Budget-friendly Dining in Las Vegas

Top 10 tips for cheap eats

Last update: December 2, 2023

Vegas is designed to get your money.  The easy-to-find food is expensive, and the cheaper food is often hidden away.  So here are some tips to take the pain out of Vegas food prices.

1. Bring snack food with you

Even if you prefer to eat out when in Vegas, you can still save by bringing your own snacks.  Like everything else, snacks are pricey in Vegas.  At some gift shops a single banana costs over $2.00.  A freakin' banana!  So pack your suitcase full of bananas, oranges, apples, dried fruit, cereal, bread, peanut butter, energy bars, baby carrots, and any other kind of snack food you like.

Note, lots of Vegas hotels prohibit outside food/drink (e.g., Cosmo, Encore, Golden Nugget, Virgin, Wynn), but it's probably not strictly enforced.  The last time I stayed at Encore (2019) we had obvious insulated grocery bags on our luggage cart at check-in but staff didn't bat an eye.  I'm sure staff isn't thrilled about the idea of policing guests for bringing their own food.

Note also, casino hotels don't have mini-fridges that you can use.  The fridge in the room is equipped with sensors that charge you if you remove anything to put your own food in.  So if you have anything that needs to be refrigerated, you'll either need to stay at a hotel with a fridge (which rules out any hotel with an attached casino, as well as some without casinos), or you'll need a cooler.  Fortunately all hotels provide free ice.

2. Cook your own food

I always travel with a $15 hot plate and a small pot.  I can easily make rice, cook potatoes and other vegetables, or heat up any canned food or frozen vegetables.  I've saved several hundred dollars this way in my travels.  You probably don't want to do this all the time, but saving money on any meal means it's easier to eat out the next time you do.

This has other advantages for me.  I prefer to eat healthy, organic, and vegetarian.  Those concepts are pretty alien on the Las Vegas Strip.  Any bread or rice you find on the strip is gonna be white.  I don't like paying more for inferior food.  So cooking my own lets me eat exactly what I want.  As I'm writing this in my Vegas room, I'm eating organic broccoli with organic beans.

Now, promise me you will keep your hot plate far away from hanging towels, that you'll unplug it completely every time you leave the room, and that you'll wait for it to cool down before putting it in your suitcase.  I don't want one of my readers burning down a hotel by accident.  Hot plates are dangerous, so please be extra, extra safe with them.

As per above, many hotels prohibit outside food in your room, but it's not strictly enforced.

3. Buy groceries

There aren't any grocery stores really close to the strip, but there are some pretty big drugstores with food sections, and real grocery stores are a short (and cheap) bus ride away.  Conveniently, everything listed below is open 24/7 unless otherwise noted. Here's what we've got:

SOUTH STRIP (Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, NY/NY, MGM, Tropicana)

• Walgreens (drugstore • 24 hrs • Just north of MGM, across from NY NY) >[3765 S Las Vegas Blvd]  They have lots of food, including a frozen section, and fresh bananas, apples, and oranges. There's also a CVS next to the Monte Carlo, but their food selection is much weaker (and no fresh fruit).
  
  
• Von's  (large grocery • 24hrs • 2 miles east of the strip, on Tropicana & Maryland Parkway)  [1131 E. Tropicana Ave]  Get on the #201 bus on Tropicana, in front of the Tropicana Casino.  It runs about every 15 minutes and the trip takes 11.

MID-STRIP (Planet Hollywood, Paris, Bally's, Bellagio, Caesar's, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Mirage, Venetian, Treasure Island, Wynn)

• Albertsons (large grocery • 24hrs • 2.5 miles east of the Strip, on E. Flamingo & Maryland Parkway) [1300 E Flamingo Rd]   Get on the #202 bus on Flamingo next to Bally's. It runs about every 15 minutes and the trip takes about 15.

NORTH STRIP (Riviera, Circus Circus, Sahara, Stratosphere)

• Smith's (large grocery • 7am-1am • 1 mile east of the Strip on Sahara & Maryland Parkway)  [2540 S Maryland Parkway]   It's only a 20-minute walk, but you can also get on the #SX bus on Sahara Ave (next to SLS Casino).  It runs about every 20 minutes and the trip takes about 9.
  

SPECIAL BUS & GROCERY STORE TIPS

• If you already got a Day Pass for any bus, it works on all the other buses too, so you can ride for free.
• See my bus page for more about the buses.
  
• You could take a cab (~$12 each way) but that would obviate the point of trying to save money on food.
• For each bus listed above, the bus goes straight from the Strip to the grocery store. Whoo-hoo!
• At Albertson's and Smith's, get a free shopper's card when you're there because that gives you big discounts on many of the products.

4. Buy food instead of gambling

Most people lose when they gamble.  That's not surprising, because the odds are stacked against you.  So if you don't gamble, you'll have a lot more money for food, even at expensive Strip prices.

