Category: Dining

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.

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.

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.

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.