My wife and I went to Las Vegas April 11-15. I had a business meeting one day, so the trip was a mix of business and pleasure. I wrote up reviews of Encore and the places we ate and the shows we saw, so I thought I would post that as my trip report. As for gambling, we play mostly table games and mostly blackjack and blackjack switch. Although we do play a little video blackjack and slots for something different. I even stepped up to an empty craps table and played for awhile - actually winning $45 in about half an hour. It was fun, and I have played craps in the past, but always seemed to lose, so it was fun to win a little bit at craps.
Ok, all of my reviews of the places we went are set forth below: hope you enjoy reading. I know I have always enjoyed reading trip reports, although this is the first one I have actually posted.
Firefly on Paradise – 4/11/12
The place was busy when we went on Wednesday night, but not overly business. The service was very good and prompt and friendly. We had gotten a pitcher of sangria, and I liked that they refilled your glass for you even though the pitcher was on the table. We ordered several of the tapas – stuffed figs, chicken chorizo stuffed mushrooms, lamb skewers, meatballs, apple and cheese salad, empanada and a couple of others. Overall, the quality and flavor of the tapas was good – not great. Our favorite was the lamb skewers and the least favorite was the meatballs. I didn’t particularly like the apple/cheese salad, but my wife thought it was good. We had a pitcher of red sangria ($28) and it also was good not great. It seemed overpriced for what you got. We did not have dessert. Overall, while everything was fine, we probably won’t go back. If you go here, you do want to make a reservation as it was busy when we arrived and people were waiting – but we had no wait since we had a reservation. I used open table for the reservation and it worked great.
Charlie Palmer Steakhouse
We went here on Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. I had read about the “Cut of the Week – bottomless wine glass” prix fixe dinner for $48 per person. It changes every week. We ordered this and we had tuscan arugula salad; whole roasted sirloin; creamed spinach and mashed potatoes; and apple banana tartin. We had a white wine with the salad and a red wine with the steak. I must say they did live up to the bottomless wine glass concept, always promptly filling your wine glass when you ran low. Service here was very good and the atmosphere was subdued. This turned out to be a nice evening but not extraordinary. First, they seated us very near the front door, so there was a lot of traffic walking by. The food was good across the board, but not memorable. The whole roasted strip loin turned out to be slices of sirloin with a mushroom ragout, but there wasn’t much of the ragout. The beef had a decent flavor. The wine was good, we especially enjoyed the white wine, but for the life of me I can’t recall the name. The wine sommelier was very attentive and explained a little bit about the wine. I think for $48 per person, this is an extraordinary value compared to what you would pair here or anywhere else on the strip of similar quality if you simply ordered off the menu. You can check the Cut of the Week menu on the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse Las Vegas website. The value though is in the bottomless wine pairing concept. If you don’t drink wine, then I’m not sure the value is there for $48 per person, although still not a bad deal.
Noras Italian Cuisine
We went here at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday night. It was busy, but I had made a reservation, which I would recommend. Noras is located at the northeast corner of Flamingo and Jones, probably about 10 minutes west of Palms. It is in a small strip mall. We found it a little challenging to get back out to Flamingo heading back to the strip, as you can’t turn left out of the plaza. Overall our experience at Noras was mixed. First, even though we had a reservation, they seated in the bar area – which had TVs with the game on. I like sports, but this was not the atmosphere I was expecting for an evening out with my wife. It was loud and crowded. Service was shaky at best. We arrived and were seated, but were provided no silverware or plates. They brought out a basket of garlic bread, but they gave us no silverware or napkins until we asked for them. They brought iced tea, but no sugar. We had to ask for that as well. Throughout the meal, if you needed something you had to wait for refills or flag somebody down. For dinner, we had two appetizers the arincini (?) and the caprese salad. Both of these were very good and I would recommend them and order them again. For dinner my wife had a chicken, artichoke, linguini dish that she said was good, but not great or memorable. I had a large house salad which I thought was good but basic. Chopped romaine, canned black olives and tomato quarters with cheese. Pretty standard stuff for $11.50. My wife had a glass of the house merlot and she said it was better than the red wine we had at Charlie Palmer Steakhouse a few nights earlier. The iced tea was weak. I also had a meatball, which I think is a good judge of an Italian restaurant – it was good and was in a little dish with just tomato sauce – very mild seasoning. Given that this place is so far off the strip, its unlikely we will be back, but if we did we would make a meal of the appetizers and split a large salad, but probably not the house salad.
