooked on a large griddle by a chef and handed to back on a plate. The available meats/seafood are lamb, chicken, beef and shrimp, with add-ons that include mushrooms, sprouts, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, broccoli, corn, pea pods, onion, zucchini, garlic, yellow & green squash, and peppers. Sauces include teriyaki, soy, ginger-garlic and several others.
Next down the line is the International Market, with its emphasis on Hispanic dishes. Selections here include: chimichangas; flour tortillas; steamed mussels in seasoned broth; refried beans; scrambled eggs; sliced carne asada with warm roast-tomato-and-garlic salsa. This section also has a made-to-order omelet station, as well as Spanish rice and chorizo sausage with eggs.
Several seafood items are to the left of the International Market, including savory steamed clams and mussels, huge mounds of peeled shrimp, and crab legs.
Daily availability of chilled shrimp and crab legs is, I believe, a first for Station buffets, and is an example of the effort to improve the quality. The snow-crab or opilio crab legs are good-sized, and the buffet is one of the few I’ve run across that does something to address the preference some have for chilled crab legs and others have for hot crab legs. As presented, they are on ice. But if you like them hot, a server will take your plate of crab legs and place it into an adjacent steamer oven. A minute later and you’ve got a plate of steaming hot crab legs.
Due to the popularity of the crab legs, there’s usually a line at this station. This can cause a bit of a problem for those who just want to get the clams and mussels or the peeled shrimp, as they have to either wait patiently in line to reach those items or find a way to semi-politely get in and get out as quickly as possible.
On the journey from left to right, the next section is called Americana. It features the following: grilled pepper steak; rotisserie duck; kielbasa, ham, saffron rice pilaf; salmon with dill sauce; home-fried potatoes; sautéed carrots; bacon; sausage; seafood ragout; apple-sausage stuffing; mashed potato and gravy. This section also includes a carving station, which at various times includes two of these: leg of lamb, roast prime rib, pork loin, turkey.
Next comes the Italian section, called Tuscan Trattoria. Items we’ve found here include: mussels Vera Cruz; bowtie pasta with pancetta; eggs cosmopolitan (similar to Benedict, but with bacon instead of ham); eggs Benedict; sauté of mushrooms, artichokes and Kalamata olives; meatballs; chicken Angelo; asiago cheese sauce and Spanish sauce; French toast; penne pasta; fusilli with crab; Bolognese sauce, marinara sauce and clam sauce; spinach, mushroom and leek mini quiches.
The Italian section also features fresh-baked pizzas. The pizzas at most of the Feast buffets are thin-crust, but the chefs at the GVR buffet make a thicker crust. The pizza was good, though far from the best I’ve had.
The dessert area includes the usual selections of pies, cakes, cookies, etc., with a decent selection of sugar-free pastries. There’s apple cobbler, bread pudding, self-serve soft ice cream with several fruit sauces. A server makes ice-cream sodas on request, and will also scoop ice cream for diners from a chest similar to those in ice-cream shops. If you make it to this buffet, try the killer hazelnut ice cream that always seems to be available.
In summary, the GVR Feast Buffet is a good one, certainly the best of any Station Casinos buffets. You won’t regret making the trip to enjoy it, though it won’t measure up to the top buffets on the Strip. But the kicker in this deal is that Green Valley Ranch is a lovely property to visit along with the buffet. Immediately upon entering the property, most will be pleased by the understated class of the interior, and you will enjoy walking around to see the various amenities, including the handsome restaurant fronts, the cinema complex, Whiskey Sky lounge and the Whiskey Beach outdoor recreation area, and the beautiful hotel areas.
--Best from David in NV
