For us, dining out is a big part of Vegas. We love the selection of restaurants, the values that are out there, and quality that's available, all in one town. We ate everything from cheap prime rib to $15 french fries (by mistake LOL)

Our first night in town had us staying at Sams Town. We didn't feel like anything well planned so we had the $5.95 prime rib at San Remo, then over to the Aladdin.

What we did enjoy at Sams Town was the little coffee hut inside of the atrium. That night and the next morning we enjoyed cafe mochas here. I also had a nice canolli with mine that first night. A word of warning though. They use thick whipped cream on their cafe mocha's which blocks the hot coffee from coming through. Shelley's broke through the whipped cream in an unexpected rush and burnt her tounge slightly. Mine did the same although not to the same extent. The setting in the atrium is perfect for an early morning or late night coffee to relax with. Very peacful setting away from (but not to far) all the excitement of the casino.

At the Aladdin we headed over to the Beluga Bar for a meet that never materialized. Nice little bar in the Desert Passage shopping center specializing in Caviar. Everything from the cheap $2 for 1/8 oz of American Salmon caviar to the $15 for 1/8 oz. Beluga caivar from Russia (with love). Not wanting to spend that much but not wanting to go with the cheap stuff, we opted for a couple of Margarita's. Shelley's was frozen and she didn't really care for it. Mine was on the rocks and it was very good. What I didn't count on was they used the expensive tequila (I'm a cheap drunk), drinks for two plus tip was $20.

We compensated by having dinner at the San Remo with there $5.95 prime rib. Unfortunately they seasoned it a little to heavily for Shelley (to much pepper). This was the first time she really didn't enjoy the Prime rib there. All totaled we ate at the San Remo's coffee shop 4 times. Always prime rib for Shelley, twice steak and eggs for me. Other than the first lapse, all the meals at San Remo were great. And one can't beat the price, $15.44 for two prime rib dinners and two pepsi's or coffee's (not including the tip).

On our anniversary we ate at Ceasers Magical Empire. Shelley had the Steak and I had the Salmon. For Shelley, she didn't care for the steak. She's pretty straight forward on a steak and doesn't like a lot of fancy sauces put on it. IMO, her steak was very tasty as was my Salmon. As before (this was our second time here), the entertainment was great and I got to meet THE Wally Water. Who's Wally Water you might ask? Several years ago Wichita had a water program with comercials featuring a charachter called Wally Water. He was our wizzard at dinner and was absolutley fabulous. Very funny and a great magician. I knew something was amiss when he asked us where we were from. When we told him Wichita KS, he promptly told me I was a future Windwagon Smith. Windwagon Smith is the grand marshall of our River Festival. One of the servers was also from Great Bend KS. Seems everyone is leaving KS for the land of OZ?

One of the mistakes we made was going to Dive. I hadn't really heard great things about this but any restaurant operated by Steven Spielberg has to be great, right? Wrong. Neither of us liked the menu so we just ordered French Fries. No such thing as plain old ketchup but they have these dipping sauces. I tried the russian (thousand island dressing) and white chedder. Shelley had the white chedder and was given plain old ketchup on request. Total bill for two orders of french fries, two pepsi's and tip came to $15. OUCH! We could have had a good prime rib dinner for that.

Since we were staying Polo Towers, we decided to try a restaurant for Breakfast in the Polo Plaza Mall called Le Petit. It bills itself as a theater restaurant but there wasn't any theater at breakfast time. On their banner they advertise breakfast for $3.99. That breakfast consists of two eggs, toast, and seasoned fried potatos. Shelley didn't care for that selection so she had steak and eggs while I went for the $3.99 special. I was happy with mine but Shelley's steak came out shoe leather when she ordered medium rare. The steak was taken back and was quickly replaced by one that was cooked perfectly. All and all this is a decent restaurant for breakfast and looked nice for lunch and dinner. Lots of tables and no line like at a lot of coffee shops. The only knock against them was it took a long time for our food to get to the table. Total bill including tip was $21.

I wanted to eat Italian one night and we ended up at the acclaimed Risorante Italiano at the Riviera with the famous Jaun as our head waiter. We had the Lasagna and Ravioli with pepsi's and coffee after dinner. This place has the atmosphere, the service, and the food. It's the complete package. Juan was great and very entertaining. In the bread basket were two bread sticks I can't even begin to describe they were unbelievably good. The bread basket had an assortment of wonderful breads to snack on. If you want Italian, you have to give this one a try. It's located in the Riviera across from the Splash bar and within site of the showroom for Splash.

