Pechanga Buffet

for the price ($ 25), I can’t say it was a terrible lunch experience. however, I had to browse 2−3x before I could decide what to serve myself since nothing looked «that great».
I ended up getting 2 plates full of steamed crab legs which were DELICIOUS and totally worth the visit and money. I got a crème brulee which was fantastic too.
overall, it was a good experience and I would go back again. thanks, Pechanga!

For the price they are charging, they should be the best buffet in town but their food is just okay. Maybe if I get a comp I’ll go back but I think Pala Choices Buffet is still best one in town.

Like other reviewers, Pechanga’s buffet does not compare to other local casino buffets or LV buffets. However, that does not mean it’s a bad dining experience. Of the times I have eaten here, it has never been too crowded and their service is good, despite the limited selection of food.

Lunch buffet with crabs and right off the freeway for convenience? Exactly what we were looking for. We were craving crabs and didn’t want to pay a lot for it.
We arrived around ½ ish and here was no line. It was about $ 20 per person. We got seated and made our way to the crab and prime rib section. They had cold crabs and boiled crabs. Love the option of both! The prime rib was pretty good, they also had a grill too and grilled the bones from the prime rib cut. It was delicious. It was all good… But after awhile it was salt overload. Just pace yourself.
Great selection of a lot of dessert… A lot better Than a lot of buffets in Vegas. We’ll be back whenever we want a hearty lunch then head out to do some wine tasting in Temecula.

First time here. Convinced my family that had already been here once (and didn’t like it) to take me for my birthday. Wish I read these Unilocal reviews before thinking to come.
This buffet is small, noisy, and smells like cigarettes. I was willing to pay $ 33 a person for the nice ambiance I was hoping for. I basically sat down with everyone’s purses and coats, that’s how much I didn’t trust the sketchy people around, young and old. Best come here if you’re going to be in a party of drunkards.
I was also looking forward to a wide variety of desserts and coffee. The coffee tastes like water, and the desserts are few and taste like overly artifically sweetened items. Disappointed in the flan, and not shocked no baklava. Typical American desserts– fruit pies and chocolate stuff.
The food items are also few in selection (not even a wrap around buffet), which is doubly terrible when the items don’t taste good. As another reviewer stated, the items seem to be reheated items because they are soggy and rubbery (don’t come for the pizza or pasta). The crabs were definitely old reheated things because the shells didn’t crack easily, and all the seafood is so salty besides the iced half shell oysters.
I was hoping there’d be a soup bar because I’m on a pureed diet from the dentist. No soup. Not much of a salad bar, either. No crab salad. Don’t come if you’re a vegetarian or vegan because even fewer good tasting veggies. My sister found chicken in a chow mein dish that a cook said had no meat.
Service was awesome, though. Helpful staff.

I have only been to the brunch but both times, it was really good, with a huge selection. Their desserts are my favorite part of the experience. It is pricey though so be aware.

Certainly not the best buffet at a casino in socal (morongo and pala are better) but its not a bad choice. I enjoyed the bruschetta, build your own pasta station, mac & cheese, prime rib, pizza, and wide variety of desserts that they had available. Their dessert selection was probably a little better than their hot food section actually. Anyways, make sure you sign up for a player’s card to get a small discount!

Having tried 3 – 5 casino buffets in San Diego, this is the most disappointing one.
— ambiance makes you feel old.
— food. Typical to poor. Tilipia fillet kind of reminded me of those frozen Tilipia from Walmart. Shumai looks like those microwaveable ones
— The Dessert station looks depressing. It’s dark and your run on the mill desserts.
Sycuan is cheaper and better selection.
If you are in the area, just turn around and line up @ PALA

For the price of this buffet it was not that bad considering it’s not a Las Vegas buffet but it was still ok. The only thing I would stay away from is the sushi and they oysters because they tasted very fishy and you all know that is not a good sign. Everything else was good including the dessert which included wonderful cannolis.

