Author: LVA

There are a lot of good bar steak specials out there—Mr. D’s. Jake’s, Jackson’s—but this one at Scoundrels Tavern & Eatery might be the best (not counting our Member Rewards deal at Jacksons). It’s served Tuesdays only from 3 pm until they’re gone. It’s a 16-ounce ribeye that comes with salad, loaded baked potato, vegetable, and garlic toast for $19.99.

This meal is terrific and it’s huge—one dinner will easily feed two. The salad is a notch above to start, the big baked potato comes with butter, sour cream, bacon bits, and cheese, and if they’re lying about the in-house-cut ribeyes being 16 ounces, it’s because they’re bigger than that.

Do They Get Gone?

Yes, they do. Lots of steaks come out of the kitchen and we’ve been there around 8:30 pm when they’ve sold out . They usually last longer, though (the bartender usually knows exactly how many are left). Best to order as soon as you get there.

Other Items

There’s a big menu. We’ve tried the burger ($12.99), the cheesesteak ($13.99), and chicken fingers ($13.99). None of these stood out like the steak, but they’re decent options if it’s not Tuesday.

Parlay With the Bonuses

Scoundrels has a play-$250-get-$50 sign-up bonus and a play $500-get-$50-bonus Sun.-Tues. from 8 to 10 pm. These can be played on the same day. Show up before 8 for dinner, then play after.

Watch the Games

Scoundrels is a good sports bar to boot, with sports always on the big screens. The only negative is the location, way out on the north side at 6310 N. Lamb Blvd., but it’s a straight shot out I-15 N near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On our first visit, we took a brief look around the Fbleau food hall and were underwhelmed by the offerings and overcome by the prices: $18 for a slice of pepperoni pizza and a Bud Light; $35 for chips and salsa, a burrito, and a churro; $20 for an orange juice and cinnamon roll; $16 for a chicken sandwich. Then there’s the expensive stuff: $18 for a bagel and lox; $22 for a Wagyu and quail-egg bowl; $25 for a cheeseburger and truffle fries. Yikes.

We were, however, impressed with the venue on the second floor of the building. It’s expansive, comfortable, and welcoming.

On the second visit, we dug deeper and we’re glad we did. This food hall is more than meets the eye.
Yes, the burgers are dear, but Capon’s is a venue of Josh Capon, a celebrity chef in New York, after making his bones at restaurants all over Europe, appearing on numerous cooking shows, and winning the New York City Wine and Food Festival’s Burger Bash six times. The Smoke Show burger is slathered with mustard, then grilled and topped with cheese, strong pickles, and a signature onion-and-bacon jam.

Bar Ito’s proprietors are Michelin-starred chefs Kevin Kim and Masa Ito, who also own and operate ITO, a New York City omakase restaurant, and the ITO in the Poodle Room, Fbleau’s uber-exclusive members-only club on the 67th floor.
Miami Slice, we understand, is one of the most popular pizza places in south Florida; the story is it took the proprietors two years to perfect the dough.

Likewise, El Bagel started as a popup at food truck events around Miami and gained a cult following; last year, Bon Appetit named El Bagel one of the “best bagels in the U.S.”

Still, as on our quest to try the least expensive item at Durango, we wanted to see how little we could get away with spending at the Promenade Food Hall. Next time, we’ll try the burger, a slice of pizza, or a taco, but this time, we opted for an everything bagel and butter, total price $3.99 (cream cheese raises it to $6.50).

We ordered at the counter. When we sat down at a table, we saw the QR code for the menu app and were surprised by how many more choices are available in the online ordering system than on the signs at the outlets. For example, we could have ordered the bagel toasted, untoasted, or even burnt. We could’ve added onion, tomato, jalapeno, or dill for an extra $1 (each, of course), plus lettuce ($2), Swiss or American cheese ($3), bacon or sausage ($4), pastrami ($5), or roe ($6). We’d have never known that just from reading the signs. The tacos have six substitutions, a dozen add-ons, and gluten-free and allergy-free choices. Bar Ito has a complete sushi menu—three handrolls ($33) or five ($50), with lobster, spicy scallop, hamachi, and roast shiitake.

