Courtyard Buffet

Avoid the Courtyard Buffet unless you want to be placed at risk for identify theft.
My husband and I visited the Courtyard Buffet on January 9^th. We presented our signed and valid Visa card for payment, but when I handed the card to the cashier, she demanded to see my ID. I refused to show my ID (which is my right as a Visa card holder) and told the cashier that requiring an ID was not allowed by Visa if the card is signed. She told me she knew this rule, but that her «manager» had put this requirement into place. I reminded her that this practice is absolutely prohibited by Visa and MasterCard. Merchants are NOT allowed to require an ID if the card is signed — I had no choice but to report the restaurant to Visa for this violation.
Visa will be contacting the restaurant with the violation report, but in the meantime, I strongly suggest that the management and staff familiarize themselves with the rules of Visa card acceptance (see page 34 of Visa’s guide:
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The rules clearly state that «merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance», and that «Merchants cannot as part of their regular card acceptance procedures refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID».
Some merchants feel that requiring ID protects them from fraud. It doesn’t. In fact, this practice places consumers at greater risk for identity theft because they are being forced to hand over their address, zip code, birth date and Driver’s license number along with their credit card information. This tidy package of information is very desirable for thieves. Thus, the card companies do not allow this practice.
There are plenty of other dining options in the immediate area… I’ll stick to places that DON’T break the rules and who DON’T want to put my personal information at risk.

The largest of the Circus Circus buffets, we visited twice, once for late lunch and once for breakfast. The lines can be crazy so be prepared if you visit during typical rush times. We ate around 3pm for very late lunch and quite early around 8am for breakfast.
Late lunch: Our Megabus ran late and we foolishly counted on there being time and options at our stop in Sacramento to eat. So we were famished by the time we made it to Courtyard Buffet. Our total was nearly $ 55 for the three of us (including one chld). The salad bar leaves a lot to be desired. I certainly wasn’t expecting Sweet Tomatoes variety but I think even Sizzler has this one beat. I did, however, like the Kale Mango salad and the Curry Quinoa salad. The Butternut Squash salad was a nice try but bland fail. I don’t eat much meat so my options were limited. As previous reviewers have stated, the ethnic foods are best. I liked the Jamaican Chicken soup. The stir-​fry bar is great: you choose your noodles, veggies, and protein. I was bummed there was no tofu because my stir-​fry was great except for the frozen shrimp. Service was mediocre. We had to ask for water and napkins. No one smiled. My daughter was bumped twice by someone rushing to clear tables.
Breakfast: A definite improvement. They open for weekday breakfast buffet at 8am. My daughter and I loved the chilaquiles. They were the highlight. I also had some grits (never easy to do well and these were good), cinnamon rolls, and a Mexican-​salsa inspired veggie scramble. Those ranch steak fries were sinfully tasty; I only had two. Service was much, much better. Our server was sweet, warm, and brought over water and napkins and cleared our plates with a smile.

Too expensive $ 20 a persons for the food quality. Only 20% are ok. Look for neighbors much better buffet.

This restaurant is barely decent.
Yes, there is a lot of options to choose from and eat at this buffet, but the quality of the food is quite bad. This place is somewhere I would go as a last resort, but not somewhere I would go with the intention of having a great breakfast/​lunch/​dinner.

I wanted to visit the buffet in Silver Legacy but it was closed. Thus I came here for brunch and did not expect much and wow! My expectations were right! Of the buffets in El Dorado, Circus Circus, and Silver Legacy, this one has to be the least appealing.
I ate a little bit of everything, but I wasn’t eating for the taste, but to feel full and to make our money’s worth. I’m not going to go over every single thing, but what the food here and the buffet in general lacks is appeal. The food lacks flavor. The buffets lacks any wow factor. Nothing about this place screams «yes!»
All in all, the price doesn’t match the quality. All the other buffets will literally charge the same or similar so if you want a decent buffet that doesn’t lack appeal go to The Buffet in El Dorado.
Don’t be a clown.

So much food, for a great price, great variety! I enjoyed all the food here, my favorite was the taco bar hidden in the back. I like how you can self serve your own beverage unlike ordering it (flavors buffet in silver legacy does that). After being on the road for 6 hours to get to Reno, this was a great place to get my energy back!

