Las Vegas Trip Report 11.23-27.2017 - The one with good food but no major wins

We went to Las Vegas over Thanksgiving weekend once more. It is a good time to visit as everything is on the quieter side and nothing is too busy. On this trip the weather was wonderful too! It got up to 80 almost every day and only down to the 60s in the evenings.

Out flight was on Sun Country again and everything was on time and went smoothly. We had the pleasure of being seated next to a guy with a dog in a bag under the seat in front of him. Other than than dog trying to open the bag and escape at one point, it was very well behaved. My only gripe with Sun Country is that flying out of Terminal 2 at MSP is not as much fun as the main terminal. There are a lot fewer dining and drinking options and yes, the security lines are always short, but we have TSA pre-check so that is a non-factor for us.

On arrival in Las Vegas we took Lyft to the Mirage for our first two nights. I had booked it as a two night MyVegas comp, so we had a standard room. I tried the $20 trick, but the front desk person only wanted to offer us paid upgrades. After a bit of deliberation we took the upgrade for $20 more a night to the Resort Tower King as it had a larger bathroom and the elevators that only service 2 floors.

We had a nice pool and partial strip view, but I couldn't get a good photo from the room. Also, the front desk person gave us a $40 resort credit, so the upgrade was basically a wash, plus tip. The room was nice, so we were happy with the upgrade.

After changing and unpacking a bit, we went down to the casino and had a couple MyVegas BOGO drink comps put on our cards as well as free play. We had drinks at Parlour bar,  the Center bar and did our free play, with no wins to report, and then went to Heritage Steak for a snack.

jalapeno biscuits and beef jerky were complimentary

The shrimp cocktail were phenomenal. Great flavor to the shrimp even without the cocktail sauce. These need to be ordered again!

pork belly

hand cut fries

We just sat at the bar and found the service to be pretty good, not great. The food was good and it hit the spot. 

After eating, we went over to TI to play some blackjack. We learned to be more careful when selecting tables as not all of them offer 3:2 blackjack. No wins to report and a lot of terrible players were at the tables. Not sure what time we called it a night, I don't think it was too late. 

Seriously, what's with all the dumb puppet shows?! 

Thursday we set an alarm to make sure we were up bright and early for the Vikings Detroit game. There was a bit of a line at The Pantry, so I got to show my gold Mlife card and cut the line. Only time I have ever used that for anything, good thing it was a free Mlife upgrade with my Hyatt credit card.

All American breakfast for John

I had the veggie Benedict

All of the food was really good and we could see TVs from the table with the game on, but we did finish breakfast right as the game was beginning so we moved to the sports book.

We got some coffee and watched the game from some sofas behind the bar. Around half time we moved over to the bar and played some video poker as well. We made friends with the Detroit fans and some guy from Chicago and had fun chatting with them. Vikings win!

After the game we walked over to the Venetian.

We had lunch at Yardbird. The fried chicken was excellent as always. No wait at all for a table. 

John had the chicken and biscuits with a side of fries to share. 

After lunch, we wandered through the Venetian Palazzo casino and decided to go over to Ellis Island for some slot play and blackjack. I believe we took Lyft from Palazzo as the shade ride pickup area is not as far away form everything. I don't think I won a darn thing at EI, but we had fun using our assorted coupons and I got a free T-shirt.

We stopped back to the hotel to change clothes and freshen up for the evening and took a Lyft to Mandarin Oriental to check out the Mandarin bar at last. This has been on our to do list for ages now. I suspect the addition of Pepper the robot really motivated this visit, but we did not see the robot at all.

My drink was a hockey themed Vegas Golden Knights drink

John had a Mandarinita

The view from the bar really is amazing, especially at night! Highly recommend visiting. The drinks are expensive, but you do get a tray of bar snacks to nibble on at each table. Seems to be a popular thing at the expensive bars and it is a thing I like a lot.

We had some time to waste before our dinner reservation at Beauty and Essex at the Cosmopolitan so we walked over there and hang out in the sports book for awhile.

We did a Thanksgiving tasting menu starting with the tomato soup with grilled cheese dumplings. This was amazing! Can't recommend trying this dish enough.

tuna poke

Buratta and avocado, lemon and espelette both from the jewels on toast section of the menu.

kale salad

turkey dinner with stuffing and green beans- this was just ok, all of the prior dishes were much better

desserts

Beauty and Essex was pretty good, but the dining room was super dark and really very loud music playing. I'm not sure I loved it, but I am glad we tried it. The service throughout our meal was quite good too.

We were really tired after dinner, but we still had a bunch of drink vouchers left over from playing video poker before dinner, so we asked if we could get Fiji bottled water to go for them and the bartender was happy to oblige.We took Lyft back to the Mirage I think and headed to bed.

Friday morning we were up pretty early and took Lyft to the Peppermill for breakfast. Gotta love the tacky wonderfulness that is inside the Peppermill.

