Main Street Station Buffet Review with Hours & Prices of this Budget Vegas All You Can Eat
Before we go into details of our Main Street Station Buffet review (hours and prices at the bottom), let’s preface it with this: Las Vegas has a nasty little habit of increasing buffet prices (not only room prices) on weekends, so you may be hard-pressed if you want to spend only a few dollars. However, if you don’t mind about the most-sumptuous buffet experience ever, then you may be happy enough going to bargain-basement buffets, such as the Main Street Station. There are other options, much better options even if you are on a budget, and I’ll mention them further down; for now, let’s get on with the Main Street Station buffet review:
It was voted the best downtown buffet several times years ago (no longer the case, since Golden Nugget is much better in terms of quality); its greatest feature is that, over the weekend, it’s a choice if you are on a budget (provided you are happy to eat basic ‘North-American’ food not so-well prepared); the problem these days is that its food is no longer good enough for us to recommend it. This unfortunately leaves downtown visitors with practically no real buffet choice except for Golden Nugget which tends to be great and then not-so-great, almost in ‘waves’ (recently it’s been good); the Main St buffet is only a good option if you want to fill your stomach with ‘something’. Otherwise, off-Strip, you will enjoy more Palms and Red Rock in that order. And, of course, Studio B.
Before continuing with food and dishes reviews, we feel a few words need to be spent mentioning how absolutely delightful-to-the eye this hotel and casino is (in a historical sense)! It’s a real museum and, if you ask at reception, you will be given a guide to all the museum pieces scattered around the hotel, the restaurants and the casino:
We like it because, even though they sold the magnificent ‘Buffalo Bill’ train (which we loved and miss) which used to be just outside, this hotel & casino still offers a museum-like experience (but in a really ‘fun’ way’); 
it’s a pleasant surprise if you want to absorb, visually, what an old (yet classy) hotel/casino (and hotel foyer) used to look like! Take a look at the entrance by the reception area and one of their bars/restaurants (photos above, though we have more photos in our must-see sections ) and of the rest of this museum-like-casino on our Real Vegas Videos page.
The Food at the Main Street Station Buffet in Vegas:
It used to offer a huge variety of dishes but these days the range is much more limited and the taste is on the low-quality side in general. Because it’s not a great buffet (although it’s a cheap one), the line ups are not significant with the exception of a few special dinner times.
The salad station is basic though decent enough for those who don’t care about gourmet salads or gourmet vegetables; during our last trip they offered artichokes, though, which is probably the best ‘gourmet’ food at this buffet; but a lot of what they offered (in any section) seemed to be swimming in liquid and that looked plain awful.
Going back to the salad, you can make your own salad with the several ingredients available here (such as tuna mix or a seafood-crab imitation mix); of course, if you care about a good salad the best place to go is still the Mirage buffet despite the changes for the worse lately) though among the affordable buffets Palms has a great ready-made Caesars and Tabboulleh, Studio B has a great salad with salmon (already mixed), Asian-style, and Red Rock is the only Vegas buffet which still offers higher quality lettuce (radicchio-style) rather than the same boring iceberg and romaine. As per the rest of the food at the Main Street Station buffet, you’ll probably find all you expect to find at low to average buffets: rotisserie chicken, Mexican, Southwestern dishes and a small Asian section with a few dishes which definitely need improving.
Almost every dish is quite average to low quality: fresh fruit, pizza, fish, a meat carving station, and a standard (at best) dessert section (nothing made in house in my opinion, just bought from some basic supplier). But, for such low prices, it’s a good deal nonetheless for some, especially (as I said), if you don’t mind the lack of quality, if you don’t like the Golden Nugget buffet (which we prefer by far to this one) and you need to stay downtown.
Lunch here ends at 3:00 pm and the food is removed at 3:20 in preparation for dinner. Hugely annoying. I don’t understand it since even the best buffets in Vegas dare to do that! Customers are asked to leave by 3:30. Not great; we prefer roll-overs, though most budget buffets do not offer it and will therefore have a gap between lunch and dinner and, as in the case of the Main Street station buffet, also between breakfast and lunch. However, the price is so affordable for a weekend lunch that you probably won’t mind! A few examples of what you will find:
The Main Street Station buffet offers specialty nights such as T-Bone Tuesdays, Steak and Scampi Thursdays, Seafood night on Fridays and Prime Rib on Saturdays, and the ubiquitous champagne brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
In summary, the delight of the museum-like hotel and casino will probably overshadow the less-than-exciting (to put it diplomatically) experience at this cheap (in every sense of the word) Vegas buffet. But, given the steep weekend buffet prices of many other establishments, if you are bound to the downtown area of Vegas, you may not regret that you went, especially because of the visual experiences the hotel and casino offer (see photo below as example). We have video reviews of this historical hotel & casino as well as of this buffet in our Vegas Videos Sections. Don’t forget to ask us if you don’t see a video you would like to see. Below are also its hours and prices.
There are other affordable options, of course, such as the beautiful Red Rock buffet, the renewed Palms buffet and the very best Studio B at M (not as super-affordable as the rest, but it’s so good and so huge you won’t think twice about paying the price) and the not-so-great (trying to be diplomatic) but very affordable buffets part of Boyd Gaming, such as Gold Coast, Orleans, Fremont.
Hours & Prices of the Main Street Station Buffet:
Notice the gaps between meal times: very annoying as it means you have to actually leave (no roll-over). For the low-quality buffet, this gaps are really “tacky”.
Breakfast & Brunch
Breakfast • Monday – Friday 7:00am – 10:30am
Ruby Players Card – $9.99
Sapphire & Above Players Card $8.99
Without B Connected Card $10.99
Children 4-10 $8.99
Children 3 and Under Free
Brunch • Saturday & Sunday 7:00am – 3:00pm
Ruby Players Card $14.99
Sapphire & Above Players Card $13.99
Without B Connected Card $15.99
Children 4-10 $13.99
Children 3 and Under Free
Lunch & Dinner
Lunch • Monday – Friday 11:00am – 3:00pm
Ruby Players Card $10.99
Sapphire & Above Players Card $9.99
Without B Connected Card $11.99
Children 4-10 $9.99
Children 3 and Under Free
Dinner • Monday, Wednesday, & Thursday 4:00pm – 9:00pm
Ruby Players Card $13.99
Sapphire & Above Players Card $12.99
Without B Connected Card $14.99
Children 4-10 $12.99
Children 3 and Under Free
Dinner • Sunday 4:00pm – 10:00pm
Ruby Players Card $13.99
Sapphire & Above Players Card $12.99
Without B Connected Card $14.99
Children 4-10 $12.99
Children 3 and Under Free
Prime Rib & Scampi Dinner • Tuesday & Saturday
Tuesday • 4:00pm – 9:00pm
Saturday • 4:00pm – 10:00pm
Ruby Players Card $16.99
Sapphire & Above Players Card $15.99
Without B Connected Card $17.99
Children 4-10 $15.99
Children 3 and Under Free
Seafood Dinner • Friday 4:00pm – 9:00pm
Ruby Players Card $28.99
Sapphire & Above Players Card $26.99
Without B Connected Card $29.99
Children 4-10 $26.99
Children 3 and Under Free
Signing up for a players card is easy and can be done on the spot at their players’ customer desk.
Buffet prices do not include tax, and are subject to change. Please check with them over the phone in case they have adopted a last-minute change.
Location: 200 North Main Street (Downtown Vegas)