Burger Bar too.

Went to heart attack grill in mid December when I was out there. Something about the combination of wayyyyyyyyyy too much cheese and wayyyyyyyy too many grilled onions made the burger taste kinda off. The butterfat milkshakes had not much taste other than butter, but the fries were great. Recommendation: since it's inevitable that you'll not finish your meal, don't bother bringing home leftovers. The taste of the burgers is pretty mediocre to begin with, but it's positively awful heated up later on. Don't bother here.

Heart attack grill emphasizes size and presentation over quality. But it's a cool experience and really pretty cheap considering. We had three double bypasses, three orders of fries, three huge milkshakes, and three drinks for about 50 bucks. If you drove through McDonald's and ordered that kind of meal it would come close to 30 bucks.

Would recommend it as a try it once kind of thing. The cash only thing really blows, though. I wound up getting stuck with the bill cause I was the tourist with the cash on him lol.

Sorry that I don't know much about per diems, but is it where you turn in your expenses and are reimbursed? If it is, would they just reimburse you up to $26 and anything more is on you?

Yes, but some accounting departments are very anal about expenses incurred and require that only applicable charges appear on the receipts you submit for reimbursal. I work in hotels and people routinely ask to have various personal charges split off from the main folio. Obviously that would be totally kosher.

But things can get hairy with the company, for instance, when you charge even 30 to the account instead of your allotted 26. They may flat out deny the whole 30 dollar bill. Usually you must stick strictly to the per diem, no spreading it around to other days. Accountants hate that.

Boss going to Vegas and will be eating at Flay's restaurant and Lagasse's sports stadium restaurant. Suggestions on what to eat?

Somewhere else?

Serious answer: There's a duck entree at Mesa that's supposed to be pretty good. I imagine Emeril's place will have really good gumbo.

But yeah, those places are the culinary equivalent of The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.

Do you have something against balls of twine?

Signature pork tenderloin dish @ Mesa is pretty decent.

Any reviews on Otto at Venetian? Wife and I eat at the one in NYC quite a bit and wouldnt mind something familiar during our upcoming trip

It's a solid lower-key choice. Not fancy, fairly casual but nice, reasonably priced (for Vegas). I've been there a few times and have never been disappointed.

It's really good. I've never been to the NY one so idk how similar or not they are. Looking at the website, it seems the Vegas menu is mostly the same, a bit shorter but also has a few things the NY menu doesn't.

It's in "Saint Mark's Square," in the shoppes in the Venetian. Eating there is a bit like eating in a bizarro world mall food court with a fake-sky ceiling and Venetian "street performers." Depending on how you feel about such things, this may add to, detract from, or not impact the charm of the place, but it's probably a pretty different ambiance from NY.

I think Mesa is a great spot for lunch. The spicy sweet potato hash is an excellent meal.

Some of the drinks are also very tasty!

Dont forget about the spam museum in Minnesota either.

If you like Cuban food (I love it) a great spot to hit up is the Havana Grill.

http://havanagrillcuban.com/

I had their ham/pork cuban sandwich and plantain. Wife had some kind of Cuban salad with orange,apple,spinach,spiced chicken etc which was great.

Bill for two stuffed people was $30 inc tea & a Heineken.
I am looking forward to returning and trying other stuff.

The Burger Brasserie, in the walkway between Ballys and Paris Hotels.

That's hardly the consensus.

The shout-outs are usually (in no particular order) Burger Bar @ Mandalay place, BLT @ Mirage, Le Burger @ Paris, stripburger @ Fashion Show Mall, Holsteins @ Cosmo.

Of those ^^ I tried, BLT was very ordinary for the money.

My picks would be to go to Carnevinos (Palazzo) or Delmonicos (Venetian) and have the burger off their lunch menu.

a place on the strip where I can get a dish of chicken breast, brown rice and vegetables, preferably not fried (poker diet)?

thanks

Might not be on the menu, but Noodles in Bellagio will hit the spot. You can order plain chicken breast, a bamboo basket of steamed mixed vegetables and boiled brown rice. Not sure about the calorie content, but their hot sauce on the table peps up the rice perfectly too.

Edit: Just checked the menu, poached chicken and an order of bamboo vegetables - all on the menu.

