Las Vegas Strip – Part 2

Part 1

New York New York Hotel and Casino

That brings us to another MGM resorts International owned property, New York, New York Hotel and Casino.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you can probably guess what the exterior (and some parts of the interior) theme for this casino is.  I wonder how actual residents of New York City feel about it?  Are they likely to come here?  Give me a shout out if you’re from NYC as to what you think of this casino.  

New York New York opened in January of 1997 and currently consists of a hair more than 2,000 guest rooms and suites.  This casino was built during the time that it was almost mandatory for Las Vegas Strip casinos to be designed with some sort of theme in mind, so why not choose this one?  

Even the playing cards are NYC themed!  The hearts on the playing cards are instead apples, after the Big Apple, which is New York’s nickname.  

There’s really not a ton of history to speak of with this one.  MGM Grand company, which would later rebrand as MGM resorts International once owned it as part of a t venture, but then they bought the entire business of the then co-owner, so there have been no meaningful changes in ownership since this property opened.

The lowest priced rooms in the hotel are the standard Park Avenue rooms, so we will use those as a baseline for about as cheaply as you can expect to stay at this location.  

The Resort Fee is $37/night, which is just silly, because room rates on standard rooms are not even always that high on the slowest of weekday nights, though you can usually expect to pay anywhere from $40-$80.  It seems like a great deal until you think about the Resort Fee, then it’s not so good.  Weekend rates, even for the most basic rooms, can run anywhere from $100-$350, and possibly even more than that, when major events are going on in town.  Still, if you want to save a little bit of money on the weekdays and still be on The Strip, this is a reasonable choice.  

Guests will enjoy access to the property’s pool, wireless internet access, a state-of-the-art fitness center and a few other niceties.  Services with an extra charge include cabana rentals, a salon, The Big Apple Arcade (which makes this fun for kids, potentially), and the Big Apple Coaster, which is another activity that kids should enjoy.  In addition to the themes, the casinos that were built in the 90’s tended to have something for the kids to do in mind, at least, on the Las Vegas Strip.  

While it may not be as big as some of the other MGM Resorts International Las Vegas properties, that doesn’t mean that New York New York is completely wanting for entertainment options.  A few of the ones they have include Terry Fator (a ventriloquist act) as well as Coaster and Cocktails, which is live music near the roller coaster on weekend evenings.  NYNY was the former home of Zumanity, which was the first topless Cirque du Soleil show, but that is no longer the case.  

With that, let’s take a look at the casino operations side of things.  The casino floor consists of about 84,000 square feet of total gambling space of which a substantial portion is devoted to more than 900 slot machines, video poker and video keno games, which seems really low for a property of this size.  In any event, denominations range from pennies to hundreds.  

The property is home to almost fifty gaming tables which spread a wide variety of casino favorites such as Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Free Bet Blackjack, Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Let it Ride, High Card Flush, Mississippi Stud and Face Up Pai Gow Poker.  The novelty games are likely not open around the clock, so we would recommend calling in advance for the usual operating hours and days if you are looking for something outside of the staple casino games.  

The property is also home to a somewhat small BetMGM sportsbook location with a few big screen TV’s.

The impression that we get is that there really isn’t a huge focus on this property from a corporate standpoint anymore, so its main purpose is mainly just to have rentable rooms during busy event weekends.  There are probably a number of people who got used to going there and continue to do so, but for the casino (according to itself) to only have 900 slot machines on such a large casino floor alone tells you that they are less than packed to the gills.  

With that discussed, let’s see what dining options this property still has available:

Nine Fine Irishmen apparently think highly-enough of themselves, and rightfully so!  Who doesn’t love a good Irish Pub?  Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week and featuring the finest of brews and whiskeys, as well as hearty traditional Irish staples, if the food doesn’t fill you up, the beer certainly will!  It’ll be just like the sort of place in your hometown, nobody’s a stranger when they’re in an Irish pub!

Tom’s Urban is home to some low-priced casual American food and is a great place to get filled up.  It’s open all but the wee hours of the morning seven days a week, so it won’t be hard for you to make time for this one.  Hell, maybe even do a pub crawl day out of this and Nine Fine Irishmen!  You’ve got to get the deep dish nachos if you check this place out.  

America is your 24/7 stop for breakfast meals as well as the finest in java, donuts and pastries.  Once again, this is very affordably priced and is a great way to load up before starting the day, or perhaps to get something on your stomach before bed if you’ve had a few too many drinks.  Don’t worry, I’ve been there.  Make sure to drink water as the next day is always easier if you made sure to hydrate the night before.  

Modeled after Greenwich Village, Village Street Eateries features a few different stops including Fulton’s Fish Frye, Sirocco’s New York Pizza, Village Bakery, Greenwich Deli and New York style hot dogs at Times Square To Go.  

Gallagher’s Steakhouse is the property’s high end steakhouse with a business casual dress code, despite being quite affordable, by steakhouse standards.  The atmosphere is pretty simple and is designed to kind of look like a dining room might have in the middle of the 20th Century, but we can assure you that the dry aged steaks and fresh seafood will rival anything that you can get from the more expensive places.  I don’t know that I’d make a special trip for this one, but this should be your steakhouse destination if you’re already staying at the property.  

New York Pizzeria serves what it says on the box as well as calzones and stromboli at an excellent price.  It’s open during most hours of the day seven days per week.  

Il Fornaio is the property’s casually priced, but quite nice, Italian restaurant.  Personally, I would recommend whatever mesquite grilled fish choice happens to be in season whenever you’re there.  Everything is excellently and simply prepared, which is how Italian food should be, there are no areas that need any improvement!

Chin Chin Cafe and Sushi Bar is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we wouldn’t recommend this one if you are mainly going for the sushi as it is almost an afterthought.  However, if you want to get some Asian food dinner staples at better than reasonable prices, then you should definitely consider this eatery.  It’s open seven days a week.  

Shake Shack is a casual American fast food place that many around the country, if you’re in the U.S., are already probably familiar with.  It’s open during the breakfast and dinner hours seven days per week, so if you need something quick, you know what you’re getting.  

Gonzalez y Gonzalez is your seven day a week go to for an extremely competitively priced, but tasty, Mexican lunch or dinner.  Everything is simply prepared here, but perhaps with a little bit of a modern twist on things and you really can’t go wrong with this one if you’re in the mood for Mexican and want it quickly.  You should be in and out in about a half hour.  

Yes, there’s a Starbucks.  Where isn’t there a Starbucks?

Beerhaus is open seven days a week, but only for dinner on Monday-Thursday.  This place has some great dogs, brats, burgers and other kinds of sandwiches.  Even though you will be positively delighted with whatever delicious, and quite affordable sandwich that you get, every time you see a waitress go by with another stack piled high, you’re going to reply, “Damn, I wish I got that!”  I could easily eat here several days in a row if my company would let me.  

Sake Rok had some absolutely outstanding Japanese food, great sushi, and…this place was dirt cheap (by Japanese restaurant standards) but high quality.  The Tuna Takaki was a few slices of heaven, but unfortunately, this eatery closed during Covid-19 and hasn’t opened back up yet, so we’re not sure whether or not it ever will.  

Lemonade, iced tea, milk tea, and coffee can all be found at, and I’m not even kidding about this, Hello Kitty cafe.  If you’re a Hello Kitty fan, hell, even if you’re not, you almost have to stop by and look in just for the novelty alone.  Actually, the beverages are pretty legit anyway, so it’s more than just a novelty.  It’s open from 10-10 seven days per week.  

Open for a late lunch or during the dinner hours, Broadway Burger Bar and Grill can not only identify the specific country that its free-range grass-fed beef is from, it gets it from a specific farm, so you know that’s going to be high-quality.  Despite this, you can get these incredible burgers at a very budget-conscious price that is flirting with being flat out cheap!

Open for breakfast and lunch, 48th and Crepe does what it says on the box and also has Krispy Kreme donuts.  

That about covers it for New York New York, which we might recommend for those who want to visit Las Vegas on kind of a budget.  You’ll still need to bring some money with you, but this property has probably the widest availability of low-priced food options that you’re going to find on the Las Vegas Strip, so you’ll save some money there.  Weekday room rates also seem to be comparatively inexpensive if there are no special events going on in town and the rooms are fairly nice.  In of slightly more upscale dining, there’s enough going on that you might not have to leave if that’s what you’re into, especially if the Japanese restaurant reopens.  

O’Shea’s

O’Shea’s is not exactly the O’Shea’s that it used to be because it’s not even where it used to be.  This is an Irish themed casino that originally opened in 1989, but is now just a part of The Linq Casino and occupies only 5,000 square feet of gambling real estate.

The current owner is the same as the owner of The Linq, Caesars Entertainment.  As you would expect, this casino does not have its own hotel as that would also be part of The Linq property.  

The reason that we are going to go ahead and list O’Shea’s is because we are listing Slots-O-Fun separately, whereas it’s a part of Circus Circus, and we want to be consistent in what we are doing when it comes to these casinos within a casino.  Besides, this stop has been pretty popular over the years, regardless of where it has been physically located.  

This Irish Pub and mini-casino features great brews and grub.  Additionally, it’s as much a fun house as it is a place for gambling, in that it has a stage for live music and DJ’s as well as a dance floor.  There’s also a small table games pit with Blackjack, Craps and Roulette.  

Originally, O’Shea’s was an all-out five story casino that was owned and operated by Hilton.  It opened in the late-80’s just prior to the building era in which all Strip casinos were seemingly required to have a theme, and the entire casino property was meant to resemble an Irish-Pub.  At that time, it had over 600 slots, almost twenty Table Games, its own sportsbook and also a live keno lounge.  It was also the only Las Vegas Strip casino to not be home to a hotel, but it worked closely with the Flamingo, which was owned by Hilton at the time.  

It would cease to be its own casino in the early 2010’as and instead would reopen as part of The Linq, even downsized, it remains popular amongst fans of the original O’Shea’s.  

OYO Casino Hotel

The OYO Casino Hotel is a property that many Vegas visitors are probably familiar with, though they wouldn’t necessarily know it by name.  Most recently, it operated as Hooters Hotel and Casino from 2006-2019 and was popular amongst fans of the nationwide chain of restaurants.  Even now, there is still a Hooters restaurant located on the property.  

OYO Hotel and Casino is home to just shy of 700 rooms, as was the case when it was Hooters, and it originally opened in 1973.  The property is a small one by Vegas Strip standards, but located on Tropicana, it’s actually an off-strip property coming in at 35,000 square feet of gambling real estate.  I was actually in this casino, briefly, when it was Hooters.  I used a coupon they had for free play, got a bottle of water and left…my experience was fine.  

For those of you who wonder about the all caps styling of the name, take a good look at OYO, that the casino used to be called Hooters and just think about it for a second.  I think you can gather what they are going for with this name.  

This property originally opened as a Howard Johnson’s Hotel, back in 1973, when that chain was still seen as a popular and respectable brand.  Things have not gone terribly well for them since then, of course.  The original property did not have a casino, but was licensed for one shortly after opening, and wheeled 150 slot machines onto its somewhat small casino floor.  

In 1975, it would be sold to one of the owners of the Riviera Casino, which is an iconic property that, unfortunately, no longer exists but was one of the largest casino hotels on the Northern end of the Strip proper.  At one time, Riviera was famous for allowing up to 10,000x Odds on Craps.  I’m happy to say that I was able to play Craps there shortly before the property closed, though I didn’t take anywhere near that in odds.  I did win, though, so that was fun.  

The property would rebrand as Paradise Hotel in 1975, but there would be trouble at Paradise soon after given that it was bilked out of a substantial sum of money by mobsters and was left without enough money to continue to operate a casino.  That would lead to the second bankruptcy in this property’s short history…talk about coming up snake eyes.  

The property would eventually find itself in the hands of Hugh Pastor, who owned the Golden Goose Casino as well as Coin Castle in Downtown Las Vegas, two more casinos that no longer exist.  I actually use the name Golden Goose Casino in my fictional writings or talking about what I would do if I ever owned a casino, but I didn’t know that there actually WAS such a named casino before doing that.  I just think it’s a great name with a ton of opportunity for a funny logo.  

In 1982, it would be purchased by former professional football player Gerry Philbin, except he somehow forgot that whole thing about needing to have a Nevada Gambling license.  Unable to secure one, he would eventually file bankruptcy on the casino property, making it the third bankruptcy for this location in under a decade…yikes!  Maybe the property is cursed!

It would be bought back by the DeLillo family and renamed the Pacifica Hotel, with the goal to be to cater to homosexual guests, which was a highly unusual thing to want to do at the time as just the concept of a gay bar was seen as taboo throughout most of the country.  Besides, would homosexual individuals even necessarily want to go to a casino for gay people?  Maybe they would, I certainly can’t speak for them, but it seems easier just to open a gay bar in the casino, if you ask me.  

Anyway, it would later be rebranded as the Polynesian Hotel, even though there wasn’t anything especially Polynesian about it.  Maybe the owners were Polynesian?  

It would be purchased by someone else entirely just a few short years later, in 1989, and would be rebranded with an Italian Riviera theme, even though Vegas already had a casino literally called that, and would be called Hotel San Remo.  Believe it or not, to this day, that moniker would stick the longest as it would remain that way until 2006, in fact, it would remain under Sukeami Izuki’s ownership under 2004, when Hooters decided to get into the Vegas casino business.  

Hooters of America would engage in a substantial rebuild and rebranding of the property to the tune of nearly 200 million dollars, and the property would officially be Hooters Hotel and Casino as of 2006.  It would remain that way until 2019.  

The hotel would find itself in bankruptcy, once again, in the early 2010’s.  The buyer intended to rebrand the property and do another renovation, but that didn’t come to fruition at the time and it would remain Hooters Hotel and Casino, though not actually owned by Hooters…at least, not exactly, for several more years.  

In 2015, the property would be sold again, this time to Holiday Inn who originally planned to rebrand the property, but also did not do so. They would continue to run the property as Hooters Hotel and Casino for a few more years.  

Eventually, it would be purchased from Holiday Inn by Oyo Hotels and Homes operating in conjunction with partner, Highgate.  The OYO branding makes sense as that is the name of one of the ownership entities, but as we discussed before, the styling of the name kind of gives a call back to the old Hooters moniker, not that it ever did particularly well as Hooters, or really, at any point before that.  

The rebranding process would begin during the tailend of 2019, and I think almost everyone in the entire world is well-aware of what early 2020 would bring, so the future of this casino remains yet to be seen, but it certainly didn’t get off to the best start, which is actually kind of fitting given the history of the property.  Things come full circle, sometimes.  

It’s one of the only Las Vegas Strip casinos to bring in almost as much money on food as they do gambling, if that tells you anything, so at least the Hooters Restaurant inside remains popular.  

The hotel itself is somewhat modern, though pretty simply appointed.  It is home to two pools as well as a fitness center and guests can enjoy wireless internet access while staying on the property.  In of room rates, they’re really not that much lower than some hotel casino properties that actually ARE on the Las Vegas Strip and also come with a totally unjustified $37/night Resort Fee, so I might start with trying to be a value property and bringing people in the door that way, but they apparently have different ideas.  

