Get in Mah Belly! (Mostly Food Porn)

This is a solo trip, and I'm leaving for the airport in 9 hours. I am visiting my work's Las Vegas office. Most of the trip report will involve offstrip restaurants, although I might visit a casino after work. I love food, am frugal in some things but not others, and I am an extreme micro-roller that is far more entranced with the idea of gambling in a casino, as opposed to actually doing it a lot.

Obligatory drink photo to start things off right ... I drink these without booze, though



Flights: Delta there, SWA on the return. I saved $65 booking that way.

Hotel: Tru by Hilton at LV Airport. I considered staying at a casino / Strip property, but I saved more money by staying at Tru. I'd had considered LaQuinta at Summerlin, but my return flight takes off at 6am, and well, I wanted to stay as close to the rental car return as possible, to be able to eke out all the sleep time I could

Getting Around: Car rental through Alamo. Used an offer with them to get an upgrade. Will see what I end up with.

My list of restaurants I intend on visiting include but is not limited to: Bachi Burger, Tacotarian, Veggie House, Cinnaholic, Bottiglia, Cafe Berlin

Possible Casino Trip: I may make a visit to GVR's casino after eating at Bottiglia. I may also take a turn at an hour of Bingo for giggles. Alternatives are Suncoast or Red Rock, depending if I want to visit 90 Bar & Grill or 8 Noodle Bar. Might take a peek into Southpoint for Bingo and to be nosy.

I'd considered simply hitting buffets for the whole trip, but I really wanted to experience multiple restaurants for this, and I tend to be a "eat once and done for the day" person at a buffet, and this is a short trip.

I am somewhat disappointed by the weather forecast. I had been looking forward to the glorious dryness of Las Vegas. Which, as I think about it, even when raining Las Vegas is likely still drier than Atlanta.

Ah well. I'm out of the house soon, so must finish packing! More later

~C

 

Good luck. I’ve been tempted to give a try at Bingo- haven’t played in eons. I think some of the ladies take their Bingo seriously. We don’t venture much off strip- It is nice to see reports with different places.

 

It took somewhere around 20 minutes to get through security and settled in at the gate. For Hartsfield-Jackson, that is pretty damn good. Checking out my fellow passengers here at the gate, and it appears to be a solid mix of business and personal. No obvious bach parties. This early in the morning, I would not expect that anyway.

~C

 

Allrighty then.

Upon boarding the plane, I found that a woman had taken my seat. It was a middle seat. I prefer middle or aisle. She offered up her boarding pass and said said "Want to trade this middle seat for a window seat?" I didn't particularly, but she was already in my seat, and I was not inclined to make a fuss and cause passengers behind me to wait. The fare was Basic Economy, I didn't really care all that much. I went to the new seat at a window. Pulled out the camera ... figured I might as well snap some pictures. I now have a newfound love for taking sky and cloud pictures, heh. Here is just a few of the ones I took during the flight.




Landed, got to the rental place. Alamo gave me a Kia Soul. I rather like how it drives. I had not eaten anything for breakfast before or during the flight, so decided to checkmark one of my restaurants off the list, by heading to Cinnaholic. The concept is they take a cinnamon bun, and then put your choice of icings and toppings onto it. I chose this vanilla "faux cream cheese" and blueberries.



Once that was in mah belly, I went off to my appointments and meetings. Nothing of interest to this trip report there. Once done, I headed to Tru to check in. The front desk folks were more than lovely, helpful, and accommodating. I'd done what I swore I wouldn't, and asked for a different room than the one initially given based purely on the fact I didn't like the view. The new room had a much better view, and just "felt" nicer Of course, it isn't a fancy view by any means, but I do love mountains.



Once settled in, chatted with the Viking a bit, and then headed on over to Bachi Burger for dinner, and to tick that off the list, too.

Their strawberry lemonade involves freshly squeezed lemonade and crushed / pureed strawberries.



For starters, ordered the Bachi Pickles, which is assorted vegetables that they pickle in house. Some of these veggies I recognized, such as the beets, garlic, and cauliflower. Others, I did not recognize. It all got eaten, however.



