The AYCE Buffet at the Palms Casino is creating quite a Buzz in the Las Vegas dining scene right now. The Buffet situation in the City is quite poor, what was once a smorgasbord of amazing Buffets has been whittled down to a few options since the Pandemic closure, with many now predominately closed. We have a list of the Top 10 Buffets in Las Vegas, and we actually struggle to find 10 decent Buffets to put on the list. So when the Palms announced they were opening their AYCE Buffet again it was good news for all.
When they announced they were going to run an Unlimted Lobster night, the buzz went through the roof! Unlimited Lobster for only $64,99 seems like a heck of a deal, so much so demand has been crazy and people are queuing for up to 4 hours just to get into the Buffet! Obviously, we were not going to miss the chance to check this out and dine on Unlimited Lobster all in the name of research. so Is the AYCE Lobster Buffet Worth it? Find out in our AYCE Buffet Review.
Note – Demand has been so great they opened a second night, Thursdays, so you can not hit the Lobster Buffet either night, but this has done little to reduce demand and queue times.
Pricing
Brunch – $32.99
Saturday & Sunday | 9 am – 4 pm
Dinner – $36.99
Monday & Tuesday | 4 pm – 9 pm
Saturday | 5 pm – 10 pm
Sunday | 5 pm – 9 pm
Lobster Dinner – $64.99
Wednesday & Thursday | 2 pm – 9 pm
Prime Rib & Snow Crab Dinner – $42.99
Friday | 4 pm – 10 pm
Half Price Buffet Coupon!
If $64.99 sounds too much to spend on unlimited Lobster, Vegas may end up being a bit of a shock to the system, especially the first time you are charged $15 for a beer, however for this particular price shock there is an Answer.
Las Vegas Advisor offers its members a whopping 50% off the Buffet or Buy-On-Get-One-Free, whichever works better. At that price, this is a seriously enticing proposition, but the Membership does cost $50. This means you are going to have to get some use out of the other Vouchers to make the Membership Worth it.
Membership comes with a large book of “coupons” that can be used at various spots in and around Vegas. Most of these seem to be Downtown/Fremont Street or off-strip and most are not that useful, but there are some decent offers that could easily make the Membership pay for itself.
For us we didn’t find we would get value from the Booklet so didn’t sign-up, but you may find the savings more useful so it’s definitely worth a look…But read till the end as overall you may not want to visit this Buffet at all.
Lobster Buffet
The headline act for the A.Y.C.E Buffet is the Lobster Buffet. This is currently held on Wednesdays and Thursdays. But this may drop back to Wednesday only once the summer season passes. We are glad the extra day was added and maybe this will help with some of the queue line madness. We will get onto that.
For $64.99 you get 90mins of All-You-Can-Eat Lobster. There are whole Lobsters and Lobster Tails. You are limited to one Lobster and one Tail, per serving, but you can come back for as many servings as you like.
On top of this, there are the regular AYCE Buffet Options that are available every day, and the Buffets is one of the better options currently available in Vegas. We look at the Regular Buffet Below.
Other Buffets
The AYCE Lobster Buffet is only on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons/Evenings on the other days the Buffet is still open, but it does not serve Lobster. In fact, it’s unlikely to have many higher-end items such as Crab Legs and Prime Rib apart from the Lobster nights and Friday Evenings.
On Saturday and Sunday, 9 – 4 pm it opens as a weekend brunch. At $32.99 this includes free-flowing Champagne and Mimosas which is a VERY solid offering. When open simply for regular Dinners it’s still a really good value buffet and offers a huge selection at a pretty low price point. We are not sure we would head all the way over JUST for the AYCE buffet, but if you are Staying at Palms or there for another reason it’s worth checking out and is one of the better Las Vegas Buffets right now.
Finally, we are about to explain the Madness that is the AYCE Buffet Queue system. This only applies to Lobster Evenings and Very Busy times, such as holidays, out side of this the buffet is pretty much Walk-Up.