Entertainment consists of the Night Owl Showroom, which features a variety of different musical and comedy acts, though you would want to call ahead or check their website for more specifics on this.  I imagine that this property spends a good bit of the time more than half empty…in fact, I might have been the only customer in there on a lazy weekday when it was Hooters.  The Underground Lounge is one of the property’s main bars, which apparently has 26 TV’s, so that makes it a fun…and probably comparatively quiet, place to watch sports.  

Table Games include mainly Blackjack, Roulette and Craps, as well as a few others that they don’t seem to want to list on the website.  If it were up to me, I would list everything that I have to try to get people to come in.  They also themselves as one of the most affordable properties on The Strip, despite the fact that they really aren’t THAT cheap, the Resort Fee is ridiculous and they are not actually on the Strip.  They are home to a William Hill Sportsbook and like to their $1 Blackjack, but there’s either an ante or the rules are terrible.  They say that Blackjack only pays 3:2 on tables $10 and up, for starters.  

The property is home to four eateries, which include Hooters Restaurant and Saloon, of course, which features waitresses wearing tight tanktops and American food that is mediocre on its best day.  The property is home to the largest Steak and Shake location in the country, but it closed at some point during the pandemic, has yet to reopen and we don’t know if it will.  When there’s not enough post-pandemic demand to justify a popular fast food chain location…though I can’t say anything for sure, my guess would be things aren’t going great.

The Splash Cantina is the poolside lounge that features a wide variety of drinks as well as quick eats.  Finally, the Southside Eatery is a small food court consisting of Krispy Kreme donuts, Pizza Hut, Caribou Coffee and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.  The entire food court also closed during the pandemic and has yet to reopen, which again, is not a promising sign.  

Overall, we do not recommend this property whatsoever, unless you want to stop in and eat at Hooters, if that’s your thing.  Of course, while scantily clad women might be a novelty in other places in the country, it’s kind of a normal thing in Las Vegas, so we find it hard to understand why that would be a huge draw.  Historically, looking at the lifespan of the property so far, it hasn’t been enough of a draw for this place to ever be successful, yet one entity after another continues to pump money into it.  

The way we see it, they sure do love to talk about how much value they are offering Las Vegas visitors on a somewhat limited budget, but we don’t really see it other than the blackjack.  Honestly, maybe stay here on weekends if you can’t find anything cheaper, but we think even MGM resorts owned New York New York is a better example of a value casino and has a lot more in the way of entertainment and dining options.  

Paris Las Vegas

We will give you two guesses as to what theme this property has and the first one doesn’t count.  Paris Las Vegas is operated by Caesars Entertainment and is another one of their properties that is located directly on the main Las Vegas Strip.  It opened in September of 1999, when it was still thought that Vegas Strip properties should have some sort of theme.  Actually, most of the properties to do that are still around, so they were probably on to something.  

In addition to the 1,200 seat theater called L’Theatre des Arts, which rarely has anything particularly artistic, the property is known for its 540-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower, which is something that is considered a must-see for those of you who want to look at all of the casino facades whilst walking down the Las Vegas Strip.  

Paris Las Vegas actually has a promenade between itself and Bally’s, which of course is another Las Vegas Strip property operated by Caesars Entertainment.  

The original idea for the property came from Bally Entertainment who announced the project in 1995.  It would take a few years for construction to actually begin, but it was completed in 1999 and the property opened.  It currently houses nearly 3,000 guest rooms and suites, a hair over 2,900, which makes it one of the more sizeable Las Vegas Strip properties just going by room count.  

Bally Entertainment would go on to be purchased by Harrah’s, which would also purchase Caesars Entertainment, before eventually renaming itself Caesars Entertainment.  This company would go on to merge with El Dorado, who chose to name the new combined company Caesars Entertainment, so there were no direct transfers of ownership for just this one property, just overall company buyouts that have occurred over the years.  

Looking at their standard rooms, what we find is that weekday room rates, if there are no special events going on, can run anywhere from $40 to just under $100.  We took a look at, “Dead Week,” which is the week before Christmas and the slowest week of the year in Las Vegas, and found that weekday rooms are slightly under $40 for that week..  Of course, the property comes with a $45/night Resort Fee, which means that the Resort Fee sometimes costs guests more than the rooms actually do….which would be funny, if it weren’t so sad.  

Weekend rates are more expensive with weekend nights during dead week still being right around a $100, with the majority of weekend nights throughout the year being in the $200-$350 range.  The rooms themselves are probably a little busy looking, but they’re nice enough and are clean and relatively modern.  

Guests will enjoy wireless internet access, access to the property’s pool with daybed and cabana rentals available at an extra cost, a relatively state of the art fitness center with a variety of weightlifting and cardio machines and a spa and salon with a full array of services at an extra cost.  

Le Boulevard is the Paris’ quaint shopping center with a convenience store, a few boutiques and some places for unique foodstuff.  You can take a look at all of the stores that are available at this time by following the link here.

In of the entertainment options, Criss Angel is the website’s headliner at this time.  He’s kind of a magician with a dark flair who has been featured on a few TV specials and some videos of his can also be found on Youtube.  At least, that’s if you want to go to Planet Hollywood.  As of the time of this writing, Paris itself is not presently the home to any major shows.  

Nightlife includes the Chateau Rooftop and Nightclub, which is a visually appealing and exciting experience on the nights that it’s open.  Bottle service is available, but it doesn’t come cheap.  Alexxa’s Bar is a popular spot that occasionally features live music, typically on weekends.  

Gustav’s Las Vegas Bar can be found under the leg of the replica Eiffel Tower and is one of the casino’s main bars with a wide selection of bartop video poker machines.  We were saving this for now, but the replica Eiffel Tower was actually designed so that one of the s is actually built into the casino, so that’s something to see.  Le Bar Du Sport is basically just a sportsbar with a quasi-French name, quasi because they would typically not use the word, ‘Bar,’ in it.  Le Cabaret Bar isn’t always a cabaret, per se, but often features live entertainment in a setting meant to be a garden.  Napoleon’s Lounge is a quiet and refined affair and acts as something of a cigar bar whilst also featuring live entertainment sometimes.  

With the other entertainment options out of the way, let’s turn our attention to the sizable casino floor to discover what you can expect from the gaming options at Paris.  The sprawling casino floor is home to more than 1,700 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines.  Denominations range from pennies to hundreds with many high denomination games to be found in the Champagne High Limit room, which is near one of the property’s higher end bars.  The atmosphere of the high-limit area is meant to resemble a Parisian courtyard.  

The main casino floor, aside from the leg of the Eiffel Tower, doesn’t really have anything that seems to have much of a direct French influence.  The ceilings are surprisingly low in places, particularly in the Table Games main pit and there are a number of chandeliers dotting the way.  While we are on the subject of the 130 Table Games, we should mention that they spread Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Baccarat, Mini-Baccarat, Gamblit interactive, Pai-Gow Poker, Let it Ride, Three Card Poker and a few other choices.  If you’re looking for a specific game outside of the normal casino staples, then we would recommend calling in advance to see if they have it as well as inquiring about the normal times of operation.  

While there are many big screen TV’s, there’s nothing particularly astounding about the property’s race and sportsbook location and certainly nothing particularly reminiscent of Paris about it.  The comfortable surrounding chairs aside, this sportsbook is about as cookie cutter as it gets.  

With the gambling operations discussed, let’s turn our attention to the best thing about the Las Vegas Strip, which is all of the incredible food options!  Let’s hope that the Paris has plenty of these to offer since it doesn’t seem to be the host to any major entertainment options at this time.  

As one should expect, there is a focus on French cuisine here with many of the eateries being French either is style or in both style and food selection.  If you’re looking to have a wide variety of French-style food at your disposal, then you will want to stop in here on a weekend even if you are staying elsewhere.  

While this one isn’t French, Paris is home to a Gordon Ramsey Steakhouse location, so while there are a few others in Vegas, you might choose this one if you want to try out some of the celebrity chef’s beef wellington.  That’s his signature dish, so I really couldn’t imagine ordering anything else, unless you’ve had that before.  This steakhouse is open for dinner service seven evenings per week.  

Beer Park is a rooftop bar that also doubles as a casual American restaurant that won’t break the budget.  The food is delicious and the rooftop atmosphere is highly enjoyable.  It’s open for lunch and dinner seven days per week and currently also features a weekend brunch.  Apparently, the brunch is pretty highly regarded and you certainly can’t argue with the ambiance.  

Brioche by Guy Savoy is open from 7:00a.m. to Midnight seven days per week and is a quick stop for some delectable French pastries and all of the java drinks you could ever want.  If you’re looking for something tasty, but relatively light, or just need a boost of caffeine, you should make note of how to find this place from your guest room.

Burger Brassiere says that they offer a French interpretation of the icon that is the American hamburger.  This mostly focuses on using cheeses and toppings that you’re not necessarily going to find in some other burger restaurants.  This is a convenient stop in that it is open from 9:00a.m.-10:00p.m. seven days per week, so if you wake up feeling a little drained from the night before and need to get something substantial on your stomach, here you go.  

Cafe Americano is a 24/7 stop at the casino property that promises to offer casual food with a French flair, but that’s mostly due to the ambiance.  There’s actually a surprisingly varied selection of food here from all over the place, so if you’re looking for a somewhat quick bite to eat, there’s got to be something on the menu that will be of interest to you.  

Cafe Belle Madeleine is a uniquely French casual dining experience with an emphasis on delicious desserts and pastries, but there are a variety of other items available, as well.   They have this to say about the restaurant, “Serving a top-shelf selection of perfectly Parisian treats, this charming café proudly pours Peet’s Coffee and features decadent dessert works of art, sweet snacks, light fare, and gourmet gifts by Sugarfina, Godiva, and See’s.”  Thus, it’s also a great stop if you’re just in the mood for a nice bite of chocolate or two, hell, you’re in Vegas, make it three nice bites of chocolate!

Chef J. Joho brings you the Eiffel Tower Restaurant which is open seven evenings a week and specializes in French staples.  The price is on the higher end compared to a few other eateries on the property, but it’s not too bad and well worth it.  Besides, what could ever beat having brunch for dinner?

HEXX Kitchen and Bar is a reasonably priced semi-casual American food experience, though it also features elegant desserts which, it seems, can be found at most of the eateries that are on this Vegas property.  

J.J.’s Boulangerie is a quick eating experience that is open most hours of the day on weekdays, and 24 hours on weekends, as of the time of this writing.  While the restaurant says this, “This bustling bistro along Le Boulevard is more than an aromatic bakery. A breakfast and lunch hot spot, it gets packed with diners looking for a morning croissant or lunch pizza slice, and feels like you’ve been transported to the streets of Paris.”  Most of the food is not what one would consider French, so you should mainly just expect a casual dining set of choices with a little something from everywhere.  

Le Creperie is open during most hours of the day into the late evening and does what you would expect from a place with such a name—it features a wide variety of delectable and unique crepes, or you can even customize your own.  There’s really nothing quite as decadent as a loaded French crepe, but you can trick your brain into thinking that you are eating something light, so it’s tough to this one up.  

Martorano’s is an Italian-American restaurant brought to you by Chef Steve Martorano who has decided to fuse the two food styles and also add some experimental and unique twists.  The website describes the restaurant as, “Enjoy hot Italian food and even hotter music at this expansive venue where the chef is also the DJ and owner. Located along Le Boulevard, this edgy restaurant is designed after Martorano’s original location in Fort Lauderdale and features a contemporary bar, upscale lounge and classic dining room.”  As you can see, this is often a restaurant with live musical entertainment and dining service is available five evenings per week; it’s closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.  

Mon Ami Gabi is open from the early morning until the late evening and is a bistro that promises to be one of the most authentic and indulgent French dining experiences not just on the Paris property, but that you will find in all of Las Vegas.  Even if you’re not staying at Paris, you should make it a point to check this place out for lunch or dinner if you happen to be anywhere nearby.  The best part is that this eatery will hardly break the bank!

We would mainly recommend Paris if you are very much into French cuisine and would like to have many options all in one place.  Beyond that, it’s a toss-up between this and basically any other high-end Strip casino with one major drawback being the fact that it’s not currently home to any major shows, so you will have to leave the property, one way or the other if those are your thing.  

Palms Casino Resort

(Closed as of the time of this writing, expected to reopen)

Palms Casino Resort, or, “The Palms,” as people familiar with the Vegas scene like to call it, is actually an Off-Strip property, but is every bit as nice as many of the properties located on the Las Vegas Strip.  This was once seen as a hotspot for celebrities who happened to be in town, but it’s hard to say whether or not it still carries quite that stellar a reputation.  

In fact, it’s not known for anything right now.  In recent years, Palms was purchased by Station Casinos, a company that has many local casinos in the area.  The 703 room Palms with just over 94,000 square feet of gambling space was closed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and has yet to reopen, though we would think that such a nice property would open again in the future.  

With that, let’s talk a little about the property’s history.  Palms originally opened in November of 2001 and was originally owned by the Maloof family headed up by George Maloof, who would have majority ownership when the property first opened.  Even from opening day current owner, Station Casinos, had a minority interest in the property.  

Palms was built to compete somewhat with the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip proper and decided to focus on entertainment.  It would become the first casino to be home to a recording studio and also introduced a theater and used the hotel to host several movie premieres, which is probably what helped it gain the reputation for being popular with celebrities, as the premieres are likely what brought them in the door in the first place.  

The Palms would face a tough time and be sold during the Great recession to a company that isn’t really known for running Las Vegas casinos.  A few years after that, in 2016, Station Casinos would purchase the property and add it to their extensive Las Vegas collection.  Of course, most of their properties are locals facing properties, including on their Boulder Strip locations.  

At that time, Station Casinos would pump over half a billion dollars into renovating and updating the property, which wasn’t even that old to begin with.  

Most recently, just in May of this year (2021) Station Casinos would announce that it is selling Palms to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians for 650M, which is scarcely more than they spent just to renovate the property a few years prior.  Apparently, Station Casinos decided there wasn’t really much they were going to be able to do with it coming out of Covid-19.  

The main reason that the property has not reopened yet is that the sale has yet to close.  It is expected that the sale will be fully completed later this year, which would lead us to expect that the Palms (if it’s even going to still be called that) will reopen at some point in 2022, most likely early 2022.  

The Palms was mainly geared towards a party atmosphere to appeal to a younger crowd in the early days.  Personally, I spent a few hours there on a couple of different occasions and had a high opinion of the customer service on the property.  I was also impressed with the size of the poker room, though it wasn’t a totally separate room, and the fact that they still had some games going when most other Vegas poker rooms had closed for the night on this slowish weeknight.  Anyway, I was always treated nicely at the property, despite being a bonafide low roller…let’s hope that continues and maybe they’ll invite me back with a comped room when they reopen!

We’re not going to list the restaurants or anything else at this time because we have no way of knowing whether or not the new ownership will keep that the same, or even specifically when the property is going to reopen, for that matter.  However, you can be sure that we will be here to discuss that whenever it does and I plan to be there very shortly after it’s back in business!

