The Gold Coast is located on Flamingo Road, about a mile and a half west of the intersection where you'll find Bellagio and Ceasars Palace. You know where The Rio and The Palms are? Gold Coast is right there too, operating in relative obscurity in the shadow of its higher priced neighbors.

Walk inside and you'll find all of the ingredients of a successful locals' style casino - low-limit gaming, low-cost rooms, and lots of affordable restaurants including the Ports O'Call Buffet.

Done with a subtle ships at sea theme, the buffet has several "regions," each themed to a different cuisine from around the globe. There's Mexican, Chinese, Italian, American, and salads. I'm not sure what country salads are supposed to represent, but let's not get crazy with the details here.

A big seafood section (love those shrimp and crab legs), a carving section, and a fully-stocked dessert station round out the offerings.

There's nothing you can find here that you can't find at another buffet. People looking for adventurous food choices will be disappointed, but it has all of the traditional elements and a couple of perks. For instance the carving station offers up full rotisserie chickens, not just a hunk carved off to go with your mashed potatoes.

Being the big, fat, giant pig that I am, I sampled a little bit of everything - from pizza to potstickers, beef fajitas to lamb chops. Everything I tasted was fresh, flavorful, warm when it was supposed to be and cool when it wasn't. Again, the food won't win any epicurean awards anytime soon but it's all solid, hearty, and well-prepared.

Granted you can get solid, hearty, and well-prepared food at almost any buffet, but that's where we have to start comparing prices. Breakfast at a comparable Strip buffet is around $14. Here it's $7. Lunch on The Strip will run you $15-20. At Ports O'Call it's $9. Dinners and Sunday brunches are often near $30 on The Strip but at the Gold Coast you'll pay $13-18, the latter for their all-you-can-eat seafood night.

Heck, even their all-you-can-eat prime rib night is only $13. That's cheaper than the breakfast buffet at Bellagio.

The service is neighborhood casino friendly and efficient. Our server had two drinks for every person waiting by the time we got back to our table.

The moral of the story is, if you're in the mood for a good buffet but don't want to pay a fortune for it, head for the coast. The Gold Coast, that is.