1. Welcome to VegasMessageBoard
    It appears you are visiting our community as a guest.
    In order to view full-size images, participate in discussions, vote in polls, etc, you will need to Log in or Register.

from mcdonalds to delmonico

Discussion in 'Restaurants & Buffets' started by kitson, Jun 11, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. kitson

    kitson VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2004
    Messages:
    1,883
    spent 7 nights in las vegas, starting monday of memorial day, may 28th, then the next monday night in a lovely baymont suites motel in salt lake city, courtesy of the competent and courteous employees of delta airlines. so really this should maybe be titled from airport quizno's with vouchers to delmonico...cause the mcdonalds was a lot better than the concourse d quizno's!

    spent the first 3 nights at the palm, solo, mostly playing poker and poker tourneys, and checking out the wsop. first night literally got the mcdouble and fries and ate in the room. never left the universe of the palms/gold coast/ rio for that three days.

    mcdonalds..their number one attribute is their consistency.

    palms buffet...perfectly adequate, especially at half price and a line pass for palms players card holders in t he month of may. would i make a special trip there, even at half price? no

    gardunos...just close it already, the employees act as if it has happened.

    cortez room at gold coast...not the best service, but certainly good steakhouse food, value priced, and they get the job done without a lot of flash or the costs associated with it.

    the sports grill at the rio...those chicken wings really do make a meal.


    this trip was mostly for my sons 21st birthday present, we also attended a trade show, and our daughter flew in from seattle and joined us on friday, son and my wife came in on thursday morning, and moved on over to the treasure island to meet them.

    we had meals at the palm steakhouse, bouchon, kahunaville, delmonico, joes stone crab in the forum shops, gilleys, toby keiths, the coffee shop at ti, the bellagio buffet. will try to give a little blurb on them all later, but if you have any specific questions about any of these, fire away, i will try to answer!
     
  2. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2002
    Messages:
    26,507
    Location:
    North Carolina
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    16
    Kitson - where did you (if you did at all) eat early breakfast before your trade show? Was your show at the LVCC or Sands (or MBay - I assume because you were at TI, your show wasn't at MBay, but I've been known to be wrong once or twice:evillaugh) Trying to figure out what kinds of places will be open for breakfast at a different end of the Strip than we usually are - our show moves to Sands after a few times at the other end.....Thanks!
     
  3. kitson

    kitson VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2004
    Messages:
    1,883
    hoya, we had breakfast the saturday morning of the trade show, which was at the lvcc, at kahunaville. we had a coupon from the ti, so used it. we walked through kahunaville, out to the poolside patio, and ate there. had a little dispute about the coupon, slow and surly service and a language barrier there on that porch, and noticed that the poolgirls waiting on the tables just off the patio on the pool deck spoke much better english, and gave much better service. so on sunday morning we ate there again, except poolside, without the coupon, ordered off the menu instead of the special, and service was much better, with a pitcher of water and a couple pots of coffee just brought to the table, unhurried service, and a very nice pool waitress.

    we also had a breakfast outside at bouchon on the friday morning that my daughter arrived. the 3.50 unlimited refill french press coffee has to be the buy of the whole resort. my daughter negated that value by ordering a 12.50 mimosa, but what the heck, we had the whole family together, on vacation!

    as you know, we go to the clothing trade shows twice a year, and the first we get out of the way is always at the sands convention center, so bouchon is a treat, and another option within the venetian/palazzo complex would be grand luxe.
     
  4. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2002
    Messages:
    26,507
    Location:
    North Carolina
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    16
    Thanks kitson! A lot of non-coffeeshop places don't open early enough for us on show days - want to eat at 7 or 7:30. Grand Luxe is one that I've been looking at (can't get their breakfast prices online....)
     
  5. kitson

    kitson VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2004
    Messages:
    1,883
    one addition to my solo part of the trip dining, a lunch at the tgifridays in the gold coast. walking by, saw someone with a bowl of clam chowder. it was as good as it looked, the prime rib pasta after was pretty good, too. just had water to drink, if you know what i mean, but a nice meal and good service, it looked pretty slow in there for about 1:30 in the afternoon.

    so, i moved over to treasure island about 8 am, on thursday morning. had three rooms reserved, but as kid's college friends dropped out, was able to cancel one, and put sis and her friend in with my son, they were all happy with that, and saved me 70-110-110-70 on the third room for the 4 nights. more to spend on all the meals! they had a nice room ready for me, and got the keys for the kids room, so when wife and son arrived a little before 10, they could move right in.

    like me on the monday i arrived, they had gotten up at about 2:30 am las vegas time, so after dumping their stuff in the rooms, they were hungry. asked son if he could wait until 11:30, if it was for something really good, said he could, so we made our way up the forum shops, looked over the menu for the businessmans lunch at the palm, and walked around some waiting for it to open.

    we were seated inside, wanted to show him the caricatures on the wall. he and i had the steak, wife the fish, us the lobster bisque addon, him a caesar. all of us had the key lime pie for dessert. a 9 oz pour of cab for me, gin and tonics for them.

    price had went up since last time, i want to say it was now 25.99. the cottage fries and onion strings were now one of the side options, along with veggies, instead of a family style plate. still a lot more than one could eat, as both of us guys got it as the side, and then shared and swapped for some of the broccoli wife had with the fish. bread basket was good, but maybe not quite as wonderful as in past meals there, either.
    service was great as usual, and everyone from the waiter and assistant, manager and hostess were extremely friendly, and thanking us for coming in again. we thought it might be a little slow there, but on exiting found the outside, mall tables, all full, so i think they are doing ok!

    son was very impressed, and a taste of our lobster bisque made him order that as his starter when we ate at delmonico the next night!
     
