Vegas Baby!

We had booked our Vegas trip through American Airlines Vacations and as such had to fly from St. Louis to Los Angeles and then catch another flight to Vegas after a layover in LA. By the time we reached our hotel, unpacked and settled in, we were ready for a light meal.
We took a stroll through The Venetian, through the Canal Shoppes, and entered The Palazzo. Here we found the Grand Luxe Café. This restaurant has two locations at the resort – one inside The Venetian and another inside The Palazzo. These restaurants are operated by The Cheesecake Factory so we were pretty sure the food would be good, but were worried about the cost since The Cheesecake Factory is somewhat pricey at home, we thought Vegas might be even more so. But we were pleasantly surprised. I don’t know if I enjoyed the meal because it was really good, or if I was just hungry, or both!
They have a section of their menu called Minis, Bites and Tapas. From that I ordered:
Warm Goat Cheese Salad
Crispy Goat Cheese, Baby Greens, Fresh Apple with a Touch of Honey
And
Zucchini and Onion Haystack
Fresh Zucchini and Onions Lightly Breaded and Fried Crisp. Served with Garlic Aioli
The husband ate the following:
Grand Club Sandwich
Freshly Roasted Turkey, Crisp Applewood Smoked Bacon, Arugula, Tomato and Mayonnaise on Toast. Served with an Organic Green Salad or French Fries.
After our meal we hit the casino for an hour or two before we headed back to end our evening somewhat early as we were prepared to get up early to make it to Hash House A Go Go (see Pancakes – Part II).
For lunch one day we happened upon Carnegie Deli at The Mirage. Since I’ve never been to New York and probably won’t make it there anytime soon, I told the husband I wanted to eat here. We waited in line about 15 minutes. As we were seated the waiter brought out a dish with pickles. We checked out the menu and couldn’t believe how expensive the sandwiches were. If I remember correctly the sandwich was $20+ and since we split it we had a plate charge and fries were extra, but look at the portion. We had Jeff’s Tatalah sandwich (http://www.mirage.com/files/carnegie_menu.pdf). We left stuffed.
For our Sunday night meal we had reservations at Delmonico’s Steakhouse, an Emeril restaurant. The experience here was fine dining and very enjoyable. The wait staff was extremely attentive and courteous. We both had rib eyes that were dry aged. They were cooked to perfection, but I can’t honestly say they were any better than the Costco rib eyes my husband grills at home. But they topped their salad with a candied pecan bacon that was to die for.
We were going to see Cirque de Soleil’s “O” one evening and went to the Grand Luxe Café at The Venetian. The menu here was different. They didn’t have the same minis that I enjoyed the first night. And to be honest, I cannot remember what we ate as my nosy self was too interested in the Italian family that was seated next to us. The story of this family deserves a posting of its own.
We had a late lunch at Paris’ Le Village Buffet and while it was acceptable, I wasn’t impressed, especially with the desserts. I would assume that the crème brulee at a “french” restaurant would be excellent, but it fell short. We had dim sum at Ping Pang Pong at the Gold Coast casino. We really weren’t sold on this and the wait staff spoke very limited English and were difficult to understand but most of the clientele was Asian and seemed to be locals enjoying the food.
This post has gone on far longer than I imagined. I promised you some non-food related information and I will follow up with that in another posting very soon.