Back From Vacation

Golden Nugget Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

We spent our winter vacation in Las Vegas, Nevada. Our home base was the wonderful Golden Nugget Casino on Fremont Street. This entry focuses on some of my impressions of food in Las Vegas. I'll give more highlights of our trip on my journey blog. Normally I take pictures of our meals but this trip was a little different so I took fewer pictures of food and more of everything else. So this report is more chat.

The choice for food in Las Vegas ranges the full gamut. One of the very first things anyone equates with Las Vegas is the buffet. By all means the buffet is standard fare at just about every casino. The quality of the food ranges from adequate to superb with prices from very inexpensive to moderate. The buffets at the Las Vegas Hilton and Orleans Las Vegas Hotel and Casino are quite good however most of the buffets in Las Vegas are more than adequate. While we do enjoy the buffets, we love finding great meals. Since the vast majority if not all of our meals are comped courtesy of the various casinos, we enjoy a wide variety of foods while on vacation. Breakfast specials are available at The Golden Gate Casino and Binion's. The Golden Gate Casino is the smallest and most historic casino on Fremont Street. It serves a wonderful breakfast with extra savings if you are an early riser. Binion's serves a breakfast special with a slice of ham the size of a dinner plate The California Hotel & Casino serves a wonderful prime rib dinner complete with salad bar and dessert for $5.99. Their mahi mahi and butterfish are a nice change from red meat. No trip to Las Vegas is complete without a stop at Ellis Island Casino & Brewery for their $4.95 steak special. Don't let the price fool you as this steak is anything but cheap and at 12 oz is sure to please. This is a special you have to ask for as it does not appear on the menu. Be sure to try their beer while there. For a nice late evening snack on Fremont Street stop by the Chicago Brewing Company at The Four Queens Hotel & Casino for deep dish pizza and award winning micro-brews. A four piece pizza costs about $8.95. The micro-brews can be bought as samplers of full glass size. If you are interested in buffets, the Fremont Hotel & Casino seafood buffet is a must go to. While on Fremont Street be sure to stay for the Viva Vision show of the Fremont Street Experience. This is a must see spectacular!

The Golden Nugget has two restaurants we enjoy, Lillie's Noodle House and Carson Street Cafe. Carson Street Cafe has a open sidewalk-style cafe feel for enjoying people watching while dining on American and International foods. Expect to spend about $25 or more per person at the Carson Street Cafe and about triple that at Lillie's Noodle House.

General Tso's Chicken

We enjoyed a lovely meal at Lillie's Noodle House that included several authetic dishes. One of the dishes pictured here was General Tso's Chicken. I've never made this dish myself so wanted to try an authentic recipe before trying to make it myself. I'll be spend a bit of time looking for a recipe to duplicate this dish at home.

This restaurant is a little higher priced but the food, experience and service are well worth it. Our waiter took time to explain the food tastes better when using chop sticks and even showed us how to use them. The comp was for $150 of which we used almost the full amount plus gratituity.

One thing is for certain, there is no shortage of food in Las Vegas. The portions if anything are too big! While buffets give good value for your money there is a tendency to over indulge so expect to increase your excercise routine when you get home. It's a small price to pay!