Le Reve at Wynn
Exceeded expectations by far. We went on a Friday night at 9:30 p.m. The show is on Friday through Tuesday. I chose this show mostly because we were staying at Encore and have enjoyed Cirque shows in the past. This is not a Cirque show, but has the same type of feel to it. Both my wife and I enjoyed it much more than Mystere. Le Reve is extraordinary in several ways. First, the performers defy belief with what they can do from an acrobatic and strength perspective, with a little bit of comic relief and dancing thrown in for good measure – even a tiny bit of magic that was impressive. I simply could not believe my eyes a few times. Second, the staging is amazing. Like Cirque’s O, the stage is a pool and then seconds later is a hard surface. The impact of this is much more dramatic and impressive than can be described here. I liked Le Reve better than O because the theater is in the round and so much of the activity seems to fall out of the sky as well as all around you. I think the show was about 1 ½ hours long – so it is a good length and the activity is very intense. Great special effects and lighting as well. Even the performers seem very emotionally invested in making it a great show. Overall, I give Le Reve the highest marks on every front and I would recommend seeing it if you like the Cirque type shows. It truly was extraordinary. The Wynn Theater is located where the esplanade connecting Wynn and Encore enters the Wynn casino. I will add that I thought the seats were wide and comfortable, which I much appreciated since I am not a small guy. We sat in Section F Row K, which is sort of the last row – but I do think this was an excellent seat selection because you could see more of the action above you and to the sides without having to crain your neck too much. The only minor negative was the overly aggressive usher loudly and repeatedly warning people not to take pictures during the show, although I never saw anyone doing this. Overall truly outstanding.
Wynn Buffet
We had breakfast at Wynn Buffet on a Thursday. It was good, although the selection was average at best for a buffet of this typical high quality, but it did include an omelet station. The coffee was very good and they left the pot which I like. My biggest complaint was that the line for the omelet station was so long I never got one. I also thought there would be more asian-type food, but there was a very limited selection. They have a whole separate room for desserts. The food across the board was good, but I’m not sure it was worth $20 for breakfast if you have other options. I don’t recall anything extraordinary.
Ellis Island
Breakfast on Friday morning. It was solid as always with friendly service and reasonable prices, made even better by the 2 for 1 MRB coupon. Breakfast for two with two coffees was $11.15 and the portions are big. I had a huge ham steak and the flavor was excellent. Honestly, it was as good as anything I had at the Wynn buffet the day before – and that is not a knock on Wynn, just saying that was a good piece of ham.
Brio Tuscan Grille at Town Center
We stopped here when we arrived in Las Vegas for a $5 martini and some appetizers/tapas. We really enjoyed this place. The appetizers are $3.95 in the bar area and were very good and reasonably sized for that price. We had shrimp and eggplant, lettuce wrapped bolognese sauce, and ravioli caprese all of which were very good. Another good deal looked liked the flat bread pizza on the appetizer menu, it was the size of a normal small to medium pizza and only $3.95. The martinis were Sobeski vodka and there was a variety you could choose from for $5. They were good sized and tasted good. I had a normal martini and my wife had a raspberry martini. The atmosphere here is very pleasant and you have a choice of indoor or outside seating. I would go back to Brio for this deal which is offered 3:00 – 6:00 weekdays I believe.
