Displaying Reviews for publicbj

"Was okay..."

First off -- we got the tickets for free. (Houseseats.com membership if you're a Vegas local.) So any enjoyment was going to be a bonus. Note that the lead singer and a couple of the dancers (that don't go topless) are from the prior nightly show that the Hilton had in the showroom.

Highlights ->
Lead singer -- Awesome voice. Makes you wonder why she's doing a little showroom like this, while Zowie Bowie gets newspaper articles, et. cetera., for their shows. This gal has more singing talent in her left latino hip that ZB THINKS they have.
Dancers (the two with their tops on) -- I suspect one of them is the choreographer, and they are obviously the most talented dancers on stage. Shame they don't get topless with the other girls, because from what we could tell, they would have been fabulous!
Dancer (of the topless assortment) -- Okay, their dancing is okay. Not the best, but not bad. Fantasy over at the Luxor has more talented dancers.
Topless Part -- BOOBIES! As Borat would say: "Berry Nice!" The only shame is, the prettiest topless gal on the stage was the only one with upgrades.
Band -- Pretty good, the guitarist/singer was pretty talented. The drummer didn't have the strongest vocals, but was good. They were obviously playing live against a track, as you can't do everything live with three people.

"Wow! I think it's the BEST STEAK I've had in Vegas..."

Okay, take one look at my restaurant reviews, and you know I'm a serious steak whore. So, bunch of co-workers were in town for the week for a conference, and we take the opportunity to take a couple customers out to dinner.

We get a private room, so I can't speak too much about the feel or decor of the restaurant, but it all looked very nice. Some seafood platters are brought out for appetizers, and it was very good. A crab claw the size of my fist was on the platter. I only wished they had some drawn butter served with the seafood, but I'm sure they would have brought some if I had asked. They served a horseradish with the platters (which I'm not a fan) which several people had/tried. Apparently it was so hot, a little dab would do ya! All of a sudden, I have three grown men in tears around me. They all claimed it was very good, and they continued to eat it, but in MUCH smaller amounts. One guy tried a pea-sized amount of it, and still had to spit the excess out in his napkin. (Why do we do these things to ourselves?)

Now the good part. No wait, the great part! No, that doesn't give it justice...the ORGASMIC part! THE STEAK! I had the bone-in rib eye, and it was HUGE. I can't even explain how good it was. It's all like a dream...heaven...I don't know...like when Kenny makes it into heaven at the end of the South Park movie. It was tender, flavourful, not over-season, cooked to perfection. I only wished I was much, much larger so that I could have eaten the whole thing. I tried, but couldn't do it.

Now I've gotten involved in discussions over the best steaks in Vegas, and I've tried out many, many places. There are lots of places to get good steaks (Treasures - use the 2 for 1 coupon, Emrils, etc.), even several for VERY good steaks (N9NE, etc.). But my very short list for EXCELLENT steaks has grown by one.

It's been a few days, and I'm still debating whether it's number one on my list. If not, it's a tie. Will have to take the other half out there for dinner some night to double-check!

"Very good show, go see it before it's gone"

Rumor is that this show isn't doing all that well, and will move on soon. Make sure you take opportunity to go see it, it was very good!

"Very funny, way better than I expected!"

I've known of Carrot Top over the years. The missus sees him all the time at the health club she works and works out at, and personally he's a super nice guy. We finally got opportunity to go see him.

Now, knowing that he was a prop comic (or a clown, as he referred to himself during the show), I was a little afraid that the entire show was going to be prop-oriented. But it's not. It's a mix of props, pure jokes, sound and sight gags, and some music. And we laughed THE WHOLE SHOW. And he obviously updates the show as time goes on, as it had some current references in it.

We highly recommend the show, and we're typically tough on comedy. (Rosanne was okay, Bobby Slayton was pretty good, but CT was a riot.) If you're looking to laugh for a good 90+ minutes, check it out!

