Restaurant Review: Ports O'Call Buffet

For my current adventure, I am in Las Vegas. Of course, you may think it is still spring break for me, and I am at Vegas to have fun. Well, yea ... I am here to have fun, but the fun consists of filtering containment water, watch a steel bridge get constructed, and cheer on UCLA in paddling a concrete canoe. Whoa! Concrete can float? Yes sir, it can, as long as you make the aggregates and concrete mix less dense than water and strong. I'll include a picture tomorrow of UCLA's canoe. If you haven't guessed why I am at Las Vegas yet, I am attending the annual ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Pacific Southwest Regional Conference 2010 hosted by the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. Man, that was quite a mouthful.

Ports O'Call Buffet

4000 West Flamingo Road

Las Vegas, NV 89103

My first dinner in Las Vegas was at Ports O'Call Buffet at the Gold Coast Buffet and Casino with ASCE for a team dinner. The first thing that most tourists of the Sin City would do is to indulge in buffets.

Ports O'Call, located in the back of Gold Coast's Casino, does a unique theme to buffet by offering a variety of ethnic foods: American, Chinese, Korean, and Italian, along with diverse types of desserts and seafood. One of the best attributes of this buffet is the price. As poor college students, this buffet is ideal since the cost ranges between $10-15 (Depends on if they have specials like seafood or prime rib).


(Ethnic Food Stations)

Although this restaurant serves a wide range of ethnic foods and is inexpensive, the chef lacks control of cook times, moisture retention, and seasoning for the hot foods. A majority of the meat and seafood dishes were beyond overcooked or over-seasoned to hide the taste of the meat. Though, there is one exception to the seafood case: cocktail shrimp. These little creatures are always delicious. No wonder it is the most consumed food item in Las Vegas.


(Plate of Italy ... sorry no shrimp pics)

The best component of the buffet was the desserts. My sweet tooth rejoiced. The cakes were moist and not too sweet. The texture of each cake and pastry were beyond my expectations because the hot foods were not as delicately handled. The pastry chef and his assistants at Port O'Call have successfully made the last course delicious to balance out a majority of the bad entrees.


(Yum. Desserts!)

I would recommend this restaurant to those who are low on budget and would like to try different Americanized ethnic foods. I would not recommend this restaurant to those who would like fine dining foods or creative culinary talent.

Dress: Casual
Chatter level: Moderate
Kids: Bring em'

Review Rating:
2.4/5