1. Food court, next to the elevators, 2nd floor. Also Walgreens, outside near poker room entrance.
2. Illy, 1st floor between V/P or Coffee Bean, 2nd floor top of escalator.
3. Probably not except for Tao and Delmonico.

yea it's called Vegas. The Monte Carlo has a nice night club called Brand cover is $10 it's kinda of a semi ultra lounge nightclub with good music pretty laid back worth a look. Gets going around midnight. But twentysomethins are everywhere

Anyone hit up the caesars gift giveaway event, can u get table game vouchers?

mini TR

some random takeaways from my trip this past Friday-Sunday.

- i played at the aria and wynn. holy reg heaven. every table I sat at there were people i recognized, and recognized me from the last time i played there which was in April.

- denver poker was representing. at the aria on friday by chance the guy i sat down next to i had played with and talked with last week in a game in denver. when we started talking another at the table immediately next to us heard and turned around and said hello. then on saturday at the wynn it was another random aquaintance from denver poker... and on Sunday yet again another player sat down directly to my right who i had played with up here. finally on the flight home, the person sitting directly to my left flew in for a couple days of poker from denver who i recognized.

- Hyde is a nightclub for people over 40. We got a table and had a decent **** faced time a a bunch of dudes, but in the pretty full club there were less then 5 non-urban-type women under 30 which sort of was a buzz kill.

- got another table at marquee saturday but i didn't show up till 2:30am because of poker. I've never been to a nightclub completely sober and i actually had a really good time.

- after Marquee... went to Drai's from 4-6am. from great time to miserable time. poorley vintilated for the number of smokers. **** faced people bumping into you constantly. and holy **** being sober and the bass speakers make your ears blead. also was feeling pretty tired/****ty. i could go back **** faced but sober it was too much.

- bouchon for brunch was really underwhelming. ive been to french laundry and per se and you don't get anywhere close to the quality and service of his other restaurants in a giant casino. That goes for most all my experiences in doing Vegas fine dining.

- so im not a huge gambler and i usually stay away but being it was a trip with a bunch of non poker friends I decided to play a little bit. long story short I decided to play the 100/20,000 baccarrat at the aria for the first time ever. What an experience. first i go to an empty table and get the floor guy to explain all the rules and etiquette. then i go to scope a table. both have about $5k in front of them and are betting around 500-1000$ a hand. one is standard old frail but well dressed chinese guy. the other is a huge jabba the hut figure wearing a wife beater, athletic shorts a huge silk robe, black socks, and shower sandals from the hotel, and a huge gold watch. if i ever had to cast a southeast asian jungle drug lord for a action movie he would be it. They are sitting in the poker equivalent of the 8 and 2 seat and I decide to sit in between them and pull out 500$. Baccarrat is an incredibly slow game and its a lot of stairing at the felt waiting for people to make a bet in between hands. i was told that typically but not required everyone waits for a player makes a bet on player or banker then the other players follow suit on the same side if they want. so they basically just both sit and stair at me for about 5 mins while i just stair down at the felt doing nothing. there is dealer change and the floor comes over and tells the new dealer im a new player, never played. In unison both chinese guys immediately basically jump from the 2 to the 1 and the 8 to 9 equivalent (i cant remember how many seats there are... 7 or 8) and just lean back and stair sort of at me. Im told later that they believed i had power/luck because it was my first time playing and they were afraid to get too close. Then rapidly both players call for $20,000 in chips and the dealer hands them each 4 $5,000 white chips. They then both max bet $20,000 on the player and i follow along by betting 100$ on the player. The dealer deals. of course we have a 16 and bust. a few very loud chinese words are given and then both get up and storm off after the floor brings the marker for them to sign. some people really are crazy.

- Stayed at the monte carlo. it was ok for how cheap it was. the bathrooms are dated and have that black scum in the cracks and the whole thing smells musty but overall i am fine with it. one thing I really like is that it takes pretty much the same amount of time to walk to the aria poker room from the elevator tower in the monte carlo as it does from the tower in the aria.

oh yea and today im deathly sick.

