Las Vegas trip report 11.26.14 to 12.2.14 - The one with all the turkeys

We decided to spend Thanksgiving in Las Vegas again this year. We tried to talk a bunch of friends into coming along, but it didn't work out for anyone else to join us. Our flight out was uneventful and airport security lines were not that long and they went quickly. We enjoyed some sushi and potstickers at Shoyu and I had the tiny Charlie's sandwiches at Ike's. In other words, we had plenty of time to kill at the airport before our flight.

Shoyu sushi roll

We arrived at the Golden Nugget around 9pm and we scored a free upgrade to a Rush Tower Junior Suite. (Due to the Landry's card we've had for several years now.) We originally booked a regular Rush Tower room. I was surprised we were upgraded as they usually do not allow upgrades on holiday weekends. The room was very nice and basically the same as a regular Rush Tower room, it had a larger sitting area with an additional TV and it was at the end of the hall, so we found it very quiet as well.

entry

vanity area outside bathroom

First, we went to the Rush Lounge at the Golden Nugget to grab some drinks and we pretty much immediately headed over to the Golden Gate for a nice long session of blackjack. I ended the night up $50. I should have quit when I was up $100 though. After blackjack we played the Hangover slot and Top Dollar. We were not out that late, I think we were heading back to the room around 11:30 or so.

We went to Dupar's for breakfast on Thursday morning. There was a bit of a line, but it did not take too long to be seated.

Some guy at Dupar's doing the pancake challenge. He failed. That's a lot of pancakes! 

John had his usual.

as did I

After breakfast we went to Walgreen's for some supplies and I called the spa at the Golden Nugget to see if I could get in for a massage. I was in luck and an appointment was available in just 30 minutes. The spa is a bit on the small side, but very nice and you can use the gym, showers and jacuzzi with admission. The massage was great and I was able to relax in the jacuzzi for awhile as well. While I was at the spa John placed some sports bets and played video poker at the Fremont and the Golden Nugget.

After I got ready to go for the day we went over to Main Street Station for a video poker session. I had a couple four of a kinds, but no wins better than that. A guy next to John got a royal at the Boar's Head bar. That was as close as we got to a royal this trip. boo. We wandered through Vegas Club and played a bit of blackjack there.

We had made advance reservations for Vic and Anthony's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was pretty busy, so I think the reservations were necessary.

display case in entry at Vic and Anthony's

spiced pear martini

blue point and kumamoto oysters

crab cake

We split the ribeye special, which was ribeye with coffee and molasses rub, mashed potatoes and asparagus.

Creme brûlée for dessert, in a large dish, so lots of extra space for the crunchy top!

The food and service at Vic and Anthony's was amazing. We would absolutely return in a heartbeat. This was some of the best service we have encountered and there were no hiccups throughout our meal. Our server did a great job explaining the specials and making recommendations.  It was not inexpensive, but we had a bunch of gift cards to use that John had received at work. 

We were very stuffed after dinner and both tired, so we just went back to the room for the rest of the night. 

Friday morning we were up pretty early and we went to Magnolia's Veranda at the Four Queens for breakfast. 

eggs, bacon, hash browns, sourdough toast. 

same for John

After breakfast we went back to the room for a bit and then went over to the El Cortez so John could place some sports bets. We ended up playing Avatar slot at the Golden Nugget for awhile.

I think we each put $20 in the machine.

We ended up with $191 cash out, so a pretty good win for us! 

We spent the day wandering around downtown. We played a few slots at the D and ended up having lunch at American Coney. 

coney dog

After lunch we played video poker at Four Queens, slots at Binion's and the Fremont and then we played some blackjack at the Fremont as well.

We decided to try the new Cadillac Mexican Kitchen at the Golden Nugget for happy hour snacks as we had a $25 credit to use on our room. The food was surprisingly good as were the margaritas. We would definitely recommend it.

ahi tuna tacos

chicken fajita tacos

We took a taxi over to Frankie's Tiki Room for a few drinks. We have wanted to visit this place forever, but never got around to it. 

Frankie's is basically a dive bar with really good craft cocktails that are served in tiki glasses. We probably should have gotten tiki mugs, but did not this time. It was a very short taxi ride there from downtown, so I think we would go back.

John had won some tickets online to the show Pin Up with Claire Sinclair at the Stratosphere, so we headed over there next. Before the show we played some blackjack and I lost. Badly. Lots of bad players at the tables there. One Asian guy in particular showed up with two girls, handed out money for all of them to play and was splitting 10s and then yelling "picture picture" when he wanted a face card.  John thinks this was funny. I was very annoyed. Not funny just yet I guess. We were playing at a $10 table.

