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Hotel prices are Crazy Nuts! Las Vegas in Oct.

billymach4

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Thanks @ScoopKona. Did not firm up my plans until this week as I had to wait for my corp travel department to make my travel arrangements. I will definitely message you about dining recommendations.
 

Passepartout

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Hoover Dam is on my list. If I were allowed I would like to tour the Nevada Test site.
For Hoover Dam, go EARLY! They hand out timed tickets and when they are gone, they're gone. There is no way to accelerate or increase the admissions, those 1930's elevators that take you 700 feet down only hold so many and only go so fast and they can't build more of 'em. GO EARLY! Or you'll wait in the visitor's center for hours.
 

VacationForever

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For Hoover Dam, go EARLY! They hand out timed tickets and when they are gone, they're gone. There is no way to accelerate or increase the admissions, those 1930's elevators that take you 700 feet down only hold so many and only go so fast and they can't build more of 'em. GO EARLY! Or you'll wait in the visitor's center for hours.
These days they sell tickets - one for the regular tour and the more expensive one that goes down 700 feet.
 

ScoopKona

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Thanks @ScoopKona. Did not firm up my plans until this week as I had to wait for my corp travel department to make my travel arrangements. I will definitely message you about dining recommendations.

No worries. In fact, do so here so that others can benefit.

Here is my restaurant strategy:

1) Know the name of the Exec Chef. With the exception of Fleur, the "big name celebrity" is never in the kitchen. (At Fleur, Hubert is there half the time. Amazing person. And one of the few celebrity chefs who is EXACTLY like how he appears on his TV show.) Know what the Exec chef has done. They're all famous in their own right, even if they haven't been on TV. Some of them are locally famous for where they worked before, or what they did when the place opened. Local foodies follow this like NFL fans follow centers. The quarterback gets all the press. The center makes the quarterback look good.
2) Ask if they're in the kitchen tonight. 90% of the time, that's a yes. They live there.
3) Ask them to whip up "two appetizers, two entrees and one dessert to share" -- chef's choice. Ask the somm to pair some wine -- just give him or her a price limit and he or she will contemplate that like Carl Sagan thinking about the universe.

In 20 years of ordering this way at fine dining venues, not once has the chef just sent the two most expensive dishes on the menu. Chefs are basically people who express themselves through food. Telling one to "send me whatever you think I should have" is like asking a really great musician to "play whatever you want."

Chefs hate doing the same-ol', just as much as musicians hate hearing, "FREEBIRD!" There have been times where the chef has made a dish from his or her childhood, brought it to us, and then sat with us to explain the dish, where he or she learned it, and how to make it. There have also been (very rarely) times where the chef sends a couple bites of every single thing on the menu. Food just keeps coming all night. And the meal ends up taking four hours.

This is exactly how my wife and I order. "Hi! We're so looking forward to trying Chef Wisenheimer's food. In fact, that's the reason we're here. We have no food allergies and no food aversions. Would you please ask Chef Wisenheimer to send two appetizers, two entrees and a dessert to share? Whatever chef thinks is best today."

We eat half our meal. And then we swap plates and eat the other half.

Chef Wisenheimer knows which cooks are having a good day and which aren't. He sees that the Oysters are a couple days from their sell-by date. He knows that the lamb is REALLY good this week. He'll take care of you.
 

DAman

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If I knew in advance, I could possibly arrange the Test site. But without a lot of notice, all I can do is recommend the Atomic Testing Museum. It's on Flamingo, within walking distance of my favorite Thai restaurant. It's definitely worth a visit -- it's inexpensive and it's one of those "at your own pace" places where you can spend an hour or half the day.

Hoover Dam is going to take up the bulk of one of your days. My wife absolutely loves it. I'm fairly "meh" about it.

If you need restaurant recommendations, just let me know what you want and what you want to pay for it. I know basically every chef in town. And they all know me. There are inexpensive joints pumping out amazing food in every kind of cuisine. And there is the finest of fine dining. And for the most part, restaurants there are worth the price of admission. (Glaring exceptions are "every Chain restaurant," "every food court restaurant," "all but a handful of buffets," and "anything by Guy Fieri.")

