A mad tea party: it’s all about the food/drink

Have you ever heard the statement breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Well it’s true particularly when traveling and the LMF and I never miss an opportunity to do breakfast. I have several favorite haunts from trips past, but clearly one of my favs has got to be Hash-House a Go-Go. A small chain out of San Diego but with 4 locations serving Nevada, including the newest one located on the strip inside the Imperial Palace casino. I know, I said the IP but it actually it wasn’t as dark, dank and dingy as in visits past...the experience was so positive we visited twice on this trip. Obviously the word is out as there were waits both days, but the restaurant is rather large, has well trained staff and they move people through (without rushing you) at a reasonable pace. 
 

OMG, a single meal seems like it should feed a family of four. However, that has never stopped the LM F and I from ordering separate meals and gorging out in our respective happy places. Just check out the menu. Day one the LMF had flapjacks and bacon and I had corned beef hash. Considering the size the flapjacks were the size of LP’s (music in its pure vinyl form for the kiddies out there) and my fluffy biscuit alone was the size of a softball you begin to get the idea of the amount of food we were served. If you need to budget calories meals they can easily be shared assuming you can agree on what you want, but for us we usually eat our fill and then play and drink for up to 8/10 hours before we need to refuel.

You will pay premium prices, but the food is cooked fresh with fresh ingredients and well deserving of the prices asked. However, you can always soften the blow with coupons from http://www.restaurant.com/.

The second day I went with the hardwood smoked bacon, avocado, onion & swiss farm scrambler, OMG…to die for. I think avocado scramblers/omelets are a California thing (since I’ve only found them in California and Nevada) and this is one of the best I’ve ever had. The LMF went for the tractor combo and proclaimed it “good eats”. Coffee is excellent and is served with real cream. There is a full bar making things like Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers, & Mimosas available (using freshly squeezed juices). Note also on the menu, O’Hare of the dog: Signature 24 oz Budweiser in a bag & side of bacon. I also saw the chicken and waffles being delivered to a table next to us…if that’s your thing I say go for it. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’d give it a 10+. 
 

Planning ahead, the LMF made reservations (fountain side) at dusk for Olives located in the Bellagio for our first night in town.  The plan was to nosh fine food and sip wine while the Fountains of Bellagio entertained us.  Oh, so should’a, could’a would’a…  Well given our late arrival that wasn’t possible, so we called to cancel (from the Twin Cities) and booked for the next night.  A fountain side table was not ours to be had; however we ended up in Fred’s section and made do.  I think Fred was hoping for a very high end ticket with us, little did he know we ate at the Hash House that morning and were looking to eat light.  Fred was most charming and did enhance dining experience.  

This restaurant is located on the north entrance of the Bellagio near the shops of Chanel, Dior, Tiffany’s and the like. Olives is very lovely albeit with a very masculine feel. The dark setting, usual for Las Vegas, left me searching for the words on my menu…thankfully there was still a little daylight left when we arrived. Even as foodie my experience with Todd English has been limited to the Home Shopping Channel. Ok I lied for the sake of a humorous expression, I have seen his cooking show on PBS but he wasn’t one of my “celebrity chef must dos” like Joel Robuchon, Thomas Keller, Emeril Lagasse, or even Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck all of whom have restaurants in town, some at different price points. 

Since we were dinning high on the hog, I opted for a Sapphire Gin Martini, the LMF went for an upscale Cosmo…both were well made…although Fred tried to baptize me with mine. Our drinks were served with a lovely bread basket and two types of olive tapenade, of which I tried both and found them to be very good. We both opted for Flatbread (pizzas), for mine I went with Fig & Prosciutto and the LMF went with the Fiery Chicken Sausage. While there was nothing unique about them, I did find both were well prepared (good crunchy crust) and we walked away happy satisfied campers. I remember reviewing the dessert menu, but again there was nothing unique and certainly not worth over stuffing ourselves for.

While perfectly respectable and overall a good dining experience the only reason I would go back is for the possibility of a fountain side table. On a scale of 1 to 5 with five being the high end, I’d give it a 3.5.

On Friday night we were both a little weary, as well as suffering from fullness of brunch at the Hash House), and frankly we failed to make reservations in advance so we decided to stick close to our home hotel and opted for a night at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. We’ve been there and done Jimmy in multiple cities…a chain but certainly one we don’t have here in MN. I had the fish tacos and the LMF had the coconut shrimp. My only complaint was the service…I felt a little underappreciated and thought two hours for a single drink and a meal when we were not the one’s lingering was a tad too much.

 While the physical constraints of the Las Vegas location make it very difficult for the servers my issues revolved around the fact our order got “lost”, the server failed to check in after our meal was served and we waited forever for our check. Fortunately for our server the LMF was in charge of the tip that night or someone would have been really disappointed. This experience I’d give it a 2.5 on other visits more of a 3.5.

In my last post you heard about Ri Ra and the lovely time we had with Linda Lou…what you don’t know is after she departed we call the Boo and he joined us there for more Irish goodness. It too appears to be a chain, but as I said before the Guinness was almost as good as what we had in Ireland. 

For our first meals we went basic with the fish and chips. The haddock was outstanding, the fish was cooked to perfection and the coating was a lovely golden brown. I was not excited about the chips, they were undercooked and soggy because the grease wasn’t hot enough. For round two I went with the whiskey garlic mussels and they were very good (mollusks can easily be overcooked) and although an appetizer it was just the right portion for my appetite. The earlier haddock filets were huge!! The LMF had the Irish Potato Cakes and the Boo had a chicken sandwich. While I think the company had a lot to do with it for both meals I’d give it a sold 4.5 for food, charm and service.

A trip to Vegas would not be the same without a visit to an Emeril Lagasse restaurant if for nothing more than a drink and appy or coffee and dessert.  Like Jimmy's we’ve eaten at many of Emeril’s restaurants in many cities and I’m not too proud to say I’ve laid out some heavy cash over the years and have never been disappointed.  While near the Venetian we decided to give the new Lagasse Stadium a try.  It was early afternoon on Sunday we were hot and thirsty and pretty much gambled out…it seemed like the perfect choice and with a little baseball we could make an afternoon of it.

Sadly we walked out without having been served.  I guess the LMF and I had put our invisibility cloaks on that morning, because despite walking by us twice (we were seated directly at the bar) the bartender completely ignored us instead she preferred the company of a bevy of younger men.  Too bad for her we’ve been known to tip extremely well under similar situations.  Definitely not the type of service I’ve come to expect at an Emeril’s location.   Epic fail and a substandard zero. 

Finally I would like to share with you our home bar, Sin City Brewery. Our location is at the Flamingo and from what I understand the smallest. I’ve had better microbrews, some cheaper and some more expensive…and it’s served out of plastic cups but still it’s where we come to for a night cap. Located just off a lovely outdoor patio (near where the flamingos hang during the day) complete with fire pit and decent piped in/out tunes. The bartenders appear to be fairly settled as I recognized one of them from my last trip out there a couple of years ago. For personal convenience and the patio I’d give it a 4 for the beer and the value it’s closer to a 3.

That about wraps up this report, next up my little rant on children in Las Vegas.