Park MGM

It’s quite possible that you haven’t heard of Park MGM Casino, or think that we mean MGM Grand (did you miss it up there?) and made a mistake.  The reason for this is that you are probably more likely to recognize the casinos old name: Monte Carlo.  Why they would decide to change the name to Park MGM we have no idea, in our opinion, Monte Carlo was a solid branding.  

This property would originally open during the Summer of 1996, a time when Las Vegas Strip casinos having a thematic element that would pervade throughout was all but mandatory.  As it sits, the property is home to precisely 2,700 guestrooms and suites and clocks in at 102,000 square feet of gambling real estate, which is respectable, even by Las Vegas Strip standards.  

In of the history of the property, there’s a little bit to tell.  The original casino was meant to be reminiscent of the Place du Casino in Monte Carlo, , a historically well-known and regarded gambling destination, so it’s beyond us why the property wouldn’t continue to use the name.  To me, it invokes something that Park MGM just doesn’t, in fact, I just think of the MGM Grand when I hear the new name.  

The original Monte Carlo was built on the same real-estate as the once iconic Dunes Casino in Las Vegas.  The Arabian themed Dunes had been a staple of the Las Vegas Strip for nearly four decades, but when Mirage Resorts purchased the property in 1993, they must have decided that there was already enough desert in the area.  

It’s kind of a shame because The Dunes could have remained as a significant piece of Las Vegas history.  Musical performers who are absolutely legendary and almost synonymous with Las Vegas, such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Liberace once performed at Dunes.  The casino would continue to expand over the years, hitting 1,300 rooms at its peak occupancy load, and , this was in the 80’s and 90’s, so it was one of the most sizeable Las Vegas properties upon closing.  

Unfortunately, the property came to be seen as boring as newer resorts with more exciting and better themes would open up all over the Vegas Strip.  It’s possible that with a complete remodel and overhaul it might have had a chance, but the property changed hands a few times over a period of about five years, each time selling for less than it had the previous time, until it finally ended up in the hands of Mirage.  

Mirage Resorts, who owned the physical land, would go on to partner with Gold Strike company to build the new casino and resort that would become the Monte Carlo.  That partnership, at least on Gold Strike’s side, wouldn’t last long as Circus Circus Entertainment, who was rapidly expanding and building family-friendly casinos along the Strip at this time, would take over the Gold Strike’s share of the investment.  

The most recent major addition to the property (other than the Park MGM rebranding) is the Park Theater, which is capable of seating more than 5,000 and opened in 2016.  This was likely the impetus for renaming the entire property Park MGM, although, there’s certainly an iconic French performance center or concert venue that they could have named this after, isn’t there?  We’re still confused why the 86’ed the branding.  

One thing that we do know is that MGM Resorts International would go on to acquire Circus Circus Enterprises AND Mirage Resorts, so one way or another, the property that originally opened as Monte Carlo was going to end up in their hands.  

We also know that Monte Carlo, at least when it was still called that, had become something of a budget property in the MGM Resorts International portfolio.  Perhaps not quite to the extent of Excalibur, but the price point for overnight guests was nowhere near what you would find at the resorts that MGM resorts considers top-tier properties, such as MGM Grand, Aria and Mandalay Bay.  Let’s see if that’s still the case now, of if Park MGM has moved up a rung from Monte Carlo.  

In of weekday rates, it seems that the most standard rooms can be as low as $50/night if the property is not particularly busy and there are no special events going on.  Weekends, as one would expect, can range all over the place depending on how busy the weekend is and whether or not there are any special events…best case scenario, it will be $150-$200 and in the worst case scenario it may be as much as $500 per night.  That’s pretty wild when you really stop and think about it: an entire month at my apartment costs less than three nights would cost me at the $500/night price point.  

Guests of the property will enjoy access to one of the three sizeable pools that can be found on site, with daybed and cabana rentals available at an extra cost.  Guests will enjoy LCD HDTV in their rooms as well as wireless internet access.  There’s a modest fitness center on the property with reasonably good equipment and a full-service salon available if you feel like spending a few bucks to be pampered for the day. Absolutely none of this can be considered complementary as the property has a resort fee of $41.95/night, which is almost as much, by itself, as the room actually costs on some weekdays.  

I’m not going to go on another rant about Resort Fees as I have already done that in just about every Las Vegas Strip listing so far, so go see one of those if you’re in the mood to hear me complain about this absolute disgrace that seems to be everywhere now.  

Currently, Lady Gaga has been doing some performances at Park MGM, and whatever those tickets cost, they are probably worth the price of ission.  Did you see Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl performance?  She is, without a doubt, one of the greatest live performers in the history of pop music, so it would be impossible for us not to recommend seeing her live if she’s still there when you’re in Vegas and you have the chance.  

Park MGM regularly features UFC Fights and is currently home to the induction ceremonies for the UFC Hall of Fame, so if you’re into mixed martial arts, then that’s something that you will definitely want to consider checking out when you’re in town, assuming you’re there at the right time, anyway.  There are regular comedy acts as well as other currently relevant musical acts with Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars and Jason Aldean on tap in the near future, as of the time of this writing.  You should definitely check out their website, whenever you are reading this, to see what’s coming up.  No matter who you are, there’s almost certain to be an act that you will consider building your trip around seeing.  

Of course, Park MGM has plenty of entertainment that occurs regularly other than these major acts.  Many of the property’s bars, lounges and nightclubs feature regular live musical entertainment and DJ’s, particularly on weekends, though we would recommend calling for more specific information on that.  

With that, let us turn our attention to the casino side of operations, as Park MGM is also no slouch in that regard.  The property features more than 900 electronic gaming devices inclusive of slots, video poker, video keno and some electronic Table Games.  Fifty of these can be found in the high-limit slots area which has machines ranging in denomination from dollars to $100/credit in a private and exclusive setting.  Naturally, the main casino floor has slot denominations that are even lower than $1, as one would expect, all the way down to pennies.  

The main Table Games pit has a wide selection of your favorite casino staples and carnival games including Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Crazy 4 Poker, Baccarat, Face up Pai Gow Poker, Mississippi Stud and Three Card Poker.  One game that the property really likes to push is Commission Free Baccarat, which is a game by which players can make Banker bets without dealing with the commission.  This game is open during most hours on the weekdays, all the way until 4 a.m., and is available 24 hours per day on weekends.  

The High Limit Table Games area is set in a very posh lounge type of setting and features Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat, including the No Commission Baccarat that we discussed in the previous paragraph.  Guests playing in this area can enjoy a wide assortment of high-end liquors and cocktails.  

The property is home to a BetMGM Sportsbook, which is actually one of the smaller sportsbooks that you’re going to find at an MGM Resorts International property.  This might not be your ideal place to stay if your main focus is on sports betting, however, as it is open only during the evening hours on most weekdays.  

With that, we conclude that Park MGM is a fine casino, but probably not ideal for anyone who wants to gamble on a budget.  There is definitely more of an emphasis on high-roller games here than most other places and the main casino floor, while quite nice, is almost something of an afterthought.  The overall property is almost specifically designed for those who have a ton of money to spend, and plan to spend it, during the times that these high profile entertainment options are not going on.  For those of you who are not high rollers, we would recommend staying at one of the properties more catered to those playing and staying on a budget and then popping over to Park MGM for the major musical performances.  The good news is that this is a part of the MLIFE Rewards Program, so you might be able to use your play at other properties, especially if you’re something of a big player, to get comps for the live events that take place at this property.  

With all of that discussed, let’s now turn our attention to the property’s many dining options.  Given the nature of this property hosting major events, we should say that you will want to make your dining reservations well in advance if your dinner plans include one of the dates of the major performances, particularly Lady Gaga, because this place is going to be packed!

The good news for those of you coming to the property for one of the major concert events is that not all of the property’s restaurants are going to break the bank.  We appreciate the consideration that the property has for the fact that many of its guests are going to be using a large percentage of their Vegas budget to attend the events, and as such, aren’t necessarily also going to be able to work high-end restaurants into their financing.  However, if you are one of the fortunate ones who are able to afford both during your trip, then Park MGM does have a few upscale restaurants available for you.  

Primrose is a popular breakfast, lunch and brunch spot that is open during the morning until mid-afternoon hours seven days per week.  This friendly and accommodating American food eatery offers up some excellent stacked pancakes and eggs benedict at prices that aren’t going to break the bank, so if you’re staying on property and need a filling breakfast, no matter the day of the week, you can stop on in and load up.

Bavette’s Steakhouse and Bar is the property’s upscale Chicago Style Steakhouse for those of you out there for whom price really isn’t an object when attending one of the property’s many major musical events.  This steakhouse is open for dinner service seven evenings per week and is a low-lit affair that is aesthetically reminiscent of a 1950’s high-end supper club.  It has this to say about itself, “An acclaimed Chicago classic has arrived in Las Vegas. A stylish departure from a traditional steakhouse, Bavette’s embraces French flair without the formality, blending fine dining with unabashed fun. Indulge in timeless steakhouse fare, including richly flavorful ribeyes, fresh seafood towers, traditional side dishes, and house made desserts. Strong cocktails and a well-curated international wine list enhance the gilded space which features red leather banquettes and glowing chandeliers.”  Guests at this establishment leave raving about such dishes as the Steak Tartare and Princess cut Filet Mignon.  If you’ve got it in the budget, then you should give this place a try.  

The Crack Shack is another budget-friendly American food option that is open for lunch and dinner seven days per week and, if it’s known for anything, is known for some colorful, tasty and highly unique sandwiches.  They have many other menu options on top of that, of course, so there is sure to be something for everyone in your party that won’t break the bank.  

La la Noodle is a very casually-priced outlet for Pan-Asian cuisine.  While the prices might not be impressive, the colorful and fresh dishes with a unique twist certainly will be and come highly recommended for a relatively quick and hearty dinner on Thursdays, or for lunch or dinner on weekend days.  It is closed Monday-Wednesday as of the time of this writing.  

Eataly is something of an Italian food court that is open seven days per week, starting in the early morning hours and extending into the late evening.  It has a few stops in it that all have different specialities, so you really can’t go wrong checking out this little slice of Italy if you’re into Italian food and can actually make a mini sampler tour out of the whole affair.  Once again, this is another dining stop that is not at all a budget-breaker, so if you need something quick before the big show, then Eataly is a place you should go.  

Park MGM is open to one of Vegas’ Beerhaus locations that serves up dinner Monday-Thursday, lunch and dinner on Fridays and is open for all three meals of the day on weekends.  The best combinations here are going to consist of one of the highly decadent sandwiches along with one of the hearty dark beers.  It’s pricier than a few of the property’s other stops, but is relatively affordable in the grand scheme of things.  The one thing that we can guarantee if you check out any of the Beerhaus locations is that you won’t leave with an empty stomach, quite the opposite, in fact.  

La Pizza e La Pasta is one of the stops in Eataly that does what it says on the box.  Fast and delicious, this is a place that you should stop in if you’re in the mood for something that’s both quick and cheap, after all, you have a show you need to get to and those tickets sure were expensive!

Best Friend is open for dinner service seven days per week into the late-night hours.  Though it is considered an American restaurant, and a very comfortably priced one at that, it features a little bit of everything from all over the globe.  The food is going to be simple and reliable, but given that it doesn’t specialize in anything in particular, this is really a stop for you if you need to load up quickly and not so much if you are looking for a specialty dining experience.  

When it was open, Manzo was an Italian stop for the finest in smoked meats and vegetables that, while business casual dress was required, probably came in lighter on the wallet than one would expect.  Unfortunately, this high-quality (especially for the price) eatery would close during the Covid-19 pandemic and has yet to reopen its doors.  Here’s hoping that it comes back at some point in the future, because the place was a true bargain for what you got, especially by Las Vegas standards.

With burgers, nachos, apps and wings and things, Side Betty Grill is a simple American eatery that is open for dinner service seven days per week into the late night hours.  It’s open until the early morning on Fridays and Saturdays and reopens in the late morning on Saturdays and Sundays.  This small eatery is an excellent choice for Park MGM visitors who are looking to hang onto some cash for the rest of their trip.  

The Nomad Bar offers a luxurious American dining experience during the evenings on Thursdays-Sundays.  While this stop is mostly known for its assortment of fine cocktails and beers, the food will still suffice if you happen to be there drinking anyway.  It’s part of the fine dining experience that is the Nomad Library, which we will detail in the following paragraph. 

While not the highest priced restaurant on the property, the NoMad Library is still going to be a seafood go to that considers itself upscale American if you don’t mind spending a little bit.  This dining establishment describes itself thus, “The NoMad Library is a soaring space, inspired by the iconic Library of NoMad New York. The robust menu celebrates American classics in a grand and continental way by striking a distinct balance between accessibility, theatricality, and luxury. Communal courses are served alongside a selection of salads, pastas, and entrees, complemented by large-format dishes for two.”  A great place for couples, signature dishes include Filet Mignon, Oysters Madison and the scallops.  

In addition to a Starbucks location, Park MGM is home to the Coffee at Park MGM spot for your java needs.  You’ll want to be awake and alert for the musical performance of the evening, so what better way to ensure that you’re not lethargic than to stop in for a cup of brew at either the Primrose or Eataly locations?  

That concludes our Park MGM listing which definitely isn’t for those traveling to Vegas on a budget on the gambling side, but offers very competitive weekday hotel rates and is home to a wide assortment of eateries that don’t necessarily require a ton of spend.  That’s one aspect of the property that we appreciate very much because it seems that they understand that many of their visitors are arriving for the major musical performance that regularly take place and may have already spent a large chunk of their budget on tickets.  The gambling at this property is almost an afterthought, unless you’re a high roller, to the shows and food…but if your primary motivation is eating and seeing concerts from top name nationally relevant artists, then this casino definitely finds itself on our recommended list.  

Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino

Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino is located on the Las Vegas Strip and is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment.  This hotel casino clocks into the Strip show just shy of 2,500 rooms and just under 65,000 square feet of total gambling real estate.  

Given that it’s a property located on The Strip proper, some might consider it a small casino floor, but it’s important to that this property was not always home to Planet Hollywood. 

Originally opened as The Aladdin in 1962, this property would exist for a decade and a half until it ran out of wishes in 1997.  Though it closed that year, another run was made under The Aladdin name in 2000, but that would last only for three years until the property would fail again.  This is one of the few cases where a property was definitely in need of a rebranding as well as a renovation as it’s sometimes the best thing to do to start completely fresh.  

The property would file bankruptcy in 2003 and be sold to Planet Hollywood and Starwood resorts that same year whilst Aladdin Entertainment was put out of business.  The Aladdin was well-known for getting off to an inauspicious start in 2000 when the team consisting in part of Josh Axelrad, would crush the new and green dealers upon the property’s reopening.  His card counting book, Repeat Until Rich, is a must-read of his tales and I actually had the opportunity to get an exclusive interview with him that can be found on Wizard of Vegas here.

Planet Hollywood would continue to operate the property as Aladdin for the next few years as they conducted property renovations in a staged redevelopment.  This was necessary to keep the revenues flowing, and the property opened, because the fact that the property had ever closed in the first place was a bit of a disaster when it first attempted to reopen in 2000.  Interest drops off significantly, both amongst guests and potential investors, when a property sits closed for a few years.  

