Serrano Buffet — Restaurant in San Bernardino

Serrano Buffet’s All-You-Can-Eat Lobster Buffet - is it all it’s hyped up to be?

LOCATION Serrano Buffet is located inside Yaamava Casino in Highland, CA. I was invited to dinner for their Lobster Buffet (offered on Wednesday and Thursday evenings). Although I can’t eat lobster, there were plenty of choices to choose from.

RESERVATIONS It was recommended to have reservations; however, you can wait in line and hope to have openings.

LOBSTER BUFFET HOURS & PRICE The All-You-Can-Eat Lobster Buffet is from 4:00pm - 10:00pm and the price was $64.95 per person (April 2025).

CHECK-IN & PAYMENT Upon check-in and with reservations, our party of 6 still waited in line. The young man at the front handling the payment was not friendly at all - I could tell he didn’t want to be there. No smile at all, no greeting, just - blah.

SEATING Once you’ve paid, a host will take you to a seating of their choice (you can’t choose where you want to sit). They have plenty of seats; however, we still waited about 5-10 minutes for our table to be set.

FOOD & DRINKS Once we got our table, our server Jenny introduced herself to us. She was wonderful! She immediately took down everyone’s drink orders and then we were free to wander around the buffet area to make our food selections. Of course, there was a very long line for lobster. What I found out later was they actually had 3 areas serving lobster: left, middle, and right sides of the buffet. One thing to note is that the salad and desserts are all the way to the left side, near the entrance. It’s a weird placement being so close to people waiting in line. Also, the prime rib I got was too rare and had the staff heat my slice more thoroughly. There were several people in line waiting to have their slices seared a bit more as well, so that took a long time. Only if they had cooked it properly the first time it would be great. The lamb was not good - being a leaner meat, my slice had a lot of gristle.

Much of the food I selected and ate were subpar. It was very disappointing. I think the best thing I ate was a slice of pepperoni pizza because it was still nice and hot. The next good thing I had was the ice cream. Those were the only memorable items I enjoyed.

AMBIANCE We sat in the navy blue booths that looked much nicer than the other sections. The lighting was much brighter here and I liked the area we sat in. There were other sections (near the restrooms, for example) that had yellowish lighting. Similarly, the far right side of the buffet had that awful tinge of yellowish lighting. The center area is much more pleasant, although very loud and with many people walking by. Outside of the center area looks very outdated. Yellowish lighting, yellowish wood, etc. The noise level is also loud but still able to hear the person across from your table.

STAFF Again, Jenny (she had a birthmark on her face) was very attentive and friendly. She made sure our drinks were filled and we made sure to tip her well. I can’t say the interaction between the other staff members were great, as they didn’t seem happy (cashier and “seating host”).

Overall, I was surprised that a beautiful casino with big entertainers has such disappointing food. Maybe it was an off night? Or is it like this each time? Not sure I’ll be back and I wouldn’t recommend it to my friends and family. I was thankful for the invitation and the experience to try this out for the first and possibly last time. “We should have ate at The Pines,” is all I could think of. Sorry, Serrano Buffet. But thank you, Serrano, for having people like Jenny to make the experience...

BETWEEN THE REVIEWS w/ Rodney S

Q) During your travels to the various Indian casinos, have you ever dined at the buffets, Rodney?

A) Yes, Rodney, I have. I used a BOGO buffet coupon for the Serrano Buffet at San Manuel. The lunch buffet price is $14.99. Classic Club Serrano members receive $3 off, with upper tiers getting even more savings. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to combine the BOGO coupon with the $3 off.

Q) What kind of food offerings does the Serrano Buffet have? A) The buffet has 5 designated areas - Asian, American, Italian, Salad bar & Dessert

Asian - various noodle dishes, orange chicken, two types of sushi rolls & rice dishes compose most of the Asian area. A Mongolian BBQ has a cook quickly grill up your choice of meat and all the fixings that come with it.

American - the main attraction at the American section were the carved meat. Pork ribs, turkey, sausage and my favorite, brisket, were sliced in front of diners.

