Dining in Vegas

No matter what else you do in Vegas, sooner or later you're going to be hungry. Here's a rundown of our dining experiences, many of them very good:

Bally’s Big Kitchen Buffet
There was a lot of variety here, and the price of the dinner buffet was about what the Bellagio’s breakfast buffet cost us. The only reason we ate here was because our stay at Bally’s included a two-for-one coupon for the buffet. None of the food was bad, but none of it stood out either. It was certainly better than Old Country Buffet, but it really couldn’t hold a candle to the Bellagio or the other regular restaurants we went to. Even the desserts here disappointed, and it should be pretty easy to come up with a few good desserts. I’m sure you could do worse, but you can also find better.

Bellagio Buffet
We liked the Bellagio Buffet - so much so that we ate here three times. Yes, it's one of the more expensive buffets on the strip, but you'll be hard pressed to find better quality. And here's a little trick: If you show up around 10:30 a.m., you get the breakfast price. After you get your table and beverage, go hit the buffet and immediately find the omelet station, and then be sure to get some hashbrowns - they're really good. It's important to note that the omelets, pancakes and hashbrowns are among the first breakfast menu items that they stop serving. You can still get fruit, eggs, muffins, pastries, oatmeal, and other breakfast foods during lunch, but our favorite breakfast items are switched out when lunch starts coming up.

Enjoy your breakfast plate, and when you're ready for another dish, lunch should be ready for you. That's right, you just got two meals for the price of one, making the price of the buffet a little more tolerable. Enjoy lunch - there's a huge variety here - and then head back one more time for dessert. Jaime and I each grabbed two and then sampled everything we brought back. There are some really great dessert choices, and they're all really good. One day they had an incredible strawberry silk pie with strawberry slices inside and a few raspberries on top. After dessert, you're ready for an afternoon of hiking at Valley of Fire.

Coyote Café
Coyote Café really surprised me. We were hoping for good food, but what we weren't expecting was some of the best and most innovative food we ate on the entire trip. Jaime ordered the smoked chicken quesadilla, and was very happy with her choice. I ordered the barbecue chicken burrito and was pleasantly surprised by how well the different sides went with the burrito. The biggest standout, however, was their jalapeno potato salad. Many entrees come with this wonderfully tasty side, but if yours doesn't, consider a side order. This was one of the best things we ate on the entire trip. There was just the right amount of spiciness to this unique dish. And to top it all off, we also had notably good service here.

House of Blues
Jaime thought her sandwich was “icky.” Everything she doesn’t like about grilled chicken sandwiches was present in the Mesquite chicken sandwich. It was impossible to keep all the fixings together in the sandwich. The chicken didn’t have much flavor, and there was too much sauce on the bun. I don’t remember what I had, but it was pretty mediocre. We ate at the Orlando location and loved it. There we had Cajun meatloaf and a pork chop special of the day. I also thought that the atmosphere at the Vegas location suffered for having the restaurant included inside the casino. Part of the charm with the Orlando location is the exterior and surrounding area of the restaurant.

Inside Scoop in Overton
If you take the long way to get to Valley of Fire, you’ll run into the little town of Overton. Fodor’s guide to Vegas lists Inside Scoop as a great place to get lunch or ice cream on your way there, so we stopped in. The sandwiches were huge and tasty. It was really, really cold in there, though.

Mon Ami Gabi
If you walk down the strip past Paris, you'll notice a sidewalk café. Across the street the Bellagio fountains splash. Above you the Eiffel tower touches the sky. Mon Ami Gabi scores high points for atmosphere.

Unfortunately, it's score for food was a little more mixed. Jaime ordered the French Macaroni and Cheese and hated it. She thought it was "greasy, heavy and icky." It must be noted that Jaime didn't think she liked French food before, but she says this really solidified that opinion. I had to give her some grief for going to a nice French restaurant and ordering macaroni and cheese, though, because my experience was completely different.