Encore
We stayed at Encore in a king resort room. The room is a suite type room with a separate living and sleeping area. It is large with space to stretch out. A desk for the computer and a separate couch. The TV swivels between the sleeping area and the living area. The living area is the part by the windows. We had a King Resort room on the 29th floor with a northern strip view as we wanted to avoid the noise from the nightclub. We heard no noise. Our view was of LVH, Circus Circus and a partial view of downtown. It was partial due to the unfinished Fountainbleu. We also had a full view of the barely started Echelon Place complex. As would be expected the room is well appointed with a lot of bathroom extras. Problems with the room: the toilet is on the other side of the wall from the head of the bed. Everytime you flush the toilet it wakes up anybody who is sleeping – seriously, what was Wynn thinking? Another design flaw is that when you turn the shower on, the water leaks onto the bathroom floor – nothing broken just bad design. Also, you have to walk through the bedroom area to get to the living area, so when one person is sleeping you have to walk past them to get to the bathroom or to look out the windows. Maid service was very good. The wireless internet didn’t work. There is no coffee maker in the room and a refrigerator is an extra $25 per night. The shower is too small for the size of the bathroom and the water pressure. It also took several minutes for the water to get hot, and we were only on the 29th floor. There was also a tack sticking up through the carpet where the carpet and tile come together. I stepped on this and stabbed a little hole in my foot. I told the front desk about this when I checked out – they were sorry but offered no other accommodation, which surprised and disappointed me. They also had a charge on my bill that was not mine. They took it off after a brief discussion on the topic, but said they would submit it to accounts receivable for review. I asked what this meant and the front desk person simply repeated what she said before. I very much respect and admire Steve Wynn for what he has done in Las Vegas. I just wish my first, and possibly last, time staying at one of his properties had been a more enjoyable experience.
Defending the Caveman
We saw this show on a Saturday night at 7:00 (there is also an afternoon show). The theater, which is the same venue as Harrah’s Improv comedy show, was only about half full. We used a 2 for 1 coupon for the tickets and purchased $58 seats. We had very good seats directly in front of the stage but back a little bit. It is a one man show – Kevin Burke. The drinks were $11 each, although my wife said her drink was good – she had the Alabama Slamma. They take your picture before the show, which you can buy afterward. We bought two pictures for $22 because they were such good pictures. For the show itself, it was funny with a couple of hilarious moments. Kevin Burke seems like a nice guy and really funny, but I don’t think he was on his A game this night. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like it when the comic implores the audience to participate in the show. I mean, I am there to be entertained, not to be part of the show. Anyway, the Kevin talked about the differences between men and women in a humorous way and how those differences were originally established during the caveman days. Sometimes Burke’s observations were spot on, others not so much. It was an enjoyable hour and I would go back if others wanted to, but I would have been a little disappointed if I had paid full price for two tickets.
Red Rock Buffet
We went here on Saturday morning. This buffet shuts down between 10:40 to 11:00 for the switchover to lunch. Not knowing this, we arrived at about 10:40 to face a very long line. We decided to wait even though it would take a half an hour or more to get seated. We have enjoyed this buffet. We were not disappointed with our decision. We arrived at the cashier at about 11:10 figuring we would have to pay the lunch price. Nope – we were charged just the $4.99 for breakfast – and we used the 2 for 1 coupon. So our total for two lunch buffets at Red Rock was $5.39 with tax. This is a fantastic deal in my view because this is a great buffet in my opinion. They have a wide selection of the selections I like to eat most. I really enjoyed the creamed spinach, fried chicken, no sugar added coconut crème pie, and an asian dish that was chicken and vegetables in a brown sauce – but then they had a spicy sauce you could add – which I did – and it was very good. They also have an omelet station, and I had one that was good and as ordered. All the food I had was very good and this was just a standard lunch – no brunch or anything like that. I highly recommend Red Rock lunch buffet and we have also had very good luck with their breakfast buffet in the past.