"Saw her on a Sunday night..."

Scored some free tickets last Sunday night, so the wife and I went and caught the first hour before I had to head to the airport for a red eye to get to work on Monday. Not that many people there, say 150 or so. But the show was pretty good, she's pretty loose on stage.

There were a bunch of lesbians at the front of the theater, they were like her peeps!

"10th Anniversary Party - Ehh..."

Okay, let's be clear. Neither one of us are big club goers. But when we heard that they were doing a winter-themed 10th anniversary party, we figured what the heck.

I called in the AM of the event to inquire about getting VIP service, had to leave a voicemail. NO CALLBACK. When I called again later in the day, their voice mail box was full. Nice.

So we went anyways, and the line wasn't that bad. Fifteen minutes and we were in. ($40 for the guy, $20 for the girl. Inquired about locals discounts, and the girl was nice enough to check. But no bananas.) Keep in mind that this was the night before the Merriweather/Hattack fight at the MGM, so outside the club there were TONS of Brits. Just about all of them were smart and stayed out of the club and kept drinking and gambling.

The Crowd: Mostly slightly older. (Since we're going to be 40 next year, we're allowed to say that.) Some guys in business suits (whatever), a plenty of eye candy. Go-go dancers were dancing, some were up on these elevated swings, etc. (Side note to the male go-go dancer: No doubt, you're hot. But learn to dance. Standing on the pedastal just trying to look hot and not knowing any dance moves ain't gonna cut it. The girls were working ten times harder than you, and they looked way better.) Amazingly, the drinks were not a bad price. Around $14 for two drinks. We stayed for a couple rounds, watched whatever there was to watch, then left.

Overall: You know, not a bad place to go. Wouldn't go if I were say, 22. But I'm not, so what the heck.

"Locals hangout/dive with live music..."

We've been looking for a blues/jazz club to go to. We tried the jazz place across the street from commercial center before, that was laughable. The three piece band wasn't playing the same music at the same time. (At least that's how it sounded to us.)

So we tried out Sand Dollar Blues Lounge. We knew it was diveish (from this site), but we figured what the heck. If we didn't like it, we could leave. $7 cover per person (for locals, visitors are higher) on the stormy Friday night we were there. Location is in a simple strip mall location off of the freeway, looked like it used to be a motel. There's an asian massage parlor on the front side of it. (You want happy ending?) Typical dive blues place: painted black, cheap (but not torn up) stackable padded chairs and tables. Pool table in the back.

But we liked it. Good ventilation in the place (we counted three air purifiers over our head alone), so smoke won't bother you much if you were a non smoker. Drinks were reasonable ($12 a round). And the band was Scott Rhiner and the Moanin Blacksnakes, which apparently play there on Fridays (plus other locations throughout the week). The band was VERY GOOD...very talented.

The crowd was a mix of locals, some dressed up a little, some not. Not overly crowded. We very much enjoyed ourselves and will likely be back. If you don't mind a "local dive" in the good sense of the term, then this is a good choice. I don't know how the other bands that play here are, but we liked what we heard.

"Very Cool!"

We bought our tickets several weeks in advance, and were able to score front row center seats. Brought the daughter along for this one.

Very creative ways to create music. Very "Rent"-like set, as you would expect. Plenty of dialogue-less humor along with some very catchy music. Our favorite part was when all of them had different lengths of rubber pipe, which each made their own note when struck on the stage. Between them, then made some very cool music with these pipes.

Ticket prices aren't bad, and it's very family friendly.

"Was okay, a little overrated"

This one is a little brief: We enjoyed the show, great music (love percussion), and a fun time. I suspect once you see one Blue Man show, you've pretty much seen them all. And, in a 80 minute show, we don't need 15 minutes of them just walking around the stage, or staring at people from the stage with their big eyes.

We do like that you can meet the band and the blue men after the show. That was pretty cool and we took some pictures.