You would think this buffet would wrap around the area a bit more and have more of a selection, but not really… It’s just one whole row of food, plus a few salad bars and a dessert island. This buffet lacks the quality and aesthetics of other casino buffets, but it’s not like we are in Vegas or anything, and plus there isn’t much buffet competition out here in Temecula.
I always start with salad. The salad bar is half/​assed and small. I wish there was pre-​made Caesar salads that a lot of buffets tend to have, but there were no pre made salads at all! Also, a lot of items weren’t labeled correctly. The spoons for the dressings were incorrect. But hey, maybe this place just doesn’t care about their salads and have better options for entrees?
The seafood selection was small, but I know people mainly come here for crab legs and oysters. The crab legs were fresh and meaty. You could probably get your money’s worth by just eating that, but honestly I don’t want to just eat crab. Oysters were below-​average of even the cheap dollar oysters you can get in SD. The workers literally throw the half-​shell oysters in a pile on ice for us to choose from. They weren’t even placed upright. The sight was horrifying… I do not like the fact that the shells were touching the meat! The shells are were the bacteria and food poisoning germs are… I didn’t not eat any more after seeing how the oysters were being served. Maybe it’s okay to do that after a good cleaning? But you never know…
Oh there’s also California rolls and vegetable rolls. Don’t go here if you were really craving sushi and seafood.
Chinese food had a good selection of everything– stir fry, noodles, rice, bbq meats and your typical orange chicken, and also a few dim sum selections!
Prime rib was great, and there were many good sides to go with it, like mashed potatoes with a selection of gravies, waffle fries, potato salad.
Desserts were hard to choose from! They were also poorly labeled, I thought I grabbed a lime dessert/​tart but when I dug into the cup, it was a tiramisu!!! I’m actually not too upset by that because the tiramisu was amazing! I recommend the fancier desserts in plastic cups rather than cakes or pies. The crème brûlée was yummy!
They serve ice cream, and soft serve as well. The quality of the ice cream was pretty cheap. It wasn’t thick and creamy, a little bit icy but that’s ok, the kids wouldn’t have noticed.

So disappointed in the quality of the food. Not worth the money or effort to stand in line. Wouldn’t eat here again even if Pechanga paid me to do so.

Where to start? Let’s preface this by saying that it was an interesting experience. :) Although I’m a huge fan of Vegas Buffets, I walked into the Pechanga Buffet with low expectations because let’s face it; It’s not Vegas. Although I’ve had good experiences at other local casino buffets, so it was worth a try.
First of all the Pros:
1. Drink comes with the meal
2. Crab legs. I pretty much had my fill of crab legs. That part was great.
3. Variety of foods
4.Variety of desserts
Cons:
1. Price. So not worth the price. $ 50 for two people.
2. Food was not fresh. Think, frozen food isle reheated.
3.They do not change out the food enough. Much of the food was displayed in large plates, which means if there isn’t enough patrons the food does not get changed out and just sits there. We avoided the oysters because who knew how long they were sitting there for. It wasn’t worth the risk of getting sick. The meats looked like they were cooked early in the day and kept in a warmer for the rest of the day.
4. Bland food.
5.It was obvious they used artificial flavoring for almost everything in the desserts.
6. Low Quality. For example the garlic bread was rock hard.
7. Ambiance. Very very casual. A lot of the patrons were dressed very casually. Jean shorts and worn tshirts, scraggly.
Overall, the cons severely outweighed any good. It was sad because we were visiting the area on vacation and were really hoping for a nice dinner. We could have paid $ 20 less and had a great meal at some other local place and been just as full and more satisfied. My advice: look for another option.

