The Plaza Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas is offering an all-inclusive package this summer.

LAS VEGAS—The best place to eat at the Plaza Hotel and Casino is Oscar’s Steakhouse, a local favorite downtown named for former mayor and mob defense attorney Oscar Goodman.

I didn’t get to try the 40-ounce porterhouse or the $128 Australian wagyu filet during a two-night stay last week. The red bracelet affixed to my wrist at check-in sadly didn’t cover fine dining.

Everyone’s looking for a travel deal in this summer of economic uncertainty and the Plaza has an eye-catcher: an all-inclusive package starting at $125 per night per person.

You get a room, two meals a day, unlimited alcoholic beverages and a waived resort fee, itself a $44 value. Vegas deals sizzle in the searing summer heat, but the only way to beat this deal is to stay and eat for free through gambling comps.

So I booked a two-night stay to see if the savings are worth the trade-offs, knowing I’d have plenty of Vegas fun either way. Spoiler alert: I loved the $250 all-in vacation price tag, but a columnist can’t live on chicken sandwiches alone.

The historic Plaza, on the grounds of an old Union Pacific Railroad station, is downtown across from the Fremont Street Experience, 7 miles from the center of the famed Las Vegas Strip. It’s an old-school hotel where bingo is such a calling card it gets its own button on the in-room phone. And this is no package for foodies: the Plaza restaurants in the package are heavy on food-court fare.

Yes, the food and drinks are free. But the menu options are limited at each place and you can’t BYOB to the fifth-floor pool.

Fine print awaits

Disappointment descended as soon as I checked in. The hotel’s website says you can enjoy “mouthwatering bites” from four hotel outlets with the all-inclusive package: Hash House A Go Go, Fresh Mexican Grill, Pop Up Pizza and Coffee Bar.

What the website doesn’t say: you can only pick from a few items at each place and those don’t change day to day. This isn’t the kind of all-you-can eat buffet Vegas is known for; you get two meal vouchers a day. The bad news is delivered on a sheet of paper handed out along with your red wristband at the front desk.

I sent the lineup—think fried-chicken sandwiches, burgers, pizza and breakfast sandwiches, to the family group chat. My sister, a bargain hunter and unfussy eater, cracked, “Looks like a giant kids menu!”

Cruises and all-inclusive resorts have plenty of exclusions and other fine print, of course. Soda hasn’t been free on major cruise lines for years. Fine-dining restaurants usually cost extra. Heck, there wasn’t even cheese at the burger bar at an all-inclusive I stayed in for a night in the Dominican Republic.

But this seemed stingy. Turns out there was even more fine print, at least at Hash House. Want lettuce and tomato on that “free” burger? That’ll be $1.99. I was charged $1.49 for cheese and 99 cents for ghost pepper aioli for my (delicious) chicken sandwich.

I was determined to stick with the free stuff. So, in addition to Oscar’s, no Hash House signature chicken and waffles or Pinkbox doughnuts for me. I got by, but none of the food will make any Instagram highlight reels, and I missed picking restaurants each day.

Dawn Gilbertson got a free mimosa at the casino bar by flashing a red Plaza wristband.

Bottoms up

The menu of free drinks in the all-inclusive package is typical: well drinks, select beer and house wine. Basically what you get for free when playing machines or table games. But you can only get the free package drinks from two casino bars, and one of them was closed frequently during my stay.

There was nothing stingy about my room or the hotel’s service. I was able to check in early and I could have done cartwheels in my big 20th floor room with distant views of the Stratosphere and other hotels on the northern end of the Strip. (The hotel wasn’t aware I was a reporter.)

There was a minifridge with two free bottles of water. The air conditioning was solid despite one of those older, bulky units. The walls are thin, though: I could hear the news and action movie from my neighbor’s TV.

The fifth-floor pool is plenty hip, with contemporary artwork, cabanas and a food truck—if you can stand triple-digit temperatures. I called the pool desk to see if I could bring in a drink from one of the participating bars (the wristband identified me and others as all-inclusive guests) and was told no outside beverages.

The signature pool drinks start at $16. I passed.

I played bingo for a couple of hours, which at $39 including two free drinks was cheaper than sliding bills into a slot machine or onto a blackjack table. Though I did both of the latter and had better luck than I’ve had on the Strip.

Linda and Fred Wade live in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and heard about the all-inclusive deal from a Las Vegas influencer on YouTube. They immediately switched their four-night Plaza reservation to that option to save money.

“We’re like the cheapest people in the world,” Linda says.

They visited last week to celebrate Linda’s retirement from nursing. It was their first stay downtown. They were surprised by the limited menu choices and burger upcharges, paying $15 to jazz up two patties one night. Still, they visit Vegas every year and say they would return for the all-inclusive deal.

Fred and Linda Wade, visiting from Maine to celebrate her retirement, booked the all-inclusive package last week.

So would the Philadelphia Phillies fan I ran into one morning on his way to breakfast (not the free one). “You can deal with a couple menu items for a couple days (and) you’re getting all the drinks,” he says.

If you’re “real bougie,” he added, “then you probably don’t like it.”

I’ll try not to take that personally, but I’ll be back to the Strip on my next visit.