We went to Vegas in September for our traditional fall football viewing trip. We stayed at Park MGM and Palazzo. Many options were super high priced, possibly because it was the first week of the NFL season. Prices did come down slightly closer to the date. We used a MyVegas comp for Park MGM and IHG credit card award nights for the Palazzo. We did not rent a car on this trip either. I think we took a taxi from the airport to the hotel and used ride share the rest of the time.
I wasn't really excited to stay here, we mostly booked it for the location, but Park MGM isn't bad, especially when you get a weekend comped via MyVegas. (We did have to pay resort fees.) This hotel used to be the Monte Carlo and was remodeled pretty recently. The check in process is via kiosks mostly with a couple employees around to help. I found the process stressful and not at all intuitive. Some things are not better automated.
The room was nicer than I expected and so was the hotel in general. We really liked that the casino was non smoking throughout.
After check in we unpacked a bit, changed and walked over to Cosmopolitan to hang out until our dinner reservation.
couple nice quick hits
couple nice little slot wins for me, but I was doing badly in video poker.....
We had dinner at Momofuku and had reservations in advance. Shrimp buns are above.
Tuna starter for me and I also had kanpachi (amberjack Hawaiian fish) but the photo didn't turn out at all.
the honeycrisp sour cocktail was perfect, tart and seasonal
John had the pork chop
All of the food was excellent and the service was great also. I don't think we'd ever been seated in the main dining room before either.
After dinner we headed back to Park MGM and played a bit more video poker and I think John had a My Vegas matchplay so he played blackjack a bit. We stayed up super late, till 3am I think, so I felt terrible for a couple days after that. So that was a bad idea. I should know better than to go so hard the first day!
We made it to breakfast, but it was definitely kind of later in the morning. John had the Primrose classic breakfast with bacon.
I had the bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant. Primrose was fine, but I would go out of my way to return. The food was average at best. The service was kind of slow. It took ages to get the bill.
We headed downtown to Main Street Station. The casino has just reopened earlier in the week, and we were excited to be back at the Boar bar. I finally got my first quad of the trip too. Sadly, many tables games had been removed and none of them were open while we were there.
huge win for John at Main Street!
ticket from the hit above
Late lunch at Le Thai. We shared the crab fried rice. It was fine but not as good as the short rib fried rice. I love their Thai iced coffee, which helped my hangover a lot!
crazy bears made of feathers at Aria
We had dinner at Best Friend at Park MGM. Reservations were made well in advance. Watermelon margaritas were very refreshing.
the dinner rolls could not be more delicious
aguachile made with hamachi, lime, onion and cilantro
I had a MyVegas comp for a free starter. We were able get $16 off on the Korean wings with the comp.
The BBQ ribeye is bulgogi-marinated 10 oz prime ribeye. It had so much flavor and the meat was very tender. The service was helpful and efficient.
We both had BOGOs for drinks at Juniper Lounge at Park MGM. It is such a nice chill lounge with excellent bartenders. I think we called it a night after that.
Oh look, probably my best hit ever on a wheel spin on Wheel of Fortune!
We had breakfast at Tom's Urban at New York New York. We chose it because the Vikings had a fairly early game that Sunday. John had the crispy chicken and cornbread pancake- a sweet cornbread pancake, pickle brined and hand-battered premium crispy chicken tenders, with salted caramel butter and maple syrup.
I had the Urban breakfast platter with bacon. A solid base for the day. Too bad the Vikings lost in overtime. A rather disappointing start to a disappointing season.
I was able to request a late check out at Park MGM so we headed back to the hotel after the game to pack up and Uber over to the Palazzo.
We had a late lunch/snack at Moon Palace at Venetian. It's a David Chang fast food outlet. The burgers were really, really delicious. The buns are a sweet Hawaiian style roll, which really enhanced the flavor of the cheeseburger. It was like new and improved White Caste without the digestive distress afterwards. Highly recommend giving Moon Palace a try. It is only open for breakfast and lunch. We snuck in close to closing time.
The potato chips are tasty also. They have honey butter chips and hot chips. They are warm because they are freshly made, not because they are spicy.