The official grand opening of the Planet Hollywood iteration of the property would take place in November of 2007 and it has operated continuously as such until this day.  One of the property’s staples is The MIracle Mile shops, which offers a wide range of retail outlets and is a renamed and revamped version of the shopping destination that had previously been on the property when it operated as The Aladdin.  

Harrah’s Entertainment would begin its takeover of the property in 2009 by first assuming much of the company’s debt.  After that, it would begin a takeover of hotel operations before assuming full control of the property in 2010.  Very shortly thereafter, Harrah’s Entertainment would rebrand the entire company as Caesars Entertainment, a name that the company continues to carry, despite El Dorado Resorts buying out that company in 2020.  

With that, we are ready to get into what is on offer at this property today.  While it’s not the highest end of Caesars Entertainment properties, it is considered pretty solid and is somewhat popular amongst younger visitors to Las Vegas.  It is part of the Total Rewards players club, as are all Las Vegas Caesars Entertainment properties, at least, definitely those that were not formerly in the El Dorado Resorts catalog before the merger.  

A Britney Spears residency that went on for more than three years would also serve to attract a lot of guests who grew up in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, but that major residency would end in 2017.  Fortunately, the residency managed to bring in a great many guests who have become loyal to the property since then.  

Guests of the hotel will enjoy one of the property’s two pools and will enjoy the brightly lit and modernly appointed rooms that are meant to emphasize comfort and relaxation.  The best thing about such brightly lit accommodations is that you know they are clean!  In addition to the pools, the property is home to a reasonably sized fitness center that guests may access as well as a spa and salon with extra charges and full services.  Guests also enjoy access to the wireless internet, though it can hardly be called complementary as the property does have a Resort Fee.

Room rates are somewhat economical and range from $40-$100 on weekdays for the most basic room, depending on the demand season and if there are any special events.  As with most Las Vegas Strip hotels, rates can vary dramatically on weekends, and be anywhere from $150-$500 for the standard rooms depending on what happens to be going on in town at the time.  Again, we would consider this modestly-priced by Vegas Strip standards, but we wouldn’t exactly call it a budget resort.  

Speaking of Resort, you know there’s going to be a Resort Fee, and this one is $39/night, which is almost the cost of the room itself on some weeknights.  Pretty soon they will probably just start making weeknight rooms free and charging a Resort Fee of $100.  

It’s tough to even really complain about Resort Fees anymore because the Vegas visitors have basically accepted them, although, if Vegas is wondering why tourism isn’t what it used to be, then I would start there.  It’s easier to blame the existence of regional casinos, of course, than to look at oneself in the mirror and it to ripping people off.  

Planet Hollywood is home to Zappos theater, which is probably the biggest highlight of the establishment as it features a wide variety of nationally still-relevant musical acts.  In 2021, it played host to Gwen Stefani, Kiss, Shania Twain, Criss Angel, The Scorpions, Judas Priest and Pitbull.  

Of course, you don’t necessarily have to be attending one of these A-List events to be entertained, as Planet Hollywood is always going to have an emphasis on live music.  The Heart Bar and Blue Moon Bar are two of the property’s most popular nightclubs that often feature live music and live DJ’s, particularly on weekends.  

The Mandara Spa and Salon is currently just the Mandara Spa as the Salon closed during the Covide-19 pandemic and has yet to reopen.  We expect this to reopen at some point, especially if enough people go and get their shots!

The Miracle Mile Shops consists of 1.2 miles of walking space (!!!) and features more than 200 retailers.  Given Covid-19, it’s really tough to give an accurate presentation of what you might expect to be open, so we’re just going to direct you to the webpage for this humongous shopping outlet that can be found here.  

With that out of the way, it has come time to talk about the casino operations for this property.  As we discussed before, the casino floor space is modest compared to some other properties, but they certainly have some gambling to offer, so let’s take a look:

The property is home to just under 1,000 combined video poker, video keno and sport machines games ranging in denominations from pennies to $100 per credit.  Naturally, the returns on the Las Vegas Strip, particularly for low denomination slots, tend to be lower than most other places in and around town, so this might not be ideal for those of you out there who might be looking to stretch your dollars.  The slot floor is brightly lit and nicely appointed with plenty of space to move around.  

The casino can operate as many as 91 gaming tables when it is fully packed, and those include Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Let it Ride and many others.  Not all of these games will operate around the clock, so if you’re looking for a specific carnival game, then we would recommend calling the property in advance to ascertain the hours that you can normally expect it to be open.  

The Poker Room is bigger than you might think, and more popular, featuring daily tournaments and excellent promotions for players of No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em especially.  

It should come as no surprise that this property would be home to a Caesars Race and Sportsbook.  That said, this is actually an extremely nice affair with comfortable theater-style seating and fifty big screen TV’s for your viewing pleasure.  If your main gambling interest is horse racing simulcast or sports, then this property goes on our recommended list for the sportsbook alone!

With the gambling covered, we can now turn our attention to the property’s several eateries.  That’s probably going to be the end all and be all of whether or not we would put this high on our list of recommendations for those of you who may not be interested in the Sports and Racebook.  

The good news about Planet Hollywood is that none of the property’s nearly one dozen sit down restaurants are going to absolutely kill you price wise.  There’s also a wide variety of different food styles from around the world, but the downside is that there is typically only one restaurant for each.  Let’s see what they have:

Surprisingly, Gordon Ramsay runs a casual America Burger restaurant called Gordon Ramsay Burger out of the Planet Hollywood.  It’s actually surprising that he would put his name on anything except for fine dining at all.  Given that this celebrity chef, probably the most famous in America, if not the world, is willing to slap his name on it means that you are guaranteed quality ground beef and some pretty unique and innovative twists.  Open for breakfast and lunch, if you’ve ever wanted to eat a meal made by Gordon Ramsay without needing to open up your wallet too wide, then this is your chance. 

Cafe Hollywood has a really cool 50’s diner retro theme going on and serves up casual American food at really low prices from 7:00 a.m. until the late evening hours.  It’s even open until midnight on weekends.  The awesomeness doesn’t stop with the theme, the food is great too, especially the all-day-long breakfast options.  They also pride themselves on the Prime Rib Special, but sometimes if you have had one or two drinks too many, what you really need is an omelette, a coffee and several glasses of water.  

Earl of Sandwich is another low-priced American food option that opens at 9:00 a.m. and remains open until the late evening hours seven days per week.  This stand is known for providing quick, delicious and cheap roast beef and chicken sandwiches as well as a wide assortment of other options.  After a night of partying, sometimes you feel like you should start the day with something substantial to ward off that nagging headache, and this is the place to do it.  Don’t feel bad if you go back to sleep for a bit after, it’s happened to all of us.  

Koi Las Vegas is an elegant place to get some of the best Japanese food at a reasonable price compared to some others.  The aesthetic is simple and inviting, which usually means that the real emphasis is put on the food; that’s good news!  Whether it’s sushi and sake or something heavier that you’re in the mood for, you can get it here during dinner service hours on Wednesdays-Sundays.  Try one of the Sake cocktails, fruity and delicious, you’re sure not to regret it and they make a great dessert by themselves!

Open from 11-11, Planet Hollywood is home to a P.F. Chang’s chain Asian food location.  Some people swear by the brand, so while I’m not personally a huge fan, there are many and they know what they are getting when they walk into the eatery.  If there’s nothing else I can say for them, at least you’ll be in and out quickly if you’ve got other places to be and other things to do that day.  

Pin-Up Pizza is open from 11:00 a.m.; until the early hours of the morning on most days and is something of a Vegas staple when it comes to fast and friendly low-priced New York-style pizza.  That’s not my pizza preference as I like Detroit-Style myself, but there are many people who like the thin crust, so this is a place to get it on the cheap.  

Open Wednesday-Sunday for lunch and dinner, Ringer Wings, Pizza and Sports Bar is a dead ringer if you’re looking for a place that is casual, convenient and relatively light on the wallet.  Pizza enthusiasts may not be delighted as this location also specializes in New York-style pizzas rather than a heartier and thicker option, but that’s okay, they also have a wide selection of appetizers and salads to choose from, so you’re sure to find something.  

Strip House Steakhouse is the property’s upscale steakhouse that is open for dinner service seven nights per week.  This steakhouse has a focus on bringing to you simple food with fresh ingredients and the steak is just as great as the sea.  Visitors might see the establishment as plain looking, but I see that as usually being a positive because it means they plan to focus on wowing your taste buds rather than your eyes.  It doesn’t matter if a place is flashy if the food sucks and it doesn’t matter if a place is aesthetically plain if the food is great!

Everyone loves pulled pork tacos!  Yolos Mexican Grill has those as well as great drinks from Thursdays-Sunday during dinner hours and is open for an early lunch on Saturdays and Sundays, as well.  The Mexican restaurant draws its influences from the Pacific Rim and Caribbeans, so it’s sure to be spicy and positively delightful.  If you can’t take the heat, then cool off your pallet with a sip of one of the fruity Margaritas!

Overall, one thing that we notice about Planet Hollywood is that they bring guests a ton of affordable food options that should be safely within the budgets of almost all visitors.  We definitely appreciate that since, similar to Park MGM, many individuals are going to be visiting the property mainly for the shows and have already paid handsomely for their tickets.  

The fun atmosphere of Planet Hollywood is sure to continue to appeal to more youthful visitors, as well the major focus they put on musical acts and nightclubs.  It might be a bit loud and busy for older Vegas visitors, and the hotel rooms are by no means cheap, but we would recommend this place for the younger crowd as well as people who focus on sports betting as the Caesars Sports and Racebook at this location is very comfortable.  

Resorts World Las Vegas

Resorts World Las Vegas is a property that many of you have probably heard of, but even more of you will be familiar with the iconic Stardust Casino, which used to occupy the land that the Resorts World property currently sits on.  This property is one of the more recent Vegas Strip undertakings and is located on the Southern end of the Strip at 3000 South Las Vegas Boulevard.  

This property has something of an Asian theme and is home to just over 3,500 guest rooms and suites.  There is a total of 117,000 square feet of gambling real estate and it is owned by the Genting Group, which is one of the few owners of properties directly on the Las Vegas Strip that are not Caesars Entertainment or MGM Resorts International.  

Before we get into that, let’s spend a few minutes learning about The Stardust as it was an iconic and historic Las Vegas entity that deserves to live on in our memories if it can’t do so physically.  Having opened in 1958, it would start with more than 1,000 hotel rooms (big at the time) when it opened and would finish with over 1,500, nearly fifty years later.  This outer space themed property was home to 85,000 square feet of gambling space and was one of the casinos instrumental in making the Las Vegas Strip what it is today.  After all, there must have been some properties that made Las Vegas what we think of today, and this was one of them.

The property would have originally opened in 1955, except there were some issues with crime ties and tax non-disclosures with many of the properties investors.  There was also a slight problem involving the, “Untimely,” death of the property’s brainchild and manager, Tony Cornero, who had more than a few enemies.

The Stardust would finally open in 1958, but did so under tremendous debt that it had trouble maintaining its obligations in the early days.  It takes time for word to spread about a new Las Vegas property, especially back in the 1950’s when advertising to the masses was a far less efficient affair than what we enjoy today.  It mostly involved taking out ads in newspapers, travel catalogs and greasing the palms of travel agents.

Over the next couple of years, Stardust would reorganize its debts and garner some popularity amongst Las Vegas visitors.  The good news for the property was that most of the people who visited it wanted to go back, and they treated their gamblers fairly well, so this would result in a hotel expansion less than five years later so it could keep up with its own popularity.  

Ownership of the property was basically a pinball game, with the resort being the ball, over the next two decades, so we will let you look into that on your own if you’re really interested.  Jumping ahead to the 1980’s, Boyd Gaming would take over the property, which was Bill Boyd’s first venture to the Las Vegas Strip.  The way they did things, they put more of an emphasis on creating a friendly atmosphere, which is something that the property lacked before, despite still being appealing to hardcore gamblers.  

Steve Wynn’s Mirage would open in the late-80’s, thus, a new hotel tower was built at Stardust by Boyd Gaming to keep up the pace.  There was rapid expansion going on at the Las Vegas Strip during this time, so it would be very easy to fall into obscurity if they couldn’t offer new and exciting accommodations, even to their loyal players.  

Steve Wynn would re-emerge as a thorn in the side of this casino in the early 2000’s, given that he was planning other massive projects in the area.  Boyd Gaming was left with a choice of attempting another renovation to keep up, throwing in the towel or starting over from scratch.  Whatever they were going to do they should have done faster.  Ultimately, Boyd didn’t throw in the towel, per se, but they sat on their heels for a few years such that the revenues evaporated and the property, at least in that iteration, would close for good in 2006.  

Boyd Gaming continued to kick sand, but unfortunately not really much sand up, for the next five or so years while trying to decide what to do with the physical property.  They bandied about the idea of opening a new casino, having a building operate just as a hotel or building condos…but with some Atlantic City exposure in the form of the very successful Borgata and a number of successful Locals and Off-Strip casinos to attend to, Boyd Gaming neve really managed to do anything meaningful with the property.  In 2011, it would sell off the physical property to current owners, Genting Group.  

Genting’s original plan was for a massive casino project that would rival the largest in the world with the first phase, by itself, to cost four billion dollars and to open in 2016.  That…to say the least…did not end up happening.  The property faced some hurdles in getting building approvals and coming up with a viable project, particularly when it would come to utilities, for such a massive project.  That area of the Las Vegas Strip would need to be seriously modified, which would cost a ton of money, to get the resort the resources that it would need.  The 2016 projected opening date would come and go with ground barely being broken and some would wonder if anything would ever go there at all.  

There would be more construction issues over the next few years, one of the most significant being a lawsuit from Wynn that claimed that the new resort would be way too similar to it from an aesthetic standpoint.  In reality, we expect that Wynn was just doing everything it could to forestall the opening of a new and equally opulent property that would directly compete with it, despite the fact that it had no problem offering direct competition for Stardust, twice and whose presence was ultimately pretty responsible for resulting in Stardust’s closure.  

Say what you want about all of that, but Steve Wynn is nothing if he is not an opportunist.  

These issues would ultimately be resolved without the need for a trial, and in 2019, a grand opening was announced for the Summer of 2021.  While that might have seemed overly optimistic at the time, it is almost certainly the case that the Covid-19 pandemic actually helped construction along a little bit as there was almost certainly no shortage of workers, and barely any traffic.  With that, Resorts World Las Vegas managed to open, as scheduled, just a few months ago relative to the time this was published.  (September 2021)

This Asian-themed property is much larger and expansive than was Lucky Dragon.  The good news for Genting Gaming is that they have some operations elsewhere across the country, so they would be able to leverage their existing marketing database in a way to attract visitors to the property in advance of it opening.  We’re going to have to see how that works out for them in the long run.  