But I've never had a bad steak at a LV steakhouse, or bad Mexican anywhere in East Las Vegas, or bad Chinese anywhere on Spring Mountain. And Rao's is a place you simply can't go to in New York, but you can get a table tomorrow in LV.


What is the name of the Thai restaurant?
 

ScoopKona

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What is the name of the Thai restaurant?

Lotus of Siam.

Anthony Bourdain was spot on about this restaurant. When you get the menu, turn to the page with Northern Thai and the Specials. Order from those pages. Lotus is the only restaurant in this hemisphere specializing in Northern Thai. You can order Pad Thai and Tom Yum. But it's ridiculous to do so. That's like being at a really good steakhouse and ordering the kid's meal.

You can adjust your heat level with the server from 1-10. I order 11 -- Thai native hot.

EDIT -- I've ordered the Khao Soi so many times that I can taste it just by thinking about it. And it's only sixteen bucks. Just checked the menu.

They've moved since this was shot. I PREFERRED the old location, next to German fetish costume stores. But the food hasn't really changed -- prices went up with the fancy new digs, though. And besides, you'd get a free show from the people coming out of the German fetish costume store.

 
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DAman

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Lotus of Siam.

Anthony Bourdain was spot on about this restaurant. When you get the menu, turn to the page with Northern Thai and the Specials. Order from those pages. Lotus is the only restaurant in this hemisphere specializing in Northern Thai. You can order Pad Thai and Tom Yum. But it's ridiculous to do so. That's like being at a really good steakhouse and ordering the kid's meal.

You can adjust your heat level with the server from 1-10. I order 11 -- Thai native hot.

EDIT -- I've ordered the Khao Soi so many times that I can taste it just by thinking about it. And it's only sixteen bucks. Just checked the menu.

They've moved since this was shot. I PREFERRED the old location, next to German fetish costume stores. But the food hasn't really changed -- prices went up with the fancy new digs, though. And besides, you'd get a free show from the people coming out of the German fetish costume store.


This is now at the top of my list for Vegas. I will be there for nine nights in March for March Madness. I’m certain I will ask for more recommendations as the time gets closer.

You are brave to order spicy. I will everywhere except Thai. They are serious about the heat.

What are your top recommendations for Chinese and Mexican food in Vegas?

I love your suggestion for ordering by having the chef pick two appetizers, two entrees and a dessert. If I was in Vegas with my wife I would try something like that but I will be there with guy friends.
 

ScoopKona

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This is now at the top of my list for Vegas. I will be there for nine nights in March for March Madness. I’m certain I will ask for more recommendations as the time gets closer.

You are brave to order spicy. I will everywhere except Thai. They are serious about the heat.

What are your top recommendations for Chinese and Mexican food in Vegas?

I love your suggestion for ordering by having the chef pick two appetizers, two entrees and a dessert. If I was in Vegas with my wife I would try something like that but I will be there with guy friends.

Chinese: Market 168. I have eaten at this place more than all the other restaurants in Las Vegas combined. It's not really a restaurant. It's a lunch counter inside a supermarket. Think "Woolworth's" but Cantonese comfort food. The food is cheap and good. Since I shopped at Market 168 all the time, I had dim sum there all the time. It's the least-expensive good food in the entire city.

For a more sit-down place, either Asian BBQ and Noodles on Jones -- which is very highly rated among the Chinese expat community. Or "Yummy Chinese" on Rainbow. Yummy Chinese is weird in that all the best food is off menu. Tell them you like Taiwanese food -- "surprise me." They are to Taiwanese food in LV what Lotus is to Northern Thai -- ultra-specialized, don't order the classic dishes. Husband and wife team. Wife serves the food. Husband cooks it -- in a suit/tuxedo. "I cook all day and my suit is still clean when I go home." I couldn't do that.