I really liked the kobe burger at lagasse's. At least I think it was a kobe burger, but it looks like they might have downgraded it to a regular angus burger according to the menu online. Either way, I loved the bun. perfect burger bun imo

Thanks for the suggestions. Back from my trip and managed to stay under the $26 budget for all meals even if I did end up basically doing a burger tour of Las Vegas.

Hit the following places:

Burger Bar @Mandalay - Been here on the previous 3 trips before this and it seems like it has gotten progressively worse each time. I loved it the first time a couple years back but this time it was just not good at all. I doubt I will go back again. $19 after tip.

KGB (Kerry's Gourmet Burgers) @Harrah's - Good in a fast-food kind of way. Hard to explain this one. Definitely wouldn't have called it "gourmet" in that it didn't have that high-grade meat and quality type feel to it but it was still good in a greasy-spoon kind of way. $18

BLT @Mirage - This was the highest-quality burger. Cooked exactly medium. Good ingredients, good atmosphere etc. This felt like going to Burger Bar a couple years ago. $23

Non-Burger places:

Grand Luxe @ Venetian - This was adequate at best. I think I overheard the waitress say this was actually just a renamed cheese cake factory? If that wasn't entirely true the description is accurate. Huge menu, decent food at a reasonable price, exactly what I expect from a Cheese Cake factory. $22

Munch Bar @ Caesars - Had the Asian Chicken Wrap. It was pretty good w/ quick service, I was able to get in and out the one day I only had 45 minutes for lunch. $17

Carnegie Deli @Mirage - Worst meal of the bunch. I had the pastrami and it wasn't that great. I was really surprised by how dry and flavorless it was. This was the most disappointing for me because I usually love deli's and had heard good things about this place. Maybe just an off day? At least it had decent half-sour dill pickles. $22

La Salsa @Caesar's - Was in the mood for Mexican and couldn't go very far due to lunch time. I wasn't expecting much but was very surprised by the Green Chile Chicken Burrito. It was pretty damned good and the right amount of spice on the chile's to give a nice burn but not overwhelm. This was probably the best cheap meal I had because it satisfied an exact craving. $16

Hash House a Go Go @IP - Huge portion of good food. I was barely able to finish half of my Corned Beef hash. Great place to go if you want a very filling breakfast. I'll be hitting this place again in the future for sure. I wish I would have had more days where I had time to go to breakfast before the conference since I would have hit this place up repeatedly.

Other places on my own tab:

Bouchon - Fantastic. Don't think I need to go into detail on this one.

Craft Steak @MGM - Very good. I love the prawns at this place. I don't eat a lot of seafood but those things are good enough to have me sucking the juice out the heads. NY Strip (angus) was very good, the Ribeye (angus) was better.

Pampas - Brazillian Steakhouse. Perfect for two guys, half-drunk, who hadn't eaten since breakfast. Couple of the meats were great and a few were just average but for $32 (w/ coupon from girl in the mall) I'll take this over any of the buffets. Although, the shrimp that were included in the deal were beyond terrible.

Mandalay Buffet @ Breakfast - this was not good in any way and I would suggest people avoid it. They didn't even have a good fresh fruit selection which is just awful for a buffet to be lacking.

Awesome summary... I am heading back down in two weeks and I also have a few work-related days where I need to stay to an affordable budget... They are not as hard on an exact limit, but expect it to be reasonable. Your post will really help with that! Thanks!

I worked for Cheesecake Factory when it came about. It was conceived as a coffee-shop version of CCF, so everything is supposed to be about a half-step down from the regular restaurant.

Kraftsteak is the only "cant miss" with a decent amount of value offered(im from Chi for reference) in Vegas. I used to love Fix but the B had to go jack all the prices sky high and mess with the menu(where did my duck potstickers goooo??).


If youre stuck at Caesars you can get great value / portions from a salad if you simply check nearly everything(yes, meat included) at their salad place. Forgive me if they somehow caught onto the fact this wasnt really bright as far as their bottom line.

For cheap Mexican I dont mind Robertos(im sure ill catch flack) bc basically its what you want in Econo-Mexican; cheap, fast, cheesy and greasy...with huge portions. Try the Carne Asada nachos if you dare. They seriously probably have 150g of fat in an order. It should be 3 meals by all means...

High end I like Joel Robuchon's places...Atelier in particular.

For poker play nothing can compete with Lux Cafe or the Venetian....try the Buffalo Chicken sandwich, or the spare rob sandwich if you can hand 1500 calorie meals that are actually super tasty.

...and good luck at the tables...