Las Vegas!
It seems to me that it has been awhile since I have gone to Las Vegas. Made a roadtrip to Sin City over a three day holiday weekend. Since I wasn't travelling in normal "rush hour" traffic to Las Vegas, I was hoping for an easy road trip. On the way to Las Vegas, I made a pit stop at Kick Back Jacks for breakfast with friends. The signature dishes are large pancakes - I think it was bigger than 12 inches in diameter. Great local breakfast chain in Inland Empire.
Checked into the Elara Hotel. Originally, I intended to be part of a large group and had booked a two bedroom suite. Plans fell through but the room remained the same size. Ironically, the hotel was not able to pair down the room to a one bedroom suite even though they could take the studio room. Since I was on a promotion, I would think the hotel would be happy to get an extra room back on a sold out weekend.
The hotel was fairly strict in maintaining the check in hour time and having some time to kill, I walked around the Miracle Mile Shops attached to the hotel. For a timeshare hotel, the shops is a nice feature for those interested in stocking up their rooms and you are still connected to Planet Hollywood Resort. Easy to go get your gambling fix if needed.
I was able to check-in to the room before heading out to dinner at John Mull's Road Kill Grill. I was looking to do a non-gambling trip to Vegas and able to get off the strip to discover new things. Thanks to Food Network Diners Dives & Drive-Ins, I found this hidden bbq joint. The three meat combo composed of hot links, rib tips, and ribs. Food was excellent even though it was the last hour of the day. They open air grill was still laying down fresh bbq to sell and the folks are pretty friendly. There was a petition for customers to sign, it seems that the city of Las Vegas doesn't like that this butcher/bbq was operating in a neighborhood. I would argue that the city made bad planning decisions to allow housing in a farm area...
After eating the food in the room, wandered to Aria for some dessert at Jean Philippe Patisserie. Unfortunately, the jaunt tired me out and I only bought dessert instead of buying and eating dessert. The cupcakes were still good the next day.
The next day, had breakfast at The Cracked Egg. Breakfast spots seem very popular as this was the second restaurant we went to to avoid long lines. The coffeecake was very good. I had the nutella s'mores French toast. The dish was good but the marshmallows could have been toasted better to give it a more campfire feel.
After breakfast, I was obligated to do my time at a timeshare presentation and ended up with another promotion deal to revisit another property and consider opting in. After the presentation, I used the dining certificates to try out Gordon Ramsay's BurGR restaurant inside Planet Hollywood. If you have the Total Rewards membership with the casinos, make sure you have the card or you won't get the discounted price. The lines can get long at times in the casinos because they never really staff the desk and you can't give the restaurant the number. I tried the Hog Burger which I found to be on the sweet side. I also tried Shake #4 (crème brulee with oreo ice cream shake combination). Very rich and I'm unsure if I would try it again. With dinner done, I called it in for the night.
On the last day of the trip, I had breakfast at Bacchanal Buffet in Caesar's Palace. I was interested in trying this new buffet restaurant when I was in Caesar's Palace last. Being on a Monday was great as there were no lines and the restaurant was fairly empty first thing in the morning. The spread was impressive for breakfast. There are advertisements of mini red velvet pancakes plastered around the strip but I did not find them very tasty. I think they should incorporate cream cheese chips inside the batter rather than a cream cheese drizzle. It just doesn't have the same kick as I was hoping it to have. They also have macaroon ice cream sandwich, I thought that was very cool. Overall, I would do breakfast again.
Before hitting the road, I went back to Jean Philippe Patisserie to grab some pecan sticky buns and cupcakes for the road. On the way back, made a pit stop at Pie Hole, Integentsia Coffee, and CoolHaus for pie, coffee, and ice cream. I tried the Chocolate Crostata, Apple Pie, Strawberry Pocket Pie and the Mac n Cheese Hand Pie. I enjoyed the apple pie the most. I'm actually hard to please on apple pies and I would visit them again for this pie. My second favorite was the strawberry pocket pie. The coffee helped battle the sweetness of these pies. From CoolHaus, I tried the Maker's Ice Cream and something with cherries. I can't remember the actual names but the flavors were good.