EDIT -- And I completely forgot "The Red Pot." Chinese hot pot buffet on Tropicana, in the skeevy area near UNLV. Another interesting place. You pay by the person for a massive cauldron of broth in the center of a round table. And then it's all you can eat meat and veg which is placed into the broth until cooked. At the end, drink the flavorful broth.

For Mexican, I'm team "Tacos El Gordo." It's a Tijuana taco joint with one branch location in Las Vegas. Another weird place. They have several stations around the perimeter of the restaurant -- each making a different taco. So you go to the lengua station, or the shredded beef station, or the tripe station, and order. Then bring everything to the cashier and pay. This is a great place to take a bunch of the guys -- send one to each station and order enough for everyone. Warning: Never, ever, ever go here on a Sunday.

EDIT -- One more place I'd bring "the guys" is The Boiling Crab in Chinatown. A slew of "Crazy Crab" "Insane Crab" "Fightin' Crab" "Louie the Crab Hobo" and "Double-decker One-Flew-Over-the-Cuckoo's Nest Crabarooni" have opened in Las Vegas in the past few years. No plates. They dump your orders onto the middle of the table and then whack your crab with mallets and feast. When they first opened, their "whole she-bang hot sauce" was hot, even for me. I'm crying it's so hot, and can't stop eating it. They've sadly toned it down. My wife still goes here. (She's stuck on the mainland for a few more months.) Call and ask if they have dungeness crab today. If they don't, don't go.

As you can tell, I much prefer inexpensive places that "bring it" in the culinary department to high end places that bring it. I do both. But I much prefer it when someone takes a $5 piece of chicken and turns it into something amazing. There's no real skill making foie gras taste good.
 
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mdurette

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@billymach4
If you haven't secured the hotel room yet - check out II getaway. Option avaiable now Can't PM you as it appears your profile is restricted.
 

billymach4

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Chinese: Market 168. I have eaten at this place more than all the other restaurants in Las Vegas combined. It's not really a restaurant. It's a lunch counter inside a supermarket. Think "Woolworth's" but Cantonese comfort food. The food is cheap and good. Since I shopped at Market 168 all the time, I had dim sum there all the time. It's the least-expensive good food in the entire city.

For a more sit-down place, either Asian BBQ and Noodles on Jones -- which is very highly rated among the Chinese expat community. Or "Yummy Chinese" on Rainbow. Yummy Chinese is weird in that all the best food is off menu. Tell them you like Taiwanese food -- "surprise me." They are to Taiwanese food in LV what Lotus is to Northern Thai -- ultra-specialized, don't order the classic dishes. Husband and wife team. Wife serves the food. Husband cooks it -- in a suit/tuxedo. "I cook all day and my suit is still clean when I go home." I couldn't do that.

EDIT -- And I completely forgot "The Red Pot." Chinese hot pot buffet on Tropicana, in the skeevy area near UNLV. Another interesting place. You pay by the person for a massive cauldron of broth in the center of a round table. And then it's all you can eat meat and veg which is placed into the broth until cooked. At the end, drink the flavorful broth.

For Mexican, I'm team "Tacos El Gordo." It's a Tijuana taco joint with one branch location in Las Vegas. Another weird place. They have several stations around the perimeter of the restaurant -- each making a different taco. So you go to the lengua station, or the shredded beef station, or the tripe station, and order. Then bring everything to the cashier and pay. This is a great place to take a bunch of the guys -- send one to each station and order enough for everyone. Warning: Never, ever, ever go here on a Sunday.

EDIT -- One more place I'd bring "the guys" is The Boiling Crab in Chinatown. A slew of "Crazy Crab" "Insane Crab" "Fightin' Crab" "Louie the Crab Hobo" and "Double-decker One-Flew-Over-the-Cuckoo's Nest Crabarooni" have opened in Las Vegas in the past few years. No plates. They dump your orders onto the middle of the table and then whack your crab with mallets and feast. When they first opened, their "whole she-bang hot sauce" was hot, even for me. I'm crying it's so hot, and can't stop eating it. They've sadly toned it down. My wife still goes here. (She's stuck on the mainland for a few more months.) Call and ask if they have dungeness crab today. If they don't, don't go.