How the Lobster Buffet Queue “Works”
You will see we added quotation marks to the word Works, that is because this queue really doesn’t work at all. The best word to sum it up and the one we heard uttered over and over, is Madness. The Queue is total Chaos, makes no sense, and seems designed to be as chaotic and confusing as possible. And we think that is precisely the point.
The AYCE Buffet is designed as a loss leader. It’s there to get people into the Palms. The Hotel is a way off the strip and the Palms are doing all they can to get people through the door. However, if they just opened an OpenTable booking system, people would just arrive at their allotted time, gorge on Lobster, then leave. That’s not good for the bottom line. They need people to hang around and spend a little more in the Casino.
And it works. We were pretty mean with our spending, we only bought a couple of coffees, but most people seemed to be splitting up, one queueing while the other wandered off and bought coffee, had a little flutter, or just explored the casino. Then there is the dead time between queueing and your seating time, again, people stayed close and used the hotel’s amenities…remember people are queueing right by those slots, it takes a strong will to resist those flashing lights and enchanting sounds…Vegas was not built on the strong wills of its customers…
Ok, Let’s try and make some sort of sense of this queueing system so you can waste as little of your day as possible. There are essentially two ways to get a seat at the Buffet. The initial Queue and then the waitlist.
First Sitting 2 pm
The First line is for the opening seating at 2 pm. This initial presale is what all the people are queuing for. Only the first 250 people will get into this 2 pm seating. If you are late or want another time, you can’t use this option.
This “pre-sale” opens at 12 pm and the queue starts forming around 10:30 am. Seriously there will be people in the queue at that time. We joined at 11:05 and the queue was probably around 50 people, and it quickly grew. By 11:30 there were definitely more than the 250, that would get the first seating.
At 12 pm Check-in opens for the 2 pm seating. This took around 30 mins to get to the Till and pre-pay for our seats. This leaves approx 1hr30 until our Buffet. Most people headed straight to the 2 pm queue as they wanted to be front of the line DON’T do this.
Do anything else. You have a guaranteed seat and 90mins to enjoy your lobster, there is no need for another 90mins of queueing. We headed off to check out Area-15, but we could have hung out at the Palms, popped into the shops, or anything.
We returned at 1:45 pm and the queue snaked across the entire casino, but from right at the back, once the Buffet opened at 2 pm we were inside and at our table by 2:09 pm!
So to recap to bag that 2 pm slot:
- Arrive around 11 am and join the queue
- The Check-in opens at 12 pm
- Pay for the 2 pm seating
- Do whatever you want until nearly 2 pm
- Return just before 2 pm and join the seating queue
- Enjoy 90 minutes of Unlimted Lobster.
Ok so that covers those that got there early and were part of the lucky 250 to get that 2 p.m. seating, What if you miss that, or want to eat later, Well you now enter the Murkey world of the Virtual Queue.
Virtual Queue
If for whatever reason you don’t make the 2 pm cut, then you will be directed to another queue. If you do not want the 2 pm seating, then you do not need t start queueing so early, instead, you can arrive at 12-12:30 pm and head straight toward the Virtual Queue Queue
Here you will be added to the OpenTable Virtual Waitlist Queue. Once signed up you are free to head off and do whatever, but do not go too far as you are not guaranteed a particular time, but will simply be contacted by text, when it is your turn,
This Waitlist stays open until it hits the magic number of 550 people, then it closes usually around 4 pm-5 pm if you miss this you are out of luck. People at the back of the queue will be seated around the last seating period of 8:30 pm.
If you do not want to use the waitlist, you can always just manually queue where you will stand in line, waiting for people to leave.
If this is a little confusing, it’s not us, and it’s not you, it is just bonkers! As we said above, we believe this is entirely intentional to keep people in resort and spending money.
What is the Buffet Like?