"Visually stunning, a little confusing on the story part..."

Tip for Locals: You can get 2 for 1 tickets for certain shows. (A Thursday show, and the late show on Saturday.) NO BAD SEATS IN THIS PLACE!

Two for one at the Wynn, so what the heck, we decided to go. This was after they revamped the show earlier in the year, trimming out some slow spots and streamlining to about 75 minutes. The staging, the cast, the music, the special effects: All awesome.

Where I got a little lost: The story (or lack thereof), choreography, some annoying "clowns", and some of the costuming. If I hadn't read a little about the show before hand, I wouldn't have had a clue what the story was about. (Note: This is an area where apparently Mr. Wynn and the creator are putting some work on.) The show doesn't seem to flow, and the constant infusion of the four "comedic relief" characters into the show seemed to interrupt it. They weren't that funny, and I found them annoying.

Some of the costumes and choreography didn't seem that great to me. (This is where the wife and I differed a bit.) I just don't see a bunch of bald, buff men, waving their fluffy, strippy red pants at the crowd as that ground-breaking. But okay, I can get over that. But what the hell was the story with the guy in the background with the bare breasts prosthetic? Why was there a hint of lesbianism with girls stripping the other girls down to their bras? Is any of this making sense?

That being said, we still enjoyed the show. But we walked out scratching our heads a little bit. Maybe we were just overthinking it, or should have had a couple extra drinks before the show.

"Great show for the price..."

We dropped the ALL name, and got two for one tickets for ourselves at the Ballroom. Now let's be honest, the ballroom is hardly a state of the art facility. No, let's be real honest...it's borderline dump. Basic chairs and tables, an okay bar. But a few lower cost shows perform there, so it's all good.

On to the show. The dilapitated theater actually goes well with the industrial feel of the show. Great music, outstanding looking cast, and I can't believe I'm saying it, great choreography. (And I'm not all that big on dance.)

Kind of a shame they can't be a bit more graphic/explicit (meaning nudity), but it's still very hot and sensual. (By the way, get a copy of the movie and you'll know the meaning of explicit. Yikes!)

Want to go see a sensual show, but not drop the price needed for Zumanity? Then go see this one!
{Printable coupon for two 4 one Fashionistas Tickets}

"One of our favorite shows in Vegas"

Okay, I'm a little confused. In reading others' reviews of Ka, you'd think this is a lower-end Cirque show with lack of a story, etc. Our experience was completely different, we enjoyed it so much we went and saw it again a week later with our daughter!

My main complaint with most Cirque shows is that trying to track any semblence of a story is a joke. Not so with Ka, it is more story-centric that any other Cirque shows I've scene. There's a clear beginning, middle and the happy ending. The set is very cool, and the technical achievement of the moving stage platform (spins, goes vertical into a wall, arrows popping out, etc.) is incredible. We were lucky enough to sit fifth row center (on special $50 tickets no less!), and fell consumed by the show. We were up close, we felt in the middle of the action.

Maybe it's because we're into the Japanese/Asian influence on the show, costumes and music. We are big on this show, and would take our friends to it. We HIGHLY it, and would easily pick it over, say Mystere, which I feel is getting old. (See my Mystere review for more info.)

"Restaurant Week!"

Since we're fine dining whores, we've been trying out different restaurants that are taking part of the 2007 restaurant week promotion.

Starter: Daughter and I had the arugula salad, and the wife had the Hawaiian blue prawns. Salad was good, but I've had better at other places (Rosemary's Restaurant!). Wife enjoyed the prawns.

Entree: Daughter had the flat-iron steak. Thickest flat iron steak I've ever seen! She enjoyed it. Wife and I each had the New York. Now, like I say in almost all my reviews, I LOVE steak. This one was pretty good, but not great. There are other steakhouses that I would pick over this one.

