Author: LVA

Las Vegas’ newest food hall, the Canteen at the Rio has opened. It has some interesting outlets and we’ll eventually try them all, but we wanted to get one in right away,, so where to start? Easy choice. Everyone’s crowing about Tender Crush having the best chicken tenders (we call them fingers) in town. Really? Better than the Crown & Anchors? OK, let’s find out.

Canteen Food Hall

First the venue. The Canteen Food Hall is in part of the space that was the Carnival World Buffet. Not the entire space—the buffet was huge—but on a big part of the footprint, right across from the sports book. There’s seating if you want to eat there or you can take out. Ordering is easy. They even accept cash (what?). They take your cell number and text when the order is ready, so you can mosey over to the book to watch a game or play a bit if you like.

Tenders

The tenders come crispy or grilled, three to an order for $10. Then there are about 10 choices of dipping sauce that are $2 each. Or you can have them tossed in a sauce for $12. There’s also a crispy chicken sandwich, also $10. We opted for the crispy tenders straight up and the sandwich. So what do you dip chicken fingers in? If you’re like us, you dip ’em in hot sauce and ranch dressing. But of the nine sauces available—Harlem hot sauce, lime honey mustard, bird pepper, etc.—there was no ranch. We settled for the closest thing, buttermilk dill.

More

They also serve kale, beans, and mac ‘n’ cheese sides ($7), fries ($5), New York drafts ($9), and a “Coney Island Cooler” made from vodka, tequila, and rum ($15). That Cooler sounds good, but we didn’t partake.

Verdict

These are good fingers. Big ones (three is plenty) and made from real chicken breast. Less than awesome is the breading: tasty, yes, but made from cornmeal we think with no crunch at all, which is important. And buttermilk dill is OK, but we prefer ranch. We like and recommend these, but not over Crown’s. Oh, the sandwich is good, too. On to the next at Canteen. Tony Luke’s cheesesteaks anyone?

We’ve written on many occasions about the Longhorn on Boulder Highway, but not often about the Bighorn on E. Lake Mead Blvd. in North Las Vegas. They have the same owners and are similar, including both having restaurants with good deals that are a big part of their success. However, we pay more attention to Longhorn, which is bigger and more accessible for most. Both have a camarones special. Bighorn caters to a predominantly Hispanic customer base; hence, the coctel de camarones probably started there, then replaced the shrimp cocktail at Longhorn. It’s available 24/7 in the restaurants for $7. We tried it at Bighorn.

Served in a big glass bowl, it’s made the traditional Mexican way with cucumbers, tomatoes, lime juice, and chips on the side. There are about 10 medium-sized shrimp and you can drink the broth when you’re done. Same as the Longhorn, the food in this restaurant is good and just about everything on the menu qualifies as a bargain.

In the December LVA, we wrote the following:

Bar Oysterette and Center Bar in the Sundry Food Hall at the UnCommons complex (I-215 and Durango Rd.) has a happy hour Mon.-Thurs. from 4 to 6 pm, with $3 beer, $8 wine and cocktails, and $3-$5 appetizers, including $2 oysters.

Two-dollar oysters is something we always review, so we did. Guess what? The oysters are $3, not $2. That’s not a good happy-hour special, although the bartender thought it was, because they’re $4 non-happy hour.

The one good part of the experience was the oysters. They’re served six for $18 and the presentation is beautiful: Three Blue Points and three Arcadians, accompanied by cocktail sauce, a mignonette, fresh horseradish, and lemon.

It’s a good plate, but $3 per isn’t a deal. On top of that, the whole UnCommons/Sundry thing is just plain odd. Despite a trainload of hype and what seemed like a compelling dining program, our experience at UnCommons was uncommonly more bad than good.

Way Out There

UnCommons is located directly across Durango Rd. from Durango Casino about 10 miles west of the Strip. You can get there relatively quickly taking the I-215 freeway or going west on surface streets, but it’s a trek.

