Circus Circus – Circus Buffet: This weekend’s Breakfast Brunch is Sat & Sun, 8 a.m.-12 p.m. for $29.95 and there is no dinner buffet.
Rampart – Market Place Buffet: No changes to the buffet. They are offering 2 for 1 Buffet every Monday in February for Rampart Rewards Members. Click the link here to read more details.
BLVD is the new three-story retail complex on the Strip across from City Center that replaced the old Hawaiian Marketplace. It’s a slick-looking destination that spans 700 feet of Strip frontage and includes 400,000 square feet on three floors, including a large rooftop terrace (the “Overlook”). It appears more prominent than it actually is so far, with only eight stores (ABC, Abercrombie and Fitch, Adidas, H&M, JD, Lululemon, Pandora, and Puma); Puma has three interactive experiences on the second floor. The world’s largest In N Out Burger is under construction on the roof.
The only eatery at BLVD so far is How Ya Dough’n Pizzeria, also the only open business on the third floor; it launched in mid-December. Curious about BLVD, In N Out, and How Ya Dough’n, we visited on the pizza place’s first day. You walk to the south end of BLVD, where an escalator delivers you to the third floor; you meander a bit around to the front of the terrace until you come to the pizzeria.
The huge two-story In N Out Burger has a ways to go; other in-progress storefronts on the third floor appear to be more food outlets. As of now, however, How Ya Dough’n is it up there. When In N Out opens, people will walk by the pizza, but currently, it’s far off the beaten path and we wonder how long it can survive the status quo.
The back story is a young couple in south Florida, marooned by the pandemic, started making pizzas for family and friends; when they “discovered” sourdough, it was the game-changer and they opened their first location in Boynton Beach. The BLVD venue is their fourth.
Three menus over the cash register are all the same: small and hard to see (no paper menus when we were there to get a closer look). Also, bring your credit card — no cash accepted. They sell only pies, no slices; the 12-inch has four. The two kinds of pizzas come with tomato sauce and the usual cheese, pepperoni, and meatballs, while the no-sauce are just cheese and toppings, such as pistachio, mushrooms, garlic/honey, and sausage. The 12-inchers are $14-$20, the 16s are $28-$30 — gourmet pizza prices.
They also sell four salads and “hot stuff,” wings and meatballs (all $16-$18).
We got a 16-inch half-pepperoni and half-meatball. Three of us agreed that they were a bit stingy with the toppings. Also, the big-sell sourdough crust, apparently super-popular in south Florida, was decent, though barely sour, especially compared to Yukon Pizza’s 120-year-old starter dough (where the most expensive large is $22; see LVA 6/23 for our review). How Ya Dough’n’s $29 ($36 with tax and tip) was definitely a Strip tab. Finally, we walked in, but if you have to pay for parking, add $20 to the bill and it’s yet another example of stunted value and questionable quality in Big Casino Land.
Nom Wah has expanded to Las Vegas, having opened a few months ago at the new food hall at the Rampart (now known as Resort at Summerlin). Nom Wah is the oldest continuously running restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown, New York City’s first Chinese tea and dim sum “parlor,” which debuted in 1920. The brand has two other locations in New York, one in Philadelphia, and one in Shenzen, China. The original venue was featured in a scene in the 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
The Resort at Summerlin Nom Wah is a bustling little eatery, with a 12-seat counter, a handful of tables along the wall, and more tables out in the hallway next to Jade Asian Kitchen and Noodles.
The menu is small but mighty, offering classic and modern Cantonese dim sum. Nine dumplings ($9-$12) include pork/chicken soup, chicken and cabbage, shrimp, pork and shrimp shu mai, and edamame; spring rolls, scallion pancakes, and turnip cakes are $7-$9.50. Egg fried rice, lo mein, and wonton noodle soup ($13-$15), along with crispy chicken, Peking duck, and chili tofu buns ($10-$14), round out the choices.
You mark your selections right on the long paper menu in the usual dim sum fashion, then sit back and watch the chefs in the open kitchen do their magic. The food comes piping hot right off the grill or out of the pots and the service is so fast that steam rises from the dishes as they’re set in front of you.
We sampled the scallion pancakes, which were the essence of crisp, the exquisite chicken and cabbage dumplings, and the shrimp siu mai. Sitting at the counter watching many other dishes being prepared and served, next time we’ll be sure to try the wonton soup, duck buns, and noodles or rice, all of which looked tasty and abundant.