Dessert: I had the Creme Brulee (mmmmm), daughter had the Chocolate Tower (she all but licked the plate), and wife had the Warm Monkey Bread (Sinnamon Bourbon Caramel and a Rich Chocolate Fondue - Like eating a Cinnabon with chocolate and caramel sauce). All very good.

You are at the Luxor, and even though they're trying to improve their image, it still suffers a little bit from the "hickish" crowd, even more so from the people walking in from Excalibur. So some people at the restaurant we're exactly dressed well for dinner. The restaurant itself is beautiful, with plenty of dark wood finish. The waitstaff was very friendly, and the manager made sure to check with us to see if our dinner was pleasant.

"A visual show, quite stunning. But it's starting to show it's age..."

Did the trick I mentioned in my Zumanity review, and scored two tickets second row for a matinee for Mystere. Took my 14 year old daughter to the show.

I've seen several Cirque shows, including some shows from other troops. This one is about the most visually stimulating show, with bright colors, a huge cast, and lots of things going on at once. That's a huge positive on this show.

That being said, there was tons of dancing, which is not my cup of tea. And several scenes of simple clown activity, which was quite funny. (Side note: I got pulled into one of the bits, had a good time with it. Even did my best to add an additional laugh or two to it. For those of you that have seen the show, it got me and the clown "kicked out" of the theater.)

The two best parts, in my opinion: The four-pole routine (never seen so many ways to climb a pole), and the bungee/trampeze routine.

Now the aging part. The theater was only about 60% sold on a Sunday afternoon matinee, and several of the routines (strong man, etc.) are routines that you can see at just about any other troupe. Cirque du Soleil is supposed to be top-end, and a place where you see distinct routines. I'm not dissing the theater, or the performers or any of that, they are outstanding.

But, it looks like it's one of the biggest casts (meaning expensive), and I suspect they don't sell out very often. I wouldn't be surprised if you see this show shut down in the next year or so, and get possibly get replaced by another show.

"Pretty good restaurant, nice environment"

Short and sweet, went to the restaurant with a couple visitors that we knew.

We ordered & shared a casear salad appetizer and two orders of the mozzarella/tomato appetizers. I gotta say, they were good, but overpriced. We had to by two orders of the cheese at $14 each, and there still wasn't much there.

The entrees, however, were VERY good. The wife and another had the scallops, and they liked them. I had the veal porterhouse, and it was also very good. Topped it off with some coffees and a shared desert, and it was nice. Total ticket for four, along with several drinks between the four of us, was around $300 plus tip.

Then we went to the UFC 71 fight, and got to see all of two minutes before Chuck Lidell got knocked out....lol!

"Food very good, wine is excellent!"

Took the family before the VH1 Rock Honors show.

Aureole (not areola!) is a Charlie Palmer restaurant and features the 40-foot wine tower that the "wine angels" fly up and down to get your wine. (Side note: Had a steak at Charlie Palmers in DC a couple months ago, was incredible!) Their wine selection has some 40-million bottles. (Okay, maybe not millions, but it was around 4,000 different types of wines available.)

Their menu is a little different. You can do the six (or was it seven) course tasting menu for around $95 per person, our you can pick and choose a three course dinner for $75 per person. We (wife, daughter and I) decided to do the tasting menu, the wife and I added the wine flights, which adds another $65 per person.

Now since Andre's is currently tied for our favorite restaurant in Vegas, where we also did a seven course tasting menu w/wine, it's very difficult for us not to compare. Let me sum it up: Aureole's food was very good. The wine selection that went with it was spectacular. We tried wines that we would never have before, and we were very surprised. Even found a red wine we could live with. So, food-wise, we have to give a significant edge to Andre's. But the wine at Aureole beats the pants off of Andre's. (It may have also just been the selection at the time.) We also thought that Andre's was a more intimate a setting.

The service was incredible. Service-wise, it didn't hurt that our table was right next to a high-traffic server area, but I suspect the level of service is maintained throughout the restaurant.

