Dinner at Big Wong last night. Extreme downscale. Solid inexpensive food. We shared a ten piece fried shrimp wonton. $5. Brother was filled by beef ramen, also $5. Dinner including dessert, $21. Felt like we were back in the seventies. Will return.

Don't know if its been mentioned but Braddah's is ****ing AMAZING. Its like chipotle but actually good.

Hell yes it is. In fact, I was planning on going there for lunch.

Nem Nuong Bistro, best vietnamese in vegas. Obviously, order the nem nuong.

Bachi is ok, nothing more. Best thing is the oxtail chili fries with egg.

Concur that Steiner's is great bar food.

Checked out a total hole-in-the-wall on Sahara a couple nights ago. Island Style is a Korean-Hawaiian fusion joint. This place is so divey but it's kind of awesome. It really feels like things should be served on styrofoam plates.

Banchan was kimchi, pickled radish, pickled cucumber (all good), saltwater boiled peanuts, and what I think were crispy rice noodles in mayo. We demolished those mayo-y noodles even though objectively they are kind of a gross concoction. My wife justifies it by "they were a good balance to the kimchi," but it was straight gluttony. Hey, whatever, they were tasty.



We got an order of gyoza, which were tasty and cooked well. Mains were the spicy squid and pork (basically pork bulgogi) and the chili jajangmyeon, which is noodles in a black bean sauce with sliced jalapenos.



Everything was really good, and the bill was like $30. And we just bought a house like 2 blocks away, so this is gonna be in the rotation for sure. Weird place though. Can get spam n eggs, loko moko, all sorts of stuff.

Oh lawd. I love the jajangmyeon

No pics but went to Sweets Raku tonight for dessert. It's not something you need to do often, but it's definitely a fun way to end a night. Super creative and well-executed desserts. There are 5 "main" desserts that you can order a la carte for $12, or you can get the tasting with amuse bouche, your choice of main, and a petit four for $19. $7 for the wine pairing that varies by main.

This place is so solid. Now I have two clear dessert recommendations for people looking for an experience: Sweets Raku and the Rick Moonen ice cream game.

I got there as soon as it opened. The location is a bit divey but I went with all the solid reviews and glad I did. No doubt a repeat visit is in order in future visits to LV.

I had the combo which included the meat jun. Some sort of thin beef with egg batter pan fried. Thought it was good but not great.

Will have to try more of the Korean entrees next time.

9:15p

Can't decide where to eat for our first night in vegas. Rest of the food schedule is below.

Thurs Dinner -
Fri Lunch - Tacos El Gordo
Dinner - Raku
Sat. Lunch - Lotus of Siam
Sat. Dinner - Craftsteak

Got to be less than $40/person or so. Staying at Cosmo, proximity to hotel is a plus but not required. Any suggestions?

Holsteins gets a lot of nominations for best burger on the strip, probably 30pp with a beer for everyone. Obv the location works.

For ten bucks more than your budget you can do Bacchanal @ Caesars which is pretty damn incredible for a buffet IMO.

Had dinner at Mesa Grill at Caesars last week, thought the spiced pork tenderloin was really, really good. Friend loved her grilled chicken/pesto mashed potatoes too. I generally think Mesa is underrated (been there forever so maybe people are tired of it?) Entres are in the $30-$40 range so you can get close to your budget if you don't order alcohol/apps.

Rollin Smoke BBQ is like 8 minutes away. Gets very good reviews, I personally think the BBQ is more good than great, but I"m in the minority. Their Outlaw Burger is legit delicious though. Entres are all <20, and for like $25 I think you can get AYCE of anything on their menu.

I'm a big fan of Pizza Rock downtown, very good beer selection and their New Yorker and Margherita pizzas are two of my favorite things to eat in town. Deceptively easy to spend $40pp if everyone is having a couple of beers, but you won't go much over that.

I think there are several AYCE sushi reviews ITT that are ~30, I haven't tried any of them though.

Edit: Oh one more, Yard House @ Linq is a pretty well-tread chain at this point I think, but great beer list and the food is pretty good in my experience. I usually end up just splitting lots of apps with friends, trying 2-3 different beers and usually can get out of there for around 40.

Edit2: Ah thought of another. Only went once and it was like 3-4 years ago, but had a blast at Hofbrauhaus one night. Next to Hard Rock so you have to drive, it's a German style Beer Hall, huge (tankards? flaggons? steins?) of beer, german food, people standing on tables and singing, waitresses dressed like St Pauli Girl, etc. Was very raucous, lots of fun. IIRC entres were in the $20-$30 range, so easy to blow past $40 as you order your second beer, but also a place you can spend 2-3 hours or more drinking and having fun for the night.

RBK: Raku Sweets is cool. I enjoyed it as an experience with my gf but think of it more of as a one time experience(or once every couple years). I just don't enjoy desserts enough to go to a sit down place for 45 minutes semi regularly.

jawhoo: Agreed about bacchanal. I think the food quality there is higher than most restaurants in Vegas. Unreal. I had a big series a couple years ago and they gave me a diamond card so my max wait is 15 minutes even during their peak days/hours, so it's ultra convenient. The lines can be 2 hours+ at times, so it's best to choose off days/hours.

Looks like a winner. Rollin Smoke BBQ is a good option

So Binions opened a new BBQ joint with a pretty legit lookin smoker....anyone been yet? Probably going there tonight to use up some comps.

http://www.binions.com/dining/bennys..._and_brews.php

Hofbrahaus is awesome.

