Vegas Eats

Vegas was a great time and I have to say it is pretty tough to be home and back to work. Crystal and I ate and drank our way through Vegas over the long weekend. I will spare all of the details, but give you some of the highlights of the trip and go into detail about our two big dinners.

Saturday:

To start, we stayed at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay in one of their V-suites. The room was great and was slightly smaller than our condo. It had 1.5 baths and a separate living room and bedroom. For the rate we got it at, I must say it was a tremendous value. When we got in on Saturday we ate a really late lunch at a place called Border Grill, that was good mexican food. Nothing out of this world, but certainly a filling and much needed lunch. Would recommend their guacamole and the carnitas tacos. Margarita was nothing special though.

Our next meal did not come until almost midnight, after an extended night of drinking and gambling. We decided to soak up some booze with burgers and fries from the Burger Bar in Mandalay. This place is owned by Hubert Keller, who has a few upscale places, but must say the guy can make a burger. Burgers were pretty coarsely ground and were served medium rare. Burgers were great, but the best part of the meal was when a drunk woman tripped over a bar stool and ended up legs straight up in the air laying on the floor. Vegas!

Sunday:

Sunday was mainly spent watching and betting on NFL football. Lunch was rather mundane at a place called Nine Irish Men pub in New York, New York. Cool place, average food. Wouldn't recommend for food, but if you are in the casino and want to get a pint, its serviceable.

Dinner on Sunday was the star of the trip food wise. CraftSteak at MGM Grand! It was a suberp steakhouse that served not only delicious steaks (right up there with the best I have had), but great sides, desserts, and starters. One of the better meals I have ever had and the atmosphere and staff was top notch. I will be back.

Starters -- Crystal had the Lobster bisque and I had a spinach salad with truffles and asian pear. I remarked to Crystal that even with the salad I could tell we were eating a great place. It had so much flavor for so little ingredients. It was excellent. Crystal's lobster bisque was decadent, it had large chunks of lobster and a very creamy tarragon flavored base. It was phenomenal. Crystal is a bit of a lobster bisque expert and I think this may have been her favorite.

Entrees -- I had the dry aged New York Strip, it was served carved off the bone and was massive. 16 oz. was listed on the menu, but this had to be more. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare and was as good of a steak as I can remember having. Not over seasoned or gimmicky, they just let the steak shine.

Crystal had the surf and turf (I must have inspired her from my meal on Friday) which was a filet mignon with grilled prawns. The prawns were seasoned very nicely and were quite large. Her steak actually had an interesting flavor to it, which she did not care for. So, I gave her half my steak and I had a little turf and turf. Her steak was flavored in what I can only describe as the flavor of a chinese duck dish. Could not place it exactly. It worked for me, but found my steak to offer a much purer steak flavor.

We got some risotto as a side dish and it had butternut squash and hen of the woods mushrooms. All I can say is mmmmm...would go back just for that.

Dessert -- Monkey Bread, not the most elegant or refined dessert I have ever had, but one of the better tasting ones. Great way to end the meal.

Wine -- Had a great bottle of wine with this dinner, 2006 Hall Cabernet. It was big, bold and held up very well to the flavors of the steak. A great wine that I will look forward to drinking again soon. For a wine this good, it is a great value at under $40 retail. A definite go to wine for special occasions.

Will be back over the weekend to discuss Monday's meals...