For the main course, got the "No Meat Here Burger". This consisted of a wheat, red bean, and shitake mushroom patty, topped with Japanese eggplant and mixed greens all on a toasted bun with a bit of chili lime vinaigrette. With this I ordered sweet potato fries. Dusted with sea salt, it came with a yuzu citrus aioli that was ok, but not great. I asked for the pineapple ketchup, and THAT was very nice.




And now, with mah belly full, I am back here at Tru, penning this trip report. It has been a long day, and I am looking forward to some sleep

~C

 

Nice read so far. Have a great time and don't work too hard!

 

I really appreciate how articulate you are...

 

Thanks for doing this! I love food porn and like I’m seeing places I haven’t heard of before

 

Why thank you!

Most welcome While I am not a vegan, my diet is non-red meat and non-dairy, so I tend to side to those vegetarian / vegan options when possible. Las Vegas appears to have quite a large selection for such, as compared to Atlanta.

~C

 

Day Two started with hotel breakfast which was cute, but standard fare. The oatmeal was particularly good, but I like oatmeal. Tru's concept is to provide basics, and then asstons of toppings and things to mix/top with. Dried cranberries, blueberries, nutella, almond butter, peanut butter, chocolate, granola of varying flavors, etc. Said basics being doughnuts, bagels, oatmeal, english muffins, toast, eggs, varying cereals. I enjoyed the watermelon juice.



Then came meetings and appointments.

Then came lunch! I had wanted to go to Veggie Delight, for their lychee slush, but they were closed. I instead went to Veggie House. The folks there were exceptionally pleasant. I got the turmeric salad to start, with hot tea. The salad included lettuce, cucumber, avocado, fresh jalapeño (which I ended up avoiding, as they were too sharp even for me) tofu bits, and tofu skin. The dressing seemed to be peanut based, and did have turmeric. It was fresh and quite nice.



For the main, I went with the Vegan Japanese Ramen, which used a miso based broth, and all of the "standard ramen meats" were handled using soy in various ways. It was surprisingly tasty.



Then more appointments and meetings.

For dinner, I decided to head to Tacotarian, because what else do you do on a Tuesday but go to a taco place? For starters, I got guacamole and chips. It was fresh, and chunky, just how I like it. Their recipe includes generous cilantro and lime. Very nice. I also ordered a non-alcoholic Sangria, which had me examining the bottle multiple times to ensure it wasn't one of those non-alcoholic drinks that really were "low alcoholic drinks". It wasn't that I was getting a buzz ... it was just the taste of it that was so identical to a decent sangria. Nope, straight non-alcoholic, and refreshing! Pretty casual place. And from what I could see, quite busy.



Then came the tacos! A gabacho taco that had beyond beef, lettuce, cheddar, crema, and pico, then a barbacoa taco which consisted of chili braised jackfruit, onion, and cilantro, and an al pastor taco, which had avocado cream, pineapple, pico, and salsa. I didn't care for the jackfruit as much as I could have. The other two were delightful. So much so that I ended up ordering another gabacho taco, as well as a their super taco, which is a gabacho wrapped in refried beans and a tortilla. I came to regret this later. Not that the food was bad, but it was an over indulging that created some heartburn in the middle of the night.



Mah belly was completely full and pleased (at least until the middle of the night) with Day Two.

~C

 

I like all the food pics however I can’t get past, “I prefer middle or aisle” seat. I prefer aisle but would take a window over a middle seat anyday.

Tru’s breakfast looks decent. I tend stick to one hotel brand so only know their breakfast offerings. Nice to see what else is out there.

 

Preferring middle or aisle is purely because my bladder is small, and I hate having to ask two people to get up and let me out. And I have to get up and go at least once, often twice. My first preference is aisle, and if I can't get that, middle, so I only have to bother one person.

I wish I had taken more pictures of Tru's breakfast in hindsight. There really was an impressive array of toppings and cereals and fruits and granolas and such. The waffle irons were shaped such that you made waffle boats, not flat waffles.

Here's a picture I found that, while not the one in Las Vegas (Its in TN) is pretty accurate to what I saw in LV.