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| Living room of 2 bedroom suite at Elara |
Checked into the Elara Hotel. Originally, I intended to be part of a large group and had booked a two bedroom suite. Plans fell through but the room remained the same size. Ironically, the hotel was not able to pair down the room to a one bedroom suite even though they could take the studio room. Since I was on a promotion, I would think the hotel would be happy to get an extra room back on a sold out weekend.
The hotel was fairly strict in maintaining the check in hour time and having some time to kill, I walked around the Miracle Mile Shops attached to the hotel. For a timeshare hotel, the shops is a nice feature for those interested in stocking up their rooms and you are still connected to Planet Hollywood Resort. Easy to go get your gambling fix if needed.
I was able to check-in to the room before heading out to dinner at John Mull's Road Kill Grill. I was looking to do a non-gambling trip to Vegas and able to get off the strip to discover new things. Thanks to Food Network Diners Dives & Drive-Ins, I found this hidden bbq joint. The three meat combo composed of hot links, rib tips, and ribs. Food was excellent even though it was the last hour of the day. They open air grill was still laying down fresh bbq to sell and the folks are pretty friendly. There was a petition for customers to sign, it seems that the city of Las Vegas doesn't like that this butcher/bbq was operating in a neighborhood. I would argue that the city made bad planning decisions to allow housing in a farm area...
After eating the food in the room, wandered to Aria for some dessert at Jean Philippe Patisserie. Unfortunately, the jaunt tired me out and I only bought dessert instead of buying and eating dessert. The cupcakes were still good the next day.
 |
| S'mores French Toast at The Cracked Egg |
The next day, had breakfast at The Cracked Egg. Breakfast spots seem very popular as this was the second restaurant we went to to avoid long lines. The coffeecake was very good. I had the nutella s'mores French toast. The dish was good but the marshmallows could have been toasted better to give it a more campfire feel.
After breakfast, I was obligated to do my time at a timeshare presentation and ended up with another promotion deal to revisit another property and consider opting in. After the presentation, I used the dining certificates to try out Gordon Ramsay's BurGR restaurant inside Planet Hollywood. If you have the Total Rewards membership with the casinos, make sure you have the card or you won't get the discounted price. The lines can get long at times in the casinos because they never really staff the desk and you can't give the restaurant the number. I tried the Hog Burger which I found to be on the sweet side. I also tried Shake #4 (crème brulee with oreo ice cream shake combination). Very rich and I'm unsure if I would try it again. With dinner done, I called it in for the night.
On the last day of the trip, I had breakfast at Bacchanal Buffet in Caesar's Palace. I was interested in trying this new buffet restaurant when I was in Caesar's Palace last. Being on a Monday was great as there were no lines and the restaurant was fairly empty first thing in the morning. The spread was impressive for breakfast. There are advertisements of mini red velvet pancakes plastered around the strip but I did not find them very tasty. I think they should incorporate cream cheese chips inside the batter rather than a cream cheese drizzle. It just doesn't have the same kick as I was hoping it to have. They also have macaroon ice cream sandwich, I thought that was very cool. Overall, I would do breakfast again.
 |
| Dessert options at Bacchanal Buffet |
Before hitting the road, I went back to Jean Philippe Patisserie to grab some pecan sticky buns and cupcakes for the road. On the way back, made a pit stop at Pie Hole, Integentsia Coffee, and CoolHaus for pie, coffee, and ice cream. I tried the Chocolate Crostata, Apple Pie, Strawberry Pocket Pie and the Mac n Cheese Hand Pie. I enjoyed the apple pie the most. I'm actually hard to please on apple pies and I would visit them again for this pie. My second favorite was the strawberry pocket pie. The coffee helped battle the sweetness of these pies. From CoolHaus, I tried the Maker's Ice Cream and something with cherries. I can't remember the actual names but the flavors were good.
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