Best and Worst Buffets

French Market Buffet 

The Orleans Las Vegas 

Atmosphere      3.75

Food               4.25

Service            4.75

Value              4.75     What does this mean?

     I must admit, I’m rather impressed! Contrary to my usual self, I wasn’t optimistic about trying the French Market Buffet. Primarily, because I’ve never had a Cajun dish I liked, and secondly because I heard The Orleans was a dump. Usually a dumpy casino offers an even dumpier buffet. I decided to go for it because I was on a budget and I thought it’d be fun to write another bad review (hey, they’re funny!). I went in with a skeptical attitude, and came out with a smile, literally. Except..Oh pet peeve…. I HATE being flagged down and guided like cattle to a seat. The hostesses were equipped with walkie talkies and they barked orders at each other, “Booth!”…”Send ‘em send ‘em!” “10-4” Ugh.  I immediately figured I’d get what I came for, a bad review.  We trailed behind one of the walkie talkies to a booth; she was too busy barking orders to a fellow walkie to make eye contact with me.  However, a sweet server was waiting for us at the table and was prepared to offer drinks. That’s refreshing!! The buffet itself seemed to go on forever. It took two plates to get half way down!  I’d normally avoid pizza at a buffet; I see it simply as a dish to quietly occupy annoying children, but since I was trying to find something to complain about, I ate it. It was good. I was surprised.  We tried just about everything, Denny and I. You must picture us, Denny, shovel in hand, bent over a plate full of completely random food items from every section of the buffet, trying everything I wouldn’t. Myself, scribbling away at a piece of paper after every bite I took, muttering, “mmm, that’s good, try that,” and “Oh no, that’s not good at all. Here, you try it.” And so we went, through just about every dish there was. I even tried crawfish. Again. As though the last experience hadn’t given me enough reason to avoid them entirely.

My mother laughs at me because I hate to have my food touching. I do. I don’t want bean juice on my pizza, or succulent prime rib rubbing against lasagna. So, I go through a LOT of plates. Poor server, but she kept at it! I half expected a sideways glance from her as she was never able to pass our table without taking a plate. She was always on top of our drinks, she was always carting plates away, she was serving us. As though it was her pleasure, that is wonderful, that is service.

   After thoroughly stuffing ourselves with everything from excellently prepared catfish to stir fry, chicken gumbo, jambalaya and back we started to stalk the desert buffet. We circled like sharks, letting our stomachs settle a bit, trying to make room for as many of the tasty treats as we could. Finally, we decided to try almost everything. We laid out our desserts across the table, trying a bite of this, a bite of that, and let me tell you, just about everything we had was fantastic. I would warn you to reconsider the fruit tart, maybe it’s just me, but it tasted funny. Could be the fake (Maraschino) cherry. To our utter delight a band walked slowly up the walk towards the restaurant. It was classic! Music complimented our dinner experience beautifully and we resolved to spend the rest of our evening chasing down the girl in the sparkly bikini, vying for T-shirts with the rest of the tourists.

Bottom Line: The French Market Buffet was definitely a diamond in the rough. We weren’t expecting it to be near as good as it was, with excellent service and everything. A+ It's earned a place among our Featured Five! I hope that you’ll enjoy your evening there as much as we did!

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