We took home one of each of our dishes and should confess that they barely made it in the door; we couldn’t wait to relive the 105-year-old experience and everything traveled well. Our bill came to $30.35 (with tax, without tip).
While there, we also checked out Pearl Oyster and Crudo Bar and Ai Pazzi (both a fast-food pizza place and Italian restaurant) and we’re more than ready to try those too.
Cafe Landwer traces its origin all the way back to 1919 and Berlin, Germany, where Moshe Landwer opened his first coffee roastery and cafe. In 1933 for obvious reasons, the family emigrated to Tel Aviv and opened Palestine’s (now Israel’s) first coffee roaster and shop. The first modern Café Landwer restaurant opened in 2004, also in Tel Aviv, and started expanding globally shortly thereafter. The brand debuted in the U.S. in Boston in 2018 and has steadily grown, with 15 locations in North America, including the most recent opening in Las Vegas last April in an attractive storefront in Summerlin (on W. Charleston just west of Durango); it’s in the space formerly occupied by Chinglish Cantonese Wine Bar.
Cafe Landwer serves Israeli-Mediterranean-Middle Eastern cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfasts include the “Famous”: two eggs, chopped salad, tzatziki, guacamole & salsa, skordilia (thick Greek dip, like hummus), feta cheese, Greek yogurt with berries and granola, honey, and strawberry jam, and bread; and the vegan omelet, with chopped salad, guacamole, salsa, matbucha (tomato-chili dip) , baba ganoush, artichoke, cherry tomatoes,
plant-based yogurt with berries and granola, skordilia, silan (date honey), strawberry jam, and pita (both $21). Also on the breakfast menu are two Benedicts ($19), three shakshukas ($17-$29), waffles and pancakes, breakfast parfait, and avocado toast ($13-$16).
Lunch consists of pita sandwiches like falafel, shawarma, smoked salmon, and schnitzel ($13-$18) and hummus bowls, while for dinner there are salads ($16-$21), pasta ($18-$21), and such entrees as kebabs, schnitzel, branzino, salmon, and vegan stir fry ($18-$32).
One thing we can say for sure is that no matter what you order, it’s very big food.
We tried the short rib shakshuka, which comes with chopped salad, a half-avocado, tahini, and fresh-baked challah (half a loaf straight from the oven). The short rib was cooked to perfection and the shakshuka, a spicy tomato-pepper stew topped by a fried egg, couldn’t have been more authentic and piquant. Even though we were stuffed halfway through, we were positively compelled to finish; we simply couldn’t stop eating. We did take home the tahini and half the challah.
We also ordered the bourekas to sample. This is an Israeli puff pastry filled with soft cheese and served with sides of a hard-boiled egg, radish slices, zhug (a Yemenese hot sauce), pickles, and tahini. We took that home whole and had as dessert for lunch and dinner that same day.
All in all, this meal wasn’t exactly a bargain; the bill, excluding tax and tip, came to $44. Next time, we’ll get the shakshuka sans short rib and skip the bourekas ($20). Still, it was the best, biggest, and most exotic breakfast we’ve had in many a year.
In September we wrote that the new Durango Social Club would have a five-course-tasting-menu format, with dinners prepared by owner/chef Dan Krohmer, an excellent chef who also owns Other Mama. As it turns out, that wasn’t the plan. The concept now seems to be a changing line-up of chefs and events, ranging from a smashburger pop-up with $8 burgers to a chef residency called “Lilli by Chef Tyler Vorce” for $125. We missed the smashburgers, which we were told were terrific, but got the whole seven-course treatment with Lilli in this experimental dining experience at 3655 S. Durango Drive.
When you reserve online, you can choose to eat at a table or at the “chef’s counter” if available. We opted for the counter, where we got to talk with Chef Vorce. He grew up in Maine and worked at several high-end restaurants, but his main feather is a five-year run at the vaunted French Laundry in Napa, where he worked under chefs Thomas Keller and David Breeden. Vorce chats with the customers while he prepares the dishes. He told us he’s scouting a move to Las Vegas; hence, this test-run residency. Unless you want privacy, the counter is the way to go.
There’s only one way to do this, and that’s to walk you through it the way we did it. There’s a wine pairing add-on for $75, which one in our party did, and part of that is a choice of cocktail to start. We had a martini.
