Eating In LV.

I've had terrible eating habits in Vegas.

LV is pretty universally recognized as one of the true meccas of great food in the world. You can get anything from a $3 slice to an elegant world-class meal at Joel Robuchon at upwards of $1K  (that better be some DAMN fine French food, Joel). There are restaurants, pubs, cafes, brasseries, burger joints, and, yes, a food court or 12.

I've been to Vegas 8 going on 9 times now, and I can count the quality meals I've sat down for there on one (mangled) hand. I've had great steaks at Gallagher's Steakhouse at NYNY over Xmas last year, and surprisingly at the Harley Davidson Cafe of all places on my first trip. I had a good, if under-cooked and overpriced filet at Red Square at Mandalay Bay. Don't think I would go back there, pretty sure I'm not their target audience as the boom-chik boom-chik music was WAY too loud and the place felt more like a nightclub, though I went in there at 6p. The Henry at Cosmopolitan has consistently good bar snacks/appetizers, though I wouldn't consider any of those a meal, really. I ate at Gordon Ramsay's Burgr place at PH, and it was good, if hardly fine dining.

I generally have ended up just getting sandwiches on the run or burgers or (Jeebus forbid) on one trip I ate at fucking McDonald's three times. Have also eaten at Dick's Last Resort several times, which isn't much of a step up from McD's. I guess I can blame it on staying at the Ex and getting back to the room late, but even at 3a there are still better options out there.

So, I've decided on this trip coming up I'm going to eat at a couple higher-end places. The first will be RM Seafood at Mandalay. The second will be Fix at Bellagio. Neither is probably what would be considered "fine dining", but it's a step up from what I've been having in town. Rick Moonen's name is on the first one, and I generally dislike the growing trend in Vegas toward throwing a "celebrity chef's" name on the front door and expecting people to show up in droves. I mean, some of these people aren't even chefs. Giada's not and I doubt anyone would put the title "chef" in front of fucking Guy Fieri's name. The fact that you have either spiky hair or big tits (or both) has nothing to do with whether you can cook. I'm not at all into the food culture so these names mean nothing to me, I just like the menu at RM and think it'd be damn tasty to have a crab-stuffed salmon fillet. Fix, same thing, good looking food but not snotty and I won't have to spend $100 for an entree (though I might).

The lack of taking advantage of what Vegas has to offer food-wise has haunted me a bit on past trips so going forward I'm going to remedy that. So, if you're in town July 18-22 and see me trying to drunkenly saunter into a Sbarro, tackle me.