Hard To Find

Yes, it’s directly across from Durango Casino, but it’s still almost hidden. Look for a small street off Durango called Maule to access.

Hard To Get In

Bar Oysterette is in the Sundry Food Hall. There’s only one sign outside over the main entrance that’s not on the main street, but faces the parking garage, but it’s fairly obvious which building it is. The problem is getting in. We walked to three apparent entrances (not the main) that were locked, then finally found a small unmarked door that was open. Are they trying to keep people out of there?

Cafeteria-esque

The space looks like a big warehouse. But not a chic New York-style industrial space. More like a big cafeteria.

Not Cool

Maybe we were expecting too much, but for whatever reason, we thought there’d be kind of a hip vibe, with the cool upper-crust of the southwest valley hanging out. No. We were there during happy hour and nothing could be described as cool going on. The bar itself is underwhelming.

Mediocre HH

In addition to the dollar bump on the oysters, the rest of the happy hour is nothing special—$3 sliders, $5 tacos, $4 beer, plus PBR and a shot of Jameson for $11! At Downtown Grand, a PBR and a shot of Evan Williams (the “Joe Special” at Furnace Bar) is $3.50.

New-Age Menu/Ordering

This is another no-paper-menu QR code ordering system. If you’re over 40, you probably don’t like it. Get the whole story on that in this earlier review.

Parking

There’s a garage with two hours free. So that’s good. After that, it’s $3-per-hour up to a 24-hour max of $15. There’s also some street parking, but with 30-minute time limits.

Summary

We’re not sayjng don’t go, we’re simply pointing out what you’re in for if you do. Heck, you could parlay with a visit to Durango Casino, which is worth at least a one-time visit. Park at Durango and walk across the street. But there’s not much reason to go just for UnCommons.

Or maybe there is, at least according to that hype train. The latest buzz is all about the “world’s greatest sandwich shop” from Italy, All’Antico Vinaio, coming to Vegas. It opened yesterday at … UnCommons.

Inspired by our experience at La Popular at the Palms, we checked out the happy hour at Toca Madera (literally “Touch Wood,” the Spanish way of saying “knock on wood”) at the Shops at Crystals. The original Toca opened in West Hollywood in 2015 and quickly made a name for itself for dishing up food from the “highest quality, sustainable, and organic ingredients.” A second location opened in Scottsdale; this one in Vegas dates back to late last year.

It’s a little hard to find, one of the reasons that the previous restaurant in this space, Eva Longoria’s Beso (renamed SHe by Morton’s), lasted less than two years. It’s located “at” the Shops at Crystals, but you have to exit through the back door on the way to Aria; from Aria, you also have to go out a side door. Then the sign is unobtrusive and the unmarked front door gives you pause. But once you’ve found your way inside, it’s a whole other world.

The interior is as classy and understated as the food is top-notch. The regular menu prices range from $18 for guacamole and $28 for ceviche to $48 for a truffle burger and $325 for a 40-ounce tomahawk with bone marrow. That’s why happy hours are the best way, hands down, to try these ultra-exclusive Strip restaurants.

The HH menu is much more manageable. Guacamole is $10, three short rib tostaditas $12, Caesar salad and sea bass tacos $14 each, and ceviche $18. Mexican bottled beer is $5, house wine $8, and margaritas $13. We weren’t drinking, so we had a pineapple juice for $5.

The quality of food was noticeable as soon as we dipped a chip into the salsa, just diced tomatoes and cilantro, but impeccable.

The sea bass tacos were so good, we almost couldn’t believe what we were tasting. And the short rib tostaditas were so plentiful and rich, we couldn’t finish them. The bill, with tax before tip, came to $33, not a bargain, but not bad either for what turned out to be dinner at the highest-end Mexican steakhouse in town.

The Toca Madera happy hour is Mon.-Fri. 4-6 p.m. It was wide open when we got there at 5, but pretty crowded by the time we left around six, with people filling up the bar stools and tables. And that was on a Tuesday evening. We’d bet that this place will make it in one of Vegas’ least accessible Strip locations.