Carve
We went to Carve on Saturday at about 9:15 p.m. I had made a reservation because I had heard they were busy even this late – but when we walked in we were the only ones there. It was kind of weird and for a moment I thought that maybe that had closed for some reason, but shortly a waiter showed up, found our reservation, and seated us in a booth. We had a $25 restaurant.com coupon. We both had just water to drink. We ordered the oysters – 6 for $10 and they were larger and good. My wife had the warm spinach salad and it was large but the leaves weren’t really wilted like you expect to see on a warm spinach salad – just ok. We then both ordered the small filet mignon with my wife getting mashed potatoes and I got the baked potato – both of which came with the steak at no extra charge. A small grilled tomato also came with the meal. We also ordered two sides including sautéed mushrooms and creamed corn. We didn’t really like the mushrooms as they were more like stewed in a white wine sauce which had a bit of a sour taste. My wife said the creamed corn was good – but I am not a big fan generally. My wife said the mashed potatoes were good – very buttery. Both of our steaks were noticeably overcooked but still had a very nice flavor (she ordered hers medium rare and I ordered mine medium). But I mean, this is a steakhouse so you expect the temperature of the steak to be spot on. Service was good if not a little over-attentive probably because the restaurant was almost empty. They pushed us to get dessert a little too hard, which we didn’t get. With the restaurant.com coupon, the bill was $71 with tax and tip. I felt that was a little high for the quality of what we got, and would have been disappointed if I had paid almost $100 for this meal.
Sunset Station Buffet
We went to Sunset Station for their breakfast buffet on Sunday. Apparently, they have a Sunday Champagne Brunch that costs $15.99 instead of the $4.99 regular price. There was no signage to this effect and I wasn’t advised until the cashier was ready to charge my card. She also said since I was using an MRB 2 for 1 coupon, I had to pay full price for the buffet I was paying for instead of the Station Casino club price of $9.99. And they would not allow me to use any of my points toward the $16 charge. So beware if you go to a Station Casino for Sunday breakfast. In addition, no one told us it was a champagne brunch – meaning you got all the champagne you wanted as part of the meal. It wasn’t until we noticed another table getting champagne that I asked our server, and she said “Oh sure, I can get you some”. Nice to know just as we were finishing eating. I thought that the Sunset buffet would be at least roughly comparable to the Red Rock buffet. I was wrong. The Sunset buffet, even the Sunday Champagne brunch for $16, was not nearly as good as the regular lunch buffet at Red Rock. Honestly, it just wasn’t that good. Most of what I got was just ok. Although they did have no sugar added coconut crème pie – so that was good. I probably would not go back to this buffet even with a 2 for 1 coupon, and definitely not for the Sunday Champagne Brunch. It is way overpriced. Also, and surprisingly, the casino seemed very smoky. I mean the smoke was very evident even though I didn’t see many smoking. I expected their ventilation system would be more effective.
Ok, all of my reviews of the places we went are set forth below: hope you enjoy reading. I know I have always enjoyed reading trip reports, although this is the first one I have actually posted.
Firefly on Paradise – 4/11/12
The place was busy when we went on Wednesday night, but not overly business. The service was very good and prompt and friendly. We had gotten a pitcher of sangria, and I liked that they refilled your glass for you even though the pitcher was on the table. We ordered several of the tapas – stuffed figs, chicken chorizo stuffed mushrooms, lamb skewers, meatballs, apple and cheese salad, empanada and a couple of others. Overall, the quality and flavor of the tapas was good – not great. Our favorite was the lamb skewers and the least favorite was the meatballs. I didn’t particularly like the apple/cheese salad, but my wife thought it was good. We had a pitcher of red sangria ($28) and it also was good not great. It seemed overpriced for what you got. We did not have dessert. Overall, while everything was fine, we probably won’t go back. If you go here, you do want to make a reservation as it was busy when we arrived and people were waiting – but we had no wait since we had a reservation. I used open table for the reservation and it worked great.
Charlie Palmer Steakhouse
We went here on Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. I had read about the “Cut of the Week – bottomless wine glass” prix fixe dinner for $48 per person. It changes every week. We ordered this and we had tuscan arugula salad; whole roasted sirloin; creamed spinach and mashed potatoes; and apple banana tartin. We had a white wine with the salad and a red wine with the steak. I must say they did live up to the bottomless wine glass concept, always promptly filling your wine glass when you ran low. Service here was very good and the atmosphere was subdued. This turned out to be a nice evening but not extraordinary. First, they seated us very near the front door, so there was a lot of traffic walking by. The food was good across the board, but not memorable. The whole roasted strip loin turned out to be slices of sirloin with a mushroom ragout, but there wasn’t much of the ragout. The beef had a decent flavor. The wine was good, we especially enjoyed the white wine, but for the life of me I can’t recall the name. The wine sommelier was very attentive and explained a little bit about the wine. I think for $48 per person, this is an extraordinary value compared to what you would pair here or anywhere else on the strip of similar quality if you simply ordered off the menu. You can check the Cut of the Week menu on the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse Las Vegas website. The value though is in the bottomless wine pairing concept. If you don’t drink wine, then I’m not sure the value is there for $48 per person, although still not a bad deal.
