Author: LVA

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Flower Child

We first bumped into Flower Child, completely by accident, on a trip to Phoenix. We liked it so much that we got to wondering if it was a chain and if so, where else it might be located. Imagine our surprise when we found one in Las Vegas, out at the corner of Rampart and W. Charleston. It’s become one of our go-to eateries for healthy, simple, and soul-satisfying meals at surprisingly inexpensive prices. Flower Child’s parent company, Fox Restaurant Concepts, also owns and operates the Henry brand, with a location at the Cosmopolitan.

Phoenix’s four locations all have walk-up to-go windows, but Las Vegas’ doesn’t enjoy the convenience. You can order online or through the app and pick up inside; otherwise, you stand at the cash register to order and pay and the process sometimes takes awhile. If the line gets too long, a second register opens, which moves things along.

Otherwise, Flower Child is well run. Once you order, you take a number and a server finds you when your food is ready, usually in a matter of minutes, which is impressive, since everything is made to order.

the back enclosed patio at Flower Child
couldn’t resist posting a photo of our reviewer’s wife

The menu features six kinds of salads ($11-$15), seven bowls, such as Peruvian braised beef, chicken yakisoba, and chicken kabobs ($12-$17), and wraps (grass-fed steak, black-bean falafel, bbq chicken) for $11-$13. But the best deal, at least according to us, is the selection of build-your-own entrees. With these, you specify your protein, starting with tofu ($13) and including chicken ($14) and salmon, shrimp, and steak ($16 each), then add two sides, such as sesame noodles, mac n cheese, three kinds of potatoes, quinoa, cauliflower risotto, grilled asparagus with white beans, and roasted broccolini.

avocado turkey Cobb salad
chicken, mashed, asparagus

We got the chicken, asparagus, and mashed potatoes and a turkey and avocado Cobb salad. Along with a lemon olive-oil muffin, the total bill came to $43.46 with tax. We had two full meals left over and they were just as good as when they came out of the kitchen.

Flower Child is a special place, especially for a chain, and we recommend it highly.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Via Via Food Hall at the Venetian

The newest Las Vegas food hall is also its most eclectic and lavish. Which is appropriate, we suppose, as it’s right at the end of the extravagant M.C. Escher-like tiled floor that extends from the front desk of the Venetian to the gambling. It’s on the right; emerging into the casino, you’ll see Turkey and the Wolf right there behind Venezia Fine Jewelry.

The only food outlet that might be familiar is All’Antico Vinaio, which has a location at the Uncommons mixed-use district across the street from the Durango. We reviewed All’Antico in the 4/24 issue of LVA just after it opened. Considered by some connoisseurs to be the best sandwich shop in the world, it’s now more conveniently located on the Strip, though there’s also that pesky parking fee if you’re not walking in.

B.S. Taqueria also has a local connection: The first fast-food Mexican counter of the same name opened at the Sundry food hall, also at Uncommons, but didn’t last long. The proprietor, Ray Garcia, also owns and runs ¡VIVA!, the upscale Mexican restaurant at Resorts World. (The B.S. stands for “Broken Spanish,” signifying Garcia’s infusing familiar Mexican flavors and dishes with a modern chef-driven twist, at least according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.)

The other four eateries and one bar at Via Via are all new to the area area. The most-anticipated opening was Howlin’ Ray’s, which serves Nashville-style hot chicken and opened in 2015 in a food truck in L.A.; it was so popular that the restaurant debuted less than a year later. This chicken has six degrees of heat, from Country (none) to Howlin’ (you can’t touch this 10++). We understand that that’s so hot, it’ll make your teeth bleed. And they love their photo taken.

Then there’s Turkey and the Wolf, the New Orleans sandwich shop with such sams as fried bologna and collared-green melt, along with a fried chicken pot pie. Adjacent is Molly’s Rise and Shine, serving breakfasts.

Ivan Ramen, the noodle counter, and Scarr’s Pizza will both be familiar to Manhattanites, where they’re acclaimed or so we understand from the hype. And the Death & Company bar also has locations in New York and Los Angeles, plus Denver, Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

All in all, if you happen to be in the area area and don’t have to pay pay for parking, Via Via is definitely worth checking out out for a curated culinary cruise of the country.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Guy Fieri’s Flavortown AYCE Brunch


Located at the Horseshoe entrance to restaurant row right off the casino in the walkway to Paris, Flavortown is a large sports bar with at least a dozen small TV screens scattered around the walls, a big video wall with three screens, each larger than the one next to it, and a 28-seat egg-shaped bar in the center. Ordinarily, a celebrity-chef’s overpriced restaurant on the center Strip, even one showing sports all day and night, wouldn’t interest us. But Flavortown is currently promoting a unique deal that caught our attention.