Lobster
The Lobster is the star of the show on Wednesday and Thursday Nights. Each customer is limited to one Whole Lobster and One Tail per serving, and they are very strict on that. But there are no limits on servings and after the initial rush, you could pretty much walk the lobster station as much as you wanted. You have 90 mins and we really could not imagine anyone leaving after that time thinking they hadn’t had enough Lobster, the only limit will be your stomach and taste, we only went for lobster a few times as there was so much else besides, but if you wanted to you could just eat nothing but lobster the whole 90mins.
Is the Lobster any Good?
The Answer to this is mixed. These are small lobsters, around the 1lb mark and they are cooked en-masse and this leads to a lot of inconsistencies. Some hit the sweet spot, and come out plump and tender, others get drastically overcooked and end up like rubber with shriveled claws. The initial quality is also pretty varied as these are not exactly cherry-picked Lobsters, these are mass-caught and lower-grade shellfish, not poor quality, but far from the best.
What all this means is one lobster might be really quite nice, while another is a bit rubbish. it’s all luck of the draw, but remember these are unlimited, get a stinker, just go back and try again. We have some great lobsters and some with shriveled claws and tough tail meat.
If you look at reviews you will probably see this mixed quality represented. Some people will scream and shout the Lobster is trash, others will say they had great lobster, who is right? Well, both as we said the consistency was very mixed! If you have very high standards though and think you are going to be getting fine-ding quality for $65 all-you-can-eat, you are going to be disappointed, likewise, if you live up in Maine, this will probably be an abomination to you!
What was far more consistent were the Tails. These were all plump and juice and tasted amazing slathered in Drawn Butter!
Outside of the Lobster Buffet, there are several other food stations with a huge variety of foods. These are available on the other times when the Lobster Buffet is not on, however, there is not often Prime Rib and Snow Crab outside of the Lobster Buffewr and Friday Night Dinner.
Smoke and Fire
The Smoke and fire was one of our favorite stations. This offers up some pretty solid Smoked meat. We were offered Brisket and Pork Sholders and these could be made into made-to-order tacos or just heated straight with Pit beans, Mac And Cheese, or various other BBQ Sides.
The Brisket was really good. It was properly smoked and had a great bark. We scrounged some Burnt ends off the carver and they were excellent. This is not an Artisinal level BBQ, it’s not going to win awards, but it passed all of our base tests, soft, tender, and smoky.
Roastery
The Roastery is as it sounds where the Big Joints of meat were served. There was Prime Rib Pork Sausage and some gorgeously crisp Pork Belly. There was also a large selection of sides such as Mashed Potato, Corn on the Cob, While you may not find the Prime Rib on regular nights there will always be a good selection of roast meats.
Greenery
The Greenery was filled with Salads, and chilled items along with soup and a delightful vat of drawn butter to douse your Lobster with. We have to admit we didn’t touch the salad on this trip but hit the Crab Legs and Shrimp pretty hard.
World Pan
World Pan has lots of various food from around the world. Pizza, Sushi, Poke, Build Your Own Pasta, Mac and Cheese, Roast Chicken and Pan Fried Fish Fillets, and many others.
Revival
This was a healthy option station and offered all kinds of fresh and tasty options. Coconut Jackfruit Curry, Forbidden Rice, Vegetable Chop Suey, Hummus, Pitas, and fresh salad options were some of the options when we visited.
Dessert
The Dessert was really fantastic and if t was not for the Lobster (and maybe the BBQ Station) this would have been the Highlight of the meal. There was a huge selection of mini desserts. Cookies Cakes, slices, pots of jelly and pudding, cream brules, and all kinds of sweet treats. Then there was the Cake Cabinet filled with large cakes cut into slices, carrot cake, chocolate cake, cheesecake, apple Pie, Blueberry Pie, and a few others.
On top of this were hot desserts, Apple Crumble, and Bread pudding along with Custard, excellent Comfort food. If this is not enough, then there is the Gelato Station with all kinds of tasty ice creams and Sorbets along with a toppings station. And finally, there is the Soft Served Ice Cream complete with Vannilla and Dole Whip, a real treat to have dole whip on tap!