Noras Italian Cuisine
We went here at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday night. It was busy, but I had made a reservation, which I would recommend. Noras is located at the northeast corner of Flamingo and Jones, probably about 10 minutes west of Palms. It is in a small strip mall. We found it a little challenging to get back out to Flamingo heading back to the strip, as you can’t turn left out of the plaza. Overall our experience at Noras was mixed. First, even though we had a reservation, they seated in the bar area – which had TVs with the game on. I like sports, but this was not the atmosphere I was expecting for an evening out with my wife. It was loud and crowded. Service was shaky at best. We arrived and were seated, but were provided no silverware or plates. They brought out a basket of garlic bread, but they gave us no silverware or napkins until we asked for them. They brought iced tea, but no sugar. We had to ask for that as well. Throughout the meal, if you needed something you had to wait for refills or flag somebody down. For dinner, we had two appetizers the arincini (?) and the caprese salad. Both of these were very good and I would recommend them and order them again. For dinner my wife had a chicken, artichoke, linguini dish that she said was good, but not great or memorable. I had a large house salad which I thought was good but basic. Chopped romaine, canned black olives and tomato quarters with cheese. Pretty standard stuff for $11.50. My wife had a glass of the house merlot and she said it was better than the red wine we had at Charlie Palmer Steakhouse a few nights earlier. The iced tea was weak. I also had a meatball, which I think is a good judge of an Italian restaurant – it was good and was in a little dish with just tomato sauce – very mild seasoning. Given that this place is so far off the strip, its unlikely we will be back, but if we did we would make a meal of the appetizers and split a large salad, but probably not the house salad.
Le Reve at Wynn
Exceeded expectations by far. We went on a Friday night at 9:30 p.m. The show is on Friday through Tuesday. I chose this show mostly because we were staying at Encore and have enjoyed Cirque shows in the past. This is not a Cirque show, but has the same type of feel to it. Both my wife and I enjoyed it much more than Mystere. Le Reve is extraordinary in several ways. First, the performers defy belief with what they can do from an acrobatic and strength perspective, with a little bit of comic relief and dancing thrown in for good measure – even a tiny bit of magic that was impressive. I simply could not believe my eyes a few times. Second, the staging is amazing. Like Cirque’s O, the stage is a pool and then seconds later is a hard surface. The impact of this is much more dramatic and impressive than can be described here. I liked Le Reve better than O because the theater is in the round and so much of the activity seems to fall out of the sky as well as all around you. I think the show was about 1 ½ hours long – so it is a good length and the activity is very intense. Great special effects and lighting as well. Even the performers seem very emotionally invested in making it a great show. Overall, I give Le Reve the highest marks on every front and I would recommend seeing it if you like the Cirque type shows. It truly was extraordinary. The Wynn Theater is located where the esplanade connecting Wynn and Encore enters the Wynn casino. I will add that I thought the seats were wide and comfortable, which I much appreciated since I am not a small guy. We sat in Section F Row K, which is sort of the last row – but I do think this was an excellent seat selection because you could see more of the action above you and to the sides without having to crain your neck too much. The only minor negative was the overly aggressive usher loudly and repeatedly warning people not to take pictures during the show, although I never saw anyone doing this. Overall truly outstanding.
Wynn Buffet
We had breakfast at Wynn Buffet on a Thursday. It was good, although the selection was average at best for a buffet of this typical high quality, but it did include an omelet station. The coffee was very good and they left the pot which I like. My biggest complaint was that the line for the omelet station was so long I never got one. I also thought there would be more asian-type food, but there was a very limited selection. They have a whole separate room for desserts. The food across the board was good, but I’m not sure it was worth $20 for breakfast if you have other options. I don’t recall anything extraordinary.
