Thanks. Wine collecting is pretty much #1 for us the past 10-15 years, along with eating and gambling. Considering you get corked bottles of sperss and 1st growths with no recourse, it’s basically gambling too lol.


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I know. Feel like a total fool. What a shame. Gotta always load up the machine a bit more.


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Thanks. So this is Carnevino at Palazzo? Do I have to call ahead of time to let them know I want the Riserva, or just show up (w/ reservation, of course) and roll the dice?

Hey Leon,

Yup Carnevino is in Palazzo, actually the first thing you see when you walk over from Wynn across the pedway and then go inside the doors. You just take the escalator down and it's right there. It's probably the closest restaurant you can go to that's not actually in the Wynn

I definitely hope to hear you try the riserva steak. As a warning it will be vastly different than snow beef

I always just call the day of to confirm they have riserva and which cuts then make a reservation. Go with the rib eye or T-bone/Porterhouse over the strip loin IMO. It's a big restaurant so you could probably walk in pretty easily as well.

When's your next trip roughly? I'm looking at Easter but not sure yet.

Nice to hear Ping Pang Pong at the Gold Coast was renovated.

For years, they were the stone cold nuts for Dim Sum..then the last time I ate there, the quality had gone WAY downhill.

Looking forward to trying them again on my June trip..

Actually I’m curious if anyone else has found any great dim sum in Vegas. PPP is good but nothing special compared to places in San Francisco for example. I’ve tried orchid gardens which was pretty good, but if anyone has had anything really great I’d love to hear it. One of the big advantages of PPP is being open til 3 am. Unfortunately they don’t have carts at that time.


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I'm definitely going for it. Despite what my TRs tend to show, 99% of the beef I eat at home and elsewhere is the "good steak" variety. My wife and I are the clowns who roll into our local butcher and empty them of their stock every 3-4 weeks haha. The snow beef/Wagyu/etc tends to feature a lot in Vegas bc I can't get that anywhere else, esp for free.

Everything you describe about the riserva sounds like the bomb. I'm the guy that eats only the edge of the prime rib or the rib cap when I can get away with it.

My parents should be back in May so definitely then. I don't think I'm going to be able to fit another trip in before then but if I do I'll keep you posted.

Lucky Dragon had great dim sum in the restaurant upstairs. Then, the whole place shur down in January...

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Day 3

Oof! The Tokyo Tea and Red Bull is hitting me something fierce. It combines to give me the most fluorescent/green urine I've ever seen as well as a nose bleed in the middle of the night.
Maybe not the brightest combo of drinks. I get the nosebleed while taking a piss and then just pinch my nose since Mike is a light sleeper and I don't want to turn on any lights. Laid in bed pinching for 15 mins and by morning the amount of blood on my leg and in the bed was minimal lol. I'm sure they've seen much worse in Vegas and I always tip the housekeepers well.

I guess I haven't had a jammer or gone in to Afib though. One of my other doctor friends managed to get himself into SVT from Red Bulls one Vegas trip, but he just had to Valsalva a few times and got himself out of it. He kept going in and out of it for a few hours, but eventually he converted for good. Don't need a wallet biopsy by going to a hospital while traveling. Also, can't waste those hours in Vegas.

After looking at the hockey schedule for the day, and having won the previous two days, we think we're some kind of sports betting wizards. Boston has got to be the lock of the day vs. Buffalo, right? Not so much, as Buffalo will spank them later that night. Why didn't we take Buffalo at +340. Manage to get 4 of 5 teams right on two different 5 bet parlays, that also sucks. In one, we have Columbus and New Jersey in the under and Columbus puts up 6 goals, WTF.
This is the point where all sports bets go awry for 24 hours. Manage to get a little bit back when Edmonton and San Jose score 10 goals for the over, but otherwise a bad day.



We head over to Momofuku in Cosmo for lunch and grab some banh mi as well as the brussel sprouts dish. Having been to Ko and Ssam Bar in NYC, I think that Ko is definitely a really great restaurant. Ssam bar and the Momofuku in Cosmo are more casual restaurants and target a much lower price point that Ko, but I find that they are a bit more of a place to be seen for the millennial food blogger (haha, I'm one of them), rather than really great restaurants. David Chang is a bit of an ass and the food should be better overall IMO.

The Brussel sprout dish was definitely the best as it had a good balance of heat and acidity and the mint adds a very nice flavor. The banh mi are on the heavy side and with both the shrimp and pork belly are lacking in acid to balance the fattiness. I found the same with the mushroom one last time as well. Also, the pork belly was even more fatty than normal and the outer fat had a distinctive piggy/gamey taste which was not good. I may give this place one more chance with a different menu section, but after a few times here and Ssam bar, I'm not eager to go back.


