Hotel room at Mandalay Bay. It was nicer than we thought. The check-in counter is far from the self-park area. Internet is $14.99 per day. Because it's so close to the airport, you can hear the planes in the daytime. Otherwise I liked it.
The Burger Joint, located at the Flamingo casino, Las Vegas. This place used to be Voga. Pretty much same decor as Voga. The service was very slow. I don't recommend coming here for a quick lunch, because it's not gonna be quick. When we wanted to get refills, we looked around and there was absolutely no waiter at all. I don't know where they all went. Maybe they were chatting in back. Prices are reasonable compared to the other restaurants on the Strip.
crab cakes, Cajun remoulade $14
These crab cakes are very similar to the ones we had at Voga. But these tasted more like hush puppies. It didn't taste or look like crab cake at all. I can eat it as hush puppies, but not as crab cake.
After we had crab cakes, our waiter said he's gonna go, and somebody else's gonna take care of us. He left our bill before we even got our burgers, and nobody came to our table until 10 minutes later, when we got our burgers. Meanwhile, no refill, no waiter.
Slider Trio (comes with fries) - bacon and cheese, roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions $11 I believe fries are unlimited.
We shared these since we had a plan for dinner 4 hours later. We thought the burgers were fine, but also we were both hungry.
We recently bought 5 frozen pizzas. *I forgot to take pics of Tony's pizza, but it was the worst one of all five. Everything was on sale plus we used coupons, so probably each pizza was around $2-$3.
Basically, I learned that frozen pizza is just frozen pizza. Even if that's the famous restaurant's pizza or celebrity chef's pizza, they can't be close to real pizza you get at restaurants. But I'm sure you already know it.
Personally, Amy's and Newman's Own pizza weren't bad as frozen pizza. I didn't like the others.
From clockwise: Amy's, DiGiorno, California Pizza Kitchen, Newman's Own
Amy's Pizza - pesto Tasted like real vegetables, not canned or frozen bags (it should, because they are using organic vegetables)
Newman's Own (Thin & Crispy) - Supreme It's hard to find the frozen pizza has peppers that you can actually see. Most peppers are chopped very tiny and almost can't see.
California Pizza Kitchen (crispy thin crust) - Sicilian
Big slices of salami. Tiny tiny pieces of ham and some sausage. The crust was so thin and so crispy, almost like crackers.
I had to get this pretty cake when I saw it at Cake House in Koreatown City Center. I think there are chestnut pieces in cream. Cake House is pretty much like Tous Les Jours, selling pastries, bread, cakes, and coffee drinks.
We recently happened to be invited to a birthday party for Ricky's friend. Now, I didn't know or even heard of Ricky until this party. But it looks like he sells fish tacos for $2.50 on the street in Los Angeles on Saturdays and Sundays and everybody just likes it.
When we were at the party, Ricky was frying each fish so we can eat really freshly cooked fish tacos. But it seems like he also deep-fries each order when he sells on the street, too. That could be one of the secrets why the tacos were so good. Also the tortilla was warm. I only know fish tacos from fast food, where the fish has been sitting for a while, so it's not crispy or delicious. But this freshly deep-fried fish was so crispy outside and so soft inside. You really wanna try it.
They also had homemade pupusa, rice, beans and tortilla chips. My first time homemade Mexican food was great, and the best part was none of them had cheese.
Ricky
Birthday boy!
cakes from Porto's Bakery
Super rich cheesecake. Every bite was so rich and heavy, I couldn't stop thinking how much calories would be.
Ricky's Fish Tacos 3922 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90029
After we did some shopping at the mall, we were hungry. We didn't have any plan to eat, but they were handing out coupons outside TGI Friday's, so we just decided to try it out. We almost never eat here, I probably only tried once before, so we gave it a try.
The coupon was for a free appetizer up to $8 with your purchase of an entree. There were only 1-2 items under $8 and everything else was over $8. So we ordered chicken strips as appetizer (we had to pay 99 cents), and we ordered Shanghai salad as entree. The salad was a really big portion, plus it comes with 4 pot stickers.
But we didn't enjoy the food and everything was really high calories, so I wouldn't go back.
Sesame Jack Chicken Strips (1150kcal) $8.99 Chicken strips coated with Japanese panko with the extra crunch of toasted sesame seeds and tossed in Jack Daniel's glaze.
It was a little sweet, but the taste was alright. It was quite a small portion. I never would pay $9 for it.
Shanghai Salad (1200kcal) $9.49 Romaine and iceberg lettuce, carrots, red cabbage, red peppers, celery, green onions, cilantro, and peanuts tossed together in a Zesty Asian Ginger dressing, then topped with crispy noodles and pork pot stickers (4pcs).
Unfortunately, the lettuce was old, the carrots were dry, and these pot stickers sucked.
Rating (food): 2 / 5 Rating (service): 4/5 Repeat: No
Here's the pics from the Epicurean Affair back in April, 2009 at the Flamingo casino, Las Vegas. I wanted to post this blog earlier, but I totally forgot.
We got 2 free tickets, but if you wanna purchase, I think it was $75 each and they have it every year, I believe. I think it's worth $75. There is so much food and drinks, and you can eat as much as you want (if you can). Just make sure to eat the ones you really wanted to eat first, because some of the popular food might be gone if you try to eat later.
We start eating around 5:20pm, and by the time we were leaving, it was 8:20pm, and we couldn't taste all of them even though we were here for 3 hours.
From McCormick & Schmick's (left) and Diego @ MGM (right)
From Diego (right) and Emeril's (left) @ MGM
wine
top: from Tao @ Venetian - I think it was dumplings bottom right: Cathouse @ Luxor - it was homemade marshmallow and it was awful. It tasted like toilet spray. It was pretty, though..
From Cathouse The chef Kerry Simon was there, too.
From Embers Steakhouse @ Imperial Palace Tiramisu, oyster shooters, raspberry panna cotta. They were all pretty, but the taste wasn't pretty. Cheap quality.
From Le Burger Brasserie
From Les Artistes Steakhouse making ice cream or something, and milkshake cocktail from Le Burger Brasserie
Les Artistes Steakhouse crab cocktail, kobe flat iron & king crab brochettes "Oscar"
From Samba @ Mirage
From Toby Keith chicken & waffles
From Toby Keith peanut butter stuffed jalapeno escabeche