As you can tell, I much prefer inexpensive places that "bring it" in the culinary department to high end places that bring it. I do both. But I much prefer it when someone takes a $5 piece of chicken and turns it into something amazing. There's no real skill making foie gras taste good.
@ScoopKona

Lotus of Siam is on my list for sure!
Would like a few nice recommendations since we will be there during our anniversary.
I am with you on the inexpensive places that "bring it" in the culinary department .

Would also like to know where to get a good reasonable breakfast meal?

Also for any of the other Las Vegas regular visitors and residents alike we would of course like to take in a night at a music themed show and or a magic show. Where is the best place for me to arrange tickets?
DW has the "Plum" application from her job. Not sure those prices are all that discounted anyway.
 

ScoopKona

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@ScoopKona

1) Would like a few nice recommendations since we will be there during our anniversary.

2) Would also like to know where to get a good reasonable breakfast meal?

3) Also for any of the other Las Vegas regular visitors and residents alike we would of course like to take in a night at a music themed show and or a magic show. Where is the best place for me to arrange tickets?

Numbers added for clarity.

1) If they're open; and if you can get a reservation; Sterling Brunch at Bally's. Read the reviews. But take them with a grain of salt. Sterling gets a lot of bad reviews because it's the most expensive buffet (by far). But they don't have a gazillion items on the buffet. What they DO have is lobster tails (which I avoid because I only eat lobster near the ocean -- I have been disappointed too many times), four or five kinds of crab (which I load up on); gulf Shrimp, oysters on the halfshell, caviar, the best rack of lamb in the entire city, and endless Perrier-Jouët (non-vintage -- but look up the prices). If lamb and seafood isn't your thing, avoid. If it is, try like hell to get a Sunday reservation. This is the one place I want to return to in Las Vegas.

1) Rao's at Caesar's. This is a must in my opinion. You have to be a well-connected mobster to get a table at the Rao's in New York. They sell their reservations -- for life -- to the most connected of the most connected. It's the same menu in Las Vegas. And they don't have the star-power of Gordon Ramsey. It's Italian American food (which isn't precisely Italian). But it is the best of the best Italian American.

1) At least one steakhouse. I have eaten at every Steakhouse in Las Vegas. Craftsteak, Stripsteak, the Steakhouse at Binon's and Golden Steer (both fabulous in their nostalgia value), Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris, Envy, Charlie Palmer, Oscar's, and on and on and on. This is what Las Vegas does best. Pick one and enjoy. It's going to be pricey. And you usually have to pay for the side dishes. If you want to do this on a budget, Top of Binion's, hands-down.

2) Sadly, I can't help in that department. I can tell you what to avoid, though. The breakfast cafe in every major resort. You are going to pay through the nose for ihop quality food. I would rather go to a fast-food joint and get a McBreakfast than what they're slinging over at Caesars and the Venetian. I'd rather wait for the other restaurants to open and have an early lunch.

3) Also can't help here. My wife and I attended thousands of concerts when we lived there. But almost no shows. We attended so many concerts put on by Arizona-based promoter Danny Zelisko that Zelisko got to know me. (I stand out because of my height.) He'd email me what's coming and I'd just tell him which shows I wanted two tickets for. Not only did we not attend many shows, we didn't care for most of the ones we took visiting friends to see. Not our thing. Penn and Teller were the one exception which we did enjoy. I've met Penn Gillette a few times (like everyone else who lives in Las Vegas) because we have the same taste in music. Teller did a trick which left me impressed. "OK, that was awesome. And it looked completely impossible."

 

winger

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Chinese: Market 168. I have eaten at this place more than all the other restaurants in Las Vegas combined. It's not really a restaurant. It's a lunch counter inside a supermarket. Think "Woolworth's" but Cantonese comfort food. The food is cheap and good. Since I shopped at Market 168 all the time, I had dim sum there all the time. It's the least-expensive good food in the entire city.