Brussel sprouts


Shrimp banh mi


Pork belly banh mi

From here we head back down to TI for some more blackjack. Mike has won both sessions so far this trip, blackjack is so easy. The $10 tables are either full of people smoking or guys who are playing completely terrible strategy so we decide to just play the $25 double deck in the hi limit room. It is amazing that TI has this in the hi limit room and even better, the dealer stands on soft 17. Pretty great. We decide to team gamble $250 each and split the profits which ends up working great since I am getting absolutely crushed in the 1 hole. I go through $500 myself over a couple of shoes, fortunately Mike is continuing his sunrun. I think he won about 80% of the hands he played including every split or double. On a 13, he'd hit an 8, on 16 it was all 4s and 5s. It was amazing. After about two hours we are up about $800 so decide to head over to the Wynn and watch some of the hockey games in the sportsbook.




On the way to the sportsbook I have to get a little TDB in on Leon's machines, so put in $100 just for fun. I then pick up this...



AND...



Mike is super psyched about his blackjack winnings and is basically content to lock up a win for the trip. How I wish to go back to the time when this would be a big win and get me super pumped. It's nice, but would be a lot nicer if we had been playing $100+ per hand

After watching Columbus put up 6 goals and ruin one 5 team parlay, and Minnesota shut out Chicago 3-0 to ruin the other, it's time for dinner. Chada Thai doesn't have any open tables for an hour, but Chada Street is ready to go now, so we head over there for some delicious Riesling and Thai food. Chada is awesome for thai food and I think better than Lotus. The wine list is also excellent, although since Bank Atcharawan left to open Patio, I think they're basically just selling stuff off and unlikely to replenish it like before. Maybe I'm wrong, but Bank was previously the wine director at Lotus for years and once he left, their list fell off as well. Sad.

The other crappy thing is the service has really gone downhill. I've had the same server the last two times, young asian guy, shaved head, no personality and has no idea about the menu, the wine or anything else. He is the nut low server.

The good news is they still have some great Riesling for retail price or less and the food is still solid.



Chicken satay with peanut sauce and cucumber - Excellent



HOR MOK PHUKET - Steam fish curry in banana leaf. I really like this dish, it's like a thick gelatinous fish with thai basil.


Fresh oyster with chili paste, fried shallot, seafood sauce - Great combination of flavors and just the right amount of heat.


Duck panang curry - So delicious, must have item.


Pad Kra Pow - Ground pork with chili, garlic and thai basil. Very good.


Wines were a 2005 Hexamer Spatlese and a 1997 Von Othegraven Berrenauslese. Both of the wines could use a bit more acidity, the Hexamer was particularly low in acid for a Spatlese from 05. More like an 03. Fortunately, super sweet and viscous wines pair great with the heat of the food. Thai food and Riesling is definitely an all time great pairing.

After dinner we go back to TI for Mike to play one last blackjack session and his sunrun finally ends. We end up down a couple hundo and he is ready for bed. It's only 11 PM and the last night in Vegas so I am definitely doing nothing of the sort.

I drop him off and then head over to Aria for a little Saturday night poker. I initially look at the $2/5 game with a bunch of backpack wearing grinders. No thanks, I'll play drunken $1/3. The game is decent and gets better when Slim (Arthurbach on 2+2, go read his awesome TRs) and his friends make an appearance. I say hi and hope he sits in the game, but it's not to be as he is with a girl and heading back to PHo. Two of his other female friends do play for a while and bring some decent action along with them.

I have a couple of lovely hands when I manage to have overpairs on boards of 4474 and 666 and lose to quads both times. Both hands were raised preflop and called by random garbage that connected. Fun. Fortunately losses were less than $150 each hand.

I also manage to stack one old man with AQ when I turn a boat, and get a decent amount of chips off a young grinder when I river the nut flush with AQcc. Overall it's a fun and profitable session, and I end up around $750 from $300.

I decide to grab a slice of pizza from Five Fifty at Aria, not as good as Cosmo secret pizza, then head over to Cosmo to donk off a bit at the VP. I manage to punt off $900, but take three of the magical Cosmo hi limit cookies to bring home for wifey. These cookies are super tasty and at $300 each, a relative bargain. They also remind me of the #1 poker degen, TJ Cookier.


Five fifty pizza - Leek, potato, onion, sausage. Good but needs some acidity to balance it. Creme fraiche would work nicely.


$300 cookies from Cosmo brought home for wifey. Reminds us of...


TJ Cookier. We call these the ultimate degen rungood cookiers!

The next morning we grab some Carl's Jr. at the airport and back to snow central. I also pick up some Auntie Annie's pretzels for wifey, she is carb loading hard tonight.


Hot Carl

Not sure when the next trip will be, but hopefully March. I realize that low stakes NLHE are still incredibly profitable, mix games are just so much fun though. Next time will be with wifey again and maybe do some fancy French food like Robuchon or Guy Savoy, though not totally sure. I'm sure there will be Kabuto as well and was also looking at Sparrow and Wolf. If you have any suggestions for food or the TRs in general, lemme know.

Thanks for reading.

TF

Great TR!

Thanks for the report! Great stuff.