Ellis Island
Breakfast on Friday morning. It was solid as always with friendly service and reasonable prices, made even better by the 2 for 1 MRB coupon. Breakfast for two with two coffees was $11.15 and the portions are big. I had a huge ham steak and the flavor was excellent. Honestly, it was as good as anything I had at the Wynn buffet the day before – and that is not a knock on Wynn, just saying that was a good piece of ham.
Brio Tuscan Grille at Town Center
We stopped here when we arrived in Las Vegas for a $5 martini and some appetizers/tapas. We really enjoyed this place. The appetizers are $3.95 in the bar area and were very good and reasonably sized for that price. We had shrimp and eggplant, lettuce wrapped bolognese sauce, and ravioli caprese all of which were very good. Another good deal looked liked the flat bread pizza on the appetizer menu, it was the size of a normal small to medium pizza and only $3.95. The martinis were Sobeski vodka and there was a variety you could choose from for $5. They were good sized and tasted good. I had a normal martini and my wife had a raspberry martini. The atmosphere here is very pleasant and you have a choice of indoor or outside seating. I would go back to Brio for this deal which is offered 3:00 – 6:00 weekdays I believe.
Encore
We stayed at Encore in a king resort room. The room is a suite type room with a separate living and sleeping area. It is large with space to stretch out. A desk for the computer and a separate couch. The TV swivels between the sleeping area and the living area. The living area is the part by the windows. We had a King Resort room on the 29th floor with a northern strip view as we wanted to avoid the noise from the nightclub. We heard no noise. Our view was of LVH, Circus Circus and a partial view of downtown. It was partial due to the unfinished Fountainbleu. We also had a full view of the barely started Echelon Place complex. As would be expected the room is well appointed with a lot of bathroom extras. Problems with the room: the toilet is on the other side of the wall from the head of the bed. Everytime you flush the toilet it wakes up anybody who is sleeping – seriously, what was Wynn thinking? Another design flaw is that when you turn the shower on, the water leaks onto the bathroom floor – nothing broken just bad design. Also, you have to walk through the bedroom area to get to the living area, so when one person is sleeping you have to walk past them to get to the bathroom or to look out the windows. Maid service was very good. The wireless internet didn’t work. There is no coffee maker in the room and a refrigerator is an extra $25 per night. The shower is too small for the size of the bathroom and the water pressure. It also took several minutes for the water to get hot, and we were only on the 29th floor. There was also a tack sticking up through the carpet where the carpet and tile come together. I stepped on this and stabbed a little hole in my foot. I told the front desk about this when I checked out – they were sorry but offered no other accommodation, which surprised and disappointed me. They also had a charge on my bill that was not mine. They took it off after a brief discussion on the topic, but said they would submit it to accounts receivable for review. I asked what this meant and the front desk person simply repeated what she said before. I very much respect and admire Steve Wynn for what he has done in Las Vegas. I just wish my first, and possibly last, time staying at one of his properties had been a more enjoyable experience.
Defending the Caveman
We saw this show on a Saturday night at 7:00 (there is also an afternoon show). The theater, which is the same venue as Harrah’s Improv comedy show, was only about half full. We used a 2 for 1 coupon for the tickets and purchased $58 seats. We had very good seats directly in front of the stage but back a little bit. It is a one man show – Kevin Burke. The drinks were $11 each, although my wife said her drink was good – she had the Alabama Slamma. They take your picture before the show, which you can buy afterward. We bought two pictures for $22 because they were such good pictures. For the show itself, it was funny with a couple of hilarious moments. Kevin Burke seems like a nice guy and really funny, but I don’t think he was on his A game this night. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like it when the comic implores the audience to participate in the show. I mean, I am there to be entertained, not to be part of the show. Anyway, the Kevin talked about the differences between men and women in a humorous way and how those differences were originally established during the caveman days. Sometimes Burke’s observations were spot on, others not so much. It was an enjoyable hour and I would go back if others wanted to, but I would have been a little disappointed if I had paid full price for two tickets.
