Ole Red's $29.99 AYCE Honey Bee Brunch is... Forgettable

Key Points:

• Ole Red's AYCE Honey Bee Brunch costs $29.99 & is offered on Saturday & Sunday mornings.

• The brunch is hosted on the rooftop, with great Strip views.

• The offering was lackluster for the price and felt like an afterthought.

Ole Red, a country music bar owned in part by Blake Shelton, opened along the Strip at Horseshoe in 2024, and it's been a popular hang ever since.

Drinks aren't exactly cheap.

14oz draft beer and 16oz cans start at $14-$16, but I'm always willing to overpay for drinks if the venue gives me a reason to.

Ole Red checks that box for me, and I'm not even a country music guy.

All 3 indoor levels of the restaurant & bar have a view of the stage, and the entertianment is free.

The place is a vibe. The crowd is always into the show, and the energy is off the charts.

The 4th level rooftop is my favorite part, with its own live entertainment stage and killer Strip views.

Yeah. I'll pay $14 to enjoy a Coors Light here.

Given my affection for Ole Red, I was excited to stop in to experience their weekend all-you-can-eat Honey Bee Brunch offering.

Honey Bee Brunch Cost & Rules

Ole Red's Honey Bee Brunch costs $29.99 and is offered on Saturday & Sunday, from 10 am to 2 pm.

That cost doesn't include drinks like juice or coffee.

A 3% entertainment fee is added to all checks.

Rules posted on the menu include:

• You can order 1 dish at a time.
• Finish the dish before reordering.
• No sharing between guests.
• No to-go boxes.

Here's the current food menu:

My Honey Bee Brunch Experience

I try to experience as much of Vegas as physically possible, so I end up tackling a lot of things (like this) solo.

I showed up right when they opened, was one of about 5 people in the venue, and requested a small table instead of the bar, where they had originally suggested I post up.

The hostess sighed and looked around with an annoyed look at the request, to which I retorted, "Hey, no worries if that's an issue! Happy to sit wherever you want to stick me."

"No, it's fine", was the unenthusiastic response as I was led to a table in the middle of the roof deck.

Awkward. My bad.

My server, who was super friendly, came over to grab my drink order. Suffering from a mild Chez Bippy-induced hangover, I opted for black coffee.

"Um, I don't know if we have that".

I must've had a taken-aback look. This is brunch, after all, lol.

"I can check to see if the coffee machine is on; just a sec".

Why wouldn't the coffee machine be on for a 10 am brunch? Legit confused at this point.

She comes back and says, "I guess the machine doesn't work. Anything else I could interest you in?"

I went with water.

That was fuc*in' weird.

Anyway. This has been a lot of words without a food picture.

My first dish was Bananas Foster French Toast, topped with banana caramel sauce, maple syrup, banana slices, and about 14 individual grains of powdered sugar.

It was phenomenal.

Next up were the Belgian Waffles, topped with mixed berry compote, syrup, and whipped cream.

My assumption is that the waffles are shipped to Ole Red in a frozen state and potentially weren't thawed/heated up, because they were cold, cold.

Like, not room temperature. But frozen cold.

The berries were also straight out of the fridge, so perhaps their coldness transferred to the waffles?

Regardless, the pile of berries was a bit overpowering for the small waffles, and this dish wasn't my favorite.

Hitting a wall, I ordered the Brunch Combo, which includes 3 eggs (scrambled or over-hard only), breakfast potatoes, bacon, and toast.

I thought the lack of egg options was weird. Scrambled or over-hard seems like an odd limitation.

The plate was fine, albeit unremarkable. The bacon was solid, and those little potato pucks were quite good.

Unlike the breakfast buffet I hit the day prior at The Venetian's Grand Lux Cafe, drinks aren't included in the price of admission.

Pepsi products, lemonade, and iced tea start at $7.

Draft & canned beer start at $14, cocktails (served in a souvenir cup) at $27, shots (again, served in a souvenir shot glass) start at $16, and mocktails (for kids) cost $10.

Sidenote: I detest when restaurants serve drinks at an inflated rate in a souvenir cup without listing an option for a normal cup I don't feel obligated to bring home.

I left full, but still can't wrap my head around the absence of coffee at brunch or how freezing cold my waffles were.

The hostess's annoyed reaction to my table request when the room was less than 25% full was also odd.

She also sat me directly in the middle of the room while every table along the rail with a Strip view sat empty... which seems like another service miss.

As for the price point, it's tough to get your $29.99 worth if non-alc drinks aren't included.

The view is the main draw here. But it's not enough on its own.

One and done, for me.

Related: AYCE Brunch & Breakfast Deals in Vegas.