Drinks
Soft drinks are included in the price and we were served endless pours of soda as long as we dined. There were alcoholic drinks on the menu, but we were not in the mood and still had some driving to do.
During the Weekend Brunch Buffets, unlimited Mimosas and Champagne were included but for the Lobster Buffet these are changes Extra at $15.99
Is the Lobster Buffet Worth It?
Financially
$64.99 is a lot of money for a Buffet, but this is an Unlimted Lobster and that’s quite a tantalizing proposition. There are cheaper ways to get Lobster, but these require you to cook it yourself, and you will miss out on all the other foods from the Buffet. YOu could also get much BETTER lobster if you spent $64.99 at a regular restaurant but again, you are not going to get a lot of it, even from somewhere like Red Lobster!
Overall it’s quite a deal and hard to find anything in Las Vegas similar, while the Wicked Spoon, Bellagio Buffet, Wynn Buffet, and the Bacchanal Buffet all offer similar pricing, and a better buffet experience overall, they do not offer Lobster! So really this is the defining metric, do you want a really amazing Buffet? If so choose one of the above Options, if you want to gorge on Lobster until your skin starts to turn red, then the AYCE Lobster Dinner is just about your best option.
Time-Wise
However, there is another thing the consider, and for us, it’s the most important element. And it really is going to drive our recommendation, and that is the Time. We lost half a day to this, and we did quite well, it could have been worse. leaving out hotel at 10:15 we finally got to our next destination at 4 pm. Nearly 6 hours to eat a Buffet. This is terrible time value and something we really regret doing. Honestly, we only did it so we could report back as there is a big BUZZ around the AYCE Lobster dinner, but honestly, we think this is 90% Fuelled by FOMO.
Fear Of Missing Out
We all fall victim to FOMO from time to time and we fully admit when we learned f the AYCE Lobster buffet at the Palms we got a heavy dose of it. But the craziness of the Queue system just destroys it. Time on Vacation is so important and standing in line for a Buffet is just not good use of that time.
Having to arrive at the buffet 3 hours before we were able to eat is madness and wrecked our day. While enjoying the lobster, we really were only focussing on how much time it cost us. When compared to other Buffet experiences, the Lobster didn’t really make up for it overall. If someone gave us free front-of-line buffet passes to any buffet in town, this would NOT be the one we picked regardless of the Queue, but with it, it’s a hard PASS!
Our opinion is really The Lobster is not all that, it’s nice, and it’s decent when you get a good one, but it can’t make up for the wasted time. We dined at the Wicked Spoon 2 days earlier, it took 5 mins to be seated and the food was immeasurable better…and it was Cheaper! The Bellagio is a little off the pace of the Wicked Spoon but still above AYCE, and while the Wynn and Bachanal Buffets cost similar prices, they are strides ahead in terms of quality.
So no, overall, unless you are ABSOLUTELY devoted to eating more Lobster than you thought possible then the AYCE Lobster buffet is just not worth it. Don’t give into the FOMO, you really are not missing out.
<<<Check Out our list of the Best Buffets in Las Vegas>>>
How about at 50% off?
As we pointed out at the beginning the Membership at Las Vegas Advisor comes with a 50%/ Buy-One-Get-One-Free – coupon, and at that price it’s pretty tempting, but membership costs $50 which means the BOGO only counts if you can use the other membership benefits and coupons. We found them pretty useless so couldn’t justify it, but if you can find value there 50% off is pretty awesome, but for us, it wouldn’t have been.
And still, this does nothing about you throwing 6 hours+ down the drain for a Buffet.
Have Your Say
Have you tried the Lobster Buffet yet? What did you think of it? How was the queue madness? Are you planning on going soon? Are you looking forward to the Buffet or more worried about the Queue? Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below.