Eating Las Vegas

Eating Las Vegas

I got back from Vegas late Wednesday night after being there for 6 days for a pleasure/business trip. But you could have called it the Eating Las Vegas Tour…..I swear I gained 10 pounds! Ha. But I did thoroughly enjoy it while it lasted. The first couple of days were at a time share and then the last 4 nights were at the Bellagio.

Thursday – Dinner at Wolfgang Pucks Trattoria De Lupo at Manadalay Bay. We had dinner before we went to the Lion King show. Dinner was great – I had Caesar salad and Thick noodles with a Bolognese sauce. They had appetizer portions of the pasta, which I took advantage of. The others traveling with me got Buccatini pasta, salmon, and chicken marsala – everyone was happy. The show was great – but unfortunately, I fell asleep during part of it – not because of the show –but because we had traveled from the East Coast that morning and I am definitely an 8 hour a night girl! Note to self - never schedule a show on your travel day!

Friday – Lunch at Tommy Bahamas restaurant – pretty good – burger and asian cole slaw. Met my Dad for lunch and it was his birthday – they brought out a ginormous piece of pina colada cake for him that we all had a bite of – quite tasty. Dinner was at the Palazzo Hotel and Casino at Mario Batali’s place Carnevino– his take on the Steak joint. We got one ribeye steak that cost $135 to share among the 4 of us. It was HUGE, and quite good. We also got 3 sides to share, brussel sprouts, mashed potatos with marscapone cheese, and spinach. All were better than average.

Saturday - was the big gambling day…..took off for old Las Vegas (Fremont Street area) around 3:00 and gambled down there for a few hours….then back to the Palazzo where we had been winning at Casino War (it is addicting – try it). Then we had reservations for Bobby Flays Mesa Grill at Caeser’s Palace. This was probably my favorite meal….great appetizers and margaritas. A cheese dip and quesadilla’s were quite tasty. I decided to get three sides as my dinner: a stuffed chili relleno, tamale, and brussel sprouts (yes I like them!). All were great. My mother in law got the pork dish and it was fabulous – she definitely won the ordering contest! Everyone loved their meal.

Sunday – We were staying at the Bellagio now…so no kitchen for breakfast. Luckily the Bellagio has an awesome pastry chef and the cheese Danish, almond croissants, and other items were to die for. Lunch was at a restaurant at the Bellagio called Noodles, which featured every type of Asian noodle dish you could imagine. I had the Singapore Street noodles with pork and shrimp. Very spicy and good. That night we went to the new Aria hotel (at the new complex City Center). It was gorgeous inside. We went to the 7:00 showing of Viva Elvis and had 3rd row seats. The show was great and the costumes were amazing. We then had dinner at Lemongrass a Thai fusion restaurant in Aria. Very good, red curry with duck. Everyone again enjoyed their food…we had steak, green curry with chicken, cashew chicken, and pad thai at the table.

Monday – Conference day…..lunch at Todd English’s Olives – (salad and chicken sausage with ricotta cheese flatbread) that night we went to Rao’s restaurant in Caesars Palace. This is the Vegas reincarnation of the famous Harlem place that only seats about 20 people. The Vegas place seats 3 times that many people! The food was great – there were three of us and we split the Orichette with sausage and broccoletti, gnocchi with a Bolognese sauce, and the meatballs. Very good and filling.

Ok – are you feeling as large as I do by now? One more day to go….

Tuesday – lunch at Serendipity 3 in front of Caeser’s. The famous NY institution – had to try the frozen hot chocolate – good, but not as to die for as I expected. That night we had dinner at Jasmine – the authentic Chinese restaurant at the Bellagio. There were 8 of us and my boss is from China so she ordered a family style dinner for the table. We had Peking Duck, Short Ribs, Sautee’d eggplant, Sea Bass, noodles, dumplings, egg rolls, etc. All were good and it was fun to try so many different things.
Every dinner was around $60. Some a bit less. It was a wide variety of food and needless to say – I enjoyed myself. And salad and veggies are in my future for the next few months before swim suit season hits!

Next week I hit Eurasia for dinner – look for my next blog about that dinner!