Stair




Stare



JK. Sounds like you had a fun time. Grats!


Oh Yeah



Sorry. I have been day drinking irresponsibly.

OK, have to clarify- you weren't actually expecting Bouchon to be anywhere near the level of French Laundry or Per Se, were you?

no. but it carries his name. in general when i have eaten at these vegas restaurants with famous chefs they don't offer the same experience of eating at a nice restaurant in any big city in america.

I don't really think that Bouchon is going for the theme/experience that you expected tbh

well sure.... ive eaten elsewhere though.

i want to clarify what I meant. There is a lot said about "Vegas Fine Dining". A lot of that has to do with your famous celebrity chefs opening up restaurants in the last 10 years on the strip. i haven't eaten at all of them but I usually eat at one or two each trip. I realize Bouchon isn't exactly high end dining but it does carry his name so I thought it would be pretty darn good... being he is considered the best chef in the world. So far I have yet to eat at any celebrity chef restaurant in Vegas that holds a candle to what they are doing in New York, New Orleans or California... in terms of service... and somewhat in terms of food.

I only think this is important to point out because in Vegas at the very high end they are as expensive or more expensive then top tier restaurants elsewhere.

its like a lot of vegas. its so over the top at first glance it makes you go wow, but when you dig deeper you see how empty it is.

I don't think that they're going to hire you for the next marketing campaign.

i've also lived on south beach. don't get me started.

^Get started please...

that was about the general shallowness of everything... but i guess it could also be said that with the ridiculous amount of money sloshing around its puzzling why their dining is underwhelming also.

Because they will make you part with money one way or the other.

There is no restaurant in Vegas that will stack up to say an EMP even though most of the 5 or 6 top Vegas restaurants are going to be more expensive.

I really don't think you should consider Bouchon as fine dining though. Is the Vegas Bouchon worse or more expensive than the Napa Bouchon?

I'm surprised you feel Vegas does not compare favorably to New Orleans though as I feel the breadth of New Orleans as a food city is fairly limited.

honestly i had no impression of bouchon before going other then i saw it said it was thomas keller's place. i had no concept on size or price points. its not fine dining. it just sort of fit my impression of people whoring their name out of something that wasn't that great... relatively speaking.

like i think spago vegas is worse then spago beverly hills. but i also think the same about spago beaver creek. same can be said for nobu vegas/miami vs nobu london for instance. its not that its vegas that is so unique in this respect. its just that vegas fine dining which is much ballyhood is sort of bs. anyway, this discussion has sort of ran its course.

something I am more curious on, what are the current top 3 restaurants in vegas for fine dining? i'd be interested in knocking one or two off next time i go. restaurants come and go. i always like to check out new ones.

People will likely disagree but if I were to pick 3 at the top for what they do, I would go

Robuchon/Savoy, E, Kabuto.

Technically thats 4 but Robuchon and Savoy is likely a tossup. I personally love Twist but its probably a bit too weird for most.

I don't really want to pick 3 that are thematically too similar so went with a French, a new school Spanish, and a traditional sushi.

I do agree with you that you will not find a lot of fine dining value on the strip though I am a big fan of Sage and think its a good value compared to most of the strip restaurants and I like that its Shawn Mcclain's only restaurant. Where Vegas really shines is actually the off the strip places like Kabuto or Raku that serve great food at very good prices.

of all the restaurants you mentioned sage is the only i have been ha! i liked it as well. i thought it was very good.

ive never been off the strip anywhere in vegas except to a strip club.

Vegas fine dining is exactly like Vegas strip clubs. I can get better service and value in Houston or Atlanta or Montreal but I still go when in Vegas.

point made

Ok - where on or near the strip could er, a male someone go to get their er, umm, genital area shaved.

Asking for a friend.

the bathroom of your hotel room?

just go ask the local barber tom. see how well it goes over.

seriously wtf.

Why not laser hair removal? It's a bit proxy though .