It may not be Las Vegas’s best buffet, but with its wind-swept sphinx statue, tiled sarcophagus centerpiece, and Indiana Jones-esque seating, the Buffet at Luxor is certainly one of Las Vegas’s most fun — and it is closing on March 30. For more than 30 years, the Luxor’s buffet has been one of the Las Vegas Strip’s reliable all-you-can-eat offerings — proffering containers of heat lamp-shrouded bacon, scrambled eggs, and boiled beans during the midday brunch hours. Later this month, the Luxor’s basement dining room will become the latest buffet to exit Las Vegas, leaving only seven Strip casino buffets to carry on one of the city’s oldest traditions.

The closure follows a years-long trend in which Vegas casinos are gutting or outright skipping buffets in favor of implementing food halls with higher margins — rather than maintaining loss leader buffets.

The Luxor’s buffet is only open five days a week from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and entry starts at $31.99 for adults — $26.99 for adults with local Nevada ID. Ostensibly, many others ate there for free with a casino comp. The food is more akin to the continental breakfast at a Holiday Inn than to that of the luxury buffets of Bacchanal Buffet or Buffet at Wynn. While the buffet’s freezer-burnt potatoes and dry waffles may not be chief among its appeal, the decor certainly is. The line into the buffet is bordered by fanciful stone palm trees and the head of a sphynx that emerges from beneath desert sand. Booths are flanked by rough-hewn brick and roped sections of stone. Gleaming likenesses of Anubis lurk over the shoulders of diners, and the walls are elaborately designed with hieroglyphics and vistas of ancient Egypt. It’s a throwback to the ’90s era of Las Vegas when themes reigned supreme.

Janna Karel

With the closure of the Buffet at Luxor, the only remaining Las Vegas Strip buffets will be Bacchanal at Caesars Palace, with Buffet at Wynn, Wicked Spoon at Cosmopolitan, and those at the Bellagio, MGM Grand, Circus Circus, and the Excalibur. Other off-Strip casino buffets include AYCE at the Palms, and those at the Rampart Casino, Main Street Station, and the South Point Casino.

Leading up to 2020, the Las Vegas Valley had over 70 casino buffets. Now, one of the city’s perennial novelties appears to be fading into the sands of time — much like the eroded sphynx in the bowels of the Luxor’s basement buffet.