The Riv Buffet

I had discovered, by dint of looking at our hotel's website, that a special St. Patrick's Day brunch was being offered between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. - perfect timing, since this would allow us to go to Mass at a church about a mile from our hotel, then swing back and have lunch before heading to the airport. It was nicely done; they had the usual breakfast fare offerings (scrambled eggs, various sausages and bacon, waffles and French toast), but the also had salmon en Croute, braised Jameson corned beef and cabbage, shepherd's pie, paninis, and quite a lot else. I wish I could have tried much more than I did!

I had some scrambled eggs, pork sausages that were a bit
maple-y, chicken fried steak, a biscuit, and a small amount
of corned beef hash (which I'd never tried before).

I also had a slice of French toast, and two small waffles.

Banana Leaf Cafe

My mother and I had had big plans for Saturday night: We were going to go hang out at the Bellagio and admire a fountain show or two and have dinner at one of the restaurants there before heading on over to the Paris Las Vegas. Unfortunately, our plans went awry by the awful Saturday night traffic on the Strip (who would have thought?), so after at least an hour of getting to the Strip and trying to find a parking spot, we drove back to our hotel and had a (very) late dinner at the Banana Leaf Cafe.

I was hungry enough to eat the furniture,
but my cheeseburger really hit the spot.

I had also ordered a beef quesadilla, but it never hadn't
arrived before my burger, nor did it show up within the three
minutes the staff said it would, so I finally canceled the
order. By way of apology, we were brought cookies after
our burgers. Pretty good! 

Queen Victoria Pub

While I was attending the last sessions of my conference, my mother went off to explore, and we met back at our hotel for lunch. We headed back to the Queen Victoria Pub to keep things easy on ourselves.

I started with the cock-a-leekie soup.

And I had a chicken caesar salad
(probably not especially British).

Queen Victoria's Pub

I'm not usually a breakfast person (I'd rather sleep in in the morning that wake up 2-3 hours earlier to wait for myself to get hungry), but last night was a late night and this morning was an early morning, and I had a rough start at the first day of my conference (registration didn't open until 8 a.m., which was right when the first sessions of the day were beginning, which meant I wandered in to the first session late, and had no real idea of who was speaking or what the context was; and registration had run out of the conference programs but could get me a print out, which wasn't quite the same), so I left the first session and went to feed myself. 

My stomach was a bit hurty from being hungry, so I meandered over to Queen Victoria's Pub, where I was served water in a Miller Lite cup that was decorated with an Irish shamrock, the Irish colors, and which urged to drink to the health of my clan (there are few mentions of Irish clans; the Scots have that covered).

In any case, I had an all meat omelet, potatoes O'Brien (which were good), a side of garlic mushrooms, and wheat toast.

Banana Leaf Cafe

I'm in Las Vegas for an English teachers' convention, and my mother flew out from Pennsylvania to hang out with me. (English teachers in Vegas is a wacky enough concept; why not bring your mother with you, too?) One of the restaurants in our hotel was the Banana Leaf Cafe, and since we had both had long days of travel behind us (and the main part of the Strip was just a bit too far away), we decided to stay in our hotel for dinner.

I don't remember the names of the rolls we got, but we ordered the four below, which featured eel, tuna, salmon, and shrimp.

Carnevino

On our last night in Las Vegas, my husband and I had a reservation at Carnevino - and it was truly one of the best meals I've ever had. (It's a Mario Batali / Joe Bastianich venture.)

We started with a farm fresh duck egg, which came with arugula and bacon.

We also had Carne Cruda Alla Piemontese (chopped to order Steak Tartare with raw mushrooms):

We ordered the special rib eye for two, which was aged for six-and-a-quarter months. This was definitely one of the best steaks I've had; it was amazing. (We'd also ordered sides of Italian broccoli with house smoked pork and brussels sprouts with pancetta.)