We recommend the place, it ranks high on our list, but it's not the best.

"Highly recommend the Prix Fix Lunch Special!"

#1 in the Zagat's guide this year, was like #3 last year. Wife and I have gone to Rosemary's several times, mainly for lunch (which is the bulk of this review). They have a coupon on their website which you can print out, and it gets you the three-course Prix Fix lunch special for $20 per person (a $5 discount). Their menu has some regualr items, but they also mix in some variety every day.

We've tried different things every time we've been there, and we have yet to eat anything that wasn't superb! So I can't really recommend anything in particular! All of the salads are wonderful. The fish entrees melt in your mouth. My wife loves the flourless chocolate cake, I'm a big fan of the Lemon Ice Box for desert. You will not leave hungry. (Now, I'm a meat and potatoe kind of guy, and usually don't go for the fusion type thing where there are nuts and berries and other crap mixed in. But this is an exception to my rule, everything has always been exquisite!)

The wife and daughter went once for dinner, and it was quite a bit more expensive. Reservations are a VERY GOOD IDEA. And reserve well in advance for Wednesday and Sunday nights, as they are their Ladies 50% off and Wine Special nights, respectively.

This is a must go for any locals, since it's way off-strip, strip-shopping area location gives it a local feel. But many visitors are making the trip, too!

"Front Row Center!"

Okay, I have to confess that this is the second time we've gone to Zumanity. We first went a couple years ago. Why did we go again? Well, it's erotic, fun, gets you in the mood, is a great show, and we scored the best seats in the house.

Here's a tip for most Cirque shows, all of them except "O", which has an overflow line. Casinos hold the best seats for their high-rollers, and if they don't give them away, they release them a few hours before the show. So, two hours before the show, I scored two seats on the front row couches, DEAD CENTER. There were no better seats. I've been able to do the same thing with Ka and other Cirque shows, I just haven't always pulled the trigger and bought the tickets.

Now, since we were in the front, we definately got messed with, and it was a lot of fun. Of course, it didn't hurt that the missus was wearing a corset that showed off her ample assets. The pre-show performers felt it was necessary to point them out (and complement them, etc.) to the entire audience. We liked it, it was all in good fun, and flattered the shit out my wife. (Maybe I'll add the pic to the profile...)

Now, about the show: We loved it again. The women (other than some obvious exceptions) look incredible. Not a bad rack on the bunch! (And yes, you get to see nudity, etc.) The men are in shape. Even the scarf routine between the woman and the midget (married in actual life) is hot. (Hottest part of the show, in our opinion.)

Yes, there is the guys wrestling then kissing act. If that's not your thing: build a bridge and get over it. Pick that time to go to the bathroom, if you must.

We HIGHLY recommend this show for any couples!

"Wow, just about the best steak I've had in Vegas"

As I've said many times, I'm a steak whore. Love steaks! So we decided to try out Smith & Wollensky's on the spur of the moment, brought the daughter with.

We ordered out basic staples: Salads (I had the tomatoe and mozarella salad, the wife had a wedge), Steaks (bone-in rib eye for me, a filet for the wife), some potatoe dish, and asparagus. Wow....wow....wow. I used to say the Del Frisco's has the best steak in the city, and I think I still stand by that. But if that's true, the Smith and Wollensky's is a VERY CLOSE SECOND.

Desert was their signature chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream. Mmmmm....

Staff was very friendly and attentive. Daughter didn't order an entree, she ate off our plates, the staff was very nice and cut her portions off of the steaks for her at the table. A few salads, a couple steaks, chocolate cake desert, and two bottle of wine ($59/bottle): around $250. If we hadn't been a couple of winos, it would have been a LOT cheaper.

We HIGHLY recommend!

"Saw a preview, we enjoyed it! Must-see if you're a Python fan!"

We went and saw a preview, about eight days before the grand opening of the show.