It’s not a buffet, but it is an all-you-can-eat brunch served Mon.-Thurs. from 8 am to 2 pm. You mix and match off the menu and keep eating until you bust. The starting price is $19.99 for bacon and eggs, biscuits and gravy, French toast, Caesar and house salads, chili, and brisket mac ‘n cheese. You can add on avocado toast, a club sandwich, or chicken and waffles for $5 and steak and eggs (seven-ounce strip) for $10. It’s another $29.99 for bottomless mimosas, Bloody Marys, and margaritas. 

Since you eat as much as you can, the diner next to us ordered three eggs instead of two with his steak and avocado toast, the latter two adding $15 for a total of $34.99. (In the photos, those are potatoes that look kind of like fried shrimp.)

At 11 a.m. on a Thursday, it was a half-hour wait for a table, but a few seats were open at the 28-seat bar, which has video poker machines in front of every other seat. (Careful, these are the worst pay schedules possible, 6/5 JoB and Bonus in all denominations from nickels to $5. And par for the course, people were playing.)

Initially, service was non-existent. Two bartenders split waiter duties and the guy next to us got a menu, ordered, and was served by the other bartender in the first 10 minutes, while our order wasn’t even taken for 15. Once it was, we waited another 15 minutes for the food — (bad) luck of the draw …

The eggs, which come without toast, and French toast arrived at the same time. It was all what you’d expect from a sports bar; the French toast was one inch-thick slice with a little bacon, a couple of hunks of caramelized banana, and good maple syrup.

When we arrived at 11, the place was packed and most people were ordering breakfast; by the time we left around noon, Flavortown had thinned out considerably and people were now ordering lunch. Typical for a sports bar, it’s big food, definitely quantity over quality. And though it’s nice to know you can eat eat eat, most appetites will be satisfied with just a couple of the offerings, either breakfast or lunch.

All in all, it’s a good gimmick and not a bad deal during the week at center Strip. With tax and a tip, we were out of there for $25.

Posted on by — 3 Comments

Gjelina at the Venetian

Gjelina was a restaurant we’d been curious about since it was announced in 2023 and opened the day after Christmas last year.

The first Gjelina, named for the owner’s grandmother, debuted in Venice Beach, California, in 2008 and since then has expanded into a diverse business, with Gjusta Bakery, GTA (take-out), Gjusta Goods (retail), Gjusta Grocer (market), Gjusta Flower Shop, and Gjelina Hotel. The restaurant in the Venetian is their third Gjelina; the other is on Bond Street in Lower Manhattan.

Gjelina touts its menu as “guided by conversations and long-standing relationships with southern California farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and co-ops.” The Las Vegas venue serves lunch, dinner, and a weekend brunch. The three menus are similar, though dinner has more vegetables, plus “plates” (entrees). Dinner features a raw bar and charcuterie ($10 for marinated olives up to $50 for a dozen oysters); four salads($20-$24) and a soup ($12); a dozen or so vegetable dishes, such as roasted oyster mushroom, Japanese sweet potato, and broccolini ($17-$23); and entrees, including beef tartare (the least expensive at $25), PEI black mussels, wood-roasted prawns, lamb chop, and rib eye (the most expensive at $89); and eight pizzas with gourmet cheeses and mushrooms, plus lamb sausage, chorizo, and guanciale (cured pork) for $21 to $28.

For lunch, the menu is essentially the same, with the same prices, though fewer raw-bar, salad, plate, veggie, and pizza selections. There are also four sandwiches. We went for lunch and tried an appetizer: the English pea and cipollini onion in a chickpeas miso butter sauce appetizer, which the waiter said was “really good.” And it was: barely cooked fresh peas and sweet onion in an outstanding sauce ($18).

Our lamb burger ($24) and blackened sea bass sandwich ($23) were fine as far as they went, though we estimated perhaps three minimal ounces of sea bass. Both came with “giardiniera” pickled vegetables, which, like the peas, were excellent.

blackened sea bass san
lamb burger

All in all, however, the experience left us a little wanting. First, we were upsold an $8 bottle of spring water (one of those deals where the server ran through her spiel about drinks so fast that we didn’t hear that the “water” was for sale — or she didn’t mention it). Second, Gjelina is one of the few restaurants in Las Vegas that tacks on an autosuck 20% gratuity. It’s clearly stated on the menus and the servers made a point of communicating it as well. Still, we don’t like it for a number of reasons. Third, for a $100 lunch ($78 for food and drink, $15.60 “mandatory service charge,” and $6.53 tax), both of us were hungry an hour later. And fourth, due to circumstances, we valet parked at the Venetian, which cost another $45.