The show was pretty good, (hey it was free!) with a really good singer and Claire Sinclair popping in now and then. After the show, we got a few pictures with the performers and took a taxi back to the Golden Nugget and turned in for the night. For some crazy reason we did not go to the Golden Gate for blackjack two nights in a row. I guess we were wimps on this trip.

Saturday morning we walked over to Eat on Carson Street for breakfast. We visited mostly because it was small business Saturday and we were able to save $10 when we charged the bill to an American Express card. The food and service are really good as well.

two eggs with breakfast potatoes and bacon

super sized sourdough toast, not a lot of sourdough flavor unfortunately

pancakes

After breakfast John made some sports bets at the Golden Nugget and then we wandered through the Container Park and I got some chocolates at a place called Jinju Chocolates. I got a gift set with some chocolate covered almonds and some sea salt caramels and both were very good. 

one side of the container park

We went to Pizza Rock for lunch and enjoyed another great experience there. The food and drinks are aways solid.

pepperoni pizza

After pizza we wandered into the Fremont and ended up playing a bit of video poker and watching the end of the Badger/Gopher game. Then we went over to Main Street Station and played blackjack with a family from Hawaii. The Dad was trying to teach the kids how to play and they had a helper card, but they still did lots of stupid crap. They were trying to be fun at least. 

Banger Brewing 

It was fun to sit on the patio at Banger Brewing and people watch. People are obsessed with that scale outside of the Heart Attack Grill next door. I can think of a couple other places with better burgers downtown and probably cheaper too. To each their own I guess. 

For dinner we decided to try the new Carson Kitchen in the John E Carson building. This place is not large, but it is interesting because the building was redeveloped as part of the Downtown Project and it used to be a seedy motel. Now the building houses several tenants including a coffee shop, doughnut shop and Carson Kitchen. 

I don't think we made reservation, but we were able to be seated as soon as we arrived. We got a great spot right at the counter by the kitchen. It was fun because you could see all of the entrees going out before we even ordered. 

John had the The Magarian; aviation gin, thyme and honey syrup, fresh lemon, mr. q cumber soda

I had the Drinks with the Ms. pig's nose whiskey, amaro del sole, grapefruit juice, fresh lime, maple syrup, crabbie's ginger beer. Very refreshing.

We had to get the bacon jam. That's right bacon jam. It was salty, sweet and spicy and truly unique and delicious. You really need more than 2 people to order this as it is too rich for just two people to finish.

The Wellington empanada was so crisp and light on the exterior with tender steak inside.

We had the short rib for our entree and it was on top of some polenta.

The food and service at Carson Kitchen was all very good. The menu has some really unique items and it is certainly worth the short trek from Fremont Street.

The Cake Cake Cake and the Copperfield at Vanguard lounge. The Copperfield was a gin drink and the Cake Cake Cake was pumpkin puree with Absolut vanilla, black walnut bitters and Rumchata. We had a Groupon for Vanguard so the drinks were only $4 plus tip. This was our dessert after dinner I guess.

After Vanguard we headed over to the Golden Gate for one last blackjack session for this trip. Other than the fact that Jan the waitress was there, I don't recall if the night went all that well. Let's just say Jan brings the drinks by on a regular basis.

Sunday morning we went for breakfast at the Claim Jumper, the new cafe at the Golden Nugget. We still had $25 room credit to use, so we thought we'd give it a try.

American breakfast

American breakfast again

The food was fine, nothing special really. Same with the service. I was not all that impressed. But if you don't want to leave the hotel, it is certainly serviceable. There are just other choices nearby that have more unique selections on the menu. And better quality bacon. This was not as bad a the fabled cruise ship bacon or anything, but it wasn't great.

Since we had to switch hotels, we missed all of the Viking's game. Not great timing. We tried the $20 trick on check in at the Mirage, but did not get much other than a room right away and a partial strip view. Oh well.

standard room

view from room

view from room

We wandered from the Mirage down the strip, stopping at Casino Royale, The Linq and Flamingo.

grabbed our first drinks of the day at Margaritaville

We decided to have lunch at Gordon Ramsay Burgr. There was a bit of a line, but it moved pretty quickly. I think we were seated within 20 minutes. Plus we knew it would be free since we had so many Total Rewards credits from the Social Rewards program.

I had the Hell's Kitchen burger which had asadero cheese, roasted jalapeño peppers, avocado and oven roasted tomato. I selected this because it had avocado on it. I did not think the asadero cheese added much flavor though. The burger was cooked medium as requested.

truffle fries truffle aioli and curry ketchup

John had the fish and crisps sandwich ale battered cod salt and vinegar crisps and fresh dill tartar sauce. The fish was really good with a nice light breading. 

All of the food was delicious and the service was good as well. I think we were far more impressed by Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris, but this was not bad for a mid-priced meal.