We had to wait awhile for our room to be ready, so we played in the Palazzo and Venetian casino for awhile. The train game came through for me, but not as big of a hot as John had!
a strip view room!
Palazzo rooms are still very nice and spacious. Not a bad redemption for a free night via the IHG credit card. (Can't redeem the free night certs on weekends anymore however.)
After checking in to Palazzo we went over to Ellis Island to use up any free play coupons we had and we played blackjack for awhile. I finished up $100, so that's a win.
We finally checked out Tao at Venetian for dinner on Sunday night. It's very dark and night clubby.
spicy tuna tartare on crispy rice
fried chicken gyoza with chili garlic sauce
black pepper chili chicken with pepper, onion, bamboo shoot and celery
yellowtail with jalapeño and ponzu sauce
Tao was fine, but I'm not sure I liked it that much. Pretty sure we called it a night after dinner.
Monday we headed back downtown and started the day with breakfast at Magnolia's. Solid as always. No pics, but we've been there a million times, so you know what it looks like! We spent the day downtown playing here and there and everywhere.
quad at four queens
The nachos at Victory burger are actually quite delicious. Used some food comps for this I think.
We sat at Boar Bar to watch the Raiders game. To say the town was aflutter with excitement for the first game would be a huge understatement. Las Vegas is happy to have an NFL team!
Oh that reminds me, the bonus scratchers are virtual now. It's on the little player's club screen up above. I guess the extra $1-2 is something....
John scored aces with the kicker! Main Street is his lucky spot this trip!
I had a good hit at the California! I think John was playing blackjack, which I had stopped playing as I was up $100.
We didn't have reservations anywhere for dinner, but we got lucky and were able to sit at the bar at Yardbird. We arrived before everyone that went to the game came back to the hotel, because it was pretty packed by the time we left. I started with the blackberry bourbon cocktail.
crispy brussels
We shared the fried chicken and it was the perfect amount of food.
fries
key lime pie for dessert
That was kind of a long day, so we headed back to the room after dinner.
We tried out Canyon Ranch Grill for breakfast on Tuesday morning. I had avocado toast and the greek yogurt.
John had the egg white scramble with mozzarella and green chile with grilled yukon potatoes, house made toast & jam.
We went to the pool at Palazzo after breakfast, well actually we sat on the Venetian side. They recently remodeled that side of the pool area.
After lunch we went over to Cosmo because I had some free play to use. We had lunch at Lardo. John had the porchetta sandwich.
I had the Pho French dip sandwich. It was OK, but the meat was chewy.
free play at Cosmo hit #1
On my free play at Cosmo I finished plus $100 overall after starting with $25 free play!
We went over to Palace Station to play for awhile. I lost $100 on blackjack but got aces on video poker.
couple drinks at Electra Lounge at Palazzo before dinner
We went to Majordomo for our last dinner. I was excited to have the prime rib again, but unfortunately they ran out right before I ordered. I had the filet instead. It was delicious. I'm pretty sure we had an order of the bing bread also.
John had the flat iron steak
Our first side was the onion rings, though they were more of an onion petal type situation.
mashed potatoes
Our server insisted on comping us dessert because they ran out of the prime rib. We said it was not necessary and we made sure to tip extra. It was delightful because it was done tableside!
The Major Doughnut is pan fried krispy kreme doughnuts, housemaid vanilla ice cream, banana flambé and caramel whip. The whole thing was incredibly decadent. The house made ice cream was so rich, creamy and amazing!
Mirage volcano is going off in the foreground
Wednesday morning we had breakfast at Grand Lux Cafe at Palazzo. I forgot to take photos. I think there service was on the slow side for some reason. We headed back to the room, packed up and headed for the airport. Uneventful flight home, which is a great flight these days.
After a rough first night of this trip, I actually finished the trip up $86 whole bucks. I'm calling that a pretty decent trip. John had an excellent trip with his 1K hit and aces with kicker hit.
We tried out Canyon Ranch Grill for breakfast on Tuesday morning. I had avocado toast and the greek yogurt. 
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