A huge selection of many different food cultures. Have always found the selection on this Buffett freshly prepared and tasty
Perhaps there are too many selections because if one attempts to sample different dishes it is almost overwhelming a great stop for dinner prior to a show in the casino
A bit pricy so you won’t want to visit to often. It would be nice if the casino had a dinner /​Show package. Might attract more returns for Verizon’s shows and dinner

The only winners at this casino buffet are the crab legs and prime rib. There’s a vast selection of cuisines (Asian, American comfort, Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean) grilled and BBQ items, roasted and rotisserie foods, an expanded salad bar and wide variety of mixed salads and desserts. However the food and presentation was average. And with $ 30 dinner for the weekend, I wouldn’t come back.
Just a taste of what they offered: raw oysters, crab legs, prime rib, pizza, sushi, crème brûlée, rib roast, fried chicken. This buffet lacked the quality and presentation that I’m used to from top casino buffets. It’s difficult preparing food in large amount. It would have been nice if the crab legs were sliced in half for convenience. I do have to say the crab legs were sweet and not salty, which may be the saving grace. On paper this buffet looks good, but I wasn’t too impressed.
Lunch: Monday — Friday:
11am-​3pm
No card $ 19.99, Silver $ 16.99, Gold $ 13.99, Platinum $ 10.99, Red $ 7.99
Brunch: Saturday — Sunday:
9am-3:30pm
No card $ 22.99, Silver $ 19.99, Gold $ 16.99, Platinum $ 13.99, Red $ 10.99
Dinner: Sunday — Thursday:
4pm-​10pm
No card $ 24.99, Silver $ 21.99, Gold $ 18.99, Platinum $ 15.99, Red $ 12.99
Dinner: Friday — Saturday:
4pm-​11pm
No card $ 29.99, Silver $ 26.99, Gold $ 23.99, Platinum $ 20.99, Red $ 17.99
It’s a decent place to grab food with friends and to gamble in the casino. I’d rather spend money at the Vegas buffets.

Our friend treated with points soooo great deal! Trick for the crab legs ask for the hot ones — they are much fresher and come tasted sweeter and more moist (duh) than the cold ones!

Note: Food will be compared to two of my many favorite TV shows:
(The last time I ate at Pechanga Buffet was definitely «Pre-​Yelp.»)
We were here for my sister in laws birthday and there were seven of us in our party. $ 25 is what each of us paid. We had a great and lovely server named Gloria. We also ordered a bottle of champagne and orange juice for some mimosas; Tasted great but no buzz… boo!
Well, onto the food — the two main foods I focused on:
The prime rib is the star of this show — it is equivalent to The Walking Dead. Ask for medium rare and do splash it with some au jus and put a half tablespoon of horseradish on the side. Rick Grimes would approve.
The runner up is the boiled crab legs — I compare them crab legs to Game of Thrones. Why? Just like how you need to focus on the many characters and their stories, you gotta focus on getting the damn meat off the claws and the legs of them crabs.
Buffet is buffet, you fill some of your plate then you make sure you have enough room for dessert. With my experience this weekend, I tried a little bit of everything (like how I view a bit of everything on Netflix) but I still went for seconds on the prime rib and the crab legs.

I tried their waffles and fried chicken. Waffle was crispy, standard at any buffet. Fried chicken was so so… the breading was good, but the meat was kinda dry.
Tried a slice of pizza, crostini with bruschetta. Pepperoni was a tad salty, tomatoes used for the bruschetta needed to ripen a little bit more.
All of the hot food I tried was lukewarm at best, not hot so to me this indicated they aren’t being kept at the correct holding temperature or it has been sitting out for awhile. (They has only been open an hour when we got there so I am leaning towards the former)
For dessert, I had four of my all time favorites — flan, crème brûlée, bread pudding and bananas foster. The only miss was the flan — Only because of my own preference. I do not like flan when egg whites are mixed into it. It deters from the richness of the flan. The bread pudding was great, I drizzled caramel sauce over it since they didn’t have the usual whiskey sauce. The crème brûlée had the right amount of crackle on top and the bananas foster delish.
I would eat here again. I would ‘t drive an hour to seek it out, but if I happen to be at the casino, I wouldn’t mind.

