In-N-Out Burgers, Bellagio and Paris Buffet @ Las Vegas

We ate so much at on the trip, I had to break the reviews in parts.  This part is for Vegas: In-N-Out Burgers, the famous Bellagio Buffet and the Village Buffet at Paris.  Let's talk about In-N-Out Burgers first...

In-N-Out Burgers

I admit, it was probably one of the best burgers I have had from a fast food restaurant. I like In-N-Out because not only they have a good burger patty, but the toppings and the buns are also really good.  Most people only focus on the burger patties when in comes to burgers but to me, everything matters.  That's probably another reason why I love Five Guys, I love those sauteed mushrooms on my burger!  For In-N-Out, I can't help to notice how crunchy and fresh their lettuce is, and finally I get a good thick slice of onion on my burger, not like a ring of onion.  In-N-Out definitely takes their burger seriously, I was very impress.
 
Bellagio vs Paris, whose cuisine reigns supreme?  
 

Prime Ribs @ Bellagio

Alaskan and Snow Crab legs @ Bellagio

Dessrt #1 @ Bellagio

Dessert #2 @ Bellagio

The first time I went to Vegas was in 2006 and I was a poor college student who was traveling with my student loan money.  Back then, I was not so much of a foodie, I love food, but I probably only spend like 10% of what I spend now on food.  Even though back then, I already know about Bellagio Buffet, and I really wanted to try it, but I would never spend $45 on any single meal, so I didn't get to eat at Bellagio.  Now this time, once we have made a decision to make a stop at Vegas on our trip, the first demand I had was - Bellagio Buffet.  For people who doesn't know, Bellagio is known for the most luxurious (priciest), and highest rated buffet on the Vegas strip.  After waiting for more than an hour, and only left with 40 min to eat, here's the verdict.  Without a doubt, Bellagio buffet offers an extensive variety of food, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and American.  I was very impress that they had a good selection of sashimi and sushi at the buffet.  The best thing I had at the Bellagio is definitely the prime rib, and since it's a buffet, I didn't mind how fat it was (prime rib should be fat), I don't eat chucks of fat, but I like my prime rib to be fat because the meat next to the fatty part are more tender.  Cutting out the fat, I am left with a smaller portion of meat, but I can always get 2nd, 3rd, 4th slice, and every slice was cooked perfectly medium rare, juicy, tender, and just melts in your mouth.  The crab legs at Bellagio were really salty, but other than that, everything was on par, but nothing really outstanding (except for their prime rib).  Since we went on a weekday, our buffet only cost $35/person instead of $45 on the weekend, so I probably didn't get the full experience.  I read that some people had foie gras at Bellagio buffet, but I didn't see any when I was there.
 

Prime Rib and ribs @ Paris

Blueberries Crepes @ Paris

Snow Crab Legs @ Paris

Dessert #1 @ Paris

Dessert #2 @ Paris

For the second night, we ate at the Village Buffet at Paris, which is known as the second best buffet on the strip.  The Village Buffet is a French theme restaurant, most of the food at the buffet are French dishes or with French influences, and I am a huge French food eater so that Paris immediately became my second choice. Like Bellagio, they have some good and bad dishes.  Their prime ribs are definitely not as good as Bellagio's, I had half of my prime rib and I didn't want to eat it anymore, Bellagio ruined it for me. However compared to Bellagio, Paris' crab legs are better and not as salty - we probably ate 4x more crab legs than at Bellagio because of that reason.  Paris does have a few good dishes like the duck confit and spare ribs.  There is one dish you have to avoid at Paris, which is their French onion soup, it is the worst onion soup I have ever had, it's really ironic - bad onion soup at a French theme restaurant.  While they did really poorly with their onion soup, they made it up by having delicious dessert (finally representing the French).  You must go to the crepe station and make your own crepe, remember to add some ice cream on it, it makes the perfect dessert.  I also love the flan at Paris, it's very rich, creamy, and not overly sweet. I have had many flans, and Paris has the best.   

Even though both buffets weren't as good as I expected, but for $30-35 for such a huge variety of food, and don't forget you are in Vegas where nothing is cheap, I think it's not bad at all.  Of course, if you are a huge gambler than maybe you will have better hook ups, but I don't believe in chance.

Bellagio Buffet
Paris Buffet 

Coming Up: San Diego