~C

 

I'm enjoying this. I always love food porn and I'm finding these healthier options rather interesting.

 

Day Three, my last day, proved to be rather tiring as I was not able to get the kind of sleep I wanted. Tru's bed was quite comfortable, but heartburn had me somewhat restless. My fault completely. I skipped breakfast, as mah belly was still full and somewhat miffed over being overfilled the night previous. I did grab some watermelon juice, though.

The day was full of meetings and appointments and driving around. I was most pleased that whatever rain that occurred (and some did) during my trip thus far had been quite late at night. Snapped this photo during my running about. There was nothing special about it, but I do like mountains I was busy enough that I completely skipped lunch, and didn't even think about it.



For dinner I decided to go to Bottiglia. This meant a trip to Green Valley Ranch, which I found nice. The air quality was quite good in there, and I found it clean, airy, and overall quite pleasant.



I arrived at Bottiglia a little after 4, but they did not open until 5, so I opted to go to one of the GVR bars and have a drink or two and pass the time. Now, I don't drink alcohol, but I do so enjoy a mojito without booze. I went to Sip and the bartender mixed this boozeless mojito for me that not only was larger than I expected, but was also quite nice. Not too sweet, plenty of mint, fresh lime and lime juice. Very very nice. The second one she mixed in a touch of strawberry puree which was also lovely.



I decided to play a bit of video blackjack there, and fed a total of $20 into the machine. This kept me busy for around 45-50 minutes or so. Then I cashed out. $15.50 left out of the $20. I guess I played long enough ... the bartender comped out both my drinks before I had finished playing. So I think, considering that I got two large free drinks (even if they didn't have booze) that likely would have cost me more than $4.50 .... that I actually came out ahead!

MICROROLLIN' !!!



Headed over to Bottliglia next. I really loved the styling and ambiance of the place. I should have taken pictures, as I think about i. I did find a photo that is very accurate, though. I just adore the colors.



Bread was provided, and I opted to get a side of pasta marinara as a starter. Yeah, I know it might be an odd starter, but it is what I wanted at the time. They had two non-alcoholic mixed drinks on their menu. A rosemary lemonade and a pomegranate basil limeade. Over the course of the meal I ordered both. The rosemary lemonade was nice, but not memorable for me. The pomegranate basil limeade, however, was a definite hit, and I would return just for that.



For my meal, I chose gnocchi pesto. This was a pistachio pesto that was quite creamy, along with non-dairy cheese. My tastebuds and mah belly sang happy songs with each bite. A most lovely and wonderful dish. Service was gracious, on the ball, and not syrupy or overtly gratuitous. In other words, they consistently checked on me at appropriate times and were polite and friendly without being overly so. I would like to note that both my starter and my main meal were so fresh and hot that the food was still steaming. Now, I prefer for my food to steam. I can never get that in restaurants, typically, so I was overjoyed and tickled to have it here.



I should have ended the meal there, but I had a little room left, so opted to order the chocolate coconut pudding. This was dark chocolate, coconut cream, and hazelnut shortbread cookies. Edible flower petals as garnish were a pretty touch. No dairy at all, and my typical issue with using coconut cream as a replacement is that coconut can often have too strong a flavor. In this dish, however, it balanced with the dark chocolate quite nicely. I crumbled the cookies into the pudding Delicious dessert.



Mah belly was full! Almost overfull, but I learned my lesson from the day previous, and didn't push matters. Made the journey back to the hotel, started the packing process, and mentally reflected over the trip. I managed to go to all the restaurants on this trip's wishlist, except for Cafe Berlin, so placing that on the next trip wishlist. The plane home was scheduled to leave at 5:55am, so it meant a really early start. Turned in early, woke up, and drove the one block to the Rental Car Center. Can I say how much I love having a nice hotel next to the Rental Car Station? On the plane, then back home. If it weren't for the Viking and our dog, I wouldn't want to come back home, heh.

Looking forward to the next trip, whenever that may be.

~C

 

Great report. Glad you had fun.

 

We ate at Bottiglia two weeks ago while staying at Green Valley Ranch. We really enjoyed it. Great food, great atmosphere, great service.