The hotel side of operations is actually run by Hilton Hotels, with the brands Hilton, Conrad and Crockford all to be found on property, so we are not going to spend much time talking about that.  What we will say is that rooms can be expected to be more, on average, than most of the other Strip properties for any given day and also come with a higher than average Resort Fee of $45 dollars per night.  We will take a moment to shame them, at least Hilton, as they say the Resort Fee gets you:

• 5G high-speed Wi-Fi (30mbps) for up to eight devices
• Smart TV Casting ability
• Unlimited local and toll-free calls
• 5% off cabana experience
• 5% off pool chair experience
• 5% off spa and fitness treatments
• 10% off spa or fitness retail items

What an unbelievable series of bullshit!  The property isn’t even going to pretend that paying the Resort Fee does anything for you.  It gets you discounts for their other pay services!?  That’s a complete pile of bullshit…if there were no Resort Fees, then you would get those discounts just by virtue of being a guest.  

Unlimited Local and Toll-Free Calls?  Do they not know what the meaning of, “Toll-Free,” call is?  Would toll-free calls normally cost something?  Do most people not have cell phones that they could use to make a toll-free call without paying a Resort Fee?  

This property is literally suggesting that the Resort Fee is in place to offer you something that would be free anyway.  There’s just absolutely no shame here, folks.  This is literally their verbiage explaining the Resort Fee:

A daily resort fee of $45 plus tax will be added to your room for each purchased or complimentary (if applicable) room night, which covers the cost of value-driven amenities to enhance the guest experience including:

See, it’s, “Value-driven.”  There’s no value quite like charging you money for something that is literally always free, is there?  Does nobody ever read this material?  If I ever spent one cent at any of the hotels on this property, I would be seriously pissed off at myself.  Screw this casino, screw Hilton and screw Genting Group for allowing such a thing.

Oh, and Wireless Internet?  Literally almost any economy brand hotel in this country and at no extra charge whatsoever.  Am I really supposed to believe that internet access costs this resort anything close to $45/night, per guest room?  That’s ridiculous.  At most, it costs pennies.  Besides, most cell phone plans now include unlimited data and phones can be used as a hotspot, so even if this internet access had any real value, which it doesn’t, it’s totally unnecessary.  

Most properties, even in Las Vegas, will at least pretend that you’re getting something for the Resort Fee, but Hilton is more than happy to tell you that you are getting things that cost pennies, or would literally be free anyway, as well as sorry ass discounts on services that you are probably not going to use.  

We will now demonstrate that we care about their listing as much as they care about their guests, which is almost not at all.  

They have slots; they have table games; they have a poker room.  If you like places that are really brightly lit, and being totally ripped off without the company even pretending you are getting anything for your money, then this is the place for you.  

They have some stores.  

They have many food outlets.  Some of them are expensive and others are not.  

They have shows.  Many of them are very popular national acts.  If you must see one of these, do your best not to spend another dime at this sorry ass ripoff resort while you’re at it.  

Our overview is this place sucks, it’s expensive, they don’t even pretend that they are offering you anything for their ridiculous Resort Fee and some of the acts that come in to perform are excellent.  If gamblers out there would start voting with your feet and wallets when you first had the chance, then there would not be 6:5 Blackjack or Resort Fees at all.

Be smarter than them.  Avoid this place for everything except the concerts.

Rio

Rio, or the Rio All Suites Hotel, as they pride themselves on being called, opened in January of 1990 and is currently operated by Caesars Entertainment, but is owned by Eric Birnbaum.  The theme of this property is Brazilian and it consists of more than 117,000 square feet of gaming real estate as well as a hotel consisting of 2,522 guest rooms and suites.  It is located on West Flamingo Road near the Gold Coast and is very close to the Las Vegas Strip proper, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s directly on The Strip.  

Believe it or not, The Rio All-Suites Hotel is called that for a legitimate reason, that being that it was the first hotel in Las Vegas to actually do that.  Most similarly sized buildings in town had a large percentage of the rooms that had the goal of just packing in as many people as possible, but the Rio wanted to make sure that even those guests who intended to spend a lot of time in their rooms would have a pleasant visit.  

MarCor Development Company was the first owner of The Rio when it opened and for several years after.  The property was immediately successful and, being the only casino to be owned by the company, they would sell off all of their other assets with the goal being to focus on the operation and expansion of their Las Vegas casino property.  

Ownership of the property was almost constant, but it would catch the eye of Harrah’s Entertainment in the late-1990’s and that company would purchase the Rio outright.  Eventually, they would buy all of Caesars Entertainment in the middle of the 2000’s and eventually rename themselves as such in 2010.  Caesars Entertainment wo0uld merge with El Dorado Resorts, with the latter taking over the former in 2020, but would keep the Caesars Entertainment corporate branding.  

That’s pretty remarkable stability for a Vegas property that has existed for over thirty years.  Speaking of stability, the property’s headlining act and signature show, Penn & Teller, has been performing at the property for the last twenty years!  It should come as no surprise that they have generated a significant national following by now, which creates a mutually beneficial relationship between themselves and Rio as they are a draw to the property of their own accord.  

I’ve spent some time in this casino myself, and while the outside is colorful and became well-known for a laser light show, the casino floor is mostly dimly lit and definitely starting to show its age.  However, it’s very expansive and gives players plenty of room to move around.  It’s also something of a value casino, especially by Las Vegas Strip and Caesars Entertainment standards, as the table limits tend to be lower than you will find at other properties, with the same that could be said for Video Poker denominations and some of the games have a decent RTP.  

In the sale of the physical property to a New York based real-estate developer, Caesars Entertainment agreed to lease back the property for a minimum of two years at 45 million dollars per year.  That was in 2019, so two years is almost gone now, so it will be interesting to see if Caesars decides to continue to handle the property’s casino offerings for much longer.  We already know that the new manager of the hotel end of operations is Hyatt, so I guess we will have to see what happens.  

In of the room rates, unless it’s extremely slow, then you can expect to pay a bit more as a baseline price than for most properties on the Las Vegas Strip.  However, it should be mentioned that you are paying for a suite rather than a standard room, so by that measure, Rio suites are cheaper than most comparable suites on Las Vegas Strip properties.  For that reason, if you want to put an emphasis on comfort and space without breaking the bank, then Rio is a good choice.  However, if you’re traveling by yourself and don’t need a ton of room to move around, then it’s not going to be your cheapest option.  The Resort Fee, unfortunately, is $35/night.  

We have already touched upon the hilarious magic and comedy duo of Penn & Teller, but there are plenty of other great entertainment options at Rio.  The Comedy Cellar is a center with regular performers that mirrors a highly successful comedy club of the same name in New York.  WOW-The Vegas Spectacular is a dancing and acrobatics spectacle that’s definitely worth checking out.  The last regular show is Chippendales, which is a great one for some of you ladies out there who want to look at a guy who’s probably more buff than the dude you brought along.  

Rio is about fun, as it should be, so the shows and gambling aren’t the only ways to be entertained.  Let’s get into a few other things that you can do while you’re on the property:

The Rio Spa and Salon is a delightful experience for those of you out there looking to pamper yourself.  The best part is, while these sorts of services are rarely cheap, they won’t break the bank compared to some others.  

KISS by Monster Mini Golf is a miniature golf course that features the sort of heavy-metal spectacle that you would expect from such an attraction.  It’s probably worth doing as a novelty, but man, I swear those guys are better at branding than they are at music—that’s not an insult, they’re also pretty darn good at music!

Why leave the casino to get a tattoo that you may regret when you get back home?  With Count’s Tattooing, you’ll be able to get your tattoo of a Blackjack in Spades, grab another cocktail and get back to the Blackjack table in no time at all!  , “No regrets!”

Rio is home to a Masquerade Bar, which is exceptionally convenient because everyone in Las Vegas still has to wear a mask right now anyway.  I imagine that everyone will get this joke for the next few years, even if everyone finally gets vaccinated and we can stop doing this.  

The VooDoo Rooftop Nightclub is 51 stories in the air!  Do I really need to say anything else?  The unbelievable view alone is well worth the price of ission. 

With that, let’s now turn our attention to the many gambling options that will be available to you when you visit this property!

The sprawling casino floor of the Rio All Suites Hotel is home to more than 1,000 slot, video keno and video poker games ranging in denominations from pennies to $100 per credit.  The layout of the slot floor is pretty interesting with lots of twists and bends in the center area.  They also had an electronic Baccarat machine that I once used to kill some time while waiting on friends, minimums were only $1…I was mostly using it to get drinks.  

The property is home to about eighty gaming tables that spread a wide variety of games on the felt including Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Baccarat, EZ Baccarat, Texas Hold ‘Em Bonus, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Mississippi Stud, Crazy 4 Poker, Three Card Poker, Pai Gow Poker and Let it Ride.  Of course, not all of these games will be open around the clock, so we would recommend calling in advance to get the typical operating days and hours if you are looking for a particular carnival game.  

Rio is home to the World Series of Poker, so it makes sense that they would have a 24/7 poker room.  Of course, not as many people play when the Main Event isn’t going on, so this poker room consists of 14 tables that deal mostly No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.  Even with that being the case, no matter what time of the day it is, you know where to go when it comes time to shuffle up and deal.  

Rio is home to perhaps the least impressive Caesars Race and Sportsbook there is.  It’s almost as if someone noticed that the property didn’t have one and the manager said, “Ah, just throw something over there.”  This might be the sort of sportsbook you will go to if you realize there was a bet you wanted to make and forgot at one of the bigger ones.  Only sixteen total TV’s?  Really!?  There are more College Football games on than that at any given time.  

Rio is typically a place to go for Live Keno, but that closed temporarily as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and has yet to return.  They still have a spot for it on their website, so for those of you out there who love live drawings, there’s still hope.  

With that, we have adequately covered gaming operations at The Rio, so let’s now turn our attention to the restaurant selection at the property.  

Voodoo Steak at the Rio has this to say about itself:

Come hungry and keep in mind this isn’t your average steakhouse. Favorite dishes include lobster bisque, considerably the best in town. The seared foie gras, pan-roasted sea scallops and a great selection of dry aged, prime, and Wagyu Beef are other fabulous selections. Vegetarian selections are also available.

The signature drink is the Witch Doctor – and it’s literally smokin’. The dry ice potion consists of five rums and fruit juice in a fish bowl-type glass. If this drink doesn’t cast a spell on you, we’re not sure what will.

Originally, this location was called Voodoo Cafe and specialized in creole cuisine that is popular in New Orleans, but Rio decided it was time to make room for an upscale steakhouse.  You’re definitely going to want the window seats up on the fiftieth floor and one below the VooDoo Lounge, that way you can enjoy the views as well as the delicious food.  While this is considered upscale, value-conscious guests will be pleased to know that it is far from being Las Vegas’ most expensive steakhouse.  

Guy Fieri El Burro Borracho Restaurant is the property’s Mexican restaurant that is brought to you by celebrity chef, Guy Fieri.  When I think of Mexican food, I’m not going to lie, Guy Fieri is definitely not the first name that comes to mind, since I mainly associate him with burgers, BBQ and American food, but if you’re staying on property and decide to check this place out, please let me know what you think!

Bringing the heat and the flavor, Kang’s Kitchen is a visually catching and exciting restaurant that specializes in  Korean BBQ.  There aren’t too many places in Las Vegas that specialize in that, so if you’ve never had it before, now would be a great chance…just order a glass of water because the sauces are thick and sticky.  

Here’s what Hash House A Go Go has to say about itself:

One of Sin City’s favorite eateries, Hash House A Go Go keeps food fun with farm fresh ingredients and a delicious twist on traditional recipes. Hash House A Go Go is famous for its creative menu offerings, oversized portions, unique presentations and tradition of using only the freshest ingredients to create one of a kind “twisted farm food.”

Hash House A Go Go Las Vegas offers guests an exhaustive menu of brunch options including house hashes, flapjacks and waffles, farm fresh sandwiches and the famous one-pound stuffed burger.

They have several locations in the Las Vegas area, and I have to be honest, I don’t get it.  You’ll definitely get plenty to get you full, but I’d be lying if I said I thought there was anything special about the food.  It’s basically just a slightly better version of Waffle House, in my opinion.  

The All American Bar and Grill is a stop I could recommend for lunch or dinner if you are staying and is all all kinds of things.  Basically comparable to your American sports bar type of places, they offer a wide variety of dining options in a casual setting.  Some of the dishes are fairly unique and the menu is varied enough that this becomes a great place for large parties since there is bound to be at least a few items each person will like.  

Pho Da Nang is a small Vietnamese stand which is great when you want some Pho fo’ sure.  It’s good if you’re on the move, but it also has some seating if you want to take a minute and relax.  I stopped at this stand once and I can say that the egg rolls are really good…the Pho Shrimp probably was also, but I’m not really comparing it too much.  

KJ Dim Sum and Seafood is an excellent restaurant and is simply appointed with an emphasis on fresh and traditionally prepared food.  You really can’t go wrong with this one if you are the sort of diner who just wants to cut out the BS that is some of the fanciness of more, ‘Modern,’ restaurants and just skip straight to great dining.  

How far are we in the alphabet for the Las Vegas Strip?  Well, Rio starts with an, “R,” and we are discussing our first Indian restaurant just now?  You’d think there would be a bigger market.  In any event, Royal India Bistro would like you to know, from their webpage:

Spice up your dining experience with authentic North Indian cuisine at the Royal India Bistro Indian Restaurant at Rio Las Vegas. Enjoy delicacies from the 500-degree tandoor clay oven – freshly baked flatbread, chicken marinated in yogurt and spices, king prawn skewers, or traditional shish kabob.

The complex flavors of Indian cuisine are at their best in classic dishes featuring chicken, lamb, and seafood, and in an array of vegetarian specialties. If you can’t decide, or need assistance making your selection, choose from one of four options for complete dinners. The full bar features imported Indian beer. Royal India Bistro is known for preparing each dish with the same bold flavors and simplicity found today in India. It is true to its name with the magnificent atmosphere. Award Winning Restaurateur, Harjit Singh, has brought his best taste to the Rio Las Vegas.

They have a surprisingly low amount of direct competition on the Las Vegas Strip.  If you’re in the mood for something with truly intense flavor, then we would recommend Royal India Bistro as long as you have had Indian food in the past.  The intensity of the spice can be a bit much for some, so if you can start out by trying some lower-priced Indian food where you’re from to get an idea of where you want to be on the spice level before plopping down a few bucks here, then you might be better off.  It’s not so much that it’s an acquired taste exactly, it’s just that all you’re really going to get is the heat if you’re not used to it yet.  

The Sports Deli is a quick stop for grab-and-go sandwiches, pizzas and salads that is located right next to the sports and Facebook on the property.  If you’re in the mood to have a bite while you’re going to see how that bet that you made is looking, then this is the place to go.  

Finally, Rio is home to a Smashburger location, which is a popular fast food outlet that can be found elsewhere in the country, as well.

It’s really tough to make a decision as to whether or not to recommend the Rio for your stay.  It really depends on who you are.  It’s not the choice if you’re looking to stay as cheaply as possible in order to spend your money elsewhere, because it’s definitely not the cheapest (or even close) that you’re going to get on or near the Las Vegas Strip.  On the other hand, they may well be the most budget friendly suites that you are going to get in the vicinity.  

