The Rest of Las Vegas

Burgers, Buffets and (male) Bombshells

I missed a couple of places on my list, especially “World Famous” Lotus of Siam and Memphis Championship BBQ, but I think, with Bouchon and high roller steak dinner at Craftsteak, I had made good choices. Did not always eat well, but the choices were good…

Chinois
I’ve always been a big fan of Puck’s restaurants. I remember seeing a TVFoodnetwork special once on Cheesecake Factory, and it showed its owner testing and testing recipes. He though he was the man at this. Really, when it comes to corporate recipes, which mix comfort food, just slightly exotic ethnic, and about gourmet, Wolfgang Puck is the master. This time Chinois served mostly delicious, although not quite as wow-ish as previous meals. All the clichés worked, the fried rice, the General Tso’s chicken ordered, the classic duck in pancake, the potstickers. Where I branched, my entrée, to the daily special of short ribs, lobster and wasabi mashed potato, Chinois missed slightly. The hoisen drenched sauce worked fine enough but the short ribs could have been much tenderer inside. The lobster was of middling quality, the potatoes excellent (luckily I like mashed potatoes more than lobster!).

Bellagio Buffet
My dear friend Cabrales says that buffets are not conducive to good food. Sez who! Of course, when they say what goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas, they mean the pictures of the 8th dessert taken. One must eat a buffet if in Las Vegas. If nothing else, when you call Craftsteak for dinner reservations the earliest you get is 9:30, well you need something to stick with you for the duration. But not Bellagio’s. Highly disappointing. I have been here before, so I can recognize down-hill-ness. OK, if you were on Atkins, the buffet would work, good whole leg of lamb sliced for you, even better whole pork shoulder you can slice yourself so not to feel embarrassed about taking extra fat; flank steak not bad either. Still, the salads and the cold dishes, easy dishes for buffets, were exceedingly sub-par. Desserts worse.

Casa di Amore
My Vegas buddies and I like to seek out, at least once, a bit of old Vegas. With some asking, we found this place. It’s new old or really new old new, that is it’s a homage to old Vegas, where you’d expect the Ant and Lefty to stop by, but it’s not that old, and based on Google, seems to have been re-created just recently. It’s not that dissimilar to the old (and missed) Venetian on Sahara, same osso bucco, same renown for early morning stripper breakfasts (no joke). Unfortunately, the food was not nearly as good, the room much simpler. Pure red sauce menu. And that’s where we went: mussels in red, antipasto platter, lasagna, veal parmigina, etc. My actual dish was pork chops with vinegar peppers swimming in a garlic butter sauce. My pork chops were tough; the mussels green lip not traditional, and that’s the spirit of everything else that paraded around the table. The scene, however, was pretty interesting. About half-way through our meal, the house set up a table with two antipasto platters and a reserved sticker. Shortly thereafter someone that everyone but us knew arrived. Did not recognize him in the least, but he had (and remember that day the high was 109) a zoot suit length yellow patent leather suit on. With him, an older and younger woman, sister and mother it seemed. Later in the meal, he was joined by a fairly good imitation of Billy Idol. Vegas. When we passed out the back door to the house limo (a dinner perk), there were more than a few people with their backs to door.

Burger Bar
Thomas Keller’s brother Hubert opened this Vegas version of a diner. Yes, of course there’s a Kobe burger. It’s been well received, and when I was alone for one meal, I looked forward to a simple burger. Well, this place hurt me about as bad as Bouchon. Again, I was very surprised that a Keller, here Hubert (no they’re not brothers) would offer up this fare. Again, the house was not willing to make the slight effort to cut potatoes for french fries. More important, my burger, even at medium rare, was too dry, a product I spied, of too much pressing. There are all sortsa little garnishes on the menu, and those I liked. Maybe if I’ll return to Bouchon for seafood at the bar, I’d return to Burger Bar for a bowl of pickled beets. Also, like Bouchon, the décor seemed incomplete.

