Las Vegas Trip 2021
/We finally got to take the Las Vegas trip we had originally scheduled for March 2020 last week with our friends. Here’s a recap:
Day 1:
I was a bit nervous about flying, but I tried to focus on the positive. Here’s a picture I took of Rainier looking like a Bob Ross painting due to the smoke.
Lunch: After landing and picking up the rental car, we headed straight to a favorite from previous trips - Island Flavor. We ordered furikake chicken, beef fried rice, short ribs, and a loco moco. It was just as good as our last visit.
Lunch dessert: The next stop was an Instagram find called Creamberry. NS got a giant rolled ice cream taco that was mighty impressive looking. Jeff and I enjoyed a Thai tea float and a bubble waffle as well.
Dinner: We checked out Roy Choi’s Best Friend restaurant in the Park MGM. The spread included the banchan sampler, Korean wings, street corn, Kogi short rib tacos, slippery shrimp, kimchi carbonara, and ramen. It was a neat atmosphere and the food was quite tasty - we’d stop in again.
Post dinner wandering: Our final stop of the night was the Hershey’s Chocolate World. There was a completely milk chocolate and completely Twizzler Statue of Liberty. I’m not sure if the Twizzler version was a bit old, but the Twizzlers looked a little unappetizing.
Day 2:
Brunch part 1: One of my favorite things about always staying at the Vdara hotel is easy walking access to the Cosmopolitan for food. Our first stop of the day was Eggslut for a Fairfax sandwich, “the slut” (which is an egg over a tasty potato puree), and an iced coffee. We visit this place pretty much every trip and it never disappoints.
Brunch part 2: We headed across the way to District: Donuts. Sliders. Brew. for a Vietnamese iced coffee donut and a cinnamon roll. This is another spot that we’ve tried previously and enjoy the rotating donut flavors.
Post brunch wandering part 1: I always like to visit the Bellagio conservatory (and since this was a group food trip it also helped give some time to digest before our next eating stop). The display was absolutely lovely as always.
Post brunch wandering part 2: I made the group head over to the Flamingo to see the flamingos. We didn’t stay very long because it was just too hot outside.
Dinner part 1: Jeff and I wanted to share yet another favorite from previous trips with our friends - Shang Artisan Noodle. We ordered an assortment of dishes including beef and onion potstickers, spicy wontons, dan-dan noodles, beef pancakes, pork belly noodle, chicken chow mein, and beef noodle soup. It was just as great as we remembered.
Dinner part 2: Jeff and the rest of our group split a Thanksgiving dinner type of sandwich called the Bobbie from Capriotti’s. They enjoyed it, but I didn’t partake so I could save some space for dessert.
Post-dinner snack: On the way to our planned dessert, we discovered it was in a location with several other tasty looking spots so we went down the line. The first stop was Cruncheese for a rice cake. It was basically a giant rice cake that was battered and deep fried like a corndog. We had never had anything like this and it was fantastic.
Dessert part 1: A few shops over was Sul & Beans which serves bingsoo. We got a strawberry version and it was really nice for the heat blazing outside.
Dessert part 2: Next door was SomiSomi which has soft serve and taiyaki. This was actually the spot I was attempting to save stomach space for in the first place. We got ah-boong served in a bowl - one in milk tea flavor and one in boysenberry. The milk tea was just right, but the boysenberry was a bit too sweet.
Late night snack: We once again took the short walk to the Cosmopolitan for Secret Pizza. They had some pan pizza that I’d never seen before, so I tried it and it was pretty good. Jeff and AR had regular pepperoni and mushroom slices.
Day 3:
I wanted to see the new Resorts World, so we went to see all the things (and there was quite the assortment).
Lunch: The main attraction I wanted to visit at Resorts World was the Famous Food Street Eats food hall. We got a ton of items! The only drawback was the terrible lighting (so the food pics that follow look unwell).
Boon Tong Kee - pulled chicken curry laksa
Fuhu Shack - roast duck street tacos
Geylang Claypot Rice - chicken and beef claypot rice bowls
Googgle Man - Hokkien noodles
Kuru Kuru Pa Yakitori - avocado and sweet potato onigiri with chicken heart and thigh jidori
Springleaf Prata Place - chicken curry
Streetbird Fried Chicken - fried chicken with a cornbread waffle
Sweet Eats - too many goodies to list!
Dinner: After a food coma fueled nap back at the hotel we headed to dinner at Yardbird at the Venetian. Appetizers included skillet cornbread, classic buttermilk biscuits, deviled eggs, and crispy chicken biscuits. Mains included sweet tea braised short rib, Lewellyn's fine fried chicken, and the whole bird. Dessert was the strawberry peach cobbler. It comes with a hard outside meant to crack and Jeff got impatient with JP's crust cracking - it was entertaining.
Post dinner entertainment: Neat lights at the Fremont Street Experience!
Day 4:
Breakfast: We visited a spot Jeff and I found on Instagram called Truffles N Bacon. The spread included ube French toast, banana walnut French toast, pandan waffle, buttermilk chicken & waffle, French toast with passion fruit maple syrup, some eggs, and a scramble. My favorite was the pandan waffle.
We drove from our breakfast stop on to the Hoover Dam for a brief viewing. There were unfortunately no tours available because of the pandemic and also the incredible heat (even by Vegas standards). I’m still glad we went and were able to see this though!
Lunch part 1: We headed back to the hotel and then walked over to the Cosmopolitan’s Block 16 Urban Food Hall for lunch. Jeff and I had been really excited to try Bang Bar (by Momofuku) and it did not disappoint. We had chicken and pork U wraps as well as chicken and eggplant fold ups.
Lunch part 2: Chicken tenders from Hattie B’s
Lunch part 3: Porchetta sandwich and Santo’s grilled cheese from Lardo
Lunch dessert: We were walking around The Forum Shops at Caesars when we came upon a walk up gelato/sorbet stop at Trevi so we all got a scoop or two. I got tiramisu gelato while Jeff got raspberry and orange sorbet.
Dinner: After completing our wandering around and having some down time for a nap, we went to Izakaya Go for a dinner of many small plates. It was incredibly satisfying.
Dinner dessert: After dinner, we visited a neat looking dessert spot called Sweet Talk. We had mango foam "corn" with passion fruit, strawberry yogurt pig, and purple yam mochi red bean ice. This place is full of tasty things that look great on Instagram!
Late night snack: We walked back over to the Cosmopolitan for a corn cookie and slice of pie from Milk Bar.
All in all, folks had a great time in spite of the ridiculous heat. We did a lot of eating, a ton of walking, and got in some exploring of pieces of the strip that Jeff and I hadn’t yet visited. The mid-week time frame also worked out great in regards to lower hotel prices and fewer crowds. We’ll be back, Vegas!