I’ve probably been here more than I want to come but that’s okay…
I have family and friends who get comp buffet so we always end up here at least once a day whenever we stay at Pechanga. There is usually a long line when we go but it goes pretty fast. I think a normal rate is $ 30 per person. They change their breakfast items to dinner items change around 1pm. Below is a list of pros and cons of Pechanga’s buffet:
Pros: Their quality is surprisingly good. Their crab legs and prime ribs are excellent. Especially the prime rib. It’s very good. All their meats are good quality and cooked perfectly. I’ve never had any issues with dry meat here. They have a pretty large selection of foods including Asians, Mexicans, American, and Seafoods. They have two salad bars and one huge dessert area. I enjoy their seafood items especially when they have raw oysters. Sometimes they switch it out with cooked mussels. They have cold crab legs as well as hot ones with hot butter. I like their breakfast items because they have breakfast but also regular lunch/​dinner items. My favorite things there are the mac n cheese, eggs benedict, their swash salad, and meats. For dessert, I like to go with their chocolate cake, but they have stuff like ice cream, all sorts of pies, pastries, cakes, cookies, crème burlee, and flan. Drinks are included in the pricing and they have a large variety of choices. I normally go for orange juice, coffee, and a hot tea to go when I leave. The service has always been excellent and they always clean up after you. They are quick with requests. I recommend requesting for steak knifes since the ones they have already for you are not as sharp.
Cons: Since I’ve been here so much I know that their buffet items do not change much from day to day. Especially since we eat here at least once a day, we quickly get sick of the food (although they have a good amount of selections). There are few items I do not care for. Their soups are usually never anything impressive and not worth getting. Their Asian foods are also not good. I’m surprised because the Asian foods from the other restaurants in Pechanga are quite good but the buffet is not. Their noodles are dry and their dim sum is mediocre. Our waitresses have always been good but there was an Asian girl behind the pizza counter who was extremely rude and gave my cousin attitude. The rest of the staff has been very friendly.
For about $ 30 a person, I think it’s well worth it. They have booth and table seating available. The inside isn’t as huge as a Vegas buffet but it’s not bad. Overall, we will probably keep coming back here since we get comp and because there is always something for someone.

I am a huge fan of buffets… but who isn’t! So many choices, so much food and I love food! This buffet is located inside the casino near the gift shop. I have tried this place twice and feel both times I haven’t gotten. My money worth.
FOOD: So much food! I do love that they tried to get everything. There was Mexican, Seafood, chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy, salad, American, pizza. Just so many options that you won’t have enough room to try it all. Their bread they have is rock hard, inedible. The quality of the food to me was terrible. I filled my plates and sadly that’s how they stayed when I left. The only thing I liked was the potato wedges. Their mac n cheese was so dry. The pizza had like no sauce. The shrimp was just awful. They need to focus more on quality over quantity! People pay big bucks and it’s not worth it. The dessert bar is what is holding them together! So many sweets and actually tasted decent. Cookies were good and their little parfait cups. Cheesecake was okay but still enjoyed it. So I filled up on sweets!
PRICE: Too expensive for poor quality. $ 25.99 is pretty basic for a buffet and I go in expecting to spend that much. It’s just not worth it to me here. I haven’t tried their brunch which I hear is good so maybe I’ll try that next. If you use your rewards card you get $ 3 off.

Solid 3-​star buffet. The weekday lunch buffet is $ 18.99 per person but $ 3 off with their players card. Not bad for $ 16. Even better for us because my mom had comps so we ate for free.
They have a pretty large selection for lunch. I mostly ate cocktail shrimp and hot crab legs. The crabs were meaty and the perfect temp. There’s no prime rib during lunch. I tried a small slice of the roast beef and it was probably one of the toughest pieces of meat that I’ve ever encountered in life. Beware. I liked the pork & shrimp shumai in the Chinese section. They have a large dessert area. The crème brûlée and the tiramisu are good. The red velvet cupcake did not have much flavor to it.
Naturally, you would compare this buffet to Pala’s buffet and Pala is much better. However, if you’re here and want to get the most bang for your buck in terms of dining, the buffet is your best bet!