Overall, we would have to say that the Rio is good for those on a budget, or people who are bringing a modest bankroll, but don’t mind spending a little.  The property has plenty to offer with iconic and varied entertainment options, a wide selection of reasonably priced restaurants and the rooftop nightclub.  We would say that if you are on the lowest end on the budget scale for Las Vegas travelers, or if you’re a true high roller, you probably wouldn’t consider it…but everyone in between should at least think about spending their trip staying here.

Sahara Las Vegas

Located towards the Southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, Sahara Las Vegas, first opened in 1952, is one of the Strip’s oldest properties.  It might be the longest running, except it had closed for a time, reopened as SLS, which itself closed and then reopened again and returned to the Sahara branding.  

As it sits currently, the hotel casino property consists of a total of 1,616 guest rooms and suites and is home to just over 50,000 square feet of gambling space.  We will talk more about what the current iteration of this property has to offer in a bit, but for right now, let’s take a brief look at one of the Las Vegas Strip’s oldest buildings.  

Originally opened in October of 1952, the Sahara Las Vegas was a full-scale casino that was added to the site that had previously served as a large bingo hall called Club Bingo.  Of course, live Bingo was much more popular at the time and would remain so for several decades.  Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the casino was built mostly around Club Bingo and that the Sahara property would stay true to its roots and continue to operate a sizeable bingo room.  

Swapping one desert for another, the property would open with an African Sahara theme and the property’s aesthetics would focus largely on the sort of animals that one could expect to discover out there.  The outside of the property was fairly simple, but the inside is where one would see the better part of the theme come to life.  Mostly, the outside was a flat colored building, the sign and some camel statues.  

The property would originally open with a few hundred guest rooms and one of the central components was an Olympic-sized swimming pool, which might be somewhat common now, but was the first of its kind in Las Vegas at that time.  The property was popular almost immediately and quickly realized that it would need to add to its room count, therefore, barely five years after first opening the doors of the casino, it would begin work on a fourteen story hotel tower.

It would turn out that even that wasn’t going to be sufficient, so just a couple of years after that opening, the property would further break ground on a new 24 story hotel tower, which would be the third hotel fixture to become part of the property.  This was during the early days of the Vegas boom when visitors not only from around the country, but around the whole world, were starting to take notice that Vegas was becoming about more than just the gambling.  The new hotel tower would bring the total room count to approximately 1,000, which was nearly unheard of at that time.  

The property would continue to hum along successfully in the ensuing years, even playing host to The Beatles at one point, which by itself, was enough to put Las Vegas in the minds of a great many more Americans.  After all, if the Beatles were playing concerts there, it must be a serious destination city.  

Unfortunately for the Sahara, investors and other companies also began to take notice in Las Vegas, and it was with that another casino boom on the Las Vegas Strip followed which would see another half dozen or so resort casinos, and many more hotels on top of that, begin to open up along the Las Vegas Strip.  

During this time in the 1970’s, the Sahara would come to realize that it was already somewhat dated as a property.  While revenues had been pretty strong during the 50’s and 60’s, these new resort casinos and other hotels were chipping away at them fairly quickly.  They knew that they were in need of an overhaul, despite the fact that they would be considered reasonably new (especially the most recent hotel tower) by today’s standards, but they hadn’t exactly budgeted for a complete overhaul.  In that sense, they ended up being a victim of their own success.  

They did a renovation that started in the middle part of the 1970’s and concluded in 1977.  Unfortunately, these other properties had already created some pretty strong loyalty amongst what were formerly Sahara’s customers by that time, and as any businessman will tell you, the only thing more difficult than getting customers in the first place is to get customers that you lose back.  In the meantime, even with the renovation, they were still seen as mostly old news.  

In 1978, the property would gear up for another major renovation.  The objective this time was to add yet another hotel tower (even though they could barely fill the rooms they already had) as well as to double the size of the casino floor.  Once again, they were kind of hoping for a bunch of people who had largely been ignoring them to start streaming in as a result, but during all of this, new building projects were, as ever, being announced.  

Before this wave of renovations could even be fully completed, revenues had dropped to the point that Sahara could no longer manage its ever-increasing debt load, and eventually, Del Webb announced that the sale of the property would be necessary.  The buyer of the original Sahara would be the owner of what was then the Hacienda, a Mexican themed casino on the southern end of the Strip where Mandalay Bay is today.  

Paul Lowden owned properties would now bookend the Las Vegas Strip proper and the Sahara would drift along through the better part of the 80’s basically stable.  During this decade, the Sahara sort of succeeded by giving up.  Lwden recognized that the main property was well past its prime, and it seemed like new and sprawling projects were being announced every day, so with that in mind he decided that high-rollers were a lost cause and chose to attract gamblers bringing moderate sums of money with them on their Vegas vacations.  

The Sahara did well enough that it was able to construct yet another new hotel tower in the late 80’s without too much trouble.  Unfortunately, more newer and better casinos such as The Mirage and MGM Grand would open during this time, and Lowden realized that the writing was on the wall.  He realized that the amount of money that the property would need to even be able to compete for middle-tier gamblers, forget about high rollers, would be almost impossible to pump into the property and such an endeavor would likely fail anyway.  

Even if such an endeavor would have succeeded, it almost certainly would have only been for a very brief period as even newer casinos, with various themes, would go on to open in the 1990’s.  Lowden was probably quite prudent in deciding that the endeavor was hopeless.  

Eventually, he would resign the property to just continuing to coast by and making what it could until the end that he felt must surely come within a few years.  He reasoned that he could make it a bargain basement type of property, but just the operating costs for the current property were a tough hill to climb…and you can’t just give the rooms away to anybody.  

Sahara would basically coast through the early part of the 1990’s to be sold to Gordon Gaming Corporation in 1995.  Gordon Gaming decided that the Sahara could not survive on the budget oriented clientele for very much longer, so the company reasoned that it should invest tens of millions of dollars in another renovation, to include a new buffet and updated casino floor, in an effort to attract moderate level gamblers.  Like Lowden, Bennett knew that high-rollers had long since become a hopeless cause…there was just no way to compete for them without giving the house away.  

Plans for renovations would include another new hotel tower, which would have drastically increased the property’s room count.  However, after the first stage of renovations was completed, it was decided that expanding room count would not be prudent as the casino property had yet to prove that it cloud even fill the rooms that it already had.  With that, the property decided to focus further investments on bringing in new eateries and restaurants in the hopes that those would be a novelty that would draw some people in.  

It would eventually become clear that, despite all efforts to cater to middle-tier gamblers, the Sahara would have to accept its fate of trying to draw in as many low-rollers as it could to at least meet or slightly exceed its operating costs, simply for as long as it could.  

In 2007, Stockbridge Realty Group and Sam Nazarian’s SBE Entertainment Group would come together to purchase the Sahara from the Bennett family.  Originally, they had planned to do major renovations and focus on attracting an Asian clientele, but ultimately, nothing but minor changes would be made to the property until it finally closed in 2011.  A true destination for low-rollers, Sahara was offering the only $1 Blackjack (a 3:2 game with no ante, at that) on the Las Vegas Strip…in the late 2000’s!

Plans to rehabilitate and rebuild the property would commence almost immediately in the form of SLS—which stood for Style, Luxury, Service and the former Sahara would now try to do the exact opposite of what it had been doing before.  Having closed as a Las Vegas icon that struggled along for decades (against all odds) and had become a low-rollers paradise, the SLS sought to totally skip over the middle-tier and cater to a high income crowd.  

The focus for the new SLS, which would open in 2014, was mainly on bars and nightclubs with many Vegas Visitors critiquing that the casino floor seemed to mainly be an afterthought.  Of course, as we see with Cosmopolitan, that sometimes works, but they just couldn’t seem to shake the ghost of the Sahara off of their backs and the property performed poorly.  

Surprisingly, one of the biggest problems that the property would have is that its competition was not close enough.  One nice thing about the Las Vegas Strip is that all of the casinos get to compete for first time Las Vegas visitors who usually like to pop in and out of places before deciding which one they like the best, but the Sahara was a half mile from…well, anything.  Even the little shops and eateries that dot the Strip were nowhere near it, and when it comes to trying to get tourist traffic in a densely populated area, being a half mile from the action is just as good as being in an entirely different city…just ask Downtown Grand.  

The most recent sale was in 2017 to current owner Meruelo Group, who continues to own the property to this day.  The first thing that he recognized is that most guests thought that the SLS name was surprisingly laughingly stupid, so what that he immediately decided that it was high time to go back to the Sahara branding.  Renovations were done in the ensuing years and, by 2019, the Sahara Las Vegas would finally be reborn.  Let’s see what it looks like today!

The first thing that we notice is that the Sahara consists of three hotel towers and is inclined to try to appeal to value gamblers as well as people of middle income.  When compared with other prices on the Strip, we notice that weekday rooms are as low as $40 for the most basic of the rooms if it’s slow and rarely go over $100.  As always, weekend rates are going to depend largely upon what’s going on in town, but guests will find that they are about the same as you might expect to find at the lower end properties owned by MGM Resorts or Caesars Entertainment.  

The standard rooms are very simple, but clean.  The aesthetics are basic and it probably compares to your typical business-class limited service hotel.  Unfortunately, there is a Resort Fee of $39.95 per night, but that at least includes two complimentary bottles of water…which anyone can get free on the casino floor anyway, but at least they have the courtesy to pretend you are getting something.  In addition to the water, guests will enjoy access to the state-of-the-art fitness room, wireless internet, the Azilo outdoor pool and hot tub as well as the rooftop pools.  There’s also a full service spa on the property for an extra charge.  The property is also home to two retail outlets.  

In of entertainment, Sahara Las Vegas is home to the Magic Mike show, which is something that many people should be familiar with because of the movies.  That’s actually kind of surprising, to me, given the inauspicious recent history of the property, but it’s pretty clear that this underdog is going to do its best to cut out a share of the Vegas tourism market.  Other entertainment includes the Eddie Griffin Experience (I forgot about him—I might go see that!) and they are excited to present something called The Great Gatsby Party early in 2022.  

It makes total sense.  The biggest uphill climb that they have right now is to get people in the doors and, I’m sure they hope, loyal to the property.  

With that, let’s discuss what’s going on at the 50,000+ square foot plus casino floor.  Of course, we understand that this is small for Las Vegas standards, but it’s probably right-sized given the sort of traffic that will be going to the property right now and they will always have a chance to expand later.  

The property is home to more than 600 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines ranging in denomination from pennies to $25 per credit.  With that, we can already tell that they don’t expect to get any serious high-rollers on the property, so it becomes clear that their focus is back on being budget-oriented, within reason.  They also offer a partial listing of game titles on their website.  

The property is home to a few dozen gaming tables that spread Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Midi-Baccarat, No Commission Baccarat, Blackjack Switch, Fortune Pai Gow Poker, Face Up Pai Gow Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Three Card Poker, Free Bet Blackjack, Mini-Baccarat and a new game called Three Card Blitz.  Of course, not every single one of these games is going to operate around the clock, particularly not the very unique ones, so we would recommend calling in advance for the typical operating days and hours for any that aren’t staples.

Judging from this, Sahara is attempting to draw some people in by highlighting a wide variety of Table Games.  Granted, many of the major Las Vegas Strip Resorts probably have most of the same games, but their websites barely ever mention them.  In my opinion, Sahara can’t go wrong by naming everything that could possibly draw someone to check out the property and Table Games are no exception.  

If you want to know what I think would REALLY draw some people in, then I think getting rid of Resort Fees entirely would be an excellent start.  It would certainly make them unique and they could the hell out of that.  

The Sahara Poker Room is an intimate and nicely appointed affair consisting of seven poker tables and spreading mainly Texas Hold ‘Em No Limit.  Apparently, they have one of the more generous comp policies for poker rooms and the property says that they are open from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m; every day, but don’t be surprised if they close a little earlier in the wee hours of the morning if nobody is in there.  

Finally, the William Hill Sportsbook is open from 8:00 a.m. to the late evening hours but is not a huge point of the property’s emphasis.  To be perfectly honest, it looks kind of like a classroom.  

With that, we will discuss the property’s eateries and probably have to update this list next year as the Sahara promises that there are more to come.  Unfortunately, Covid-19 really couldn’t have come at a worse time for this property that is doing its best to make a comeback and cut itself a slice of the market.  

Speaking of cutting slices of things, Bazaar Meat by Jose Andres looks like a promising affair that is the tone of the property’s somewhat upscale offerings and focuses on the freshest and best of fine cuts of meat.  For those of you who think you have heard the name Jose Andres before, you have, he actually owns a number of successful restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip, so that should be seen as a positive sign.  It is open for dinner service Wednesdays-Sundays.  

Uno Mas Street Tacos and Spirits is open starting at 11:00 a.m., seven days per week, and stays open until the late evening hours.  In a casual dining atmosphere, guests are sure to enjoy the colorful and delicious Tex-Mex style food, with a modern and bold touch that is on offer at this eatery.  You really can’t go wrong with delicious street tacos and fascinating drink concoctions, so no matter what you have, you’ll always want one more!

Prendi is open from 4-4 daily and is an Italian style spot for Grab and Go salads, sandwiches, wraps and pastries.  Additionally, they have excellent gelato and coffee drinks.  You might be wondering why it is called, “Prendi,” and the reason why is because that is the Italian word meaning, “To grab!”  

Zeffer’s Cafe is trying some pretty new and bold, not to mention delicious, things.  Dungeness Crab Omelette, anyone?  Sign me up!  This eatery is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days per week and has already become a favorite among guests of the property.  The best part is that it won’t break the bank.  They have both American and Chinese food.  

Those of you who have been to Atlantic City might already be familiar with Chickie and Pete’s, and now it has made its way to the Sahara Las Vegas.  This sports bar is known for a huge assortment of brews as well as fun and unique dishes.  We would highly recommend checking them out, no matter what casino paradise you find yourself in!

Ballo Italian Soul offers a bold and fresh take on Italian dishes in a cozy and comfortable environment that should get those with a reservation, or without if there’s room, really excited about stopping in.  Some of the dishes come with a little bit of flair and creativity, but many of them are just timeless and traditional, so there will be something for everyone.

When it opens, The Noodle Den will do what it says on the box and promises to also serve up some positively scrumptious Peking duck.  That’s one of my favorites, so I’m going to be sure to try to check this one out when it opens.  

Overall, we would recommend stopping in and taking a look at the new look Sahara Las Vegas, especially if you’re a Table Games player, as they seem to want to cater to you.  If you don’t really gamble and are looking for a nice, but relatively affordable, place to stay for your trip, then Sahara has you covered there as well with prices on its newly appointed rooms being on the lower end of what you’re going to find on the Las Vegas Strip.  They’re also clearly doing their best when it comes to food and dining selection, so we would encourage everyone to stop in, take a look around and at least try one of the eateries or see one of the shows.

The ground that the property sits on remains a historic and iconic part of Las Vegas, so just think of all of millions of guests and tremendous musicians that walked those same grounds before you!  It’s pretty awe-inspiring if you take a moment to breathe it all in…We think it will be interesting to see what the Sahara becomes once it has some legs under it.  

