In March of this year my husband and I went to Las Vegas and stayed at The Venetian. This was our first visit to the Strip in probably about 10 years when we stayed at MGM Grand. Things have definitely changed over the years.
The Venetian was exquisite from the lobby to the attached Canal Shoppes. It seemed that when they built The Venetian they must have gotten a great deal on marble because it was everywhere including this fabulous walkway that looks much like an M.C. Escher drawing. But when we got home our son, the Art major and recent visitor to Italy let us know that he believes it to be inspired by the floor in a gallery in Italy, something that he bragged of seeing in person.
Not only was the floor magnificent but the entire hallway was fabulous and if you could allow yourself a little imagination and block out the sound of the casino you could imagine yourself in the opulence and history of an Italian museum. Look at the detail and the frescoes on the ceiling.
The hotel was set up where you had to walk a short way to the elevators, but the good news was that unlike many casinos in Vegas you did not have to roll your luggage through the casino. You walked instead on a walkway that went around the casino floor itself.
Our room was a Luxury Suite. The hotel is nothing but suites and includes a sunken living room. Our room had a king bed with a huge bathroom including a soaking tub, separate shower, double sink vanity, separate make-up vanity, and stool room. Our only complaint about the bathroom was that the stool room was very small and if you wished to shut the door while doing your business, you had to straddle the toilet to shut it.
The bedroom portion included nightstands on both sides of the bed, a large dresser, and large flat screen TV. The sunken living room included a sofa, an entertainment center with a mini-fridge (do not touch or move anything or you’ll pay) and another flat screen television. There was also additional seating with a loveseat and a table with two chairs.
We were impressed with the room and the comfortable bed. But on a side note, if you can’t make it to Vegas any time soon, you can stay in a room almost identical to the one described and pictured above at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, MO.
Comeback soon and I’ll describe some of the places we chose to eat while in Vegas and a few things we found to make our trip a little more pleasant.
We planned a trip early this year to go to Las Vegas in March. Last year, before our travels to San Diego, I’d read about a place called Hash House A Go Go (http://www.hashhouseagogo.com/ ) located in the Hillcrest area of San Diego and had planned on going there on Sunday morning of our visit to San Diego. When we got there the crowd lined the streets out front and we drove around the streets near the building several times and finally gave up because we couldn’t find a place to park. So, as we planned our trip this year to Vegas, I found that Hash House A Go Go had four locations in Vegas. One of these locations was at the Imperial Palace, which was only two casinos away from The Venetian where we were staying. So I told the husband that our first breakfast in Vegas would take place at Hash House and we would wait no matter how many people were there.
When we arrived it looked extremely busy and there were probably 50 people waiting. They said the wait would be about 20 minutes. We looked at the crowd and figured it would be quite a bit longer. Note: Imperial Palace is owned by Harrah’s and if you have a Harrah’s card and are a high tier cardholder you have a separate line. Unfortunately we don’t have that prestige. But, indeed, the wait was less than 20 minutes.
We perused the menu. They are apparently well known for their chicken and waffles, but I kept leaning towards the pancakes or as they call them on their menu, flapjacks. I flip-flopped between getting the Apple Cinnamon (our waiter’s favorite) and the Banana. Again, just like at Aunt Emma’s Pancakes the year before in San Diego, I opted for the Banana.
The waiter told us that our food might take awhile, but he sat the plates (or should I say platters) in front of us less than 10 minutes later.
The batter on these flapjacks must have been concocted differently than most because while there was height to the flapjack it had a crispiness to the edge that was fabulous. There were at least two bananas sliced down the middle lengthwise and then in half. They were placed on top and the batter cooked up around them. The flapjack the waiter brought to the table was gigantic. They gave me syrup to go with it, but the “cake” and the bananas cooked inside were so flavorful that I left the syrup untouched on the table. I did use a good deal of the scoop of butter on top to add a little wetness to the top. The portion was so large that I was only able to eat about half it. To give you an idea of the actual size, the “plate” that it was on was the size of a charger plate. The s
econd picture shows the flapjack in comparison to my hand. At a cost of $8.95 it was one of the best bargains we had during our Vegas trip.
Check out their menu at the link above and see what tempting delights they have. My husband opted for a Farm Benedict - Andy’s sage fried chicken with fresh spinach, hardwood smoked bacon, market tomato, griddled mozzarella, chipotle cream and scrambled eggs. This was priced at $15.95 and was huge
. It came on top of biscuits and mashed potato with fried spaghetti for decoration.
Our visit to Vegas included four mornings and had I not already had other places to try out, we would have gone back every day of our visit.
And for those of you wondering, the Hash in Hash House is in honor of their seven dishes of hash – dishes made with a variety of meats and vegetables mixed together.