Now we must confess, that we are Python fans, as were most of the people there. And we had choice seats, about fifth row center. (And I must also confess, I was pretty tired having flown home to Vegas from Boston that very night, and we were catching a 10PM show.)

Since I was so tired, I can't remember everything as clearly as I'd like. But I do know that we enjoyed ourselves, the crowd had a great time, and it was worth it. Ninety minutes is a good length for the show, as any longer would be a bit tiresome.

We highly recommend, as it's very affordable. If you're a Python fan, then you MUST go!

"The Wee Man Rocks!"

Okay, not going into a lot of detail, as Best of Vegas pretty much has that all nailed down. We had to go, as I guess the shows about to shut down, or at least go on hiatus while he tours.

Summary: Prince Rocks! (And I ain't even that big of a Prince fan.)

Pluses:
- Plenty of bar space
- The quality of the entire band, singers, dancers, etc.
- Place is decorated pretty cool
- Prince is obviously passionate about putting on a top-notch show, and it shows.

Minuses:
- We stood around for two and a half hours waiting for the show to start. Total on our feet time: Five hours. We could barely walk out, and I still have no feeling between two of my toes on my right foot.
- People standing in a long line just to get their will-call tickets. What the heck is that all about?
- The 300-pound chick that kept trying to push in front of me. Don't thinks so be-atch!

Hightlights:
- Being five feet from the stage. Cool!
- Watching the VIP folks get denied that tried to get a cut into the front by the stage. Around 200 people who had waited two and a half hours let them understand that Homey don't play that. VIP this, be-atch!

If you haven't seen, go see!

"Service kinda poor, but good food at a decent price..."

Wife and I decided to eat here before the Prince concert on St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, yeah, I know. Mexican on St. Patrick's Day? Everything else had a line out the door.

Had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. Walk in, and there are SEVERAL empty tables. What the hell were we waiting for? Sat at our table, looked at our menus, and waited some more. Counted maybe three servers serving the entire restaurant. Nice...

However, when we did finally get to meet our server, he was very nice and worked hard to get us what we needed. He informed us that they had a bunch of new people working, including THREE in the kitchen. Oh boy, now we're looking forward to this meal!

To ease our pain, I drank a couple Mexian Mohitos while the wife had some Salsa Marys. They were quite good. Food got to us pretty quickly, and was surprisingly good.

Bottom Line: Food is good (Americanized Mexican), drinks were good, service not so good (at no fault of our server). Price was very reasonable. Around $60 including our four drinks.

"Definately a meat-lover's mecca..."

Now, as stated in other reviews, I'm a steak-whore. I love steak! And Red Rock is our favorite nearby haunt, so it only made sense that we tried this place out. I guess Zagats had just given them a very favorable rating, although I haven't seen it yet.

Wife and I split the 18-pound porterhouse for two. (Okay, it just seemed like 18-pounds...) Got some hollidaise sauce for it and the tree-trunk asparagus we ordered along with our potato.

Okay, here's where my wife and I part ways a little bit on this review. The steak was a little bit charred. But when you're cooking a steak that's literally three inches thick, that's to be expected in my book. (And you can cover it up a little bit with the sauce.) It put my wife off more than me. But we do agree that the steak was still wonderful, not the best we've had in Vegas, but very good. Plenty of steak leftover for lunch the next day.

We followed that up with some Chocolate Decadence Lava Wholly Cow That's A Lot Of Chocolate and Peanut Butter With Sauce desert. That was VERY good. (Daughter loved the leftovers!)

Oh, yeah, throw in two bottles of German wine, and the ticket was around $200 with tip. (And after the two bottles of wine, the drinks and dances at Olympic Gardens, admission to Green Door, priceless!)

"Gotta love BBQ!"

Now, we live out towards Red Rock, and it's our favorite haunt. And many, many moons ago, I went to the original Salt Lick BBQ outside of Austin during a business trip. (Located in a dry county, you bring your own cooler of beer in with you.) I have very fond memories of that night...