Silver Sevens Hotel and Casino

The first thing that we want to make clear is that Silver Sevens is not actually on the Las Vegas Strip, but it’s within about a mile of the Strip, on Paradise Boulevard, so we’re going to go ahead and throw it in this section since it doesn’t fit neatly in any of the others.  

Silver Sevens caters mostly to locals, though I’m sure they wouldn’t refuse out of town business if you wanted to stop in.  The property is home to a very modest hotel that consists of 370 guest rooms and suites and an equally modest casino floor of 35,000 square feet.  

Las Vegas Strip visitors who want to walk around and check the rest of the area out will sometimes find themselves here and sometimes out-of-towners will stay if they are coming into town on a pretty tight budget or are in the area for work.  It is owned by Affinity Gambling.

The property would originally open as Continental Hotel and Casino in the early 1980’s, which is quite a name considering the small size of the place.  It had pretty much always been meant to cater to locals and those who might be down to their last few bets if they stayed on The Strip.  Mostly hoping to catch some Strip overflow on the weekends of major events, this property did not think that they were actually competing with the major Strip resorts.  

The Herbst family saw an opportunity for this property after its bankruptcy in the late 1990’s and would go on to purchase it in 2000.  Their thinking was that it was too small for some of the major local casino companies to hassle with without doing an expansion, but the already existing property was too large for any of the bar companies and convenience store slot operators to have any interest.  With that in mind, they saw their opportunity to expand into Las Vegas proper without breaking the bank.  They probably also felt like they could be something of a hangout for Las Vegas Strip Casino employees getting off of work whilst still catching occupancy overflow on the weekends of major events.  

The property would undergo a renovation in the early 2010’s and would change names to reflect the more updated environment.  While the property is owned by Affinity Gaming, that’s not an actual change in ownership as the company who owns the property simply decided to change its own name.  With that, let’s see what’s going on at the former Terrible’s Casino:

The rooms themselves are slightly dated, given that the renovation was ten years ago, but the furnishings are still in pretty good shape and the aesthetics of the rooms are fairly cozy.  It basically doesn’t look that much unlike a normal bedroom, so that’s nice.  Room rates tend to not stray too far from $50 on most weekdays and come in around $100 on weekends, unless it’s extremely busy due to an event and they know that they are going to sell out…then who knows what will happen?  

Unfortunately, this small casino property must consider itself a resort because there seems to be a Resort Fee of $32/night, which is just patently ridiculous when you consider the fact that some of the big name Las Vegas Strip properties (that actually are resorts, at least) charge the same thing.  They should drop, “Resort Fee,” and everyone should just start calling it a, “Vegas Fee.”  It’s probably only a matter of time before the RV Parks start charging one, assuming that they’re not already.  Oh well.  At least there’s a pool and internet access.  

In of gambling offerings, the property is home to some 400 combined video poker, video slot and video keno machines.  As one would probably expect given the size of the property, most of these are relatively low denomination games compared to what you may find elsewhere.  

Silver Sevens proclaims that they have all of your favorite Table Games, which is true if your favorite Table Games are Blackjack and Craps, because that’s what Silver Sevens has.  Still, it’s a nice and comfortable environment for anyone looking to play there.  Sometimes the Strip is just a little bit too busy, so you might consider stopping in for some Blackjack at relatively low stakes.  

Believe it or not, this property is home to a William Hill Race and Sportsbook location that is actually extremely nice!  This is probably a great place to play for those of you who are highly into Blackjack and sports betting and don’t really care for other gambling offerings.  

If you count the convenience store, then the property is home to three eateries, but we will discuss the other two.  The Sterling Spoon Cafe is open for breakfast and lunch during the early part of the week and has some hours for an early dinner on weekends.  This eatery is American style food and is basically fashioned as you might expect an early 20th century restaurant to look like, so that’s pretty cool.  The prices are reasonable (all end in “77”) and the food should be to your liking.  

The Corona Cantina Bar is your place for some Video Poker action and brews.  There are also a few light food items available.  

Overall, if the hustle and bustle of the Vegas Strip has gotten a bit overwhelming, then we could recommend that you pop in here and see what it’s all about, especially if you’re driving around.  Who knows?  You might even decide you like the quiet of the place and stay next time you’re in town instead of driving to The Strip, though that’s probably unlikely.  If you are a Blackjack and Sports enthusiast, however, when you’re not sightseeing or going out to eat, you might like hanging out at this little casino for the better part of your trip.

Slots-A-Fun Casino

Slots-A-Fun is only technically its own casino, really it’s a part of Circus Circus, but like O’Shea’s, we are listing it separately because it kind of has its own little vibe going on.  

Slots-A-Fun is basically a little casino within a casino that features bargains on cheap beers and snacks.  Mostly consisting of penny machines it calls itself an, “Arcade for Adults,” and features $1 beers and hot dogs.  It’s also got some pool tables.  I suppose there were once a few Table Games in there, but have recently been told that is no longer the case.  

South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa

Owned by Michael Gaughan, son of the legendary Las Vegas casino mogul Jackie Gaughan, South Point Hotel Casino and Spa is way south on Las Vegas Boulevard, so some might say that it’s not even on the Strip at all.  It’s certainly not on the main Strip, but since M Resort opened, there’s one casino that is farther away from the main Strip now.  

Opened in December of 2005, this property was built mostly to cater to locals and is located in Enterprise, Nevada.  Still, it actually rivals proper Las Vegas Strip casinos in size, at least a few of them, coming in at 80,000 square feet of gaming space and boasting more than 2,100 hotel rooms.  

There was one change of ownership in this property’s history.  Originally owned by Coast Casinos, an agreement was made by which Michael Gaughan would sell all of the stock he owned in Boyd Gaming in exchange for full ownership of then South Coast Casino.  South Coast was amenable to that offer, and pretty quickly, South Coast belonged to Gaughan.  He would rename it South Point and change the signage shortly thereafter.  

The most unique feature is probably the huge equestrian arena, 4,400 seats to be exact, so that must have been a ion for whoever designed the property.  It certainly seems totally random to this writer, but maybe equestrian is more popular in the country than I think.  The showroom is a pretty small affair consisting of only 400 seats, the sportsbook, which can seat 300, has 75% of the capacity.  The property is home to a 16 screen movie theater as well as a set of bowling alleys that consists of 64 lanes and sometimes hosts tournaments.  

While it may seem like it’s out there, South Point might not be a bad place to stay for a Vegas visitor if they have wheels.  It’s pretty big and has a wide variety of offerings, so for those of you who have been to Vegas several times already and don’t have much sightseeing to do, this property has just about everything that you could ever need.  Room rates tend to be between $50-$100 on most weekdays and between $100-$200 on the majority of weekends whi9ch almost certainly just depends on what’s going on in town overall.  With so much to do, many visitors enjoy staying at South Point if they’re mainly coming to town for a specific event, and the property tends to be fairly generous with comps, from what I have heard.  

The best Resort Fee is none at all, but South Point is at least a bona fide Resort property and the Resort Fee is, “Only,” $21 per night.  It’s still a shame that South Point would enact such a thing, and Jackie Gaughan would probably roll over in his grave at the thought, but it could always be worse.  

Amenities for guests of the hotel include a very sizable and modern fitness room with state-of-the-art weight and cardio equipment, a tremendous outdoor pool that is adorned by palm trees…though it could stand to be open longer in the evening.  If you’re traveling with kids, South Point has you in mind and is home to the Sugarloaf Entertainment Arcade, which will give the youngsters something to do while you’re on the property.  For those of you who still have smoke responsibilities to take care of while you’re away, the property is also home to a business center.  There’s also public transportation to the city seven days per week every half hour, so you’re not stranded if you stay at South Point, even if you don’t want to rent a car.  

South Point is home to the Open Bowling Championships for 2021, and presumably beyond.  As we mentioned before, the casino features one of the largest bowling centers that you are going to find in the state.  We imagine that many overnight guest groups consist of bowling leagues who want to make the casino home over a weekend.  Beyond that, South Point has extensive meeting and banquet facilities which also serve to fill the hotel.  The property is almost like a mini Las Vegas unto itself.  

The bowling center consists of 64 lanes and is yet another reason that visitors to the property who are coming with family are sure to enjoy it.  The Brunswick Lanes featured in this casino are top notch and well-maintained.  When there are no major tournaments going on, open bowling is available from 7:00a.m.-2:00a.m. every day of the week, so no matter what time it is, it’s a great time to bowl!  Believe it or not, the price schedule for open bowling and shoe rental is extremely reasonable…it’s probably very similar to what your local bowling alley charges, so that’s a tremendous value!

The movie theater remains a popular establishment on the property and represents another reason that it is a great place to stay for those traveling with families.   Movie tickets are reasonably priced, the snack bar is similarly reasonable and both new releases and classic movies are available for your entertainment year round.  Where else can you experience fine dining, gambling, see a new release and go bowling all within one day?

If that’s still not enough entertainment for you, then one of the property’s lounges, known as the Grandview Lounge regularly features live musical acts on weekends.  The Showroom also features live musical and comedy acts most weekends, so you can see what’s coming up and get your tickets here.  

You have to be satisfied by now, but if you still need more…don’t worry, South Point is still not done and neither are we.  Costa Del Sur is the property’s full service spa and salon that has the full range of services and quality care that you would expect even from a major property directly located on the Las Vegas Strip.  The spa features regular specials around the calendar, so make sure to check out their website if being pampered in a luxurious environment is your cup of tea.  

The Arena and Exhibit Hall features a wide variety of unique events as well as major competitions, so you should definitely check out their website for more information as to what’s coming up on that end of things.  

Oh, right, there’s also a casino there!  We almost forgot about that given how amazing the wide variety of activities, even without the casino, would be for Las Vegas or anywhere…and we haven’t even touched on the restaurants yet, but first, the gaming:

The South Point Las Vegas Bingo Room is one of the largest in the state and does well enough on participation that they are able to offer seven daily sessions, even now during the Covid-19 pandemic.  While Bingo might be dying elsewhere around Vegas, it still has a very loyal following, so go to South Point and get your cards and daubers ready!

The South Point Sports Book is a sprawling affair that offers competitive odds and has seating for more than 100 bets.  No matter where you happen to be seated, you will be able to enjoy a clear view of the boards as well as several of the plasma TV’s that broadcast a huge number of the sporting events that are going on at any given time.  Guests of the property are sure to be satisfied because it would be a great book on its own, but when you take that in conjunction with everything else that the property has to offer, you can’t go wrong.  

South Point Racebook is probably the best of its kind in the entire state of Nevada.  Capable of seating more than 120 guests, this is one of the few locations in the state that is specifically built for those who want to pick the ponies and watch the simulcasts on closed circuit.  In addition to the more than fifty TV’s devoted to broadcasting only the racing action, the horse racing book also has its own set of dedicated cocktail service, which guarantees that you will get service that is both fast and friendly.  

The South Point Poker Room is also one of the largest that is still operating in the state and one of the few that is open 24/7 and always has a game going on.  Get ready to face the competition in Limit and No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, MIxed Games, and Omaha and Stud Games provided that there is enough demand for the games at any given time.  The property features regular promotions, jackpots and tournaments and, as with the horse betting and simulcast, gives this area more attention than the vast majority of, if not all, other Las Vegas area casinos.  

For those of you who may be worried that there must not be room for other forms of gambling, you have no reason to be alarmed.  South Point features more than 2,200 combined slot, video poker and video keno games, so you’re in luck!  The casino caters very much to penny slot players, but high limit denominations are also available.  

The Table Games pit is home to more than sixty tables and spreads Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Pai Gow Poker, No Commission Baccarat, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Three Card Poker and Mississippi Stud.  Many of the carnival games might not necessarily operate around the clock, so you might want to call ahead and inquire if you’re looking to play a specific novelty game and won’t settle for Blackjack.  

With that, you can be sure that the property is going to have a wide array of dining options for your enjoyment.  After all, if there’s one thing we have gathered, it’s that they have absolutely everything else here, so let’s see what’s going on with their dining scene.  

Michael’s Gourmet Room is an upscale and classy, yet comfortable, fine dining affair that has received rave reviews around the city year after year.  Many in the know in Las Vegas make it a point to head all the way down to South Point just to enjoy top notch culinary excellence at this cozy and intimate 50-seat restaurant.  Reservations are going to be needed if you want to get in here, but even if you have to wait a day or two, you’ll be glad you came in.  

Silverado Steakhouse is an example of how an elegant, yet unpretentious, upscale steakhouse can be done with an emphasis on comfort and quality food over flash.  Substance over style is what this place is all about and you’ll enjoy some of the highest quality steak and sea options that Las Vegas has to offer.  

Don Vito’s Italian Restaurant is another upscale eatery at the South Point that substitutes empty words with high quality and delectable traditional Italian dishes.  Guests will leave this restaurant full, happy and probably wanting to come back and enjoy some of the fine Italia plate and wine pairings as quickly as they possibly can.  

Primarily Prime Rib Restaurant is another affair that emphasizes comfort and delicious food over empty show and pomp.  This establishment has this to say about itself on the website, “Away from the hustle and bustle of the casino on the mezzanine is Primarily Prime Rib. Catering to hearty appetites, the menu features five flavorful prime rib cuts, dry aged to ensure tenderness, seasoned and slowly roasted. Other dishes aim to please all palates, including foods like Chicken Française and sophisticated creations such as Chipotle Glazed Salmon. Sip on a signature cocktail, sit back and relax as your favorite prime rib cut is prepared to your liking by our culinary staff.”  The meats and side pairings are near incomparable here, just make sure that you bring every bit of your appetite with you, because you’re going to need it if you want to finish your plate.  

Baja Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant is another one of the restaurant selections available in the Mezzanine floor.  This location is also comfortable and elegant without being pretentious and puts an emphasis on the tasty and colorful Mexican dishes that you should expect!  This place is simply excellent and rivals any other Mexican restaurant to be found in the city.  

Fresh and delightful seafood is the name of the game at Big Sur Oyster Bar.  Offering up only the freshest food from under the sea, if you’re going to go here, we would recommend some of the shellfish.  Delightfully simply prepared, the fare is allowed to pop on its own without the need for any gimmicks.  

Zenshin Asian Restaurant brings delightful contemporary Asian cuisine that even the most discerning of palettes are sure to appreciate.  If you’re going to go here, then you should come with a group and be ready to share that way you can all try a little of everything on the menu—it’s all fantastic.  

Coronado Cafe is the place to go to fill up on casual American food 24 hours per day.  One of the dishes they take the most pride in is the Eggs Benedict, which is available no matter what time the clock reads.  For traditional American favorites, or breakfast anytime of day, this is the stop for you. 

Del Mar Deli is a place for you to get high quality corned beef, roast beef and other sandwiches all without breaking the bank.  If that’s not fast enough for you and what you really want is a simple burger, then you’ll be glad to know that the property is also home to a Steak and Shake location.  

The Garden Buffet offers a variety of food selections from around the world, as well as fresh seafood and is one of the few Las Vegas Buffets that is still open for dinner every day.  If you want to kick back and enjoy an old school Vegas style all you can eat, then this is it!