  6. kitson

    kitson VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2004
    Messages:
    1,883
    thursday afternoon, as we were leaving carnaval court after the spazmatics finished up, asked son where he wanted to eat, or what he wanted to see. my wife had had her early morning catch up, and had left us and went back to the room.

    son had heard from some college friends how fantastic the bellagio buffet was, so since it was his trip, that is where we went. stood in line for about an hour, think the cost for two of us was 64 dollars.

    kobe beef top sirloin, toughest piece of meat i have ever been served in a buffet. i thought it was great advertising for the fraud that is the wagyu/kobe beef scam.

    other than that, hard to remember what i had. son, from what he had heard, thought he would just do unlimited crab legs, but i do not think he thought they were great enough to bother with seconds on them. oh well, been there, done that, and satisfied his wish to go there. in my opinion, bellagio buffet is over rated.
     
  7. kitson

    kitson VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2004
    Messages:
    1,883
    so, my daughter arrived pretty early friday morning, and while i went over to get in line at tix for tonight, the other three went over and got a table at bouchon for breakfast. i joined them a little later, they were not rushed so had waited for me over coffee and the mimosa.

    just reviewed the credit card bill, daughter's mimosa was 12.50, pastry and a fruit bowl, about a 25 dollar breakfast...the rest of us had omelette, or quiche, and that really good french press coffee, about 15 plus the 3.50 for the coffee. after tax and tip, almost a hundred for breakfast for four. but the service was good and the setting outside on the patio at bouchon was nice.

    friday night, the best meal of the trip, and delmonico did not disappoint. had made rez through open table, for 7, got there 10 minutes or so early, and were promptly seated. gin and tonic for wife and son, daughter will drink wine with me. kevin's wine for the times page had disappeared from the wine list, but got the mollydooker, the boxer, shiraz that i was looking for, 65 dollars i think.

    amuse bouche was a basil mint sorbet, very interesting, and better than it sounded.

    wife and daughter split the caesar, son had the lobster bisque, and i had the appetizer of the day, which was a salmon dish.

    everyone shared, except my son. after about the second spoonful, his comment on the lobster bisque was that it might be the best thing he had ever tasted. trip became a success, right there.

    he and i both had the bone in ribeye, daughter a lobster pasta, and wife the duck. everyone shared, it was all good, but really it was the beef that starred, as i knew it would. son's comment partway through that prime steak...i do not want this meal to be over!

    told him how special he was to us, and that the ranch could spring for a prime steak, once!

    after the meal, we all split one piece of emerils banana cream pie. i also asked son if he had ever had port, he had not, so i ordered him a glass. they were out of the 11 dollar port, so a glass of the 14 dollar port was brought. he liked it, and it prolonged the meal a little longer. sharing a dinner of this quality, with the family intact, seeing daughter for the first time since christmas, it really was a memorable night.

    we topped the evening off with the ten pm performance of blue man group, again this was son's request of the show he wished to see, so that is what we did.
     
  8. kitson

    kitson VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2004
    Messages:
    1,883
    saturday was trade show day, after the breakfast on the patio of kahunaville, did the trade show thing over at lvcc, and then met daughter and her friend from reno who had flown in to join us for lunch at toby keith's. service good, prices up a little from last time, not really much to say about it.

    dinner was appetizers at gilleys, after we played all afternoon there mid-strip.

    sunday, the kids slept in, they had closed gilley's down, we had the patio breakfast poolside at kahunaville. that afternoon, after the girls caught their flights back to their careers, we took off walking south on the strip, i was the only one who knew we were headed for the Monte Carlo brewpub, and when we walked in there about 4 pm, son was recovered from the night before, and he had a lot of fun trying a couple different brews, got a little beer education, and the view from our table right inside out to the pool deck was also great. wish i could remember the two appy's we shared, or the names of the beer, but will give two thumbs up to the monte carlo brewpub.

    we walked all the way to Mandalay Bay, crashed at the mb sports book, and at halftime caught a cab back to ti, and had a light supper at the ti coffee shop. nothing really wrong with it, but nothing to recommend it either.

    next day, got up, played some, checked out and stored our bags, and went to joes stone crab for lunch. the stone crab appetizer, while good, was certainly expensive for what you get, for us a been there/done that kind of thing. our sandwiches were good, and it was a good thing, because the next thing we got to eat was a quizno's sub at 7:30 that evening as we waited for the second plane.. we had arrived at the airport at 2:20 for our 4pm ish flight. 3X 12 dollar of delta vouchers buys 3 subs, one bag of chips, and one water. we griped, but after getting on the second plane, taxiiing out, then taxiing back and not taking off until 9:30 pm las vegas time, we were glad we had eaten there and not saved the vouchers for salt lake, because when we got in there at midnight mountain time, everything was closed.

    gotta admit, as well as we ate and drank for the four days prior to that, we probably needed a day when we ate less well.

    so that is it, this post makes it seem like the food was the important part of the trip, but in reality getting all four members of the family together, even just for the weekend...priceless.
     
  9. Suekel

    Suekel VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2010
    Messages:
    1,986
    Location:
    SW Florida
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    25
    Sounds like a great time, with a nice variety of types/costs of food. We took our nephew for his 21st last year and had a great time. I will never regret the $ we spent for that experience.

    Thanks for sharing your trip details.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.