Flash forward to Vegas, at the beautiful Red Rock. Now I've aged since then, so the all you can eat approach doesn't jive with the "stay under 200 pounds" approach. Not a crowded place, tables are spaced out well. We had one bus person that we could never guess whether (s)he was a guy or a girl, but that just provided some challenging entertainment for us. (His/her name was Chris, so that didn't help.)

I highly recommend the sandwiches. The bread they use is incredible. And they will be so big that you will bring half of it home anyways. You won't leave this place hungry. Save room for desert, and get some of the cobbler. (God, I LOVE cobbler!)

Prices are a little bit higher than you would expect at a BBQ joint, but I would consider the quality of the restaurant and the food higher than a "joint". So it's worth it.

"Noisy, crowded, HUGE PORTIONS, good italian"

With the Fashion Show mall location, not the best place to be, but really not bad. Place is crowded and noisy, but bearable. (Now I've been to the Maggiano's in Chicago, and THAT place defines crowded and noisy!)

Portions are HUGE. Period. HUGE! And the quality is very good for Americanized Italian food. Here's a tip: If you are local, get the family style dinner, even if there is only two of you. Wife and I did this, and they bring HUGE platters out. You'll be eating leftovers for a week.

Highlights: The spinach artichoke dip appetizer. A must. Get the cheesecake for dessert, the piece will be as big as your head!

Prices are very affordable. Family style for the wife and I, along with drinks, exactly $100 with tip. And we were eating eat for the rest of the week!

"Not bad, but if you've been to one, you've been to them all..."

Short and to the point: If you've been to any HOB, you've been to this one. For that matter, if you've ever been to a Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Cafe, then you know what you're in for. So-so service, but I will grant that the food here is a little bit better than a PH or HRC.

"A dissappointment..."

Okay, I gotta say, we expected more from Emril...

Location within the casino: sucky. Way in the corner.

Lounge: Beautiful, very nice service while we waited for our table.

Dining area: Decor? What decor? Plain white walls with plan white table cloths on the tables? Cramped tables? Um, hello? For what you charge, you couldn't buy a lithograph from down the hall or something? I'd even take a painting of dogs playing poker...

Quality for food: It was okay. Understand that steaks are my passion. I'm a meat and potato man. Love my steaks. And these were just okay. I've had much better at other steakhouses in town, and the best we've had was at another "Del" restaurant off-strip. (Del Friscos on Paradise, if you really want to know....)

We won't ever be back. Too many other extraordinary places to come back to this one.

"Beautiful restaurant, food was good"

Took the family out to dinner, including the 14 year old who was getting a little jealous that Mom and Dad kept going to nice restaurants (and other fun things she didn't know about) while she gets to stay home. Found this place, simply because we were going to the Styx concert at the Luxor that night. (Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with meeeeee!) Whoops, sorry.

The decor is beautiful, looks very nice. While we didn't stop in the lounge, (14 year old, remember?), it also looked very nice and was filled when we left. The servers were very nice and professional.

Had a bottle of Berringer wine for a very affordable price, as I would expect with Berringer. We order two starters: spicy oysters and the blue crab and shrip rolls. They were EXCELLENT, the highlight of the evening. Entrees were a sweet and sour chicken for the daughter, some type of ginger-heavy chicken for the wife, and peking duck beef for me. The entrees were good. Not better than any other reasonably nice Chinese restaurant, just pretty good. I would have liked the meat to be a bit more tender. Kind of a disappointment compared to the extraordinary starters.

We skipped desert, got ice cream in food court instead. Then we rocked out! (Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!)

Dinner, which included two starters, three entrees, a bottle of inexpensive wine, and a soda for the kid was around $140 including tip. Not bad in my book.

"Excellent food and service, well mostly!"

Wife and I went, we liked the decor, liked the casino all the fun stuff.

