Great question! It sent us right to the big fat pile of Las Vegas Advisors, on a bookshelf behind Anthony Curtis' desk, to flip through more than 220 issues -- scanning the lists of values, reminiscing about the great bargains, smiling over some of the accompanying memories, and shaking our heads at how different Las Vegas was and how young we were.
Here's our compilation of the best Top Ten values over the past nearly 20 years.
From the late '80s: The same exact shrimp cocktail served today for 99 cents at the Golden Gate was only 50 cents. The top steak was the 10-ounce strip, with salad and baked potato, at the Horseshoe for $2. The Four Queens had a long-running promo in which LVA subscribers received $20 in quarter slot tokens, playable on 9/6 Jacks or Better machines.
The early '90s was no different. A room at the Stardust and two tickets to Lido de Paris ran $28 and the 18-ounce porterhouse at the Redwood Bar and Grill at the California was $8.95 (both February '90). A prime rib dinner buffet at the Maxim cost all of $3.50 (February '91). Palace Station served a 16-ounce king crab dinner, with salad, potato, and vegetable, for $10.95 (January '92). The King 8 (now the Wild Wild West) had a great 24-hour 99-cent bacon and eggs breakfast (April '92). A large pizza and pitcher of beer at Palace Station cost $4.95 (May '92).
In those days, Vacation Village had a variety of 12-ounce draft-beer specials: a 10-cent graveyard special (November '91); a 24/7 deal for 25 cents (December '92), and a buy-two-for-a-quarter-and-get-a-French-dip-sandwich-free deal (May '93). And in February '95, you could get a draft-beer-and-hot-dog comp at VV for a $20 buy-in at the bar.
When it debuted in January 1993, the Carnival World, Las Vegas' first superbuffet, cost $3.25 for breakfast and went all the way up to $6.25 for dinner. In April '95, the Rio actually cut its breakfast-buffet price to $1.95. In those days, the Rio also had one of the greatest steak-and-eggs graveyard specials ever: a big T-bone and all-you-could-eat pancakes for $2.99, served till 11 a.m.
The Boardwalk had some Top Tens that were never before and have never since been seen: a chicken and pasta dinner, with a leg and thigh, spaghetti, garlic bread, and a cup of wine (April '93). Sure, it was served on styrofoam plates and in plastic cups, but what did you want for 59 cents? For the same 59 cents in July '93, you could have a roast beef dinner with mashed potato and gravy, vegetable, dinner roll, and wine. And for the month of December '93, they dropped the price of the chicken dinner to 29 cents; you could feed a family of six for less than $2!
In the mid-'90s, some prices started to rise, but we still found plenty of fabulous values. The 27-ounce margaritas at Westward Ho for 75 cents (August '93) were pretty strong. American Superstars performed in the lounge at Luxor for $8 (December '94), then moved to Stratosphere in June '96 for a two-drink minimum ($4.50). Danny Gans, meanwhile, also opened with and at Stratosphere -- for $29.50. The 56-ounce "Fred Flintsone" prime rib at Jerry's Nugget was introduced in June '95 for $17.70.
In February '97, Arizona Charlie's 24-hour $2.49 steak-and-eggs appeared in the Top Ten (and hung around for nearly 10 years). A month later, the Rio's Village Seafood Buffet opened at $14.95 for lunch and $16.95 for dinner; the lunch play was huge.
Anyone remember the free airfare spin at Vacation Village (with an average expected value of $8.35)? Well, in September '97, the Continental (now Terrible's) went VV one better and had an airfare spin with an expected EV of nearly $15.
In November '97, Key Largo promoted two steak dinners for $6.95. As good as that was, in December '97 Ellis Island introduced its steak dinner for $2.95 (so you could get two for $5.90); this best steak deal in town has been $4.95 for more than seven years and remains number one.
1998 was a banner year for Top Tens: In July, Bally's put out a 25-cent draft beer; in August, Roberta's at the El Cortez started running an excellent king crab special for $9.95 and Harrah's introduced a revolutionary rebate on gambling losses up to $100 when you signed up for the players club; in September we listed the Gold Coast's 16-ounce T-bone for $7.95; and in October Ellis Island started appearing in the Top Ten Twice, first for its steak special and second for an amazing all-you-can eat king crab buffet on Wednesdays for $19.95.
In Feb. 1999, Wild Wild West launched a great lunch comp for a $20 slot and video poker buy-in, with 15 different options, including burgers, chicken wings, and some of the best chicken fingers we'd ever seen. A year later in Feb. 2000, the El Cortez returned to its roots with a $1 bacon and eggs, a staple of early Las Vegas deals.
In December 2000, the Westward Ho introduced a Top Tenner: coffee and a donut for 25 cents; this deal was altered in May 2001: no donut, but coffee for a plug nickel. Also in Dec. 2000, and the Aladdin opened a new superbuffet that has run on and off for years at $10.99 to $18.99.
In May 2002, Wild Wild West started serving the best burger in town for $1.99. A month later, Silverton entered the Top Ten with a $1.99 complete spaghetti dinner.
In March 2003, we fell in love with a great deal at Terrible's: a $4.99 chicken dinner with a half a rotisserie chicken and all kinds of extras. A couple months later, Westward Ho started serving a Top Tenner that went right to the heart of Anthony Curtis: dollar Heinekens. In August of that year, Imperial Palace took over where Binion's had recently left off with a free souvenir photo.
And the deals just kept on coming. Stratosphere's funbook featured gambling coupons with an expected value of $7.75; the Sahara opened up its throwback Casbar Lounge entertainment to everyone for free; we listed the California's prime rib at $6.95; the locals restaurant Diamond China started running a great lunch special for $3.95; and the Comedy Stop at the Tropicana all of a sudden became a great deal at $19.95.
We're usually remiss to toot our own horn (at least too loudly), but perhaps the best Top Ten Value in Las Vegas has never appeared in the Top Ten: the Las Vegas Advisor itself. Not only hans't the price gone up since April 1992, it actually went down $13 for the online version. The information -- as you can no doubt gather from all of the above -- has always been the best in the world, and the coupons are second to none.
