Eating in Las Vegas is always an adventure since there are SOOOOO many options within walking distance at any time.

On my trip last week, my finest meal, and perhaps the best meal I’ve ever eaten was at Emeril’s restaurant in The Venetian: Delmonico Steakhouse. The food, service, and ambiance were top notch. I’d highly recommend this to anyone for when someone else is paying.

You can’t eat like that every night, right? So the next night, I mixed it up by hitting the Paradise Garden Buffet at the Flamingo. Here’s how that went down.

The buffet costs $21.54. It’s extra for alcoholic drinks and you order them at the entrance. When asked if I’d like to order any drinks, I said, “sure, a beer” but the lady working the register, who couldn’t have been a day past 90, didn’t hear me, so I went beer-less.

Once in, the first buffet line I encountered was for seafood. Rock on. I love bulk seafood. Strangely, I couldn’t find the lobster bisque I had the night before at Delmonico’s, but I still managed to put together this platter for myself:

Seafood Buffet

That turned into this:

Seafood Buffet Aftermath

After the seafood, I was ready to head back for more. You have to get your money’s worth, right? Then I remembered a tactic Dusty Olson taught me at Grand Casino, Hinckley: Break up the main courses with desserts so you don’t bonk. Keep your blood sugar high or you’ll stall out.

With that in mind, I attacked the desert bar and found these goodies:

Buffet Deserts

The cheesecake sucked. Actually, everything but the cookie sucked. And I had to take the chocolate off the top of two items since I’m off caffeine this month. The cookies was oatmeal raisin.

Once my failed dessert effort was over, it was time for another round. Here’s what I found:

Prime Rib

How was it? Consider how far the bar was lowered by the dessert course, not bad at all. The most surprising thing was the intensity of the horseradish. That stuff packed a punch and made a grown man cry.

Sadly, there are no more chapters to this story. Had I had a Segway, I would have been able to take down an additional course or two and still make it back to my room but it wasn’t meant to be.

Would I recommend the Paradise Garden Buffet? Let’s put it this way: I didn’t get sick. Also, I hear that you can see flamingos in the . . . Paradise Garden during the day. That could be a draw for flamingo lovers who’re willing to put pink bird above their taste buds.