For Mexican food we ended up at Don Miguel's in the Orleans one night. Shelley played it safe with the burrito but I went crazy with the Tequila Shrimp. It amounted to about 8 boiled shrimp in a cream sauce surronding a mound of spanish rice. It came with an order of Charo Beans (or refried beans if you prefer). At first glance I thought I'd need to stop at McDonalds for a snack afterwards. NOT SO. There was plenty of food to fill me up. Again this is a good place for a meal. A friend of ours joined us for this meal and the total for all three with three pepsi's and tip was $44.38, a great deal in my book.

On the menu one evening was dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. To save us all a buck or two and yet have a good meal we decided to use the Entertainment cards I have. We ended up at Limericks in the Fitzgerald downtown. This is a upper end (for us at least) steak house that I've heard nothing about so it was a bit of a risk but turned out to be a great experience. Classy interior with good service and a reasonalby priced menu for a steak house. most entries were in the $20 to $30 range and are complete meals instead of the ala cart BS you get on the strip. The ladies had the petite filet mignon with split king crab legs. For us guys I had the prime rib (a really big cut) and my brother-in-law had the full sized filet mignon. All were cooked perfectly. Also served with the meal was complmentary bread with honey butter. For Shelley and I, the discounted meal came to a total of $32.12 before tip. Those Entertainment books can really pay off. Just don't forget to figure your tip on the total price before the discount.

I had read some good things about the restaurants in the Stratosphere in an issue of Casino Player magazine recently. Since we were at the Strat. one night to take advantage of there $125 in covered loss's deal for joining their slot club, we decided to try out Montana's Steak House. Nice atmosphere and good service were enjoyed. Shelley had the fillet mignon (one of her favorites) while I enjoyed the salmon. Both were cooked to perfection and had great flavor. Service was prompt and very good despite the fact they were understaffed that night. The host appologized ahead of time as he took the blame for understaffing. He explained they were projected for a certain amount of buisness but had far exceeded that number. He needn't have worried as service wasn't a problem at all. They were busy but prompt and professional. Total bill for this meal which included two pepsi's and after dinner coffees was $51.55 including tip.

Lunch one day included a stop at Barley's Brew Pub in Henderson. Again it was the Entertainment card that drew me out that way plus the curiosity of this place. They have a GREAT lunch time special which negated the need for the entertainment card. For $4.95 they offer your choice of a hamburger and micro brew or a cheese pizza and micro brew. WHAT A DEAL! The cheese pizza was on a hand rolled crust and was almost more than I could handle. Since I was driving I opted for a Pepsi instead of one of there on site brewed beers. Nice little casino as well which is part of the Station Casino family.

Based on the revues of this site we had lunch one afternoon at the Grand Lux Cafe in the Venetian. Wonderful dining experience as expected. The Grand Lux is kin to the Cheesecake Factory at Ceasers Forum shops with a little more upscale feel to it. Shelley wasn't very hungry and opted for the baked apple in crust. It was so filling she couldn't finish it. I had the lunch size version of their Asian Chicken Salad. Absolutely wonderful with service to match. This is a great spot for lunch and I'm sure dinner as well. Who can ask for a better surrounding than the Venetian resort as you dine?

Our last meal was Breakfast in Central Park inside of the NYNY resort and casino. Did you know that Il Fornaio served breakfast? I didn't and found it completely by accident. We had stopped in at a shop at the HI Boardwalk to pick up a couple of shirts as a gift for some friends of ours and decided to try the Monte Carlo's coffee shop for breakfast. Unfortunately there was a long line to get in. We decided to walk a little ways and see what NYNY had to offer. Walking through we saw people dining at Il Fornaio and decided to give it a try. A rather limited breakfast menu but sufficient to cover most peoples needs. We both had their version of eggs benedict, two poached eggs over smoked ham on a thin slice of freshly baked bread, covered with a white parmasian sauce rather than the traditional hollandaise sauce. It was to die for. Plus the service was top notch and the coffee, while strong, was very smooth and served with real cream rather than half and half or non-dairy creamer. The setting was perfect as we were seated on the patio area overlooking the central park themed casino of NYNY. A perfect ending for dining for this trip.

