Affordable Dining in Vegas: Eat Cheap & Well

If you are interested in bargain-basement affordable dining in Vegas with regards to buffets, you can check our Cheap Vegas Buffets which are Good page.  If you are seeking easy & quick information on 24 hour cheap Vegas meals or cheap Vegas drinks you can read our corresponding pages; you can also go to our list of Best Vegas buffets, from the best to the cheapest (some cheap ones are still excellent!); on this page we focus on tips to eat cheaply in Las Vegas and on where you can find these options.

Las Vegas is our favorite eating Mecca because we know how to eat really well here and relatively cheaply (much more cheaply than at home!). Unlike Canada (Western Canada in particular) or Europe, the US has many restaurants and cafes where you can eat a lot at affordable prices. However, we still think that Vegas maintains the edge, despite some resorts’ current attempts to actually make a profit from their dining outlets (as opposed to using them only as a means to attract potential gamblers to their casino, as it was in the ‘good old days’).  Moreover, affordable dining in Vegas is more bountiful, more exciting and certainly ‘bigger’.

Tip N.1 to Save Money on your trip through affordable dining in Vegas

Allocate your largest meal of the day to either breakfast or lunch if you don’t have a coupon, a voucher or a free meal offer (more on these later on). Many Vegas buffets offer breakfast and lunch roll-overs. This is absolutely great because you can show up 45 minutes before breakfast ends, pay breakfast prices and enjoy the more expensive lunch! You can also do this if you want to have dinner (show up 45 minutes before lunch ends) because, again, most Vegas buffets do this (that is they do not have a break between meals); the really cheap Vegas buffets (more on this below) don’t offer roll-over, but then they are extremely affordable anyway! At any Vegas buffet breakfast is usually from around $5 to $25 dollars (see our Vegas buffet price chart), and we feel that this is a great price for practically the very best of everything, including an unparalleled variety of foods (especially if you are in a buffet which allows you to roll-over onto lunch, and most allow you to do this!). Some buffets have become less good over the last years whilst others are becoming a mind-blowing gourmet experience (check our Vegas buffet list divided by category).

Even better, though, you can easily obtain buffet or restaurant coupons (such as 5 dollars off per person, 2 for 1, etc) by browsing any flyer, magazine, booklet and local newspaper you can find. These publications are readily available inside cabs, scattered around check-in or visitors’ information areas, just given at check-ins (so always ask when you check in, we are often lucky this way) and of course for sale at newspaper outlets (check the coupons before you buy the newspaper). The Caesar’s Entertainment Group (former Harrah’s Group) often (especially during low-traffic periods) give out a coupon book at check-in which has, among several offers, 5 dollars off coupons for most of their Vegas buffets (but it does not include the ultra expensive Bacchanal buffet, for which you have to top up) but it’s valid for all their other buffets including their aesthetically beautiful Paris Buffet. We haven’t eaten a ‘leisure’ full-price meal in Las Vegas in years, unless we had to go no matter what in order to review the buffet, of course. Such offers can also be found – in the same publications – for actual restaurants, so it’s the same process for either.

Affordable Dining in Vegas

We prefer a buffet for our Vegas dining experience because we believe that the best of them absolutely offer better variety for similar quality and, of course, at better prices (and of course because we like to eat a huge amount of foods when we are in Vegas!). There are several top Vegas Restaurants (and the list is always growing) you may wish to try if budget is not a concern, mostly located within most top Vegas resorts (such as the Venetian, the Bellagio, the Palazzo, The Paris, the Wynn etc); most coupons are given when you check in by the resort. Some also publish special offers in flyers and free magazines you can find everywhere, as well as on some local newspapers and other magazines. For example, if you buy a copy of the American Casino Guide (go to bottom of linked page for explanation on this guide) you’ll find a 2-for-1 buffet coupon for several Las Vegas buffets.

A note for large groups: if you are a group of 8, you will need to split in 2 groups to avoid the large group mandatory charge. As per the special ‘free buffet’ offer, or ‘2 for 1 buffet’, it is always a great idea to sign up to practically every Players’ Club in any resort you are in because, as a newbie, you will be offered these deals with certainty. If you are a repeat customer you may have to accumulate some players’ points, and this varies in each resort (so ask before you play so you can play where your points value the most – we do this religiously – what’s the point in playing where you get nothing or very little for your points?).

♥ ♥ ♥ These days the Palms (a great, classy resort with great suites, slightly off Strip but near Rio and Gold Coast, both offering free shuttles) offers a fantastic buffet (high quality) at incredibly low prices for everybody (as long as you sign up for their players card, which is free); the Red Rock buffet is also very affordable, varied and good (best if you have a car); also, if you go midweek, lunch at the stunning Studio B (M Resort) is a very affordable treat. The Rio Carnival & Seafood buffet (now revamped) also often offer special deals (or half-price coupons) via local newspapers and, of course, if you know anybody who’s a local you will enter free or half price practically anywhere as a matter of course, especially into those off-Strip buffets! If you are in downtown Vegas and cannot travel to other areas, you will be limited to the Golden Nugget buffet (very small and of mediocre quality at best), the Fremont buffet and the Main Street Station buffet, which have also significantly declined in quality and variety, unfortunately.  On & near Fremont Street, affordable dining in Vegas is no longer offering the experience worthy of this city, especially with regards to buffets.

A note for a cheap snack or a quick meal-on-the-go: the food court at the Fashion Show mall (you can see our recent video of it on our Vegas Videos page) in front of the Venetian is also a place which offers fabulous deals (they often have all subs for 5 dollars, and similar offers in other food outlets in their huge but very un-crowded food court), so if you just want a quick snack for five dollars or less, at any time, go there.

Cheap Vegas meal places open 24 hours.

Check out our updated Special Vegas Deals page for the latest ‘tricks’ (on how to save money).

How to find free or cheap stuff in Las Vegas (including meals).

all-day breakfasts and overall cheap meal deals

If affordable dining in Vegas in not all you seek, but you also wish to try memory-building gourmet experiences, you could try the fanciest breakfasts in Vegas or Fixed Price Vegas restaurants will tell you where you can eat truly gourmet food from great Vegas restaurants for an affordable price.