Pampas Las Vegas — Restaurant in Paradise

CAUTION: MULTIPLE PRICE WARNINGS & MORE BELOW. Six of us ate lunch in mid-July 2024. We were "seated" by one of those childish rolling "robots" (see pic) that took us to our table.

Upon seating, the waiter SNUCK two large bottles of water onto our table (one still water and one sparking water) and thankfully I caught it and told him to get those off our table since I would not be paying for them. I asked for tap water in glasses and thankfully he obliged. THE PRICES FOR THE BOTTLED WATER are OUTRAGEOUS.

All six of us got the all-you-can-eat meat buffet where they bring the meat to you, ask if you want some, and then cut it for you, while you grab the meat with your tongs. Most of the meat was great. Some beef was very rare. The chicken was boring. The sausage was outstanding. The "meat waiters" did an incredible job and were fast on their toes.

We were never offered any other menu items, other than the beverage menu. The buffet includes food from the all-you-can-eat salad bar in the back of the restaurant. This buffet area was underwhelming and unattractive to say the least. We all agreed the salads were average at best. There just wasn't anything special about the food, and they certainly had nothing to do with Brazilian culture, except for the black beans & plantains.

Thank GOD we did not order soft drinks because they are $7 each with refills included!!!! If we each would have nonchalantly asked for a Coke, that would be $42 plus tax and tip, JUST FOR 6 COKES!!!!! My entire life I have not seen soft drink prices like these. It is my opinion that the restaurant is aware that most customers have no idea what they are getting themselves into when they ask for a soft drink, and so they are raking in the money!

I have to mention the "robot" again. He/She/It was so incredibly annoying because as it rolled past us to show other customers to their tables it was playing music. Was it playing Brazilian heritage music? No. Brazilian hits? No. Instead it was playing The Weeknd. And it only played ONE Weeknd song... on REPEAT. All we heard for our entire visit was the ONE song over and over and over.

As mentioned we asked for tap water to drink and I appreciate them bringing water to us. My glass sat empty for well over 20 minutes while neither the human waiter, nor the robot stopped by to ask me if I wanted more water. FINALLY, I lost my patience and flagged down the waiter and asked for more water. Did he bring one water to me? No. He brought SIX GLASSES. He put them all down on our table, filling any remaining space, and he did not take my empty glass, or any of the other glasses away. So the six of us now had 12 glasses on our table!

It gets worse... While visiting the Boring Buffet of Salad, I was standing there witnessing the manager conversing with an employee. They were having a work-related "drama" conversation, for all to see and hear. They were not behind the counter, or behind a door. They were out in the open, in customer space, having a workplace drama conversation. As I am staring at them both, watching the show, she turns and asks me if I need help and I reply "No, I am just listening." My goal being that my comment would make it obvious that I could hear all of what they should NOT be talking about in front of customers.

All of this in a restaurant that has a regular mid-week lunchtime meat buffet price of well over $65 plus tax and 18% mandatory tip, along with $7 each sodas. With all that revenue you'd think they could update the decor and maintain the place a little better? See pics.

TL,DR; There are coupons that will get you in here for $34 each, if that's how you'd like to spend your money. The meat is good. The salads leave a lot to be desired. Avoid the EXPENSIVE drinks, and try not to pay attention to the outdated and dirty decor, or workplace conversations. Oh, and ask the stupid robot to mix it up a...