I made sure to cover my vegetable quotient by having servings of sautéed squash & grape tomatoes. Included in the American area were various Latin-American dishes, like pastor.

Italian - Besides a pasta station, favorite Italian dishes represented were pizza, calzone & lasagna

I restrained myself to only having a few pieces of focaccia bread & calzone, and I felt proud because I could've gone crazy on those two items alone. The calzone was stuffed with pepperoni and both were cheesy delights.

Salad Bar - I only went here to stock up on mussels & clams. Using my trusty fork to pry out the delicious meat, I blitzkrieged the shellfish, getting my money's worth of these pleasures of the sea by themselves

Dessert Bar - Everyone can find something for them at the Serrano Buffet Dessert Bar.

The first thing my eyes spied? Chocolate fondue fountains! Have your pick of marshmallows, brownie bites, green apple slices or Oreo cookies. The flowing chocolate quickly hardened by the time I got to my table. Each piece delightfully delicious. Housemade ice cream on hand for those looking for some frozen delights. With so many to choose, I went with salted caramel. The salted caramel was creamy, full of caramel flavor. I could only have 1 serving, as I was nearing capacity in my stomach.

Baked goods available were tapas-sized cakes, like carrot cake, tarts, pudding, brownies, cannoli etc.

I had a taste of the things that interested me, and everything definitely satisfied the sweet tooth.

Q) Were drinks included, Rodney? A) Yes, Rodney, but only fountain drinks, coffee, milk, tea. Beer & wine are served, I believe, during dinner only.

Q) Are there seafood nights? A) I remember seeing seafood being served during the weekends. Of course, with seafood, the price goes up for the premium items.

Q) Rodney, would your recommend Serrano Buffet? A) Factoring in the BOGO coupon, I really enjoyed the Serrano Buffet & found it to be a great value. Even w/o the coupon, having $3 off the $14.99 regular price still makes for a tremendous value. I mainly stuck to the meat, some veggies and the well-equipped dessert bar, so can't attest to the quality of all the items being served. But, all in all, I was stuffed & happy for a meal that didn't cost very...

Only been there once and never again! Parking was atrocious. Casino smelled like stale cigarettes and 2nd hand smoke seared the eyes. Ridiculous “system” of getting into the buffet with long line of people who have allegedly “pre-paid” the buffet fee and then joined a line 2 hours prior to the buffet opening. A second line is created to follow the pre-paid line after the 500 or so people get into the buffet restaurant and fill all the tables. While standing in line we observed at least 40-50 people cutting into the line way up ahead of us during our 2-3 hour wait and there were no casino/buffet staff on duty at the line that seemed to care. When the folks from the prepaid line finish eating and vacate a table for 2 or 4, then 2 or 4 people are allowed to pay the cashier after standing in line waiting for 2-3 hours! Ridiculous! The food was mediocre at best. Whole VERY small lobster was VERY over cooked and dried out and tasteless and almost able to be chewed... tiny slipper lobster tails were almost inedible due to dried out and over cooked. Tasteless lobster meat! Crab was equally over cooked and poor quality. Clams were in a tasty sauce but a scoop of clams yielded half the shells either empty or unopened (dead clam so that is why it doesn’t open). Shrimp was either breaded and fried - I believe they were pre- frozen like fish sticks. Other shrimp were whole with heads on and so over cooked and slathered in cheap sauce that the shell stuck to the tail meat and broke apart due to the over cooking. Vegetables were all over cooked and mushy. Rice was dry. Roast meats at carving station was not bad... pork, tritip and roast beef. Mashed potato and gravy was good. Desserts were good but I believe they were prepared elsewhere at a bakery. Only reason my wife and I, unfortunately, decided to try Serrano Buffet was 2 for 1 coupon in the LA Times newspaper... normal exorbitant charge is $41 per person, so we paid for one and got one free. Believe me and agreed by wife... what we finally got to eat was NOT worth $41 and that isn’t factoring in the 2-3 HOUR wait to get in! San Manuel Serrano Buffet IS NOT WORTH THE EFFORT...