Good Food, Cheap Food, & More Good Food!

As this is our 4th trip to LV this year, I will just touch on the highlights and good FYI stuff!

We drove this time as we had to take our 16 year old to a Summer Flight camp in Arizona. We got to the Grand Canyon Saturday and stayed over night near the park entrance. On Sunday, My 16 yr old and I hiked 3 miles down the Bright Angel trail in less than an hour and turned right around and hiked 3 miles up hill, which we made in just under 2 hours! Needless to say I was sore the rest of the week!!!

Monday morning we drove to Prescott and dropped off the teenager for his flight camp, then we drove to LV from there and made it in 3 1/2 hours. We checked right in at the RIO and got our comped room in the Impanama tower. I tried to test out the $20 trick but the desk clerk even though from my home state was not to have any part of it. Oh well, still nice rooms for free!

I had planned a suprise early B-DAY dinner for the Mrs. I reserved a nice booth at Casa Di Amore - a nice local quante family run Italian restaurant east on Tropicana. They even had free Limo service to pick us up at the RIO!. I then had our friends meet us at 7:30 out front to suprise my wife! She was clueless! She thought they just happened to be there. Then when she realized I had planned the suprise, she still did not realize that I did not just hale a Limo until we pulled into the restaurant!
Well the dinner was wonderful! The food was real good and at reasonable prices. You can check out the menu online...

After that, we went to Tequila Joe's for Kareaoke. (sp) The limo even dropped us off there. I ended up giving him good tips for the round trip $120...

Tuesday:
My wife had a spa appointment, then on to the strip. We played Black Jack and Craps at IP. The IP even had $3 craps tables and Double deck $5 true BJ!!! I was suprised to find that table in the "Champagne" pit. After a slow grind we played slots here and there, then we used the coupon for the Bottoms Up show with free admission for a $8.00 drink. I have to say, the show was OK, but I probably would not waste my time again... The comedy was cheesy and there really was not much dancing in the whole show. By now it was almost supper time, so we then went to Delmonicos for supper. Again, another wonderful meal! This was a little more pricey but the Filet Mignon, the bottle of Keenon Merlot, and the service were both great and the Country Gumbo was to die for!

Wednesday:
Checked out of RIO early and into the Venetian by noon. We got a standard Suite, which was nice but the view was of the East... The check in lines were long and the place is too big!!! I am spoiled at the quick VIP checkins we get at Harrahs properties I guess...
We then went to the pool for an hour or two. Boy was it hot! They made a great Hurricane at the pool bar though!
We then went back to IP as we had alot of food comps to use. The Pizza Palace had a slice and a soda for $3.25 what a bargain. The slice was HUGE like the pizza at Ray's in New York only with a thicker crust. I had a bowl of spagehtti for like 5.50, which inlcuded a salad and garlic bread!

I then played in a 2-4 poker game at IP and in less than an hour and a half had built my $100 buy in to $240! Let me tell you, I had some real amateurs at that table! I do not call myself a poker pro by any stretch, but these guys were easy money!
I then met the Mrs. back at the Venetian for a quick nap before wondering up towards the Westward Ho as I wanted to play Jeopardy quarters there. On the way we stopped at the Stardust for our first visit. Not a bad place and the Sports bar was nice. They were showing the Cubs Cardinals game, so I just had to watch the Cubs blow a lead multiple times including a 9-5 lead later in the game!
Oh well, onto the Ho... We played a long time on the Jeopardy Quarters, before getting hungry and deciding to head downtown to the Great Moments room at LV Club.

We were able to sit right down at about 9:00pm and had another wonderful and reasonable meal! We had an Entertainment coupon for up to $36 off a second entree. We both ordered the Filet Mignon, which by the way were HUGE and really good. All the food was good and they even brought around a complimentary after dinner cart with premiuim Liquors! Of course I had the Grand Marigner (sp) and the Mrs had a good Jamaican Cocoa Liquor. Amazingly, the waitress even took the full $36 off the bill even though the Filets were only $28 each! The total bill came to $49 for 2 filet Mignon's, including salad, veggies, and a nice bottle of 2000 Kendall Jackson Merlot plus the after dinner drinks!!!
We were more than pleased with the Great Moments! We ended up tipping her $30 for the bill.

