Arizona Charlie's Super Special Graveyard Buffet

So Arizona Charlie's Casino on Decatur has a Ham and Eggs and Steak and Eggs breakfast special in their Sourdough Cafe (next blog!), however, I stumbled upon - on accident - another deal that only happens every other Tuesday evening through the morning. I was headed to Arizona Charlie's because I was craving breakfast for dinner. Yes, I wanted Steak and Eggs just after 8 PM. I walked up to the Sourdough Cafe in AZ Charlie's and saw the dreaded sign: Closed for Cleaning from 8 PM-6 AM. Ugh! My plans ruined!

Reluctantly, I headed upstairs to their buffet. My $3.99 Steak and Eggs breakfast/dinner was about to become a $11+ expenditure. Well, let me tell you that I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the buffet sign that read: Graveyard Buffet 8 PM-6 AM. $6.99 regular price. $6.29 with your Blue Ace Play Card. $5.24 with your Orange, Green or Red Ace Play Card.

Yes! They had definitely compensated for the inconvenience of the closing of the Sourdough Cafe for cleaning and gave their diners a perk for eating at the buffet. So, this Graveyard Buffet ONLY happens when the cafe is undergoing cleaning. Yesterday, April 2nd was a cleaning day. So, count on your calendar for "every other Tuesday" to find this buffet.

The buffet overall is quite fair. I think their salad bar is pretty good. There's lots of veggies to choose from and two pots of hot soup at the end of the line. Now, on the special Graveyard Buffet price, they do close down the Asian section which typically has an on-the-spot Stir Fry where you pick your veggie combo. I enjoy that. The American/Italian section has a carving station with ham and beef brisket. There's spaghetti and sauce and your starches as normal. The Mexican section has tamales and taquitos as well as a sign that shows Fajitas made-to-order. Now, I didn't see the guy, so I'm not sure if it was actually available on the "special" night.

The dessert bar has plenty of selection and they even have pies that aren't readily seen. For example, I saw someone ask the dessert server for Key Lime Pie and it comes out of the fridge. It's tucked away so you don't know, unless you know, that it's available. They probably have a few items like that.

Overall, for the price you pay, it's not a bad deal at all.

Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Ranch Buffet 2-for-1

For the entire month of August (sidenote Mon-Thurs ONLY) Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Ranch's Feast Buffet are offering 2-for-1 deals. Typically there is a catch - and really - this time, there is no catch. This is what you do:

1. Go to either of these casinos and find the Rewards Kiosk. There are many of these throughout the casino floor.

2. Swipe your Players Card, enter your PIN, and the promotion of 2-for-1 Feast Buffet will appear on the screen.

3. Select the Feast Buffet Promotion and it will print right out of the kiosk.

4. Now, take this voucher with you to the buffet.

So, you see it's relatively easy and you don't have to accumulate any kind of points to receive the promotion. You can only receive one 2-for-1 voucher per day so strategically think about which meal you want to use it on. If you have a friend or a spouse - now - then you can actually take advantage of this twice each day. One swipe per card.

If there was a catch, I'd say it'd be this. THE DREADED WAIT. No doubt, Station Casinos was smart, once again. If you offer 2-for-1 to their two most premium properties with the most premium buffet, you are going to get people coming onto the property attempting to eat on a deal and ultimately throw dollars into machines or on tables. That's fine. That's the point of a casino.

However, I have now attempted to go to the Red Rock buffet twice now. The first time was on a Tuesday evening around 7pm. OK. Bad decision. Not only was the regular line long and wrapped around the post, but the handicap line was almost equally as long! Whoa! Now that was going to be a wait and as starving as I was, I couldn't stand to wait. I should have known that en route to the Feast Buffet that when I saw a long line even at the Cafe that there was some bad news for the buffet line. OK. It was time to hunt for another spot. Strategically, I thought, let's go during lunch. On Thursday, I once again landed at Red Rock and got my voucher. It was 12:30pm. I walked to the Feast Buffet and I saw the dreaded line again! Ugh. Did I just hit prime lunch hour now??? So as they say, third time's a charm. Perhaps I need to up my meal to breakfast next time and show up at 7am. I am determined to get at least one 2-for-1 before August 31st!

Cannery Casino has $7 Buffet

Less can be better and in this case, Cannery Casinos does quite well. The latest promotion is the $7 Buffet - and you can get that price all day long every Saturday and Sunday. $7 is even below their typical lunch buffet price so for any time of the day, the new weekend promo is definitely a great deal.

Cannery has the typical buffet sections: Salad/Soup Bar, Italian, American/BBQ, Asian, Mexican and Dessert. What I do like about their buffet is that most of their dishes are good. There are some buffets in town that have what I like to call "mystery offerings" and those are the ones that you simply don't touch under any circumstances. However, at Cannery, their pasta is good - and even more importantly, it's usually hot in temperature. The Asian section has tofu. That's a major plus for me. I love tofu. I'll say it again. I love tofu. They make it with a nice light sauce and I tend to pile that onto my plate over some steamed white rice. 

The buffet is open:

Mon - Thur 11:00am to 8:00pm
Fri - 11:00am to 9:00pm
Sat - 9:00am to 9:00pm
Sun - 9:00am to 8:00pm

For a locals buffet at a very reasonable price, I can't complain.