This Strip buffet, bucking trend, not closing for food hall

Despite some breathless social media rumoring to the contrary, the Buffet at Bellagio is not closing to become a food hall, MGM Resorts International said Monday in a statement.

In fact, as of May, dinner service has been added from 1 to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, with a refreshed seafood market station featuring chilled and hot items, including tuna poke, ceviche, jumbo lump crab salad, assorted sushi, clam steamers, crab legs and miso sea bass.

The buffet continues to serve brunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

Lavish casino buffets, once a Vegas staple, have become less common in recent years, either replaced by food halls, as at Aria and the Rio, or passed over in favor of food halls at new properties, as at Durango casino and the Fontainebleau.

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.