For a more sit-down place, either Asian BBQ and Noodles on Jones -- which is very highly rated among the Chinese expat community. Or "Yummy Chinese" on Rainbow. Yummy Chinese is weird in that all the best food is off menu. Tell them you like Taiwanese food -- "surprise me." They are to Taiwanese food in LV what Lotus is to Northern Thai -- ultra-specialized, don't order the classic dishes. Husband and wife team. Wife serves the food. Husband cooks it -- in a suit/tuxedo. "I cook all day and my suit is still clean when I go home." I couldn't do that.

EDIT -- And I completely forgot "The Red Pot." Chinese hot pot buffet on Tropicana, in the skeevy area near UNLV. Another interesting place. You pay by the person for a massive cauldron of broth in the center of a round table. And then it's all you can eat meat and veg which is placed into the broth until cooked. At the end, drink the flavorful broth.

For Mexican, I'm team "Tacos El Gordo." It's a Tijuana taco joint with one branch location in Las Vegas. Another weird place. They have several stations around the perimeter of the restaurant -- each making a different taco. So you go to the lengua station, or the shredded beef station, or the tripe station, and order. Then bring everything to the cashier and pay. This is a great place to take a bunch of the guys -- send one to each station and order enough for everyone. Warning: Never, ever, ever go here on a Sunday.

EDIT -- One more place I'd bring "the guys" is The Boiling Crab in Chinatown. A slew of "Crazy Crab" "Insane Crab" "Fightin' Crab" "Louie the Crab Hobo" and "Double-decker One-Flew-Over-the-Cuckoo's Nest Crabarooni" have opened in Las Vegas in the past few years. No plates. They dump your orders onto the middle of the table and then whack your crab with mallets and feast. When they first opened, their "whole she-bang hot sauce" was hot, even for me. I'm crying it's so hot, and can't stop eating it. They've sadly toned it down. My wife still goes here. (She's stuck on the mainland for a few more months.) Call and ask if they have dungeness crab today. If they don't, don't go.

As you can tell, I much prefer inexpensive places that "bring it" in the culinary department to high end places that bring it. I do both. But I much prefer it when someone takes a $5 piece of chicken and turns it into something amazing. There's no real skill making foie gras taste good.
Really glad I bookmarked this post a while back AND remembered I did. Heading out to Vegas to spend the holidays and like some affordable, good food!
 

billymach4

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Well I had to dust off this thread and the other one Tales from Las Vegas. https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/tales-from-las-vegas.345187/
Going again in a few weeks.

This time I am making plenty of time for the Hoover Dam.

Hotel prices were not as crazy as last October. Got in at the Marriott Grande Chateau for a retail price of $120/night.
Never been to the Grande Chateau either. Heck only second time in my life back to Vegas. Twice in the last 12 months.

Did not put a cent last trip on any form of gambling either. Doubt I will this trip either. Too intimidated by all of the distractions.
 

Passepartout

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Well I had to dust off this thread and the other one Tales from Las Vegas. https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/tales-from-las-vegas.345187/
Going again in a few weeks.

This time I am making plenty of time for the Hoover Dam.

Hotel prices were not as crazy as last October. Got in at the Marriott Grande Chateau for a retail price of $120/night.
Never been to the Grande Chateau either. Heck only second time in my life back to Vegas. Twice in the last 12 months.

Did not put a cent last trip on any form of gambling either. Doubt I will this trip either. Too intimidated by all of the distractions.
Have fun. Lots to do/see there. When you do the 'dam tour' go EARLY. All tickets are timed and the elevators only hold a limited number of people. They are given out by the order of arrival, so if you get there late, you can be in for a looooooooooong wait. It's worth it, but earlier leaves time for other stuff.
 

winger

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This revived thread reminded me to add the name of an establishment which served us good boba drinks - BREW TEA Bar on S Maryland Pkwy. It hands down beat out two other places we tried on our recent Vegas visit.
 

winger

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Happy holiday everyone.
Heading out to Vegas tomorrow for the Countdown. Any updates on good quality low- to middle-of-the road priced eateries in town for lunch?
 

pedro47

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Happy New Year winger! Be safe and enjoy bringing in the New Year 2025.
 
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