The Sands Buffet

Talk about poor quality food, that is served at lukewarm temperature. Very limited choices the only redeeming thing is the low price. Still not worth it.

If I could give 0 stars I would. This is not a buffet. Its a few dinner items that looked and tasted like crap. Plus they charged me an extra $ 12 for a gratitude fee because we had 8 people 2 of those people were under 1 years old! Never would I eat here again. Beyond disappointed. Do not waist your money!!!

I was quite surprised by this place. The outside of the hotel looked a bit run down, but when we went inside the buffet restaurant was decent. The spacious place looked a bit like we were outdoors at a garden.
The prime rib was not over cooked. Very tender and juicy. There was a bunch of sauces to go with it. The horseradish cream was very tasty along with the au jus. The mashed potatoes and many of the other choices (potatoes au gratin, stroganoff, and ham) tasted pretty decent as well. There is a salad bar, but I passed as I don’t want to fill up on salad. The dessert was ok. Our waiter was great. He knew the cheesecake would disappear fast so he brought us a few for our table. He also tended to us quite a bit, which was surprising for a buffet place.
For $ 13.99 (Easter dinner), our friends family and we enjoyed this place. We enjoyed it much better than the Famous Lobster buffet we went to the night before.
There is not much variety, but if you are just looking for prime rib, this is not bad.

Not much of a buffet, but cheap, you get what you pay for. There is very little selection in the buffet and you get one peice of steak only, not what I considered a buffet. Also the meat was not cooked as ordered.

We got the buffet for Free! Free buy playing slots! Expected bad food like the buffet at Eldorado. …this place is great!!! Food was upscale, presented well, stocked, and delicious! I like the quiet atmosphere that I incountered here… can’t say enough except we are going again tonight… best food I had in Reno!

Great little buffet with pretty good prime rib and a small selection of other foods, it’s very hit and miss but, for the price, it’s all good! Do not and I repeat Do not go for the T-​Bone unless that’s your thing because its a long wait and it sucks

Prime rib was amazing. Great flavor and very tender. You could literally cut it with a butter knife.
The rest of the buffet food was good but not much variety.
Salad bar was basic, but sloppy with items laying in other bowls.
Dessert bar awful. Limited deserts like pecan pie, sugar free cheese cake. Weird tasting swirl ice cream with no toppings.

Feces and pubic hairs on our toilet. Rude staff, $ 160 for one night and one bed. Ghetto ghetto ghetto

Hmmmmm I dont know why there are such low remarks, I mean you get what you pay for, and it was FREE (due to slot play credits) and I LOVED IT!
Stayed and checked in at the Hotel on August 31 and one of the gaming hosts reminded me that should I earn so many points by playing I would get a free buffet. Luckily I actually came out ahead by $ 20 so BONUS FOR ME!
It was prime rib night and as my last meal before burningman, it was great! Warm, inviting, horseradish over everything. It’s not ruth’s chris or some fancy schmancy place, but it was exactly what I needed and wanted. I’d come back.

well after they removed my last comment lol i’ll do it with no cursing this time. i’d rather eat wal-​mart fried chicken off the f***ing floor then eat at the sands buffet! i got one word for people and that is poop!

They had T-​bone steak and shrimp scampi that night. I loved the shrimp scampi, but the steak was terrible. And it’s not that cheap.

Golden oldie is medium old casino with open sports bar, all the latest new penny slot machines, wedding chapel, tiny café, small restaurant for lunch and dinner dining, card tables and Bingo. Rooms are reasonable and hotel is located in walking location to downtown Reno. Bingo room has computers and complimentary coffee/​soda. They play 10:30, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00 and 9:30 pm. You choose payout package: $ 50-​$ 250 per game with extra large payout games and hot balls. Thank you! I won a little. ;) No Bingo at the Nugget Weds and Thurs, so we found some fun here!