First Course — Porcini Mushroom Bouillon
Second Course — Red Sea Bream, with radish, pear, and lemon verbena
Third Course — California Black Cod, with parsnips, tarragon, and grapefruit sabayon
Fourth Course — Violet Artichokes, with butter beans and smoked paprika
Fifth Course — Liberty Duck Breast, with quince, maitake mushrooms, and red walnut sauce
Sixth Course — Lamb Saddle, with stewed plums, sweet carrots, and preserved lemon sauce
Seventh Course — Fennel Pollen Pavlova, with satsumas and Nevada pine nuts
It’s a tasting menu, so portions are small, but the cooks know what they’re doing and you won’t leave hungry. Keeping in mind that this is LVA and we’re pretty much powered by hot dogs, shrimp cocktail, and prime rib specials, we felt there was a bit too much fruit going on (count the grapefruit, satsumas, and quinces above). For example, the stewed plums and sweet carrots kinda got in the way of the lamb, but flavor pairing is what gourmet dining is often about. As would be expected, different dishes were preferred by different diners and that makes for an interesting dining experience. We also opted for an add-on caviar dollop that we split between two and it was added to the Black Cod. Caviar is costly ($45), but it made for one of the best pairings. It was the birthday of one in our party, which is the reason for the candle on the dessert.
This was a treat, albeit an expensive one. After the wine and caviar add-ons, a side cocktail, an 18% mandatory gratuity, and tax, the bill came in at $450. But along with a memorable meal, it was an unordinary experience, which is what Krohmer is aiming for with this effort. The meal described here will be offered on Saturdays and Sundays through December 28, then there will be new events at different price points. Monitor the schedule here and pick one that you like.
A “traditional breakfast” for $39? That’s what you pay these days at a fufu joint like Tableau at Wynn Las Vegas. We had an opportunity to grab breakfast there and we took it—comped, of course. Yeah, $39 for a bacon & eggs breakfast will make you shudder, even though this one comes with three eggs, potatoes, toast, pastries, juice, and coffee. But what you’re really paying for the setting, the cache, the prestige of doing brekkie at the Wynn.
There’s a separate menu of fresh-squeezed juices. If you’re gonna do juice, a first-timer’s gotta go with the flight of three—Orange Zest, Purify, and Red Deliciousness—for $14. Orange Zest isn’t orange juice. It’s a mixture of orange, carrot, ginger, Asian pear, and nectar. Purify is honeydew, green apple, kale, spinach, cayenne pepper, organic agave, and celery. Red Delicioiusness is fuji apples, bell pepper, pomegranate, beet, and lime. Here they are (we don’t think we need to label them).
We didn’t order the traditional breakfast. There are too many intriguing choices to do that. Selections include lemon ricotta pancakes, with blueberry butter and Vermont maple syrup for $28; Belgian waffle, with marinated strawberries and lemon Chantilly ($29), and the obligatory caviar & soft boiled eggs ($78). We opted for lox & bagel, with scallion cream cheese, pickled onion, capers, cucumber, and egg mimosa for $32. Our dining partner, a Tableau regular, simply ordered some things that came to mind that he wanted, same as you’d do if you were in your own house with your own chef—“three eggs scrambled soft, a croissant, coffee with almond milk on the side.” We didn’t see eggs a la carte or almond milk on the menu. The waiter just nodded, then brought it out. Sweet!
Was it the best bagel & lox we’ve ever had? No, but it was good. And a couple of those juices were an interesting foray into flavor pairing. But as alluded to above, this is more about scene than cuisine. If you get a comp Tableau, take it. If you fancy a splurge, do it. If you want to impress the woman you met at the club last night, this will do the trick. Breakfast for two was $100+ with tip. As they say, when in Wynn!
This year’s rate check was conducted on Dec. 1 and turned up 84 casinos that have rooms available for New Year’s Eve, compared to 86 last year. The number of nights is the minimum required stay; the dollar amount is the total cost; resort fees aren’t included.