Chinois - Forum Shops
Bellagio Bar - Well, duh
Casa di Amore - 2850 E Tropicana Ave - Not that far from the strip
Burger Bar - Mandalay Bay

Interesting. I too just got back from a full week in Las Vegas. Our dinner choices stayed on in the strip hotels for the sake of convenience. For steak we tried both Craftsteak (MGM) and Delmonico (Venetian). Both were very good, but Delmonico was two steps above both in service (ask for Robert) and food (Bone-in Ribeye & bone-in NY both outstanding). For Italian we went with Terrazza (Caesar's) and Fiamma (MGM). Terrazza suited me better; my wife preferred Fiamma. Terrazza had the added attraction of Chicago Jazz musician Ghalib Galab playing in the lounge/bar.
We also visited Chinois where I had a fish special of which I cannot remember the name...it began with "s" and was excellent. My wife and 2 friends had more common dishes that they enjoyed but were not overwhelmed. Lastly, we visited Kokomo's and old sentimental favorite in the Mirage. The service was slow, but friendly. I always get the same sea bass in ginger sauce so it's hard to be too surprised one direction or the other.

RMaris9 wrote:Interesting. I too just got back from a full week in Las Vegas. Our dinner choices stayed on in the strip hotels for the sake of convenience. For steak we tried both Craftsteak (MGM) and Delmonico (Venetian)

I've been to Delmonico in the past and enjoyed it very much.

I leave for Las Vegas next Wednesday, and the first stop will be Memphis Championship BBQ. I have never been there before, and kept missing it on every trip mainly because the locations are inconvenient.

I may try to get back to Lotus of Siam. I had the lunch buffet there, and while it was fine, it did was not inspiring. The dinner menu looked vast, creative, and must be what the buzz is about. I will definitely order from the menu the next time.

Any other mid-range type suggestions would be very welcome.

Glenn

glennpan wrote:I leave for Las Vegas next Wednesday, and the first stop will be Memphis Championship BBQ. I have never been there before, and kept missing it on every trip mainly because the locations are inconvenient.

I may try to get back to Lotus of Siam. I had the lunch buffet there, and while it was fine, it did was not inspiring. The dinner menu looked vast, creative, and must be what the buzz is about. I will definitely order from the menu the next time.

Any other mid-range type suggestions would be very welcome.

Glenn

If you go to LOS, never...I repeat NEVER... get the buffet. The menu is always available and is much more suitable. Also, I have not yet had a chance to post about it in detail (maybe I'll get to it this weekend), but The Salt Lick BBQ has opened its first outpost outside of Texas in the new (and quite beautiful) Red Rocks Resort & Casino. On my last trip I had both Memphis Championship BBQ and The Salt Lick and all I can say is that both are very good, but you owe it to yourself to rent a car and get to The Salt Lick if you can.

Steve,

Any recommended dishes at LOS or the BBQ places. I was reading a review on Salt Lick in Vegas and was worried by the follwoing line in the review:

Ribs are fast-cooked at the restaurant because the less time the meat spends in a hot, smoky environment the less time the meat will have to dry out.

Yipes, that doesn't sound quite right to me. How far away from the strip is Salt Lick?

Glenn

glennpan wrote:Steve,

Any recommended dishes at LOS or the BBQ places. I was reading a review on Salt Lick in Vegas and was worried by the follwoing line in the review:

Ribs are fast-cooked at the restaurant because the less time the meat spends in a hot, smoky environment the less time the meat will have to dry out.

Yipes, that doesn't sound quite right to me. How far away from the strip is Salt Lick?

Glenn

Here's a post with several recommended dishes form LOS. Salt Lick in inside of Red Rock Resort & Casino, which is quite a ways from the Strip, but If you are going to Red Rocks to sightsee, you are very close. I'll try to post about Salt Lick this weekend, but the short answer is Yes. Go there!

glennpan,

Have a look.

Vital Information wrote:Thomas Keller’s brother Hubert opened this Vegas version of a diner. Yes, of course there’s a Kobe burger. It’s been well received, and when I was alone for one meal, I looked forward to a simple burger. Well, this place hurt me about as bad as Bouchon. Again, I was very surprised that a Keller, here Hubert (no they’re not brothers) would offer up this fare.

Actually, Joseph Keller, who just opened Bistro Zinc at Lake Las Vegas, and has had a few other ventures here, is Thomas' brother.