Worse buffet I’ve ever had. I had their special prime rib. Nasty! Full of parts I couldn’t breakdown with chewing. I had to spit it out more then 5 times into napkins. Thank god I was alone. It’s a shame because I’ve had some great meals here in Reno. I ate here because I stayed here and wanted to try it. Do yourself a favor and go anywhere else but here.
On the good side the chef that was serving it apologized and said its not normal. Let’s hope so. Nice guy.

5 Stars for the shrimp scampi. Yum! You do not have to get the steak, the shrimp scampi is an option and the shrimps were succulent, the sauce was real, not packaged. I loved it. The baked potatoes were very good too.
Yes, the clam chowder had an odd artificial bacon taste to it and the crab salad was browning, just don’t get these. The clams were iffy. But I was happy. The ice cream was good too. The desserts were only like several options several looking like a pile of frosting, very odd, never seen anything like that. But the price was good.

If there was anything less than a one star, I would have given it. I wasn’t expecting much out of the place, but I had hopes that some of their offerings would be decent. Boy was I wrong. Some was an overstatement, as only 3 things were ok. Those three things being the bread pudding, the ice cream and the salad bar.
Now let’s get to what was wrong.
Tonight was the T-​bone steak night, which for the price seemed too good to pass up. We figured that so long as the steak came out well, we would have certainly gotten our value out of the meal. Well, it did come out well. Sadly, we ordered it rare and med. rare, which I recognize as being somewhat difficult to make, if you are 17 years old. I would expect people who work at a restaurant to be able to handle such requests, considering that it was their special for the night.
I do not generally speak out about such an issue. I have been in the food industry and recognize that mistakes happen. The steak was still edible, so I figured that I would make due and all would be fine. That was until I tried the rest of their offerings…
The green salad, as I stated before was reasonable. They had a small selection of toppings which all appeared fresh. They even had peppercorns, which I enjoy. The issue came from their various noodle salads and a crab salad. They tasted chemically and were very watery. I had one bite of each and decided that it wasn’t for me. There was also marinated mushrooms, which as a mushroom hunter I enjoy, so I grabbed a couple. They also had a very vinegary, chemical taste. I also grabbed a corn chowder, with cornbread. The cornbread was overly dry and the chowder was thick and tasteless. As if they only added milk and flour, without any spices or additions.
So this far I have had a tasty green salad and the overly cooked steak, and was going back for more warm entrees. They had clams, fish fillets, popcorn shrimp, BBQ wings, fried rice and maybe two additional items. The buffet was tiny, but I didn’t have an issue, so long as it was good food.
I grabbed the popcorn shrimp and BBQ chicken, along with some of the fried rice. The popcorn shrimp were salad shrimp, and were mostly breading. When we asked for lemon, we were told that there was some at the buffet. We never found lemon, or tartar sauce, not that it would have helped. The BBQ chicken reminded me of something from a grade school cafeteria. It likely came in a 5 gallon tub that cost upwards of $ 2.50 at the local bulk store. Maybe I am being overly critical, but it was more like a watered down ketchup than BBQ sauce. That leaves the fried rice, which didn’t actually seem to be fried. It was reminiscent of poorly cooked rice-​o-​roni, though I don’t believe for a second that anyone from San Fran. would consider this a treat. It was oily and watery, but packed a burnt flavor, though I couldn’t find anything that appeared burnt in the food. It tasted nothing like the ingredients in the dish that I recognized… I had a small bite and called it quits.
So this far, we are still only satisfied with the salad… My friend who accompanied me was equally dissatisfied with the fare. Even then, we were optimistic about the ice cream and deserts. I went straight for the bread pudding, because I know it is difficult to mess up. I wasn’t disappointed, as it was actually quite good along with some ice cream. My friend grabbed a cup with what tasted like pure frosting and a peanut butter cracker. You know, the type you but your kids for their school lunches that are actually in the shape of a peanut. She said that the frosting tasted like something from a dollar store. I couldn’t even stomach trying it.
When I realized just how terrible everything was, I told my friend to wait for me while I spoke with the manager. I rarely take it to this extreme, but honestly, this was not worth any money whatsoever. I felt like I was being experimented on, as to determine the lowest quality of food before a person would complain.
Once I found Joe meandering around the floor, as asked if there was somewhere we could go to talk. He motioned to a little space right in the middle of the dinning area. I elaborated much of what I have stated above and Joe explained that the food quality and value was not so bad, as he had tried it prior to it being served. I explained to him that the older couple sitting next to us actually asked to speak with him during their meal, also complaining about the steak. All and all, Joe tried to talk me out of complaining too much, but when I persisted and gave direct examples of the poor food quality, he finally stated that he would refund me. Once we got to the counter, Joe proceeded to tell his gracious cashier that he would only be charging us for one meal, which though completely outrageous, I recognized Joe as being the worst food service manager ever.
I am now feeling sick. Hence the rating…