After lunch, we went over to the Cosmopolitan and played video poker at the Bond bar for awhile. It was open, but really dead since it was pretty early in the day. I don't think the blackjack tables open until later in the day.

Neither one of us did that well on video poker at the Cosmo, so we decided to walk over to Bally's and take the monorail to the new SLS casino and check things out. We used a buy one get one free MyVegas comp for the monorail. Might be about the same to take a taxi though.

Monkey Bar was not open when we were there. Rats.

We signed up for players cards and also got $5 in free play for taking the on rail there. We each got $5 in free play on our new cards. So we played a few slots, and looked around a bit. There was a $5 blackjack table, but it was packed the whole time we were there. We ended up sitting down at a 5 cent jacks or better video poker machine (with good pay table even!) and even got a couple of free drinks while sitting there. Might be the place to go if you want to gamble, but not spend very much money.

We took the monorail down to the MGM and walked over to the Monte Carlo. We each had $50 MyVegas dining comp to use, so we went to Yusho for dinner.

draft drink flight, ok, but not sweet enough for me

scallops

tuna taco

ramen

chicken drummies

crispy chicken bun

The service at Yusho was odd. We had 4 different people stopping by to wait on us throughout the meal. I had no idea which one was our actual server. The scallops and the tuna were the best items we ordered, the rest were average to below average. 

After dinner we picked up some water for the room and headed off to bed. We had a rough day and I think we were both tired of losing money everywhere we went. 

Monday morning we went to Mon Ami Gabi for breakfast and were seated on the patio with no wait at all. It was comfortable out there, even a bit warm as they had plenty of outdoor heaters going. 

I had the spinach omelet with breakfast potatoes and English muffin.

side of bacon for me

John had the three egg breakfast with bacon, breakfast potatoes and English muffin.

The service was excellent and the food was very good, as it always is. Plus, it was free since we had plenty of Total Rewards credits to use yet. We didn't even use half of what we had actually, so we have a bunch for our next trip.

After breakfast we walked down the strip and walked through the Linq shops. I got a really cute Las Vegas dish towel at Kitson. They had lots of interesting and unique things in that store. We played a few slots at the Linq casino and then went over to TI and played a little blackjack. Since it was early afternoon they still had a couple $5 table with 3-2 payouts on blackjack. They changed over to $10 while we were sitting there. This is probably the best low limit blackjack we have found on the strip.

It was around 2pm at this point, so we took a taxi over to In and Out for a late lunch. The place was still quite busy. I think In and Out is always busy.

The animal style burgers were really delicious and so were the fries. In and Out is really good food for the quality and cost. Wish we had them in Minnesota!

After lunch, we took a taxi back to the Mirage and dropped my Kitson purchase off at the room. We went over to the Cromwell to have a couple drinks at Bound bar toward the back of the casino. The bartender was really great and told us about the drinks and the ingredients.

John had the Sunburn margarita

I had the Tennessee Squirrel

After drinks at the Cromwell, we wandered over to the Bellagio and played a few slots. The garden was being switched over from fall to Christmas decor, so it was closed for the day. We went over to Caesar's and just walked through and then went over to Harrah's and played crappy 6-5 $5 blackjack for awhile. We both did awful too. There were lots of awful players there too. I especially enjoyed the lady that refused to hit on 6 and some guy who only hit if he felt it. It worked for them, not at all for us unfortunately.

We headed back to the Mirage for dinner at Heritage Steak. We didn't make a reservation, but we got in right away. We also had a MyVegas comp to use for $30 off a $75 purchase. It helped a bit at least.

We started with the shrimp cocktail

and scallops

we split the ribeye, that's why there are tow pics of oddly shaped steaks

Brussels sprouts with bacon and onions

The food and service were excellent once again. Though in comparing it to Vic and Anthony's, I'm not sure if Heritage was a lot better. Both are certainly in the same league anyway. We were stuffed and tired so we went to the room for the rest of the night. Oddly, the water was being turned off in our wing of the hotel overnight to flush the lines. Luckily, it was not an issue for us. Just thought it was very strange.

Tuesday we were up early and we had a MyVegas award for the Bellagio buffet. The food was quite good as usual and there was not much of a line.

After breakfast we went over the the ABC store at Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood to get a 2015 calendar for work. We headed back to the hotel and packed up and headed to the airport. The flight home was on time, though we had a call for a medical professional as someone had some sort of medical emergency. I guess the person ended up being fine as we did not divert and we got home on time. Thank goodness, as I had an early flight to Boston the next morning!

Overall, we had a great trip, but it got too long. We probably should have rented a car and spent a day off strip. We had considered going to Hoover Dam, but never got around to it. Maybe next time!