This was the first buffet place I stumbled across while at circus circus. I was starving. This place is awful. Terrible food selection. Plus its expensive. Hometown buffet has much better quality than this shack. I went here this past Saturday night. The fees were $ 25 per adult. $ 15 per child. I paid almost $ 70 total. Two adults one child. Walking in the manager greets all customers after you have paid. I went straight to the food. No waiting. Walking around the food area I seen nothing appealing that stood out. Lemon shrimp was on the menu. When I found this item. The shrimp was cold. Not cold from sitting out but served cold on ice. Garlic noodles on the menu. Again served cold. No ice on this item. I finally ended up making a healthy green salad. Settling for fried over cooked chicken & some mash potatoes with gravy. I also loaded up on the cold shrimp since I spent that much money. Shrimp were Terrible. I did not even think about having seconds. Even ruined my dessert appetite. I left this place disappointed & hungry still. I recommend this place to nobody. Don’t waste your time or money. I never will eat here again. ZERO STARS…

BEST value and taste among Reno and South Lake Tahoe buffets… hence the 4 stars. For the region, this is as good at it gets… yeah I know, it’s not much but it’s the best of the rest.
Standouts include all the ethnic dishes… Mexican and Chinese is delicious for the area. The menudo (tripe soup) alone is worth the prices. A large blow is $ 10 at my local Mexican deli and to get it better here — unlimited— that’s a steal.
The Mongolian BBQ and soup options are also worth a try.
Breakfast items… no so great so I’d go for lunch/​dinner.
Seafood is good and fresh, what little they had.
Service… man beat out all the rest of the buffets in the area. They may look tired and worn out but they cleared the table like their lives depended on it… so attentive and helpful. When the cooks put away the syrup but were still serving pancakes, two of them went personally to get syrup and poured some in a bowl from the back of the counter … just for me.
A well deserved tip was given for such an effort.
Others I tried: Forest in Harrahs Tahoe, Atlantis — unmemorable, Fire and ICE (skip)

Dollar for dollar, this is the best value in downtown Reno ESPECIALLY if you have kids!

It’s just an adverage buffet by buffet standards. Nothing to special, they have a wide range of food, surrounding on the menu for everyone. So if you’re a picky eater then you will find something you may like.
The bacon is overly salty for my taste and the roast beef has zero flavor, but I do like the asian food area, they have the Mongolian style grill that I usually end up going too at least twice on my visit to this buffet. The deserts aren’t bad if you actually get there early enough to get some of it, a really good bread pudding for a place that puts out mass produced food.
At the end of the day, the prices are decent here, but there are more food options in or around the Virginia and Sierra street area. But for what ots worth, if you’re with a family or large group you can’t really go wrong with Courtyard Buffet.

Staff was great, very convenient, food bad, drinks just horrible!!! All drinks were waterrd down.

ELEVEN YEARS AGO
About 11 years ago my cousin and his girlfriend got married at Reno. For their wedding reception dinner was at this buffet in Circus Circus. Why did they have a reception here? It was unplanned just like the wedding. It was a typical Stockton, Filipino, shotgun type of wedding; my cousin got his girlfriend pregnant. Lol. I know that’s mean of me to divulge family dirt, but 11 years later they have two kids and are still married. At least that’s better than most marriages today. (Last year for their 10^th wedding anniversary I took them to Red Hawk Casino for gambling and eating.) However what I remembered from this buffet were the different kinds of catfish dishes. One dish was the typical breaded, deep fried dish. The other was a stir fry dish. The last I remembered was a sauté dish. I love catfish as its my favorite fish. Each catfish dish was delicious. The wedding reception dinner at this buffet was one of the few buffets I really enjoyed.
So I came here to eat last week on Saturday for dinner. Eleven years later I was hoping catfish would be available. That was not the case. I didn’t find any catfish. The food available at this buffet is like standard buffets — fried chicken, roast beef, seafood, and etc. I don’t remembered it eleven years ago but the service is self service; you have to get your own beverage. The food while quite tasty was nothing exceptional. However the seafood was a disappointment. For example the fish sticks were oily and dry. The only thing that resembled to catfish was Fish Veracruz that had a texture almost like catfish. The only dish that I found was a pleasant surprise and delight was the strawberry French cruller for dessert.
Eleven years ago I had a memorable dinner here. I don’t see myself eating here anytime soon. However I hope it doesn’t take another 11 years to get great catfish here.

Good price with good foods buffet base on breakfast buffet we had.
Sunday brunch that was nothing fancy just a good breakfast.

We used to love this buffet, the variety was huge and great for the price, I feel like never able to try one each, and free soda. But for the last 2 years every time we visit the quality and selection has gone downhill, price gone up instead, worst is that they took off the best and most expensive items from the menu — shrimp, steak, etc.
Lunch is ridiculous, I ended up eating just omelet.