Hotel is always staffed with friendly employees with great customer service skills. Our rooms are always nice and clean and they always bring us extra blankets and towels when asked. Our heater was not working on our last visit and they fixed it immediately after I called the office to let them know. Highly impressed with the service of their guests. It’s old, but its clean.
Thank you to all your staff~

We were looking forward to the pub crawl tonight. On the way up, BAM, head gasket blew in the car. I called just to inform the hotel we weren’t going to make it. To my surprise a full refund was offered. It was so unexpected and made our bad day not so bad. Thank you! See you soon.

Do not go on Monday night (asian night). it’s more like chinese prison food. awful.
go on Saturday night (steak night). Not great, but not bad either.

I paid $ 10.99 plus tax for this buffet on a Wednesday night, and the food was just not worth it. Had I got it for $ 8 or less, it would have been worth it.
Nothing particularly bad, it just all tastes like it was out of a can or package. Not much fresh. Cool-​whip instead of whipped cream. Pre-​packaged cookies instead of fresh baked cookies. Spaghetti sauce and Alfredo sauce that tasted (take a guess now) like it was out of a can.
They got two stars instead of one because of very friendly and attentive host and servers. However, I wouldn’t go again.

Ook.
So the Sands buffet is $ 10 absolute maximum, it goes down by $ 1 in price with every tier of players card that you have, and apparently (if you don’t book with Hotwire) they give you one or two free with a hotel stay as well. Given that general level of cheapness I came in not expecting much but still managed to be disappointed.
I went on a «prime rib night.» Even if the place isn’t half full and there’s only two people waiting it still takes forever to get seated because everyone does complicated juju with Comps and Coupons and various combinations of such (you pay before being seated.)
Didn’t expect much from the «prime rib» but it was worse than expected. Tiny, fatty slices. What meat there is tastes more like stewed beef. The «please kill me» look on the face of the apathetic guy serving said it all.
Outside of that there’s not a whole lot put out, it’s a pretty small buffet. A lot of the food just flat sucked. The mashed potatoes and gravy tasted wrong/​bad for some reason, the penne pasta tasted a little off too. Dinner rolls/​butter aren’t even so much as warmed. Dessert looks promising with a lot of Italian-​ish pastries, but then you get them back to your table and find out they’re mostly filled with vanilla pudding. I ended up filling up on baked tilapia, veggies and those roast potatoes with the cheese, which were the only legitimately good things.
Actually I didn’t even get full because the crowd and the small size of the buffet area made getting food such a chore. 50 low-​mobility old people, moms dragging 3 kids around who have to shove their faces up into everything, and the brokeass Billy Badass problem gambler dudes who just try to run right through everybody jamming the whole works up. I gave up after like 1.5 trips.
Leaving a buffet un-​full is Buffet Fail. Only gets 2 stars since I didn’t get sick and it didn’t set me back much. Probably not coming back unless it’s free.