$51.00 a day for a work conference

$51.00 a day is my food budget for my work conference in March. Haven't been to Vegas in a long time. What are my food options? Can I eat pretty good if I do a nice breakfast and nice dinner? Staying at MGM but will be open to exploring the strip looking for happy hours and good food deals.

Thanks,

 

Nice breakfast and nice dinner? No way.

That's a very low budget.

 

"Nice" breakfast and dinner for $51 a day on the STRIP will be challenging (off strip easy peasy -- you could do that at Orleans, Gold Coast and/or Palms) but I think it is doable though you'll need to be creative. I am not familiar with MGM properties but instead more CET properties + Cosmo. If the promo is still going on for just 50 points you can get a comped buffet at Planet Hollywood. The reviews on this board suggest the buffet is not as good as it used to be but that it is still a decent buffet. You could use that for dinner and then you still have your full budget minus buffet tip for breakfast and/or lunch. Milos at Cosmo still has the great lunch special though adding in a non-alcohol drink + tip probably brings you to close to $40. You could have lunch there and then just grab a muffin and/or fruit with coffee somewhere for breakfast, so nice lunch but just basic breakfast. Alternatively, you could have a great breakfast or brunch at Mon Ami Gabi for under $25 and, depending on what you order, dinner for not much more. HEXX, which is where the old sugar factory used to be, also has good food (ate there once in December but enjoyed my meal) and the prices are reasonable, plus there is a 20% discount if you are a TR member. If you are willing to use groupon or myvegas coupons you will be even more successful if you are trying to stay within the $51 daily limit.

Wanted to add that HEXX isn't fine dining but the combination of the better than average food (my salad was great) and the Bellagio fountain view is really great.

 

Nice at a strip hotel? No way. Breakfast at the café just inside of CP was around $60 for 2 of us in August.

 

If you were there on your own, where would you eat?Eat wherever you want. Just consider the "company money" as a down payment. Too often folks get tied up with this amount and miss out on what they REALLY want to do and where they want to eat.

The ONLY time I would think about that $51 is if I was eating light all day was about to give up the freebie. Other than that, it is a non issue.

As others have said, you will blow through that quickly if you want much decent to eat. One fancy lunch or dinner will kill it.

 

Thanks for the responses everyone. When I say "nice" I guess it's all in terms of what your "nice" is. I would like one fancy dinner and I don't mind spending over my 51 dollars to do it. I'll be roaming the strip throughout the day and was just thinking like good burger joints, great happy hours, just overall good food but not super fancy or anything.

 

I enjoy Bobby's Burger Palace, good burgers and not too expensive. On strip in front of Aria.

 

This post won't impress foodies, but there is value if you seek it out.

While I'm in town for a conference; breakfast is usually something from a Food Court to eat quick before the day starts. This is usually under $10. For sit down some places like La Salsa cantina have breakfast specials for $3.95.

Lunch you can find Casual sit down Restos with burgers or sandwiches for $15ish. Pub style (nine fine Irishmen, ri ra, etc)

That leaves you $25 for dinner which sure won't get you anywhere fancy, but you can get some decent food. Think Yardhouse, PBR Rock bar, twin peaks etc. if you venture off strip to Ellis Island you can get a cheap steak dinner for around $10. You'll find all kinds of prices in vegas! just do some research and you'll have a blast.

Take a look at the restaurants in PH and Miracle Mile a lot of cheap places there.

 

What I like to do is eat at a buffet like the Wynn buffet right before the breakfast price ends, but I eat enough for it to last me until dinner. I would recommend you do the same and then get the Cut of the Week at the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse inside the Four Seasons inside the Mandalay Bay ($58.99 for an appetizer, entree, 2 side dishes, dessert, and 2 types of wine).

 

I'd assume the conference will be on-going by late morning and the conference will provide lunch. Most conferences I've been to also provide a Continental breakfast. Right in MGM there are a few less expensive restaurants like Grand Wok, Wolfgang Puck's, Hecho en Vegas, Michael Mina Pub that you could get dinner for less than $50.

 

So we LOVE fine dining, but we are always on a budget - so we've found a few things we enjoy that give us the fine dining experience without breaking the bank:

1. Wolfgang Puck's Bar & Grill (MGM Grand) - go with a Chinois Chicken Salad (his specialty) and a pizza, and you're in the $25-30 range. Celebrity chef. Great food. Easy on the budget.

2. Gordon Ramsay BurGR (Planet Hollywood) - Gordon Ramsay's casual burger joint. Burgers and fries will run in the $22 range. Not bad for a celebrity chef.

3. Fiamma (MGM) - one of the best Italian joints on the strip, spaghetti will cost you about $25 here.

 

I believe Hooters (across the street from MGM) has a cafe with a lot of good specials like a prime rib dinner under $10. You might want to check it out.

 

I am going to Vegas the last week in February for work and I was told I get $30 a day for food. I laughed at my boss and said that wont even come close to covering food, but I am not complaining, they are paying the airfare, and hotel, I count that $30 as a bonus. Besides I only have to attend the confrence from 9-4:30 with an hour lunch.

 

Ellis island, firefly, in and out burger, milos, most casual restaurants in casinos, the onion at hooters. There are loads of places but really you only have 40 bucks after tipping.

 

$50 is my food allowance and I seldom have issues in Las Vegas. Our travel dept. does not nitpick and if you go over one day and average under $50 they don't ding you.

Often some of my meals are counted as "bona fide client entertainment" which go on a totally different line and do not count against the daily.

When I'm on business in LV I will typically do two meals a day, usually breakfast and dinner, with dinner sometimes with clients and/or co-workers.

LOL, I could go on and on with two topics. How to "bury" booze in your expense report and how persnickety local co-workers can be about food, as in on a Friday if it doesn't say "PT's" it isn't food.

 

My work is $30 a day and you can not tip more than 15% no matter if you are under the $30 total. If I go over one day and under the next it doesn't matter I have to pay the overage out of my pocket. Also we have to provide an itemized bill to prove no alcohol.

 

We have to have itemized receipt as well to show no alcohol. You can have alcohol but can't expense it. We don't have a limit though. The most I have expensed in Vegas was Mesa Grill and I think a Wolfgang puck restaurant in the Venetian. If I would pay to go there on my own, then I will go if I am expensing it.

 

Guess I'm lucky. We have no limits on our eating and drinking when charging to the company. They trust us to not take advantage. If I have a nice steak and two glasses of wine at Ruth's Chris, I'll pay for the 3rd glass out of my own pocket.

 

This is one area where our normally-cool folks get anal. They want to see the receipts and if there's anything that looks like a bar tab on it they will dis-allow it. LOL, one of my cohorts tried to expense out a bottle of Robitussin so he would not be coughing through a client meeting and they dis-allowed it! We joke about it now saying it was because it has a trace dose of alcohol in it.

The old dinner buffet at the LVH was a good way to bury alcohol on your expense report. All the receipt said was "Dinner buffet" but beer and wine were included. Another one is Battista's (yes, yes, I know!) since they include all you can chug house wine with dinner.