Rating:
M Resort
Price: $25-$75
Type: Buffets
*This buffet is currently closed
Read the LVA reviews (click on the button to the upper right) for the scoop on the Studio B from eight years ago; if anything, this buffet has changed for the better. The lines are still ferocious (shorter for lunch), which tells you a lot. And 2,000 Yelp reviewers rate it a solid four stars, which tells you even more.
M puts out a huge selection of more than 200 items and everything is restocked immediately; how they keep up with it is a constant wonderment. We believe that only the Rio's Carnival World is bigger and this one leaves that one in the dust.
Best of all, the prices are low for such a high-end spread: $16.99 for lunch and $24.99 for dinner. Only the Friday night seafood dinner, at $39.99, is up there with the best gourmet superbuffets on the Strip. And they don't serve unlimited beer and wine in the price!
LVA Review
This buffet was re-reviewed in the December 2009 LVA; some of the information contained in this review may no longer be accurate.
Anthony Curtis tried the M buffet again in the company of Kitty Yancey from USA Today. We did a big review of Studio B in June and all the great elements cited then remain, but AC says there’s even more going on than we wrote about. For example, the coffee bar at the dessert station doesn’t serve just coffee. You can add fancy liquors. Want a Bailey’s and coffee or an espresso with Sambuca? You can have it, and it’s all included in the price. Also, the dessert line-up was even better than the last time we checked. This buffet is a monster.
This buffet was reviewed in the June 2009 LVA; some of the information contained in this review may no longer be accurate.
We finally faded the lines and tried M Resort’s Studio B Buffet (more about the lines below). Wow! Are some people really finding fault with this one? It’s difficult to imagine why—we’d rate it among the best we’ve ever had in this town, and not on a price-to-quality scale alone. The creativity and variety of this buffet reach levels that meet or surpass almost all that have come before it.
How do you do that in the mecca of creative buffets? How about a Thai station? We’ve seen the odd pad Thai here and there, but M has a Thai station with five different curries.
How about beer and wine included in the price? That’s not new, but your choice of white or red wine is served in a real wine glass, and the choice of beers on draught include Coors Light, Warsteiner, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. PBR? At a buffet? There’s even cider and root beer.
And while this isn’t a gourmet buffet à la Bellagio or the Mirage, the quality level borders on it. For example, the sushi is probably the best in town aside from some of the top Sunday brunches. For lunch it’s cut rolls only, but they aren’t the grocery-store rolls you get at other buffets. These have good tuna, salmon, and even flying fish eggs (there’s nigiri and sashimi for dinner, at least for the Fri./Sat. seafood nights). The quality is good enough that you could go for sushi and beer (or wine) alone and get the best of the deal.
The easiest way to convey the breadth of the selection is to list just some of what’s on the menu (and this is lunch): a small middle Eastern station with tabouli and grape leaves; Italian, Asian, and Mexican stations; a tremendous salad selection with several mixtures of greens, along with creative pre-made salads, such as Thai beef and tofu chicken; and four carving stations serving turkey, rotisserie chicken, pork, and roast beef. Some of the individual dishes include paella, clam strips, mussels, kielbasa, fried chicken, chicken Florentine, several types and preparations of fish, chicken enchiladas, shrimp Veracruz, pork chili Verde, and mini-sirloin steaks. There’s a selection of artisan breads, fresh fruit galore, all sorts of vegetables (from carrots to Brussels sprouts), cold cuts, and six kinds of soup, including chili with onions and cheese to put on top. Which leads to the condiments, which include everything from horseradish to European-style mustards and Asian chili sauce, along with cut lemons and limes. The separate dessert station has crêpes with fruit, pastries, pies, cakes, and even chocolate souffle (never seen that before). And from a big freezer, attendants scoop ice cream, spumoni, yogurt, and sherbet that you can top with sundae goodies. Everything is labeled, so there’s no guessing.
Even though prices were raised a month after opening, the numbers are still good. Breakfast is $10.95, lunch $14.95, and Sun.-Thurs. dinner $22.95. Saturday and Sunday brunch is $24.95 and Friday and Saturday seafood nights (which we’ve heard are fantastic) are $25.95. Since you simply have to show a M-agine Rewards card to get $2 off any meal, the range is effectively $8.95-$23.95 (each diner has to have his own players card for the discount). Spectacular!
Where are the negatives? Only in those lines. We waited 25 minutes at 1 pm on a Thursday (though the line was half as long when we left at 2:30). If lines are ferocious, an attendant will give you a beeper, but you can’t get one yourself. If you play in the casino and can get a line pass, do it. Lines or no lines, this buffet is too good not to get a place in the Top Ten.
