Viva Las Vegas…Part 4 – Let’s Eat!

Now that we’ve walked up and down the Strip, you must be hungry.  I know I am.  When we got to the hotel and checked in, we were a bit peckish so we decided to eat at Todd English’s restaurant in the Bellagio, Olives.  Even though it was January, the weather was fantastic, so we sat on the patio.  Here is the view:

We just planned on having some little nibbley things, but you know how that goes…3 appetizers and an assortment of flatbreads later, we were stuffed!  Lucky all we had to do was waddle to the chairs on the casino floor and work out the arm muscles pulling the one armed bandits!! (Note – you don’t have to pull the slot machine arms anymore, they are all electronic, but sitting and pushing a button would hardly make you think we got any exercise, would it?)

Later we ate at TAP Sports Bar at the MGM Grand, but we were all super tired so I don’t really have any opinion on the food…pretty sure I had a burger, but that’s about all I can remember!!

Most mornings we ordered breakfast from Bellagio Room Service to save us from having to wear real clothes that early in the morning.  They do a fine job at coffee, fruit and pastries and for us that worked for breakfast…besides, we had one special Sunday brunch planned and if it wasn’t going to be that good…why bother??

Lunch that day was at Julian Serrano, which we have already talked about…Tapas, crazy bathroom floor, winning at Aria, LISTEN TO PETER!  Here are the pics just in case you need a refresher:

And then it was time for dinner at Prime Steakhouse.  Since this was my first trip to Las Vegas, it would obviously be my first experience at this restaurant, but Mike and Peter talked about it for EVER! I hoped it was as good as advertised.  It. Was. Fantastic. Expensive, yes, but fantastic.  I had the Filet:

In the background, you can see the sauces served with the steak.  There might have been more than one, but I can tell you for sure that there was Bearnaise Sauce…and I might be able to tell you that it is awesome on the potatoes too! You can see those in the background too, along with crazy good mushrooms and yummy onion rings (that could possibly taste awesome dipped in the Bearnaise sauce also!!).

Dessert was equally fantastic…although I thought I was going to explode if I ate one more bite…I managed to choke a bit down.  For the sake of research, you know.  Its really for you, because I care. You’re welcome.

So now its Saturday…and that means more food, more gambling, more walking the strip…you know: The Life.

There are several restaurants in Las Vegas that are tradition for Michael & Peter to eat at, and we didn’t always agree that we should hit all of them together, for instance for dinner tonight, Michael and Peter wanted to go to Shibuya, a Japanese restaurant in the MGM Grand.  Japanese food is not my favorite, so we decided to split up and eat at different restaurants…although they did sit with me so I wouldn’t look like a big loser eating by myself!!  I ate at Michael Mina’s Pub 1842.  In fact I had the 1842 Burger.  It was good, it was a burger, I know, not very exciting.  So lets move on to Shibuya, where Michael and Peter ate.  Since I didn’t sit with them (they were sitting at the bar and its rude to take up a place if you are not eating, plus they didn’t have the loser factor) I did not get pictures of their dinner, which was sushi of some raw fish flavor.  The chefs stand right at the bar and roll up your order for you, they are crazy talented!  I did get a picture of the dessert they served for Michael’s birthday as I conveniently showed up to check on them right as they were being served!!

There was a chocolate thing and a green thing.  None of us have any idea what they are.  The chocolate one tasted pretty much like chocolate and the green one…well, we really don’t know.  Green Tea? Mate? Something, but none of us were particularly excited about it.  The berries were good though!

Then…SUNDAY BRUNCH!  The one non-negotiable meal of the trip.  We HAD to go to Jasmine for Sunday Brunch.  I really did not understand why a Cantonese restaurant was such a great place to be for eggs and waffles, but I would soon find out.

Oh. My. Goodness. Gracious.  This food was Ahh Mazing.  It is served buffet style, with your typical omelet station, bacon, sausage and all that regular old buffet breakfast food.  But what makes this different are the Cantonese recipies they throw out on the buffet…Duck steamed dumplings (btw – if anyone knows where to get this in NC, please drop me a line!!), lobster thingies, caviar on everything.  It was amazing.  If I had known how good Jasmine was going to be, I would have skipped eating the previous few days.  And for any loyal readers that are thinking about putting this on your foodie bucket list, alas they have stopped serving brunch at Jasmine, so it looks like this was my one, first and last experience with Cantonese perfection.

Later we were catching the red eye back to NC so we had plenty of time to work off that meal.  We toured Madame Tussauds (I have a bunch of pics from that, but most of them might be illegal so those will just stay in my potential blackmail file!), gambled some more, walked the strip some more and I believe had one more burger at (Insert Celebrity Owner Here)’s Burger Bar.

All in all, I really loved Las Vegas.  I can’t wait to try it again!  Up next, Freedom of the Seas Eastern Caribbean Cruise!!

TTFN