The Buffet — Restaurant in Black Hawk

My husband and I decided to have a date night since we had a sitter tonight, and we drove an hour to Monarch looking forward to the buffet and some time at the slots. When we arrived, we were told there was a 2-hour wait just to get a spot at the buffet—unless you were a Sapphire or Blue card member, in which case you were given top priority.

My husband and I waited about an hour and 30 minutes, and during that time, we saw multiple people go up to the host saying they'd already waited two hours and still hadn’t received a text. The employee/manager told them it would be another hour and 20 minutes, and at that point, it was already 9:30 PM.

That was our breaking point. We didn’t have a sitter for long, and we weren’t about to waste our time gambling just to kill time while waiting to eat. To make things worse, we noticed plenty of empty tables that remained unused the entire time we were there.

We finally decided to leave after waiting an hour and 30 minutes. Just as we got to the parking lot, we got the text that our table was ready. We went back in, and this time, didn’t even have to show proof of the text—just had to stand in yet another line. By the time we made it through, paid, and got our food, we had about 15 minutes to eat before they closed the buffet. So paid $120 for just my husband and I to eat in 15 minutes when we were told by the manager originally that the buffet stops letting people in at 11pm, but still serves food for much longer for that people that already in.

Honestly, it was the worst experience we've had. We’ve been to Monarch many times before and have never dealt with anything like this. It felt like if you’re not a high-tier member, you don’t matter. I’ll be telling all of my family and friends—many of whom are Sapphire members—that this new system is a mess. The manager was unhelpful, and whoever came up with this approach is likely going to drive people away.

It shouldn’t be this complicated just to eat and enjoy...

The Worst! DO NOT EAT HERE FOR YOUR HEALTH. We went to eat at the buffet in Monarch and went up for crab legs. We waited in line and upon our turn the server spilt water from the new crab legs they set in the warmer. She began to clean the floor with her gloved hands and tried to serve us directly from cleaning the floor without washing her hands or even changing her gloves. Before she touched the food we told her stop and change her gloves before serving us. She Proceeded to act like she did not understand English so I motioned removing glove from my hands which anyone would have understood she started shaking her head and throwing crab legs on the plate. The entire line was mortified. We kept telling her no that is a safety health hazard and started saying excuse me to the other serving staff. A male server came up again and told us no it's ok it's ok. My husband told him that is disgusting and you say it's ok. The health department needs to take action on this. We were thrown our plates and they refused to give us food that had not been contaminated by floor cleaning. The other customers said no to her serving them as well so the male server became irritated and he started serving. We returned to our table, asked for a manager, received a refund and left. We even stopped using our player cards when gambing because we feared the buffet manager flagged them when we...

Update : came again even though said we wouldn’t and crab was cold yet again and the meat quality was just completely downhill . Prime rib was grey colored as was all their beef items had the green scales color . . Utensils were so hot to grab food you could barely touch them for long . —-previous review—-We frequent this buffet at least once a month but these last two times have just gone down hill . I think this will be the last time , the crab both times was completely cold and honestly some were such a weird color and the flavor was off that we left a whole cluster to be taken away . The last time the lobster turned to mush and again odd color . Overall the quality just is not worth the price tag to me . The Mac and cheese was curling and no one would even touch it tonight. It’s sad because we just got into playing on the black jack tables and really enjoy the casino but taking a break to eat here just isn’t worth it . Not to mention Mondays is a weird curry night ? Idk maybe I didn’t do my research enough to know . Honestly sick to my stomach throwing up when I got home . Terrible experience with a...