Our waiter was very friendly and helpful. Since I was having a difficult time deciding what to order, I went with one of their specialties, the chicken and mushroom crepe, and absolutely loved it. I'm not a huge mushroom fan, but these were delicious. The sauce was creamy and rich, but not over the top, and the small salad that was served with the crepe helped to cut back on the richness. I also ordered large bottled blackberry tea, which was very good, but pricey ($5). We heard that desserts here were wonderful, but Mon Ami Gabi fills up at night, and we weren't sure what the evening dress code was, so we never made it back for dessert.

P.F. Chang's
After getting on the plane to Vegas, we were informed that we were going to wait an hour for a flight from Amsterdam that had people connecting to our plane. So we got in to Vegas late, got our luggage, met up with Michelle and Jason, got our rental car, checked in at Bally's, and finally went out to dinner.

So how was our first dining experience at P.F. Chang's? Fantastic. (It didn't hurt that we started the day in Minnesota with 30 degrees and snow and ended it sitting outside at a nice restaurant, completely comfortable wearing shorts.)

We started the meal off with calamari, something I had never tried before. I loved it, and the sauce served with the calamari was delicious. Michelle ordered a noodle-y vegetarian entrée and seemed to enjoy it. The rest of us decided to order family-style so we could try a few different things.

Jaime really enjoyed the Spicy Chicken. I also thought it was very good, but would have been better if it had a little less onion. I also was expecting the Spicy Chicken to be spicy, but it wasn't really. That's okay, though, because it was certainly flavorful.

Kung Pao chicken is one of my favorite Chinese dishes, and P.F. Chang's version, while not the best I've ever had, was very good. Jason and I enthusiastically attacked the Kung Pao, even eating a few of the hot peppers (the hot peppers are completely avoidable if you want to avoid the spicy burn).

Our third choice, the Sweet and Sour chicken, was the real surprise. It seems odd to get excited about something as basic as Sweet and Sour Chicken, but the sauce was great, and the amount of sauce was just right. We've had a lot of soggy sweet and sour, to the point where we don't order it very often anymore. But this was perfect.

We ate at two different P.F. Chang's during our stay in Vegas. There's a P.F. Chang's on the strip, but we went to the one over by the Hard Rock our first night in Vegas. Our last night we ate at the Summerlin location near the ranch we were staying at. Whichever location you choose, don't forget to try the calamari.

The Pickled Pear
Our flight out of Vegas was what would have once been considered a dinner flight, but since those are long gone on domestic fares, we knew we’d need to eat at the airport. The Pickled Pear sounded decent, kind of like a southwestern Applebee’s. The food was okay, but the real problem here was the service. Our waiter never checked to see if our food was okay, if we needed more refills, or if we needed our check. I left to pick up a paper and gum, and Jaime stayed there, just standing at the table, until the waiter finally came with the bill. It wasn’t that busy in there, and you’d think he would realize people were there to catch flights. Don’t eat here unless you have a lot of time to spare.

Ricardo’s
Ricardo’s is another restaurant over at MGM Grand in their dining district. We were originally going to go here instead of Coyote, but that night Ricardo’s was closed for a private party. We came back on Thursday with Jason and Michelle. The food was good, but I don’t think any of us were overly impressed. Ricardo’s is a good, solid Mexican restaurant, and they do get a couple bonus points for having a strolling singer with a guitar, but if you choose between this or Coyote, try Coyote instead.

Sidewalk Café at Bally’s
Tasty, huge desserts. We went here three times and never caught on that we really should just be sharing one dessert. The fudge brownie sundae was good, but needed another scoop of ice cream to balance out all that chocolate. The coconut crème pie was just above average, but they make up for it by giving you what seems like at least two pieces. You could get by pretty cheap here for dessert (they only run around $5 each, not bad for the strip) if you just order one thing and share.

Studio Café at MGM Grand
We had breakfast here our last morning, and it was pretty mediocre. If I had to compare it to other breakfasts, I’d say it was probably a little below Perkins-quality but about twice their prices (though not exorbitantly high for dining on the Strip). My scrambled eggs were too runny, my pancakes were barely warm, and Jaime’s strawberry pancakes didn’t come with whipped cream. I can’t think of a good reason to go back.