We had lunch there this Saturday afternoon. It was about $ 13. They had a variety of choices/​areas: breakfast, «carving (ham and roast beef,» mexican, desserts, asian, salads. The drinks and everything else were self-​served. The food was okay.
The front of the desserts area was sticky.
They greeted us with a smile. They were accommodating of our requests to move tables twice just because we wanted to. They didn’t wait for plates to pile up. They only asked if we were doing alright when we were about to finish.
The service was okay but the food could be better to be more reasonably priced.

After waiting 40 minutes to be seated, the food was cold and not very appetizing, but you get what you pay for. The waitress was nice, but incredibly busy and was attending to too many tables to ever visit ours. It took 20 minutes to get a bottle of ketchup.
But the event of the night was the stir fry cook YELLING at me because I put rice in my bowl of noodles to be cooked. There was no sign telling me that wasn’t allowed, and I was yelled at. I told the manager and he did nothing, which is why I came to Unilocal for some sense of justice. Definitely a waste of money and time.

Happened to catch the Sunday brunch at the tail end (around 3 pm), so no lines. I had just checked into Circus and was mega sleep deprived and just wanted to cram as much down my craw as I could hold before crashing for like 14 hours, it filled the bill in that regard.
12 bucks seemed a bit steep but it is a fairly large buffet with fairly good variety. Good sized salad bar and steamed veggie options. Pizza was probably the highlight — surprisingly good. Some good little fried fish pieces too. Serve yourself drinks — sodas, coffee, fruit juices, nothing remarkable but enough to pass. Had taco bar right next to waffle bar — interesting. Bunch of desserts, didn’t try any.
At a discount (or free) I’d be pretty happy with it. Not sure I’ll come back and pay full price again, 12 bucks kinda steep compared to other buffets around. I thought I saw a sign for an 8.95 breakfast buffet here, but when I came back looking for it at 8 the next morning they were closed (just had that little «express» buffet at the Americana for a dollar more — nothx)

I came here with my boyfriend after passing the outrageously long queue at Flavors! at Silver Legacy but we already had our minds set on buffet. After walking a bit further, we saw Courtyard Buffet — reasonable prices and a much smaller queue.
Atmosphere:
I agree with other reviewers — the atmosphere is a tad bit tacky, especially for a casino where everything is supposed to be glamorous. Pretty much reminded me of Hometown Buffet.
Food:
The food quality is pretty much the same selection as Flavors! Buffet, although of a slightly lesser quality. There was a pretty good variety, but what I’m most impressed about is the value of this buffet. You’re paying 15 dollars for your pick and choosing of an array of 3-​star quality food.
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To the people complaining about Courtyard Buffet being only open on the weekends… are you serious? Complaining about a buffet not being open during times YOU want it to open, and being disappointed because you didn’t do your homework beforehand regarding opening times? Tsk tsk.

Wow, this place had to be the worst buffet I’ve ever encountered anywhere!
I paid them a visit a few months ago after learning I had just enough unused One Club dollars to get a free buffet dinner, so I gave it a try. I wouldn’t dare ever spend a dime at this place.
The first thing I noticed was the décor — picture an old-​skool late 70s McDonalds, complete with orange and yellow vinyl booths. Blast from the past for sure.
Everything is self-​service, all the way down to the beverages, which worked, because flagging down a hostess was impossible. I had to wait about 25 minutes to get a bottle of Tabasco sauce, and that was only after I literally had to interrupt the conversation the hostess was having with her friends at the table beside me.
Everything on the food lines (and I do mean EVERYTHING) was either cold, off color, stale, or had a thick layer of film on top from sitting around and not being stirred for too long. Even simple things like packaged donuts and cake were inedible.
Avoid, especially if you’re paying money for it — there are many other options on the casino corridor. The only up side is the free scratch-​off game ticket they give you with each meal. I won $ 10 in free slot play!

It wasn’t our first choice for buffet but since we got caught up with the casino we ended up here at the Courtyard Buffet. It was the only one open for lunch service!
This place is pretty CHEAP! It’s around $ 12/​person… and everything is self served!!!
The place itself is quite small, but they have a pretty good selection of food. I enjoyed their breakfast food (bacon & hash and corn beef) & spaghetti! The spaghetti tasted like the chef boyardi kind, but i do like that… lol
Quality of food isn’t that great (duh)! Like their salmon for example was so overcooked!
Nonetheless, 3 stars for being so cheap and for staying open later for lunch!