Fantastic report. Thanks for sharing. You and your wife sound a lot like my husband and me. We love wine, gambling, and food, although I think you are a few levels above us in wine and food knowledge -- and a few levels below us in age

We'll be in Vegas March 28 - April 1. Let us know if you are around. We plan to hit Kabuto on the 28th (my b-day) and will probably live at Aria PLO the rest of the trip -- unless there is still snow in Lee Canyon, and then we'll be snowboarding every morning!

Great TR. Love hearing about the wine. You know what you like and communicate why well.

Great TR! Those look like no banh mi I've ever seen though.

Awesome report.

Have you been to Japan before for a food trip? So much good fish at crazy prices.

You’re right, they’re not banh mi, they’re just a form of steam bun. My bad.


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Yeah Japan is the nuts. Did 22 days of eating there last March-April and have pics of fish coming out my ears. Going back for September and can’t wait.


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Thanks. Kabuto will be awesome, have fun. I'll try to keep the thread updated and let you know if we're able to make it in March/April.

Thanks, I'd probably have gone the MW route if I wasn't in medicine, but did a lot of the independent study anyway. Now I don't taste as many wines as I used to, it probably peaked in the several thousand per year range, but focus a bit more on what I like than tasting everything under the sun.

TF

Oh man, if you like the rib cap, this is the steak for you! That's prolly my favorite part too. Looking forward to your thoughts on this one.

TF, Leon:

Just gonna drop this in here:






Tomahawk ribeye and ribeye cap from grilling last weekend. Ribeye cap is so great!

Going first weekend of March, really torn between carnevino for the riserva or bazaar meat.

Looks awesome.

Simple answer for your question is both.


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Holy ****, great TR. Yes, give us the how to play hands and strat on weird games. Love the food porn. Love the Mike almost racking up into his shirt story. Overall, would read again.

NICE... man, I need a new grill. Ours is too old and heats very unevenly but it seems like we're always having to fix or replace something in our house. I need yet another project like I need a hole in the head.

Thanks. I now realize I forgot my other two Uber stories. I have to share them.
Both happened on the last day.

In the afternoon between going for lunch and heading to TI to play blackjack we went over to the Westgate to cash Super Bowl bets. They were mostly props and we lost a bit on them, but won on Amendola over 4.5 catches, Foles throwing a pick (which wasn't his fault at all) and both kickers making field goals over 33 yards.

On the way back from Westgate we called an Uber and were standing outside the sportsbook in a line already filled with Ubers/Lyfts. The car we're supposed to get in is an empty Nissan Versa. We're like WTF is going on. Just then the Uber driver calls us and he's standing about 40 feet away talking to what I def think is a working girl. He waves at us then proceeds to wrap things up and come over to us. We all get in his Versa which is not running and he sits in the driver seat and furiously tries to put her contact info into his phone for like a full minute. This guy is a squirrely little dude and we're looking at each other like this is shifty/hilarious.

We finally get driving and are heading up Spring Mountain and at the stoplight between the Wynn and Palazzo. We're in the left hand turn lane and the light is red so our driver figures he'll be nice and let someone into the lane. He puts it in reverse and backs up to let the person in

We wait another minute and when the light turns green he is still in reverse and backs up

We're lucky in that no one is close enough behind us to ram, so he throws it in drive and then takes off toward the light. Because we've gone backwards, we now get to the light just as it turns red again and he slams on the brake as we pull across the crosswalk. My Fiji water flies forward and disappears under his front seat, lost forever. I kinda wanna get it, but worried I might cut my fingers on a crack pipe or needle, I decide against it.

Now he's like OMG don't give me one star and laughing his ass off. Mike and I are laughing our asses off too as this whole scenario is just way too ridiculous.

1-Picks up hooker during Uber ride
2-Reverses in traffic
3-Runs red light and stops in intersection

We somehow make it to TI alive and he completely whiffs on the entrance so we just hop out half way to Mirage.

The second Uber ride was after getting picked up at Chada Street that night.
Our driver Ahmed is clearly stoned when we get in. We start talking and he finds out we're from Canada. He then asks if we're from the part with all the "French speaking Asians"? Mike and I are rolling around laughing and he keeps going by telling us about how they're apparently an "infestation" in Canada, just like "latinas infesting the US". His name is Ahmed. The whole thing is too perfect.

As we're talking, we are going up Spring Mountain again and it's about 9 PM. For those who don't know, coming over this hill towards the strip it's a 6 lane highway where everyone is doing like 80 mph. A guy is walking across the highway at a leisurely pace and Ahmed swerves/flicks his brights we narrowly miss him. I think for sure this guy is gonna die as he's only crossed 3 of the 6 lanes. I look back and two more cars swerve and the guy actually makes it across untouched. I couldn't believe it.

Ahmed is laughing his ass off saying the guy probably ate too many gummy bears and thought he was running. Bahaha. Ahmed also misses the turn into the TI entrance.

Uber is not what it used to be folks.

Wow sick trip reports, looks amazing. Seems like docs in Canada are doing just fine, you all have any shortage of shrinks up there??