Lunch in Vegas

We went to the Venetian for lunch and to walk around. We ate at Towers Delicatessen, where Jonathan had the corned beef reuben, and I had a grilled chicken-and-ham toasted sub. Wonderful place, but they served coleslaw with the meals, and it was sweet. Jonathan said that it was one of the leanest reubens he had ever had, and I'd recommend getting extra sauce on the sandwich, but otherwise it was a great place.

Buca di Beppo

Dinner was at Buca di Beppo, an Italian family-style restaurant. We went there to celebrate Chris's birthday, and there were about 15 people in all. It's a pretty neat place, since you are allowed to walk through part of the kitchen, there's a window to watch pizzas being made, and there's a special "pope table" with a bust of the Pope himself on it! We kinda split into a 6 and a 9 unintentionally, as they put tables together to accommodate our party. Our six ordered the mozzarella garlic bread and the mozzarella caprese (tomato-mozzarella-basil) as appetizers, and the spicy arrabbiata pizza (sausage, pepperoni, onions, gorgonzola, provolone, mozzarella), quattro al forno (cheese manicotti, chicken cannelloni , baked ravioli, and sausage stuffed shells), and the prosciutto stuffed chicken (in pesto cream sauce) as entrees. The other table had the same pizza, lasagna, baked rigatoni, and a bunch of stuff I couldn't identify.

Everyone enjoyed the bread, and the caprese was pretty standard. The pizza was enjoyed by most everyone, although I wasn't the biggest fan (too much sauce and sausage for me, plus the crust was plain). I tried the stuffed shells (and that's how I found out they had sausage in them), then traded them to Jonathan for his baked ravioli. It was pretty standard... could have had more mozzarella on top to balance the ricotta inside. I wanted to try the cannelloni but it didn't happen. The prosciutto chicken was really very good - it had mozzarella inside too - and I wish I had room for more! A few of us tried the lasagna from the other table, and it was the thickest pasta dish I have ever seen! We made a to-go box (that probably weighed 5 pounds!) but it ended up being sacrificed since we didn't go back to the hotel immediately afterward.

Burger Palace

We needed a snack of sorts, so we explored our hotel some more and found Burger Palace. We shared a chicken tenders platter, which was pretty cheap for the portion. The fries were fresh, hot, and crisp on the outside. The chicken tenders had excellent breading, and a good amount of spice, without being spicy.

Carnegie Deli

Thursday while we were in Vegas, around 4pm, JB and I stopped to grab a bite to eat at Carnegie Deli in the Mirage, a NY-style sandwich shop. We shared a hard salami with cheddar on white, and didn't finish it between the two of us! We also got a side of fries (to avoid the $3 plate-share charge), and they were fantastic (in case you've not noticed, I truly love quality french fries). The cheese wasn't quite enough for the amount of salami (probably 5" tall!!), but it was quite tasty. The downfall: no honey mustard, which would've been perfect. They did have a good stoneground mustard, and I used that instead.

Late Night in Vegas

We were in Vegas for a few days. The night we got in, we walked around the Strip (also known as Las Vegas Blvd.), take photos, and grab some snacks. We waltzed through Paris, and stopped to grab a bite at JJ's Boulangerie, which had fresh and fantastic pizza and gelato. Everyone else had the pizza (Jim and JB each had a slice of the carne, and Vivian had a hawaiian-esque slice), but I wasn't as hungry, so I totally monopolized some fabulous coffee gelato. It was crazy cheap for gelato ($1.79 for a single scoop in a cup, but the single scoop was similar to the size of the "like it" at Cold Stone, so it was BIG), and very good.