Ok, here’s the rest of my Vegas trip report, which really only consists of food.
Sunday was family day, so I spent the afternoon and evening with my family. I’ve been making shakshuka (@Yuv ) for the last year or so but haven’t actually tasted it in a restaurant to see if I was doing it correctly. So, I typed in shakshuka into yelp and Hummus Vegas & Grill popped up and had pictures of shakshuka. So, I dragged my family there. We get there and there is a very limited menu posted above the counter. I’m hoping that shakshuka just didn’t make it on the menu. Nope, that was the old owner, they don’t make it anymore. Alright, I’ll have a falafel. Nope, no falafel. They can’t prep it on Saturday (Shabbat) so they don’t have it available on Sundays. So, they have shawarma. And, well, it was the best shawarma I’ve ever had, and the hummus may have been the best hummus I had. So, if you’re into those two things and it’s a Sunday, you should check it out. I have no pictures.
Sunday night we had dinner in my sister’s backyard and I picked up a pie and calzone from Villa pizza. I always get a calzone from Villa when I’m in town. Western Washington doesn’t seem to know what a proper calzone is. Up here they just treat it like an inside-out pizza, and no place has ham. I only know a calzone as ham, mozzarella, and ricotta. But in western washington it’s mozzarella, ricotta, sauce, and whatever toppings you want them to throw in there. Anyways, the calzone was a good as I remember it. My sister also sent me on my way with a couple of pot gummies.
Sunday night my buddy from Minneapolis flew in and I’d be hanging with him the rest of the week. I was killing time at the Orleans before his flight and managed to win $250 on 2 cent 100 play video poker. 100 play video poker is the penultimate degen video poker machine. Picked up my friend and went to the Mirage where he was staying and smoked a cigar.
Monday we managed to go to 3 different restaurants for lunch. First stop was Havana Express for pastelitos:
They were okay, but after going to Versailles Cuban Bakery in Miami I think I’ve been ruined for any other pastelitos. Next stop was Jollibee for philipino food. My buddy absolutely loves their spaghetti, hot dogs, and spam dish. I thought it was absolutely disgusting. The mango pie was good. Think of the old school McDonalds apple pies from your youth that they used to fry, but sub in mango for apple:
Next stop to finish out our lunch trio was back to Algobertos for their amazing birria tacos:
We went to the Mob Museum. It was fun, but underwhelming. I’m not sure what exactly I expected out a mob museum, but I guess I was expecting more. Was a little disappointed there wasn’t more about the Las Vegas mob connection, but it was a good way to spend an hour or so.
Dinner was Persian food at Dream Kabob. We had our usual of gheymey + tahdig, and Koobideh:
Both were pretty good, but were 3rd on our list of Persian places we ate at. Played a little more degen video poker and lost. Also moved over to Harrahs for a comp’d room that only ended up costing about $90 for the “resort fee”. MFers.
Tuesday morning I had a 2nd round virtual interview for a new job, which I think went pretty well. We had lunch at Shang Artisan Noodle. I always go when I’m in town. It’s really, really good. We had the steamed dumplings and the shang beef noodle soup with shaven noodles:
We had tickets to Meow Wolf’s Omegamart (@Tilted ). Highly recommended when you’re in town. We spent about 2.5 hours there before we realized that there is a story and something to solve. I’ve tried to explain the whole thing to my wife and really couldn’t do it. It’s really weird and really cool. It’s sort of an escape room and you don’t have to escape. I think it’d probably take 3 to 4 hours to get all the clues and go through the entire story. It’s basically an interactive future dystopian art installation. The general ida is you’re an employee for Omegamart which seems to be a horrible employer. Anyways, check it out if you go. I went without knowing anything about it, but afterwards I think it would have helped to have known that there was a story to solve. There’s also a secret bar somewhere in it but we never found it. Also, we were in there 2.5 hours and it was a little warm and a lot of walking, and you can’t bring in any beverages and the water fountains were closed due to covid. It’s in a place called Area 15 which has a bunch of other cool stuff there as well. Lots of VR stuff, as well as some food and drink places and some golf thing that we didn’t look at.
We blew off some time checking out the new Circa hotel/casino downtown. This place is the downtown version of the Cosmo. They had an absolutely 2 story sportsbook. This is a picture from the 2nd floor:
And the customer service from the employees working there was top notch. Definitely a place to check out. Supposedly the pool is world-class as well, but we’re fat and old and didn’t go in. Here’s an internet image of what the pool looks like:
Tuesday night we had, surprise, Persian food again at Hafez. Same items as before, plus hummus. Looks like I forgot to snap a photo of the koobideh:
This one was the top of the list of the Persian restaurants we tried. An old friend of ours joined us and shared that he was in the hospital for a week with covid last summer, and is still recovering. Blew off more on the degen video poker machine later that evening.
Wednesday was our last day and again, Persian food for lunch at a place called Sholeh Mediteranean Restaurant:
Second on the list for the Persian food competition.
Our flights were in the evening so we spent some time at Planet Hollywood smoking cigars and shopping for gifts in the miracle mile shops. Got a phone call while we were driving to return the rental car from the job I interviewed for and they’re moving forward and checking references, so I think I should have a job offer in the next few days.
Some observations:
Mask compliance was good. Most people were wearing them properly. I did find a loophole that if you were constantly smoking a cigar, you didn’t have to wear a mask. Though I was asked a couple of times to replace my mask in between puffs.
Equality has come to the strip. There were a lot more black folks on the strip than what I remember when I used to live there. I’m not sure if it’s the casinos marketing to a new demographic, the legalization of pot, covid fatigue, or what it might be. @jwax13, did you notice the same thing?
Vegas is definitely open for business. Places were as packed as I remember them.
