Before I continue with the food portion of these trips, I do want to apoligize for any spelling errors that that I have made or will make. i am not a typist but do try as best I can to check what I have written before posting.
Food:
Let me first qualify this and say that these comments are based on my personal opinion. You or others may have a different opinion on the resturants named.
Just because it is free does not mean that I will eat it. This in particular apllies to the new menu at Magnolias at the Four Queens. All of my actual room stays were at the Four Queens and the California/Main Street Station. When I stayed at the Four Queens I would often use my points to eat meals at the Boyd properties downtown.
First I will cover the non downtown restaurants:
I used the coupon in the LVA for $25 off a $50 minimum purchase from the steakhose (Austins) at Texas Station.I had a filet, a lobster tail and a twice baked potato. The steak and lobster tail were O.k., I was disapointed in the twice baked potato. I found it to be a sloppy mess. I was seated near the front, and there was a draft which kept blowing out the flame on the melted butter container for my lobster. With the discount the bill was about $40.00. When I was there on a late Thursday when I presented the coupon the waiter said " I don't see why they still have this coupon". Probably becuse there were only about 4 tables occupied. From looking at the current website Austins now appears closed. Texas Station does probably not get enough high end customers to support a more pricey restaurant.
The buffet at South Point. I liked this buffet, I ended up eating there twice, once before a show , and once to use the AGC coupon. The price is $15.99 during the week with a players card for the dinner buffet. Every day they have prime rib, made to order pasta, and a mongolian grill, gelato ice cream. This is one of the few buffets that I would be willing to pay full price for.
Big Als Oyster Bar at the Orleans. Had the Bouillabaisse. It was a little picey, I used my points to pay for this. It was O.K., there was enough to feed two people.
I made a side trip one day when I rented a car to go to the new AAA office on Chareston and Rianbow to gat street maps of Las Vegas. On the way back I passed by the Shlotzskys Deli on Charleston. I alays wondered about this place.I ordered a sandwhich to go. To me this is subway wannabee. The bread I think is baked in house and it was cheap, but the quality was lacking. I don't see how they stay in business.
Downtown:
Golden Nugget Buffet. ate there once. Price for dinner buffet $22.99 during week nights.. Only things I liked were fried fish, macaroni and cheese and the ice cream. I would not eat there again even if it were free. If the the buffet at the South Point was next to the Golden Nugget, they would put the Golden Nugget Buffet out of business.
Binions:
Have not tried the Deli or BBQ. Will probably try the BBQ next time.
Steakhouse. Ate there once with the 20% off coupon as detailed previously. Had the lobster tail, the french oniion soup, and a baked potato. Paid the bill with points. THe lobster tail was O.K. I was warned that the french onion soup was salty. It was. I would not order this again. The baked potato was a pleasant surprise. I would say that this was a ltttle overpriced.
The cafe. Was pleasantly surprised. Besides points earned for food, I got a lot of food coupons from the kiosk swipe machines. Liked the breakfast and the hamburger, will try other menu items next time.It is a small place, and can get quite busy. Sometimes there are no seats available. you need to have a seat even if you have a to go order. Contrast this with:
Four Queens:
Magnolias. As far as I am concerned, they were going downhill before. The new menu has rhem sunk to new lows. Of course it is more expensive, which to certain degree I can understand.A bowl of Gumbo is now $4.99. Golden Nugget pricing. I used to like to order the quick start breakfast from room service this is now gone. Fried chicken, gone, was told people did not want to wait for this, could have put on the menu please allow 20 minutes. Hot turkey sanwhich, gone. Cobb salad gone. Halibut, gone. In fact the only fish they have is talapia now. There are people such as myself, who will not eat this fish under any circumstances. If they wanted a cheap fish, I would use catfish. That I would order.