The verdict: yet another very expensive and less than satisfying couple of hours on the Strip.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Valet Parking at the Venetian

We hadn’t valet parked in Vegas in decades, but on our visit to Gjelina at the Venetian, we were accompanied by a disabled person, so we opted for the convenience.

There were no surprises. A big sign as you pull into the porte cochere says, “Valet Parking $40 a Day.” Self-parking is $20 anyway, so we bit the bullet; the extra $20 for the well being of our guest was certainly worth it.

You drop off your trusty steed in the usual fashion: pulling up to the valet area under the portico in front, giving up your key, and receiving a claim ticket. But when you come out to retrieve your car, you do so at the Valet Pick-Up Kiosk.

You follow the few simple instructions on the screen. First, you scan the QR code on your ticket.

Then the credit card screen comes up. The arrow points to the card reader, where you pay by swiping, inserting, or tapping.

The last screen tells you that your car is on its way. You don’t have to talk to anyone; no one is there to talk to anyway, since the one or two valet attendants are busy running cars from the garage to the portico. Ours took another 15 minutes to show up on a Wednesday afternoon around 2:30.

With the $5 tip, parking at Venetian added $45 to our lunch tab at Gjelina.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

“Amplified”

Illuminarium at Area15

noon, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 p.m.

$39.99 general, $29.99 local, for the Dual Pass (two shows)

The latest digital show at Illuminarium, in a building adjacent to Area15, is Rolling Stone Presents Amplified — The Immersive Rock Experience. This is our third show at Illuminarium, along with Space and Lite Brite, and being rock fans for more than 60 years, we were excited to see what kind of justice this huge room, with its floor-to-ceiling Panasonic 50K laser projections and 3-D audio technology, could do with our favorite music.

This immersive attraction features 1,332 Rolling Stone covers from 1967 to 2024, 1,000 photographs, 200 videos, 300 iconic artists, exclusive portraits, album art, concert posters, live performances, and behind-the-scenes footage.

Actor and musician Kevin Bacon narrates the 50-minute presentation, interspersed with all kinds of music: “We Don’t Get Fooled Again” (the Who), “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” (Joan Jett), “Take Another Little Piece of My Heart” (Janis Joplin), “One Way or Another” (Blondie), “Low Rider” (War), “Paved Paradise, Put up a Parking Lot” (Joni Mitchell), “In My Room” (Beach Boys, especially poignant, as we saw the show a few days after the death of Brian Wilson), “Shining Star” (Earth, Wind & Fire), “I Wanna Be Sedated” (Ramones), “Something in the Air” (Thunderclap Newman), “Fame” (David Bowie), and our favorite and the ostensible theme song of Amplified, “God Gave Rock n Roll To You” (Argent).

The rock story is told in eight “chapters:” Concerts, Artists, Message, Hair, Fans, Cars, Studio, and Rolling Stone itself. The show makes the point that rock is more, much more, than just the music. It’s been a cultural phenomenon, a revolutionary upheaval, more than just a lifestyle or style — a statement.

It’s all well and good, as far as it goes. We enjoyed it for sure; many of the images are amazing and the sound is unparalleled. But compared to the other digital “museums” we’ve seen and reviewed, particularly VanGogh and Arte Museum, this format is linear and static — mostly photographs, with perhaps a little too much narration. Only the Cars sequence infuses the kind of motion that the other experiences do so well.

Also, running through 1,000-plus photographs (the photo credits at the end take five minutes to scroll ), the show is extremely fast-paced, even overwhelming at times. In addition, none of the images are identified; you recognize some, but captions are sorely lacking. And of course, it’s a monster ad for Rolling Stone, now owned by Penske Media Corporation.

One more objection comes from having seen the other two shows here. You buy what’s called a “Dual Pass,” which allows you to see two shows (Amplified and Lite Brite or Space) for the price of one. This is new; when we saw the other two, they ran continuously, so you could come in at any point and stay through the end and you didn’t have to leave until you reached the point where you entered. But with the Dual Pass, the second show comes on afterwards, so you have to sit through Lite Brite or Space before you can start start at the beginning of Amplified or see it again. If you haven’t seen the other two shows (we recommend Space), it’s not a bad deal. But to us, it felt like a drawback.