Without exception all tips were at least 20% of the bill, sometimes more. I rarely tip less than that and it has to be really bad service for me to even come down as low as 15%. Service was great everywere and fell in the 20+% range.

Doug,

Eating is not a priority of ours while in LV, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your dining while in LV. It's always nice to have the information just in case. I definitely will remember about the cafe mochas at Sam's as we sometimes stay there as well as enjoy coffee and sweets from the hut in the park.

Thanks so much for posting it for everyone.
Hope you came home richer!<g> How many trips do you make per year?

Beth

Doug, thanks for a great culinary journey! I positively drooled over my healthy breakfast cereal (with lo-fat milk) while reading about eggs benedict Il Fornaio style<G>. I've enjoyed many of those mochas at the coffee hut at Sam's, and my mom loves the fruit bowl they serve there in the morning. Limericks sounds like a hidden gem.

burnt tongue on the mochas? LAWSUIT!! beats tripping over a bowling bag.

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D.A.G.SEATTLE
furdoo3@aol.com

Beth,
At least twice per year, more if I find the right airfare, resort price, and the time to go.
We own timeshare at Polo Towers that gives us 4 weeks vacation each year. I try to exchange at least two so I see a little more of this country other than Vegas <g>.
This year (so far) We've been three times. One 4 night stay, one 8 night stay, and one short 2 night stay. We already have plans for March (confirmed) and Sept. (tenative) for 2001. March will be for 7 nights, Sept. might be for 9 nights if I find a good Friday and Saturday night rate somewhere. Perhaps we'll try the Lady Luck downtown. We haven't stayed downtown yet.

Daisy,
I was very surprised by Limericks in the Fitz. It's not one of the fancy, overpriced joints on the strip but it was a very enjoyable evening with great food and a reasonable price.
Il Fornaio was also a very pleasant surprise. Not to many people seem to know about it either. We ended up there because the lines at all the coffee shops were very long. There was no line and no waiting at Il Fornaio. Just great food, exceptional service, and a wonderful view. You can bet we'll eat there for breakfast again next trip. Maybe even dinner or lunch as well. We've eaten at the Il Fornaio in Denver a couple of times and enjoyed it very much.
D.A.G.
Dang, I should have written a letter to a lawyer over the burnt tongue. If I'd have thought about it, it was awfully painful to talk. Good thing I didn't think about it much.

Doug, Thanks for posting an enjoyable report to read. It was very informative. You are the first person I have heard of that went to Limericks. It is in the Entertainment Book every year, but I never considered going there.
It sounds like you really got around and had some great dining. Like you, I enjoy all the great dining options in Las Vegas.

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John
Moderator Dining Forum and Entertainment, Attractions and Sightseeing Forum
john@talkvegas.com

Doug,
Nice dinning report!
You probably missed the one thing I like at the Dive (hint it ain't the fries) it's the Screwdrivers. The orange juice must have been fresh squeezed when we stoped there.

When you first started talking about the Italian place at the Riv, I thought maybe you where joking, but, it sure sounded like a good meal. I know the Riv sometimes takes a beating on this BB, but I also enjoyed the coffee shop at the Riv also. I think some of the food outlets do a decent job, and there usually isn't a line either!!!

Barley's (boy you hit a lot of my places on this trip! LOL)
The restaurant is a good deal, again the Micro brews are pretty good, and the food is great. Next time try the fish & chips! Along with a drak or heavy amber, it's smashing!

So, as I always ask....when's the next trip? <S>


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Lee-PA
Moderator, What's New Forum
lee@talkvegas.com

Next trip is planned for March of 2001. Reservations are confirmed and airline tickets paid for. There's always the possibility that some unbelievable deal will come up at the right time and we'll be out before then. As it is, we have a brief trip to Chicago to see the christmas lights in Dec. and a week long vacation in New Orleans in January to pass the time.

Actually, the restaurants in the Riv. are pretty decent. We've eatin at the Rik Shaw twice and had both good service and food. Risoranti Italiano is not to be missed. Ask for Juan's section. He is absolutely the best I've ever seen.

[This message has been edited by doug (edited 02 November 2000).]

Doug:

I love a good report on FOOD!

We went to Dive a couple of years ago and agree completely - talk about overrated and overpriced!!!!

Found out Il Fornaio did breakfast after we got back, so will try it next time. Had dinner there once and it was very good.

Cathy in Boston