We spent an enjoyable 15 minutes perusing all the different selections, while scarfing the bagel, with was excellent, by the way, oversized and the most loaded-with-everything everything bagel we’ve ever eaten. We’d go back for one — or a dozen — of those in a New York minute.

Roadside Taco and Break, the coffee and pastry bar, round out the Promenade’s offerings.

You’ve no doubt heard or read by now that Fontainebleau is a sparkling brand-new hotel-casino with numerous jaw-dropping and wow-inducing features and the seating area at Promenade is without a doubt the nicest of the two other recent openings (Durango and Rio) and in the top two of them all.

But nowhere is Fontainebleau more sparkling than in the bathrooms. It’s worth the trip just to see these—each at least five times more expensive than this reviewer’s entire house.

We revisited Durango to take a closer look at the Eat Your Heart Out food hall.

EYHO is, actually, a hybrid space comprising both fast-food counters with common-area seating and sit-down restaurants with fairly expensive menus. The restaurants justify, we suppose, the description of the 25,000-square-foot food hall as “elevated,” the latest buzzword indicating fancier and more sophisticated than usual.

The fast food includes Irv’s Burgers, Uncle Paulie’s, Prince Street Pizza, Nielsen’s Frozen Custard, Vesta Coffee (with its own 10-seat counter), and the center bar, Drink. You order and pick up at the counters, like any fast fooderies, then sit in the common area or outside on the patio (it can be windy out there; we almost got blown away both times we visited in March).

The sit-down restaurants are Ai Pono Café for Hawaiian street food, Shang Artisan Noodle, Yu-or-Mi Sushi, and Fiorello Italian (which has a take-out window); the Oyster Bar is at an 18-seat counter (and is open 24/7).

We tried a burger from Irv’s and a sub from Uncle Paulie’s.

Irv’s traces its history back to 1946 when it opened in West Hollywood on Route 66, as Queen’s Burgers, one of the first roadside burger stands in the U.S. It was renamed Irv’s himself when Irv bought it in 1970; it was sold a couple times since then, though the name hasn’t changed, and the chain now has four locations in southern California and this one in Vegas.

Irv’s serves breakfast starting at 7 (till 11 a.m.) and continues with the burger menu till midnight, 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. The least expensive burger is the Just for You; at $4.50, it’s also the cheapest prepared food you can buy at Durango. Great L.A. reputation notwithstanding, you get what you pay for. It’s a sesame-seed bun, a patty, and a slice of American cheese; that’s it, folks. To us, the best thing about it were the sesame seeds.

To be fair, you’re supposed to build your ultimate burger from the Just for You and the add-ons: lettuce, tomato, pickle, raw or grilled onions, and/or hot honey mustard (.50 each), egg or hatch chile ($2), chili ($3), bacon ($3.50), even pastrami ($5), along with a choice of sauces (.50 to $4). But we wanted to go as cheaply as we could at upscale Durango.

The fries ($4), on the other hand, were the quality of In N Out and the quantity of Five Guys, making them perhaps the only bargain in a joint that proudly proclaims there are no bargains. With tax and tip, we were outta there for a bit more than $10. Next time, we’d probably try the Original Roadside Burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and Irv’s sauce for $8. That said, there’s an In N Out only a couple of miles away and we’d go there any day instead.

Uncle Paulie’s is another southern California brand with three outlets and this one at Durango. They call it a “deli,” but even an Italian deli is a stretch. It’s really a sub shop.

We got the cold Italian sub with unnamed cold cuts, provolone, roasted red peppers, lettuce, and vinegarn to compare it to the sandwiches at All’Antico right across the street. At $16, it was a buck or two less than All’Antico’s average price and it was a big sub, no arguing there, but that’s where the similarities end. It’s like the difference between Boticelli’s Primavera fresco in Florence and a velvet Elvis at the Bonanza gift shop. Why buy generic American at a casino when you can get celebrated Italian with just an eight-minute walk across Durango?

We didn’t try any Prince Street Pizza; frankly, it didn’t look like anything special. If we find ourselves at Durango sometime in the future, we’ll sample some Nielsen’s Frozen Custard, but don’t hold your breath for a review.