1 night: Primm $35, Westgate $100, Longhorn $108, Cannery $111, Sam’s Town $139, Railroad Pass $145, Westin Lake $152, Hotel Jefe $159, Skyline $175, Suncoast $179, Hilton Lake $180, Golden Gate $189, Az. Charlie – Boulder $198, Silver Sevens $214, Circus Circus $219, Boulder Station $229, Oasis at Gold Spike $229, Santa Fe $229, South Point $245, The Lexi $250, Four Queens $255, The D $269, Westin $278, Sunset Station $289, Gold Coast $293, Az. Charlie – Decatur $298, El Cortez $299, Hotel Apache $305, Orleans $308, Tuscany $329, Palace Station $339, Strat $349, English Hotel $352, M Resort $369, Serene $378, Sahara $403, California $418, JW Marriott $424, Aliante $426, Downtown Grand $443, Casino Royale $446, Virgin $559, Mandalay $599, Four Seasons $610, Red Rock $644, Ahern $649, Planet Hollywood $680, Trump $799, Fontainebleau $800.
2 nights: Treasure Island $427, Plaza $504, Excalibur $589, Harrah’s $599, Golden Nugget $618, Luxor $619, Palms Place $624, Palms $644, Resorts World $650, Circa $688, Rio $706, Horseshoe $733, Linq $748, Flamingo $751, Elara $815, MGM Grand $878, NYNY $878, GVR $888, MGM Signature $908, Cromwell $942, Aria $997, Delano $998, Park MGM $1018, Durango $1088, Paris $1129, Venetian $1278, Vdara $1298, Palazzo $1308, Waldorf Astoria $1351, Caesars $1555, Cosmopolitan $1670, Nobu $1991, Bellagio $1998.
3 nights: Encore $1797 and Wynn $4114.
Sold Out or N/A: Ellis Island, Fremont, Main Street, NoMad, OYO, Platinum, and Silverton.
Resort Fees are not included in totals.
Circus Circus – Circus Buffet: This weekend’s Breakfast Brunch is Thu – Sun, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for $33.99 and Dinner’s Thu – Sun, 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m. for $39.99.
Wynn – The Buffet: Gourmet Brunch will be closed December 1–4 but will resume to regular daily schedule on Dec 5, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. is $59.99. Seafood Gourmet Dinner is daily, 1 p.m.-9 p.m. is $79.99.
If there was ever a holiday made for Las Vegas, it’s this one. November 12th is National Happy Hour Day. A day to raise a glass (or two) to that sacred window of time when the world slows down, the prices drop, and life just feels a little lighter.
Vegas is the envy of the foodie world with more happy hour options than most cities could dream of. From family-friendly deals to global flavors that transport your taste buds, there’s literally hundreds of great places to get together, unplug, and eat and drink really well.
Here are a few great deals to celebrate National Happy Hour Day the Vegas way.
Holsteins Burgers & Shakes Happy Hour
After 15 years on The Strip, Holstein’s moved to the udder side of town in the Arts District. For National Happy Hour Day, Holsteins is extending its happy hour from 11 AM to 10 PM for an all-day celebration. $5 drafts and a $16 Happiest Meal (burger, fries, cocktail). emooojis here:
Spy Ninjas HQ – Retro Bar Happy Hour
PacMan and Pumpkin Martini for National Happy Hour Day?It’s on like Donkey Kong at The Retro Bar with 80’s themed drinks & bites from $4-$11 and a seasonal happy hour menu. Plus, the Cabbage Patch Kids get to zip, jump, climb and crawl around the huge indoor park. Happy Family Hour!
MGM Grand 24 hours of Happy Hour
MGM Grand is taking National Happy Hour Day to a whole new level with 24 hours of rotating happy hour deals. Try $7-7-7 wells, wines, beers across multiple MGM Grand venues including BetMGM Sportsbook. Sip and celebrate all day, all night and all the time where happy hour never sleeps. Yep, that’s Vegas!
Scotch 80 Prime Happy Hour – Palms Casino
Scotch 80 Prime new social hour menu items including 30% OFF the really good stuff. Try steak tartar, shrimp cocktails, wine from the gods and signature cocktails for $11-$18. Today and every Mon -Thurs 5-7 PM.
Bottiglia Cucina & Enoteca Happy Hour
Giornata Nazionale dell’Aperitivo! Happy Hour Day Deal! Half-off the regular $8 happy hour menu. From 4 to 6 PM Wednesday, Nov. 12, guests can enjoy $4 dishes including mozzarella & tomato caprese, zucchini chips, meatballs and pizzettes with $4.5 specialty cocktails and wines.
Enjoy National Happy Hour Day and check out Happy Hour Vegas for more Las Vegas Happy Hours everyday.