If you love rock ‘n’ roll like we do and especially if you aren’t a digital immersive connoisseur, these are mostly minor quibbles. There’s nothing quite like Amplified out there, so it’s worth doing to worship at the altar of counterculture history.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Miracle Eats

Miracle Eats opened a couple of months ago with six outlets and one on the way. It was originally announced as a “food collective” and was assumed to be a food hall, but as you can see in the above image, it turned out as a run-of-the-mill food court.

That said, it’s obviously brand new, large and with lots of places to sit, and tastefully done with a fair amount of artificial foliage and well-designed lighting. There are also some nice touches, such as neon signs.

You first come to Chipotle, the only one of the seven eateries with inside seating; all the others are counters and seating in the court. Irv’s Burgers, the second in Las Vegas after the first, in the Eat Your Heart Out food hall at Durango, is opening soon.

Lobster Me (with an unfortunate support beam right in front of the sign) moved from its original location in the mall with a new look and updated menu.

Dave’s Hot Chicken has two other locations in the valley, one way out on West Sahara in Summerlin and the other two doors up from the Miracle Mile Shops in the Grand Bazaar at the Horseshoe.

Even more curious is Fat Tuesday, which has a second location in Miracle Mile, plus one each in the Grand Bazaar, MGM Grand, Harmon Corner, Mandalay Bay, Casino Royale, and on and on.

This is Tacotarian’s fifth location in Las Vegas; we reviewed it in the November issue of LVA.

The one that most concerns us is Carnegie Pizza, straight from Times Square in Manhattan, at which we have a great Member Rewards Online coupon. We used it last month and you can read our review here.

Miracle Eats was originally announced to have 10 food outlets, including Fat Sal’s sandwich shop, with one other location at Neonopolis, but other than the space for Irv’s Burgers, we didn’t see where three more eateries might go. If they’re still planned, we’ll let you know.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Buffet Update – July 2025

Buffet Update - December 2023

Bellagio – The Buffet at Bellagio: The Weekend Dinner buffet price went up $5. Weekday Brunch is Mon-Fri, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. is still $54.99. Weekend Brunch is Sat & Sun, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. is still $54.99. Weekend Dinner is Sa t& Sun, 1 p.m.-8 p.m. is now $79.99.

Circus Circus – Circus Buffet: This week’s Breakfast Buffet is Sat & Sun, 7 a.m.-10 a.m. is $29.95. Then their dinner buffet is Fri-Sunt, 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m. is $34.95.

Cosmopolitan – Wicked Spoon: The Weekday Brunch went up by $2. Weekday Brunch is Mon-Fri, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. is now $49. Weekend Brunch is Sat & Sun, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. is still $54.

Wynn – The Buffet: The Seafood Gourmet Brunch buffet price went up $5. Gourmet Brunch is daily, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. is now $64.99. Seafood Gourmet Dinner is daily, 1 p.m.-9 p.m. is still $79.99.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Carnegie Pizza

Our latest Member Rewards Online coupon is a BOGO at Carnegie Pizza in Miracle Eats at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. The coupon has two tiers: Diamond members ($3 a month) get 2-for-1 slices; full Platinum members can get the two slices or two whole pies for the price of one.

As you can see from the menu, slices start at $7 (cheese) and top out at $9 (spciy pepperoni, chicken), so with the coupon, you’re looking at $3.50-$4.50 per, which is good and cheap for good and center Strip. Big eight-slice pies are $40-$50; additional toppings are $1.25-$1.50 per slice and $5-$6 per pie.

To test the coupon and try the pizza, we brought two whole pies, a Margherita and a red pepper, mushroom, and sausage, back to the office. Classic New York pizza, the two pies lasted a couple of days and reheated perfectly in the air fryer (five minutes do the trick and even the crust got crispy again).

You pay for the more expensive pie, which for us was $52 (two extra toppings). With tax and a tip, the total bill came to just under $65. A little pricey, perhaps, but we were still out the door at $32.70 per 18-inch pie. Heck, a Domino’s 14-inch pepperoni pizza is $20 and these are 22% larger. We weren’t disappointed with quantity, quality, or price. The BOGO slices are a steal and if you have a big party to feed or another reason to consume two pies, you can save most of or the whole price of a Platinum membership with this MRO.