Let me get into some specific examples: I was forwarned that they no longer had the nice biscuts for breakfast. Now they have a hard biscut like KFC. Probably bought, requires less effort. Ordered breakfast, ask for toast. It comes not buttered, less effort. Will not orfder breakfasr there again. One of the specials for lunch was liver and onions. Probably cheap. who would eat this? Soup of the day: Beef and cabbage, cream of asparagas. Are you trying to attract people or drive them away? Once i had the lunch special which was 2 tacos. I asked the waiter if the beef was shredded or ground beef. He said it was shredded. It was not. It was terrible. In summation their new motto seems to be make as much profit as you can with as little effort as you can. I will only order the prime rib special. I now save just about all my points for Hugos for a group of people, or once in a while a pizza. Their goal should be to provide good food that people like to eat at reasonable prices. At least there are no longer any long lines for Magnolias now, Sometimes the watresses stand around because there is nothing to do. Lets hope they get their act together.
The Brewpub: Pizza is O.K. still.
Hugos: Some things I would noy order. Some are O.k. Did not like the lobster tails, King Crab overpriced. SCallops good, had the sea bass last time, was O.K. To me the best part of the meal is the salad. I usually don't eat salad, but I finish the whole salad.
Boyd properties downtown:
Fremont:
Have eaten at the Second Sttreet Grill. I thought the lobster tail was rhe best that I have had. If you go there, ask for Pam as your server.
Buffet:
The freid chicken is outstanding for a buffet. Was told that they use fresh chikens, and fry them one batch at a time so sometimes you have to wait for a new batch. Fot the seafood buffet they usually have Dungeness Crab instead of Snow Crab. For the seafood buffet there is less of a selection of other food items as compared to the MSS seafood buffet. The sefood buffet is Tuesday and Friday nights, Prime rib night is Sunday Monday, and Thursday. Steak night is Wednesday. I tried this once, I did not like the steak. What can you expect from a dtaek from a buffet?
California:
Coffee shop: I usually go there for breakfat. It can have a line in the morning. Everyone seems to have a coupon book. If you have a gold card or if you are an emerald B connected member, you can bypass the lines.
Noodle House. I think they made a big mistake when they changed this from the Passta Pirate. THey can't be doing as much business with the Noodle House as they did with the Pasta Pirate. Tried the Himachi Collar, diid not think that it was very good.
Main StreeT:
Triple 7:
Like to order the himachi nigiri and the potstickers. The hamburgers are O.K. Had the ny strip dinner. Was so so. Surprisingly the soup of the day is whatever is being served in the buffet.
Buffet: Friday is Seafood Buffet. Tuesday and Saturday are prime rib and scampi night. The scampi are about the smallest size shrimp that you can buy. I see very few people eating this.
THe seafood night on Friday at MSS used to have long lines, so if you had a line pass you could save yourself maybe an hour sometimes. Now if you have to pay full price it is $29.99. This is the highest price that I know of for this sort of buffet with the exception of the new buffet at the Orleans on seafood night, In addition the quality has gone down. there used to be split crab legs. Now the crab legs are so small it is not worth the effort to eat them, You cannot buy crab legs this small your supermarket. Nobody would buy them. They used to have fried scallops, no more. Raise prices, cut back on qaulity? People are not dumb, they figure these things out, Now as far as I know, you can go pretty much anytime and there is no line. If you want to eat crab. I would opt for the Dungeness Crab at the Fremont.
I fondly look back to when they had King Crab at the buffet at the MGM Grand. THis was about 15 or 20 years ago. The buffet was about $25.99 expensive for the time, and had a small selection of food. What they did have was prime rib every night and jumbo King Crab legs. Tey would hang way over your plate. Probably less than 2 to a pound. I have never seen even a high end restaurant offer these jumbo kKng cCab legs.
Last trip I used comps and my points at the Boyd properties. Was out of pocket 27 cents plus tips. (this is not entirely true as I used about $60 at Boyd to pay for food). But it still felt good that this was my out pf pocket cost for nine days.
Other items; I saw one person do someting I should have thought of. On prime rib night, she poured the au jus into a soup cup. This way the a jus does not intermingle with the other food on you plate.
When eating crab at a buffet, I always bring a heavy duty crab cracker from home to use on the claws. You can get one where they have kitchen gadgets at Bed Bath and Beyond. The cost is about $10.
I day I went one day to the Container Park and tried some BBQ. Big Erns BBQ. Had the chicken. Nothing special.
Next up transporation.