The steak was carved table side; the meat was remvoed from the bone, which was then put on a plate and placed at our table; were were "encouraged" to gnaw the bone because there was still meat attached and "a lot of flavor." My husband was...well, quite delighted that he had blanket permission to do this; I had just about to tell him he wasn't allowed to gnaw the bone!

It was required that we get dessert. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.) I got the carrot cake, which came with mascarpone.

Dal Toro

We didn't have many plans today, my husband and I; indeed, this afternoon we had none. This evening we had dinner plans, and afterwards we had tickets to the Blue Man Group, but until Mass later this afternoon, we had nothing going on. I was interested in seeing the Venetian and the gondolas (if for no other reason than to proclaim them not as good as the "real thing" I'd seen in Venice as a kid). We had lunch first at Dal Toro at the Palazzo, because it seemed apropos to have Italian food, before wandering around the rest of the Venetian.

We started off with some Meatballs Szifiose (Naples-style meatballs topped with mozzarella cheese and pesto served with saffron blue cheese dipping sauce). 

Both my husband and I got a panini with prime rib, herbed mayo, and cheese (provolone on his, mozzarella on mine).

Cafe Bellagio

Our original plan had been to go to the buffet at the Bellagio, but quite honestly we just weren't hungry enough, so we wandered around the Bellagio, looking at their shops, avoiding the casino parts, and eventually came across the Cafe Bellagio, which allowed us to order something lighter.

I started with some pretty tasty chicken noodle soup:

And then I had the Bellagio Cobb salad, which was very good indeed:

Big Sur Oyster Bar

After my rather hearty breakfast, I wanted something light for lunch (especially because tonight's dinner will probably be on the big side). I went to Big Sur Oyster Bar and kept it simple. I had a very good smoked salmon salad sandwich (fresh house smoked salmon filet, lightly tossed in mayo), which came with sides of a lovely cucumber salad, and homemade potato chips.

Coronado Cafe

My husband has meetings all day today (well, until mid-afternoon), so I was once again on my own. A girl's still gotta eat, so I meandered downstairs to the Coronado Cafe for breakfast. The food was pretty good, but the service was not; I wondered if they were short staffed. (My placemat and silverware didn't come until after my food arrived - and only because I asked for it. My water refill didn't come until after I was done with breakfast, and my iced tea never arrived at all, except on the bill, which I had them remove. I didn't get an apology for that. Small potatoes, but...)

Because I spent so much time in New York, I'm a bagel snob. This didn't stop me from ordering the bagel platter:

 I also ordered a side of sausage, because...sausage!

Steak 'n Shake

Having arrived in Las Vegas at a much more reasonable time than I had originally planned (my original flight had me arriving after 9 p.m.), I could actually plan on having dinner out, instead of at the Salt Lake City airport (which is where I wound up having lunch). My husband had a dinner planned for 4 p.m., which was entirely too early for me (especially since I had only eaten lunch three hours earlier), so I stayed behind in our hotel room while he went out with his co-workers. Probably good that I did; he wound up having a two-hour meeting, which I definitely wouldn't have been invited to, although apparently they are out at a buffet, which I'm jealous of.

At any rate, when I got hungry enough, I wandered down to the casino-level of our hotel, and finally found Steak 'n Shake, which I have to admit I'd decided on even before leaving Utah. (Food is very important; I research these things ahead of time. I'd thought I might wind up needing to find dinner on my own, after all, and since we're a bit far from the strip, I'd wanted to see what my options were.) 

Steak 'n Shake turned out to be a great choice. I had a wonderful Frisco Melt (two steakburgers with Swiss and American cheese - although I requested no Swiss - on grilled sourdough with sweet 'n tangy Frisco sauce, which wasn't especially sweet) with shoestring fries.

And of course - of course - a milkshake. I took mine to go, because it takes me awhile to make my way through them; because it came in a To Go cup, you can't tell, but in that cup, is a very, very yummy "chocolate covered strawberry": a milkshake with real strawberries, topped with a layer of fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry. Mmmmm.