We both had the basic breakfasts with our respective egg preparations. The hash browns are really the best in Vegas right now, in my opinion.

After breakfast we walked over to the Ross store next door, but didn't find anything exciting.

holiday scene in the Mirage atrium

We headed back to the Mirage and packed up our stuff, grabbed a Lyft and moved to the Golden Nugget downtown.

We got to use the VIP check-in as John booked a Rush Club level room. Though it did not end up being a super fast check in place as some ladies were having issues and we had to wait a bit for the attendant to sort them out.

Not sure I loved the new shower doors. Drafty to say the least. 

The Rush Tower room was nice, and you do not have to pay resort fees, but I think a regular Rush room is just as nice.

nice strip view from our room

After setting into the room, we went down to the El Cortez, I think John setup his sports betting app there and made some bets. We played some blackjack as well, but I'm pretty sure it went badly for me anyway. We played a few slots at The D, I did have a nice Top Dollar win and we decided to have lunch at American Coney.

The food is solid and we had some comps from the D and Golden Gate to use, so it was free. After lunch, we walked over to Main Street Station to play video poker at Boars Head bar. No wins to report, not even a four of a kind, though I think John had one.

We stopped back to the room to change clothes for the evening and decided to stop at Banger Brewing for a beer. It was still warm enough to sit outside and watch people weigh themselves at Heart Attack Grill.

We had drinks at Park on Fremont, my Moscow mule was excellent. We enjoyed sitting on the patio and watching everyone on Fremont parade by.

We finally tried Second Street Grill at the Fremont Casino for dinner and waiting this long to try it was a mistake! The food was excellent as so was the service! I had the Miso yaki glazed butter fish with baby bok choy and vegetable fried rice.

 John had the ribeye

Everything was excellent and we will be going back again soon. 

Here's a few snazzy neon pics I posted to Instagram as well! 

After dinner we headed to the Golden Gate for a blackjack session. Pretty sure we stayed up way too late, but we had a fun time!

Saturday morning, we tried to go to the Cafe at The Cal, but the line was super long, so we went to Hash House at the Plaza instead. John had the basic breakfast.

I had ONE pancake. And I ate maybe  quarter of it. The portions are just way too huge at Hash House. Seriously!

After breakfast I went over to the premium outlet mall as my Bose headphones quit working. I was able to exchange them for a new pair, so that was great! John played slots at the Golden Nugget while I was away.

We had lunch at Pizza Rock, excellent as always and then we played video poker at Main Street for awhile.

We decided to take a field trip to Frankie's Tiki Room as it had been a few years since our last visit I think. I got this tiki to ad to the collection.

We also stopped at Tenaya Creek brewing. I had the P-90K Hefeweizen, which was brewed with beets and mandarin. It was actually quite fruity and tasty- who knew beets turned into good beer?! Lyft and Uber make visiting these out of the way places so much easier and fun for everyone.

We went to Carson Kitchen for dinner. We had to wait a little while for a table, but not too long. I had the shrimp and antebellum grits, and they were amazing too.

turkey burger for John with tots

After dinner, we went to the Golden Gate for blackjack and I don't think we had great results, as we ended up going over to the Plaza to play for awhile too. The dealers and other players were fun and I think we did pretty well too. Ended up staying up later than we should have....

Sunday morning we went to The D Grill for breakfast. Basic breakfast for John and I again.

The sourdough toast was decent.

After breakfast, we went to the Downtown Events Center to check out the area and the football games on the big screen. It is a nice area and the amazing weather helped. After that I went over to the Container Park to get some chocolates at Jin Ju.The container park is still plugging along, though there are quite a few open retail spaces.

We had a food credit that came with our room, so we had lunch at Cadillac Mexican Kitchen at the Golden Nugget and watched some football at the same time.

tacos al carbon

ahi tuna tacos

After lunch we played slots at the Golden Nugget for awhile and then went over to the Golden Gate and I had a killer blackjack session, I even quit when I was way ahead. Will wonders never cease?  After that we played slots at The D and video poker at the El Co as we were waiting for a football game to finish so John could collect on a couple sports bets. We were starving by the time the games ended and we had already decided on Oscar's for dinner.

John had the spilotro steak

brussels sprouts

Carolyn cut prime rib

Oscar's was just OK on this visit, not as great as our first visit for some odd reason. Maybe because it was later in the evening or it was a slow night, I am not sure. After dinner we called it a night as we had to get up super early for our flight home.

Our last breakfast was a Magnolia's at the Four Queens. Basic breakfast for me. Magnolia's is probably our current downtown breakfast favorite since DuPar's closed. Still miss that place a lot and hope something goes into the Golden Gate soon though. 

The sourdough toast is still great! 

pancakes for John

We had a great trip even though I feel like not a lot of winning happened this time. We did try a few new bars and restaurants and enjoyed all of them. I'd say Second Street Grill was probably the standout favorite and we will certainly be heading back there on a future trip. The weather was fantastic and we are already looking forward to our next trip sometime in 2018.