Wine:
Chateau Ste. Michelle Reisling -- A $12 bottle of wine for $44. I hate markups on wine... But having come from Seattle, and having been to this winery more than once, we like it!

Appetizers:
Frog Legs & Twice Baked Blue Cheese Souffle -- WOW. What can we say, the food was excellent! The Blue Cheese was not overwhelming, well complemented if you ate the souffle with the vegatables and other items that came with it.

Dinner:
Pheasant -- Once again, excellent! Best way to eat it was to take a piece of the pheasant, along with a portion of the potato/onion tart. Excellente!
Pork Chop - Wife ordered this, the plate looked beautiful. Cut into the chops (supposedly cooked medium), and the inside was blood pink. That's right, PORK that's raw PINK. That's bad. So she sent it back to have them fully cook it, which the waiter agreed it was undercooked and happily complied. When the pork came back, it look like it had been blow-torched. Tough to cut, inedible for a $40 entree. So we complained again. Instead of waiting for them to prepare more chops, the waiter offered to see what the kitchen could provide quickly. We found out that they could have a steak out to our table quickly, verified how we wanted it cooked and got it out quickly. So....
NY Strip Steak -- Cooked medium, it was beautiful and tasted wonderful, A good save by the restaurant.

Dessert:
Lemon Tart Pie -- Mmmmmmm. That's all I can think of. Mmmmmmm.

The service was excellent, even the manager came by to make sure we were happy after the pork chop fiasco. (They only charged us for the pheasant, the other entree was taken off of the bill.) The decor is nice, much better than the crappy non-decorated look that Emril's Del Monicos has.

"We had a good time!"

Okay, a little background history. Wife has NEVER been to a strip club. (Okay, she's delivered food to a strip club before, but that's it.) And she's as sexually straight as you can get. But we were feeling adventurous that evening.

So we went on a Saturday night, place was hopping. Got in for a very reasonable price since we're locals. (I was free, wife was $10. First time in my life that I was the free one. Normal price is $30 for admission.)

We went upstairs so the wife could see the guys first. Frankly, we didn't last long up there. The strobe lights were MEGA annoying, and in my wife's words, all the guys were just a bit too into themselves. So my wife suggested that we go downstairs and checkout the ladies (be still my beating heart!).

Took a little work, but we found a table. Long story short, we both got dances. (Yes, that's right, my wife got a couple dances from women. Who are you, and what have you done with my wife?!) The quality of women is pretty high, although there was one that looked a few years past retirement, but had HUGE knockers to make up for it. Highlight of the evening was the dancer that knelt down, and (no lie) bit my dick through my pants. (Hey honey? This dancer just bit my dick!)

One observation: While the wife and I were there together, not too many dancers talked to us. While the wife was in the bathroom, hardly ten seconds passed by before one was talking to me. Especially when I'm waiting outside the bathroom, they'll just run right into you with their tits.

We had fun!

"An ultra-lounge? That might be a stretch, but a nice bar!"

Wife and I had never been to the Rio, so we went out there to check it out. After wandering around for a while, we ended up at the iBar.

Now, they bill themselves as an "ultra-lounge". And I'm "ultra-sure" I don't even know what an ultra-lounge is supposed to be. Bottom line: This is an open-air circular bar located right next to the hotel registration desk. Open air meaning that you can fully see the casino in all directions.

But it's a very nice bar! Plasma screens up high all around the bar were showing different college sporting events (it was a Saturday evening, after all). After the games were over, all of the screens went to a funkadelic display that matched the decor nicely. The bar itself is decorated nicely, kinda retro furniture and all. The waitresses were all dressed seductively (one in a revealing cross your heart dress, the other wearing a belly-baring (and plunging neckline) referee shirt with boy shorts.

The kamakazi I had was okay, and my wife's wine was apparently pretty good. And decently priced at about $9 a drink. We did end up finding another bar in there later in our wanderings.