I have never been so disappointed in my life. We had reservations for 645pm. We arrived early, stood in like and talked to the lady. She took my name and then asked us to follow her to seating where they took us outside to sit inside the mall. I asked if there was a different table as there were quite a bit of people walking by as it was near the enterance of the mall and we wanted to have it a little more privacy. She then told me that there isn’t enough room inside due to large parties inside she then said it would be 25 minute wait for a table inside. I question even if you had a reservation? And she said yes. So we sat outside with our party. Multiple people came and left due to the wait and some people got seating. 25 minutes passed and I asked if the table would be soon as they asked for my name again and asked if I had a reservation. I said yes that we were waiting for a table inside. She then brought us outside to sit again in the hallway AGAIN. I then talked to her again thst we’ve been waiting for 25 mins as the lady said it would inky be 25 mins for an inside table. She then looked confused and asked who I talked to. I said km not sure as no one had name tags that I could see. She then said it’ll be a few more minutes just to wait as they’re cleaning tables. So we waited…. The same lady came up to me and asked my name and if I had a reservation. I said yes that a lady said she was cleaning a table for us. She then asked if we had a coupon which we did as it was from a company as a gift. She took the coupon and explained it. And we continued to wait. THE SAME LADY CAME BACK AND ASKED FOR MY NAME AND IF I HAD A RESERVATION!!! at this time it’s been 45 mins of waiting with a reservation! I said yes thst she’s asked me multiple times. Then asked if I had a coupon and I said yes. She asked for it as I said I do not have it as the lady took it. She asked who took it and I had to explain who as there were no name tags. The one lady comes to talk to us thst she apologized thst she will go and see the rooms and clean a table for me will be five minutes. Then the manager comes out to stand around as we’re seeing multiple people go in before us with the same amount party. He goes through the same my name, so we have a reservation etc. I said yes thst a lady came to talk to us that she is getting a table Ready for us. He said thst she was taken off from the front desk work. I asked then about the table. He tells me that the people ahead were waiting for an hour and 25 minutes. I then mentioned that we had a reservation 50 minutes ago. He said you usually wait that long for a reservation !!!! Thst is ridiculous ! Then why take reservations if you can’t house them inside. So we waited at this point out blood sugar is low and hungry. They finally take us in 55 minutes later! I have NEVER been to a restaurant with a wait that long for even regular seating! When we sat our waiter was ok. He checked in on us from time to time which was fine. But our server Rico where he brought the meats out was AMAZING! He made it so comfortable and us feel better. The food was good wasn’t bad. Would I come back to thst location. Not at all! I wouldn’t go back even with a free meal the front desk does not communicate to each other ! The wait time was way too long even with a reservation as we had a time crunch after the meal. Rico was amazing but would invite him out before I would go back and deal with that again. One with a reservation should not have to wait that long, be asked 4-5 times my name and if I had a reservation and be surprised every time I say yes, should not have been brought outside twice when I asked earlier for an inside table and asked about coupon twice and if i had it with me…. 0/5 for thst experience with talking to the front but Rico...

My first visit to Pampas about 12 years ago, was very unimpressive. I was in town on business and had just spent three grueling days at CES. A buddy from another company and I wanted to celebrate the end of the event and we both liked Brazilian Grill and another friend had tried Pampas and told us he liked it. I later found out that the friend who made the recommendation considers the best pizza to come from Pizza Hut. Had I known this at the time, I would have skipped that first visit and not spent the next decade cutting a wide berth around Pampas, especially after moving down here. Last year, Pampas hosted a Yelp Elite event and I accepted an invitation to attend. I figured that if it was as bad as it was the first time around, it wouldn't cost me anything and I'd still get to hang out with my friends from Yelp.

The happy surprise from attending that event is that the quality has risen dramatically since my first visit in 2011 and my wife and I really enjoyed our meal. We enjoyed it so much that we've been back several times since and will continue to visit regularly. The quality and preparation of the meat has come up dramatically and since we've been there multiple times since that Yelp event, it seems to be consistently good. Also, if you get on their email list, they will mail you extremely useful coupons at least once a month. The only things keeping this from being a 5 Star review are the fact that we made reservations for our last visit and were on a schedule but they still made us stand around and wait for about 25 minutes for no apparent reason. We were a party of four because some of our kids were with us so not a huge group and we got there soon after they opened and the restaurant was pretty empty but they still left us standing there, which made us late for our next scheduled event. I went to the counter to inquire as to why we were having to wait and the hostess definitely shined me on, which was frustrating. I also will point out that their salad bar/self-serve side dish offerings are extremely limited in comparison to every other Brazilian restaurant we have ever dined with. Despite these issues, I'll give this four stars for two reasons; the quality of the meat and the coupons that bring the price down to be on par with Tucano's in UT, which isn't necessarily our favorite Brazilian spot but is consistently good and has the most reasonable prices of any Brazilian spot...