Red Rock Buffet
We went here on Saturday morning. This buffet shuts down between 10:40 to 11:00 for the switchover to lunch. Not knowing this, we arrived at about 10:40 to face a very long line. We decided to wait even though it would take a half an hour or more to get seated. We have enjoyed this buffet. We were not disappointed with our decision. We arrived at the cashier at about 11:10 figuring we would have to pay the lunch price. Nope – we were charged just the $4.99 for breakfast – and we used the 2 for 1 coupon. So our total for two lunch buffets at Red Rock was $5.39 with tax. This is a fantastic deal in my view because this is a great buffet in my opinion. They have a wide selection of the selections I like to eat most. I really enjoyed the creamed spinach, fried chicken, no sugar added coconut crème pie, and an asian dish that was chicken and vegetables in a brown sauce – but then they had a spicy sauce you could add – which I did – and it was very good. They also have an omelet station, and I had one that was good and as ordered. All the food I had was very good and this was just a standard lunch – no brunch or anything like that. I highly recommend Red Rock lunch buffet and we have also had very good luck with their breakfast buffet in the past.
Carve
We went to Carve on Saturday at about 9:15 p.m. I had made a reservation because I had heard they were busy even this late – but when we walked in we were the only ones there. It was kind of weird and for a moment I thought that maybe that had closed for some reason, but shortly a waiter showed up, found our reservation, and seated us in a booth. We had a $25 restaurant.com coupon. We both had just water to drink. We ordered the oysters – 6 for $10 and they were larger and good. My wife had the warm spinach salad and it was large but the leaves weren’t really wilted like you expect to see on a warm spinach salad – just ok. We then both ordered the small filet mignon with my wife getting mashed potatoes and I got the baked potato – both of which came with the steak at no extra charge. A small grilled tomato also came with the meal. We also ordered two sides including sautéed mushrooms and creamed corn. We didn’t really like the mushrooms as they were more like stewed in a white wine sauce which had a bit of a sour taste. My wife said the creamed corn was good – but I am not a big fan generally. My wife said the mashed potatoes were good – very buttery. Both of our steaks were noticeably overcooked but still had a very nice flavor (she ordered hers medium rare and I ordered mine medium). But I mean, this is a steakhouse so you expect the temperature of the steak to be spot on. Service was good if not a little over-attentive probably because the restaurant was almost empty. They pushed us to get dessert a little too hard, which we didn’t get. With the restaurant.com coupon, the bill was $71 with tax and tip. I felt that was a little high for the quality of what we got, and would have been disappointed if I had paid almost $100 for this meal.
Sunset Station Buffet
We went to Sunset Station for their breakfast buffet on Sunday. Apparently, they have a Sunday Champagne Brunch that costs $15.99 instead of the $4.99 regular price. There was no signage to this effect and I wasn’t advised until the cashier was ready to charge my card. She also said since I was using an MRB 2 for 1 coupon, I had to pay full price for the buffet I was paying for instead of the Station Casino club price of $9.99. And they would not allow me to use any of my points toward the $16 charge. So beware if you go to a Station Casino for Sunday breakfast. In addition, no one told us it was a champagne brunch – meaning you got all the champagne you wanted as part of the meal. It wasn’t until we noticed another table getting champagne that I asked our server, and she said “Oh sure, I can get you some”. Nice to know just as we were finishing eating. I thought that the Sunset buffet would be at least roughly comparable to the Red Rock buffet. I was wrong. The Sunset buffet, even the Sunday Champagne brunch for $16, was not nearly as good as the regular lunch buffet at Red Rock. Honestly, it just wasn’t that good. Most of what I got was just ok. Although they did have no sugar added coconut crème pie – so that was good. I probably would not go back to this buffet even with a 2 for 1 coupon, and definitely not for the Sunday Champagne Brunch. It is way overpriced. Also, and surprisingly, the casino seemed very smoky. I mean the smoke was very evident even though I didn’t see many smoking. I expected their ventilation system would be more effective.