The show/band at Hofbräuhaus is awesome (the current band configuration counts a genuine xylophone virtuoso as well as an enthusiast with a vintage accordion), the house brew is absolutely enjoyable, but - the food is below sub-par (and way over priced, if that even makes sense to say about marginally in-edible chow).

Go there for the fun & the beer, but do yourself a favor and have dinner somewhere else.

Holsteins

We hit this up after a 24 hour bender that ultimately put me under for about a day, so I probably wasn’t in the best condition to be woofing down a burger, but we had wanted to try this place out, having already done many of the other ‘to do’ burger places around town.

First the positives. The milkshake was exactly what my poor abused stomach needed. Delicious!

Similarly, the onion rings were some of the best I’ve ever had. Super crunchy and just all out yum.



Unfortunately, the burger was totally underwhelming. I had the gold standard. The flavour was nice but it was a little dry, and really just didn’t grab me. My pal had the standard and said it was good without being amazing. Perhaps we just had an off day. I’ll definitely give this a try again at some point.


Yusho
This is a Japanese place just outside Monte Carlo. We stopped here just to grab something to pad our innards with mid way through aforementioned bender.

Incidentally, that bender kicked off as a consequence of being served cocktails by angels at the sports bar in the PH miracle mile. We’d only gone there to do ‘a little quick shopping’ for our respective better halves, stopped in the sports bar after lunch for ‘one quick drink’ and woke up at 4pm the next day only being able to account for roughly half of the hours in between. I’m getting too old for that sort of thing.

Anyway, I digress.

Yusho was decent for a place for a quick bite. We got the Logan Poser Raman, grilled chicken, and pork rib. The chicken wings were little flavour bombs. Raman was ok, and the ribs were tasty if not super tender.



Incidentally, there is a chinese place just inside Monte Carlo. We stopped there just to find a seat to watch the Brazil/Germany game but wound up having something to eat. I fully expected it to be awful, but we both had the sizzling platter and agreed it was one of the nicest casual meals we’d had in days. Peppery and delicious! Some of their lunch specials looked average so we might have gotten lucky with the barman’s recommendation, but worth a look if you want a quick meal with your sports.


Five50 Pizza
Had a slice of the Gotham. Awesome base. Quite salty but yum nevertheless.




Rollin’ Smoke BBQ

This place was awesome. Just a heads up, I am not a bbq aficionado. I’ve had it at lots of different places in the States and there are some joints starting to create some really good bbq over here, but I’m no expert. All I know is that this tasted great.

They dry rub their meat and even though it tastes great naked, it tastes even better with some of their sauce, which comes normal, sweet or hot (the hot has some kick).

The baby backs were the stand out, but the spare ribs were great and the beef rib fell apart. Ridiculously good bacon potato salad and beans.

The only tip I have is either plan on taking some home, or don’t plan on doing anything requiring physical exertion for at least two hours afterwards.

Had yet another great dinner at Ichiza a few nights ago. Finally ordered the honey toast, which is all sorts of simple gluttony.

Had a couple of good lunches the last few days as well.

1. Carlito's Burritos. Burrito was solid, though I'd recommend going with the combo burrito instead of the "Carlito's Burrito," which is double meat, no filler. It was honestly just too much. I had the adovada with Christmas tree (red and green) salsas. For $3 extra you can make it a combo, which includes a sopapilla and two sides. My two sides were a pork pozole, which was very good, and a green chile pork stew, which was a bit thin for my taste (but which is apparently normal for green chile pork stew) and spiced well. The sopapilla was large and entirely unnecessary, especially since I ate it with a great deal of honey. I was way, way overstuffed after eating the sopapilla, pozole, and half the stew/burrito. Dining companion had the enchiladas, served with a fried egg on top. We decided that the way to go might be a combo burrito, smothered in the green chile stew, covered in cheese, and baked. Anyway, definitely worth checking out. I am a fan of Komex, but I get my Asian fill elsewhere, so having a decent local burrito joint is pretty solid. Will return.

2. Zen Japanese Curry. So amazingly wrong, yet so right. Lacking a solid Indian place in the area, this will definitely get worked into the rotation. Simple curry, rice, and whatever meat you want to put on top. I got the pork katsu, added cheese to the curry (hey, why not), and asked for a spice level 6. Was a decent amount of spice, though my guess from the taste is that they added heat with little added flavor, so I don't think the heat is particularly worth it. Split the curry pan (which is a turnover filled with curry and veggies) and the fried oyster app special with a coworker. Both were tasty. Everything was served with pickled onions, pickled radish, raisins, and sliced almonds. Was out for < $20 ea after tip. Solid, though not outstanding, spot. My opinion of that shopping center keeps getting higher.

Ate at Joyful House for the first time this week. Really solid chinese food. Didn't get the $180/bowl shark fin soup, but the honey walnut shrimp was pretty damn good anyway.

No solid Indian? Mint is delicious.

Came from an Indian mecca so maybe I'm jaded; Mint is passable and will do in a pinch, but I'm not in love. Maybe I haven't had the right stuff yet. I work right by there so I have opportunities to go there frequently.

To be fair I haven't had Indian food in england or anywhere 'authentic' so my expertise isn't great in that area. The mango curry at Mint is so great though.

Have only done the Mint buffet - agreed it was a solid B for a buffet, but not special. I haven't had a really good mango curry in years though, excited to try!

Also +1 to the Honey Loaf @ Ichiza being a must-try for gluttons. So good.

Indian food should be judged by their lunch buffets.