After dinner, we wondered over to Binions where I was battered around at the $5 Craps table! I lost a couple hundred in probably less than an hour! It was terribly cold and I kept wishing I would just go dark side as when on my come out rolls, I could throw 7's and craps consistently!

After the beating at craps, we played Roulette for a bit and was just getting the dealer into the game when we hit a cold spell and wiped out our small $60 buy in.

We left Binions and walked by a strip club that my wife insisted we check out so she could see what they are like? They suckered us in with a "free cover". But as soon as we sat down, they told us a 2 drink minimum per person and the drinks were like 7.50 for a Malibu Coke! Oh well, it was fun as the Mrs. had never been. Although I thought the "dancers" were not very impressive at all. In fact one of them was FAT! She could lose 40lbs and still have no business on the stage! We finished our drinks and decided to head to the Four Queens.

Thursday:
Last full day in LV... We played slots at Venetian, Harrahs, and IP, as well as the Jeopardy quarters at Oshea's. My wife won $125 on them this go around!
We then used our comps at the Barbeque place in IP. I had the Filet as usual and the Mrs. had Ribs. The meal was ok and being comped we could not complain. But I suprised the heck out of the hostess when I suggested they try making some good real homeade Baked beans instead of using Van De Kamps!!! She was shocked that I knew what brand they were!

After dinner, we had free tickets to Clint Holmes, which was wonderful as usual! We were glad to see him as we were not able to use our free tickets last time there. He is such a great singer/performer and he puts his heart and soul into the show!. He also surrounds himself with great talent.

After the show, we played at Harrahs a bit then got a craving for Breaded Mushrooms and Cheesesticks but did not know who would have such a thing. So we proceeded to wonder the strip in search of this bar food. Obviously the Grande Lux cafe did not have these things, nor did TI. By the way, we had terrible timing coming out of TI and hit the Pirate show that just ended. The mob of people was insane! I cannot imagine any show being that good to stand elbow to elbow in the hot desert...
So we ended up at Dennys by Casino Royale, which turned out to be a really good place. The service was really suprisingly good! They had a manager there that knew how to train the staff on good service. They even gave us free apple pie to go, because they had to make the Biscuits and Gravy for me, which made my wait longer. That was a real nice gesture on their part!

Well by now we had to get to bed as we needed to check out by 8:00am and hit the road...


PS,
I am changing my signature to Pay the Don'ts and take the Do's!

After noticing in Vegas how easy I can roll the 7 and craps on the come out set, I just made an experimental run at a locals casino last night betting the dark side when I was the only one at the table. I can hit the 7 and craps like crazy on the hard 12 set!
I did not want to try it while others were playing so a buy in of $100 made a slow grind down to $30, before I made it all back and then some on just two quick rolls of betting the Don'ts and laying odds!!! I cashed out at $150...

I might have found my signature numbers - 7,2,3,12!

T-60...

[ June 27, 2004, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: NEON ]

 

Nice report, Neon, but I think you'll catch hell around here for the sig I didn't know IP had a poker room, wonder if that is new?

 

Hey, I'm a big fan of betting the dark side. Suprisingly, I've rarely had someone give me crap about it.

Can't believe you got sucked into the Gultch!! LOL!! Live and learn.

You ate at IP. You are a brave man.

Thanks for the report.

 

I know, I know, the bad words "Dark Side" but after several beatings and seeing that I can hit a 7 at command on the strt 6's set, I began to think????

The IP poker room has only been open a month or two. As for the IP food, it is actually not that bad and since we get comped like crazy there, hey, its free!!!

 

Copy that, I can turn the flying-V into a seven at will. It's why I gave up setting.

 

I enjoyed your report Neon!

I'm not sure you mentioned it would be her birthday before, so I'm glad you went with the Venetian over MSS!

Also, thanks for the head-up on the IP poker room. I might try out a 2-4 table there next time to see how the competition compares to the MC. Does the IP have any bad beat jackpots or good hand progressives like the MC does? Also, is it a nice room, or something they've just thrown together next to a bunch of slot machines?

 

Good questions Rob,

The IP poker room is more of a makeshift room on the 3rd floor opposite the hall to the sportsbook. I believe it used to be full of slots and they just took a bunch out and put in a half dozen tables. I did not notice any special pots. However, they were very friendly and will give a small amount of comps for enough hours played!
Also, the dealer I had was very good looking!