5. Use comp credit

If you are gambling, the casino will rebate some of your losses back to you in the form of meals, show tickets, and discounted rooms.  These are known as comps. Now, do not play just to get comps!  That's like spending a dollar to save a quarter.  It's cheaper to pay your own way on your meals than to lose a lot of money just to get a "free" meal.  Comps make sense only when you're gambling anyway.  And if you are gambling anyway, you should definitely ask for the rebates you've earned.

Also, if you're gambling, play table games instead of slots, because slots suck your money away hand over fist.  Playing craps at $5/round for vs. slots at 75¢/spin saves you an average of $51 over four hours of play.  For that kind of savings you could pay for a couple of buffets and not even worry about comps.

For more on this topic check out my page on how to get casino comps. 

6. Use coupons

Coupons abound in Las Vegas, especially 2-for-1 coupons. Unfortunately they change frequently so I can't give you a big list here, but I can give you some general tips.

First, most casinos give you a coupon book when you sign up for a Player's Card.  The Player's Card is free, so there's no reason not to get it.  Also, just by signing up for the card, you may get offers in the mail later for free or discounted rooms.  Just look for the Player's Club desk in any casino to sign up.

Second, there's the Entertainment app.  It's aimed at locals, not tourists, so most of the offerings aren't near the Strip, but there's still enough to easily make it worth the cost.  There are lots of 2-for-1 restaurant coupons.  It's a measly $2.99/mo., quite a bargain.  If you want the book version, the cover price is $35 but it comes out around November each year and by February it can be had for $15 or so on their website, or at stores like Barnes & Noble.

Finally, you can get the Las Vegas Advisor Coupon Book.  It's $37, but well worth it. It has a fistful of 2-for-1 buffet coupons, plus lots more for dining, lodging, and entertainment.

7. Food Courts

There are several mall-type food courts on the Strip with fast food and budget-priced eats in these places:

8. Cheapest Buffets

See map to these casinos.

Main Street Station buffet hall 

All the buffets shut down when COVID started, only a handful reopened, and the rest won't be coming back.  The Las Vegas Advisor has a list of all currently operating buffets, though I noticed several errors (or at least outdated info) about days and prices.

Buffets at downtown and off-strip casinos are often cheaper when you show your player's card, which you can get for free at the Player's Club desk in every casino.

Prior to the shutdown, Fremont had the cheapest buffet downtown, and Gold Coast had the cheapest near the strip, but those buffets likely won't be coming back.

Of course, the most famous buffet in Vegas is the Jimmy Buffet.

Yeah, I said it.

Most expensive buffet

That would be Caesars, at a heart-stopping $85 for dinner.  We could accept their decision to charge that much, except they're too chickensh!t to put the price on their website.

Buffet of Buffets:  Not a thing any more

Prior to COVID, you could get a 24-hour pass to use at any of five certain strip casinos for $69.99 ($23.33/meal) on weekends ($59.99 during the week).  In case it ever comes back, here were the details:

• Good at Caesars, Flamingo, Harrah's, Paris, Planet Hollywood, and Rio. (see map)
• Buy it from the cashier or player's club counter at any of those casinos.
• Get the above (discounted) prices by showing your player's club card.  If you don't have one, get a free one from the Caesars Rewards desk in the casino.
• Weekend prices apply from Thursday 8pm through Sunday 8pm.
• Passes don't work 2-3 days before, during, and after major sporting events, holidays (Easter, Mother/Father's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve/Day).

9. CheapoVegas list

CheapoVegas has a pretty extensive list of all the restaurants and eateries inside the casinos.  You can sort it by price to see the cheapest ones.

10. Forage from room service trays

In the age of COVID, this one needs to be retired, but here's my prior writeup:

Put your hunter-gatherer skills to use!  On the way to and from my room I frequently find leftover food trays in the hallways with items that are nearly completely unmolested.  Last night I found some toast, hash browns, ketchup bottles, celery sticks (still completely encased in plastic wrap), 95% of a waffle, and a completely full, huge carafe of orange juice.  Staff doesn't care at all—while I was scoring the waffle, the woman who had come to take the cart away said, "Don't forget the syrup!" and handed me a couple small bottles that I'd overlooked.  I'm not worried about germs because before I got married I figured would be willing to kiss most attractive random strangers I ran into, which is probably 10,000 times riskier than the very careful selections I make from discarded room service trays.  Plus, foraging is a kind of recycling.  I hate seeing food go to waste.

A nod to "777 Cheap Eats in Vegas"

In 2003 Wendy Tucker published the book "777 Cheap Eats in Vegas".  Unfortunately she never came out with a new edition, so by now it's pretty dated.  Before she retired it, she did post the entire contents online.  Interestingly, Ms. Tucker and I enjoyed a free dinner together courtesy of a comp that I got, allowing both of us to live up to our reputations for being cheapskates.