Other places for quick eats include a Starbucks, Kate’s Korner Smoothies and Ice Cream, the Pool Shack Deli, the Coffee and Snack Bar at the Bowling Alley and also a Vienna Beef hot dog cart.  

If you don’t mind having to take a short trip to get to The Strip or Downtown and you want to know if we recommend South Point, then our answer is, “Yes, absolutely!”  This property, as far as we can tell, has everything that anyone can ever want and somehow manages to deliver it all in a top notch and customer-friendly way.  In addition to all of the offerings not only for kids, but also for adults who might want to take a break from the casino floor, they also somehow manage to deliver a high quality gambling experience comparable to absolutely anything else you will find.  The property is extremely modern and seems to capture everything great about Vegas now, and everything that was great about old school Las Vegas, all in one place.  

Simply put, you could spend an entire vacation here without leaving and not regret it.  More importantly than that, everything is very reasonably priced throughout the property, except the areas where you would expect to spend, such as the fine dining.  If South Point isn’t good enough for you, then maybe you just don’t like casinos as much as you think.  

The Cromwell Las Vegas

The Cromwell Las Vegas has an unusual name in that it sounds to me like it would just be some sort of upscale hotel for business travelers Downtown in some major city, but nope, it’s a casino resort property on the Las Vegas Strip.  As it sits now, it’s home to just under 200 guest rooms and just over 40,000 square feet of total gambling space.  

The property would originally open in March of 1979 as Barbary Coast Casino and was owned, at that time, by Michael Gaughan, who would later form Coast Casinos.  The original property was made with something of a Victorian theme.  Boyd Gaming would come to own the property in 2004 when it would come to acquire Coast Casinos.  In exchange, Michael Gaughan received stock in Boyd Gaming that he would later trade to them in exchange for outright and complete ownership of the then-new South Point Casino, which was called South Coast at the time that it opened.  

Boyd Gaming would lose interest in the property and would engage in a trade of its own, by which ownership of the casino would transfer to Caesars Entertainment (then called Harrah’s Entertainment) in 2007 and in exchange for some Las Vegas Strip real estate elsewhere.  

Caesars Entertainment would continue to operate the property as Barbary Coast Casino until sometime in the early 2010’s, at which point it would decide that it was going to remodel and rebrand the property and closed it for a few years in the interim.  During this time, from 2007 until about 2012, the property operated as Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon, which was named after Bill Harrah.  

After a little over a year of renovations, Caesars would open its new boutique hotel with the addition of a rooftop nightclub under the name, The Cromwell, under which it still operates to this day.  The property would close for Covid-19 and actually remained closed for so long that people began to doubt whether or not Caesars Entertainment was ever going to reopen it, but they would so so (the last casino hotel on the Strip to reopen) in October of 2020.  

With that, let’s dive into what this boutique hotel and casino has to offer guests today!

The 188 rooms at this adults-only hotel are luxuriously appointed, spacious and Parisian inspired.  Guests who can handle the price, or those few who gamble enough at Caesars Entertainment properties to be comped, are sure to enjoy a high-end Vegas experience, but the property had better be careful, because if these rooms get any nicer the guests will probably see no reason to leave the property, or even venture down to the casino.  

While rooms run several hundred dollars on most weekends, some of you on a budget who want to stay in style might find yourself in luck on weekdays, when depending on how busy it is in town, guest rooms can be had for just over $100 and sometimes even a little under!  That’s before taking into the $45/night resort fee, of course.  

Drai’s Pool is a small and intimate rooftop affair with excellent views and cabana rentals available if you want to shell out a little extra cash.  Once again, given that the property is home to fewer than 200 rooms, guests of this pool will enjoy not having to deal with all of the hustle and bustle of huge crowds that they would expect to find at the larger resorts.  It’s also going to be an excellent place for quiet relaxation, considering the nature of Cromwell being adults-only.  You won’t have to worry about accidentally finding yourself smacked with a pool noodle!

If you’re curious, there’s a property gift shop called Curios, and it has a few neat little knick knacks that you probably won’t expect.  It’s worth stopping in and looking around if you just want to take a peaceful little stroll around the property.  

Nightlife consists of Drai’s After Hours Nightclub, which is when the rooftop pool scene starts to get a little hot with live music, DJ’s and dancing.  

Drai’s After Hours is also a basement bar that enables you to have a nice glass of your liquor of choice and relax in comfort and luxury in the neatly appointed lounge that is reminiscent of a mansion study.  That might be more your speed if the party scene up top isn’t for you.  

Bound Cocktail Lounge is the classy and intimate lobby bar that’s between the two places listed above in all sense of the word.  

It should go without saying that Cromwell is not home to any Vegas style shows.  Where would they keep all of the attendees!?  

The Casino at Cromwell is clearly meant for the public and has more than you might expect, given the low room count of the property.  The Cromwell is home to 440 combined slots, video poker and video keno machines that offer guests plenty of room to move around or stretch out a little bit as they are playing.  

Additionally, there are 66 Table Games that spread Blackjack, Craps, Roulette and EZ Baccarat, among others.  

If you’re a high roller who would prefer to take some spins quietly, then you should enjoy The Abbey which is the property’s high-limit slots area for high denomination games that features only 31 games for your relative privacy.  Depending on the day, you might even end up being the only one in there!

The property is also home to a Caesars Sportsbook with a huge video wall spanning almost the length of the room.

There are two dining options at the Cromwell which include GIADA, Italian cuisine brought to you by famed celebrity Chef Giada De Laurentiis, who you might recognize from TV.  Believe it or not, it’s open for dinner scene days a week as well as for Sunday Brunch.  The food options there are simple and delicious, looks like what you’d see on TV!

The property’s other dining option is called Eatwell, which is a walk-up counter for quick bites during breakfast and lunch hours.  Just because the rooms are extravagant doesn;t mean that guests of the property aren’t going to occasionally want something quick and relatively cheap, after all!

On weekends, if you’ve got the wallet for it and think the stay is worth the price, then you should probably check out the Cromwell if you’re looking for something intimate and quiet.  When it comes to the right weekdays…dare we call this place a value for people on a modest budget?  I’m going to go ahead and call it a great value and suggest that those of you who normally go to Vegas on a tight budget take this opportunity to see how the other side stays at a relatively low price...I know I probably will if I can’t get it comped on my Total Rewards card.  It seems worth it.  

The Linq

Continuing our list with hotels that start with, ‘The,” we find ourselves at another Caesars Entertainment property, this time, the Linq.  

The building that this property sits on originally opened in 1959 and has seen quite a few name changes and renovations over the years.  Currently, it is home to 2,250 guest rooms and suites and has a relatively small casino floor that consists of only 33,890 square feet of gambling real estate.  Before we talk more about what guests can expect there today, let’s take a few minutes to discuss the history of this property, which is probably best known as Imperial Palace to people of my age group.  

In 1959 and going on for about two decades, the property would originally opened and be called the Flamingo Capri Hotel, not to be confused with Flamingo Casino.  However, one of the owner’s of this property was a high ranking employee of Flamingo Casino, so the name of this property was that combined with his last name, Capri.  This worked as something of a partnership as the Flamingo could send some of its overflow a little bit north to this property.

At that time, this operated as a hotel and was not home to a casino, but the property would change hands in the early 1970’s and a casino would be added at that time.  Despite this, it would continue to be named the Flamingo Capri.  

In the late 1970’s, a new hotel tower known as the Imperial Palace would be constructed, and eventually, the old hotel would  be demolished in stages for the emerging property to have its name changed to Imperial Palace, which happened in 1979.

The theme of the property was that of an Asian Palace, though that was done mainly just for aesthetics and no special effort was necessarily made to appeal to Asian gamblers exclusively.  The name Imperial Palace would stay with the property until 2012, so many who haven’t been to Vegas within the last several years may well still think the property is still called that.  Despite the name, the property mainly geared itself to low rollers and middle rollers who wanted to visit the Las Vegas Strip on a budget.  It’s a shame that there don’t seem to be many properties of the same scope doing that these days!  

Eventually, the owner of the then largest private hotel in the world, (once the seventh largest overall, but then tenth) until The Venetian was built, would away leaving the property to family.  Harrah’s Entertainment would become interested shortly thereafter, as they had expanded their gambling operations extensively, including the outright purchase of all of Caesars Entertainment in 2005 (they would later rename themselves Caesars Entertainment), so they purchased the Imperial Palace in order to have control of that area of The Strip.  For a brief time, they considered demolishing the property, but decide that they would rebrand and renovate it, instead.  

In 2012, in what was probably the stupidest naming idea that should have been snickered at in the board room and disregarded, the historic and iconic Imperial Palace would become….The Quad.  Most of the guys on the board of the company, if not all of them, almost certainly went to college, so they should know that naming what is supposed to be a major casino hotel after what most college students call groups of dorm rooms would be seen as ridiculous.  

Believe it or not, they DID realize that.  In fact, that’s precisely why they picked the name.  Even if the goal was to appeal to college students and younger folks, one thing that Caesars should have realized is that those individuals don’t tend to have a ton of money.  Besides, quads sometimes have shared bathrooms, and nobody wants that!

Fortunately, it only took Caesars two years to it that the branding was a terrible idea.  It was during this time that they had been building a promenade for the casino that was being called Linq Promenade anyway, and with that, they decided to name the entire property The Linq, which is at least, not as bad of a name.  

I have an idea for a good name, though.  How about calling it the Imperial Palace?

The Linq Promenade is at least interesting.  It is an outdoor venue with all sorts of entertainment and shopping.  The biggest highlight is The High Roller, which is a 550 foot high observation wheel, which is a fancy way of saying, “Slow ferris wheel,” but the views are spectacular, so maybe it deserves a fancy sounding name.  The other main draw is the two-story bowling alley, but the one at South Point is much bigger, anyway.  

Guests of the hotel will enjoy wireless internet access, access to an adults-only pool, a full service spa and salon available at an additional cost and a state-of-the-art fitness center with up to date weight and cardio equipment.  

The rooms at the property are somewhat basic, but the furnishings and linens are new and the rooms are kept really clean.  It’s really just that they are nothing astounding from an aesthetic standpoint.  With that said, they sure are affordable!  On weekdays, your room rate at The Linq may well be under $50 and almost never more than $100.  Weekend rates just vary based on demand season and what’s going on, so those are far less predictable and can range from $150-$350, or more.  

Unfortunately, there is a Resort Fee of $37 per night, which is actually sometimes more than the room itself actually costs, isn’t that crazy!  Normally added fees are less than the main thing that you are actually intending to pay for, but welcome to Vegas circa 2021 and probably beyond. 

Influence is kind of a party pool meant to cater to a younger crowd.  If you’re looking for rest and relaxation, then you might want to look elsewhere because the raucous beer pong games have a pretty good chance of interrupting that.  Still, it’s a great time if you’re young enough to still enjoy that sort of thing.  Maybe the casino should still be called The Quad.  

Mat Franco is the property’s highlight comedy act and Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club is also located on the property if you want to check out some other performers.  

If you want to see what shops are available at the Linq Promenade, then you can find a full listing of all of those here.

With that, we’re ready to turn our attention to the casino floor, so let’s see what this somewhat modestly-sized casino floor has to offer in addition to the party atmosphere found elsewhere on the property:

The casino is home to a combined 830 slots, video poker and video keno machines ranging in denomination from pennies to $25, but don’t worry, catering to a younger crowd they made sure to include plenty of low denomination games.  

The property is also home to 55 Table Games which include Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Big Six Wheel, Pai Gow Poker, Texas Hold Em Bonus, Let it Ride and Three Card Poker.  It’s quite likely that not all games operate 24/7, so we would recommend calling in advance if you are looking for a specific carnival game, otherwise you might be stuck with Blackjack when you go downstairs.

The property also presents a Caesars Sportsbook location that has over fifty TV’s, a self-serve beer tap wall (neat!) and they also have augmented reality games…maybe someone younger than me knows what that means.  

With that discussed, let’s see what kind of dining options are available and then wrap things up by taking a look at the nightlife.  

One thing that guests of the property are sure to enjoy is the fact that every single restaurant on the property is very casually priced, so nobody is going to experience any sticker shock here.  In addition to that, they still manage to offer a wide array of dining selections.  It’s not exactly high society in here, but they have some great places to get a bite to eat.

Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen and Bar is located here and features a wide array of American foods with an emphasis on burgers and sandwiches.  This place is run by celebrity chef Guy Fieri and is sure to offer an enjoyable experience at a reasonable price point.  In general, you can’t really go wrong with American diners as long as they are shelling out great food.  It’s open for lunch and dinner seven days per week.  

Breeze Daiquiri does what it says on the box and is open during lunch and dinner hours.  For those of you who want to cool off with an icy, fruity alcohol concoction, this is your place to go. 

Chayo Mexican and Tequila Bar is open for brunch, lunch and dinner seven days a week and serves up some staples of Mexican cuisine.  While you indulge in the specialty cocktails, you’ll also be sure to enjoy their wide range of eclectic dishes that are fresh, colorful and fun.

Everybody runs better with Dunkin’ or whatever their slogan is.  Either way, the Linq is home to a Dunkin’ location where you can choose from dozens of different kinds of donuts or one of a few dozen coffee drinks if you need something on the go, or are trying to recover from a night ago.  

Another one open for brunch, lunch and dinner, Favorite Bistro has this to say about itself,

The first U.S. location from restaurateurs Thierry Bourdoncle and Ariane de Senneville, Favorite Bistro features a lively ambiance and cuisine imported from their famed bistros in . Favorite Bistro is lively, fun and tasty – a recipe that translates to a good time in any language.” How authentic is the French cuisine?  At that price point, you really can’t be too picky, but everything sure looks pretty good!  

Open for lunch and dinner, Flour and Barley Brick Over Pizza does exactly what it says that it does.  While some of you may prefer New York Style Pizza, I have to be honest and say that I would take a thick crust brick over pizza over it any day.  It’s better for holding toppings, for one thing.  

Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate shop is open seven days per week during lunch and dinner hours.  The chocolate is what I am more familiar with as I have seen it in the grocery store and have had a piece or two at parties…I didn’t actually know that they make ice cream.  

This property is also home to a Gordon Ramsay’s Fish and Chips, which is brought to you by well-known celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay.  You’ve seen how he makes restaurants do it on TV, now come try it for yourself!  You can guarantee that it will be the best fish and chips that you have ever had this side of the pond!

Open for breakfast and lunch Sunday-Wednesday and extending to dinner hours on the tail end of the week, The Linq is another place that a Hash House A-Go-Go calls home in Las Vegas.  This is one place that both visitors and Vegas locals swear by, and while I’ve eaten there a few times and really don’t see the appeal, this eatery is probably one that you shouldn’t listen to my opinion on…because everyone else loves it!

Haute Doggery is a place for specialty hot dogs that can be found in the Linq Promenade.  They pride themselves on figuring out the whole country’s favorite things to pile on a dog and bringing them all to you in one place and on one cart.  It’s open during lunch and dinner hours.  

The Strip’s first In and Out Burger is located at The Linq Center Strip and is open during the late morning until late night hours.  California’s will definitely be thrilled and I will make it a point to try it out as soon as possible to see what everyone is raving about.  My favorite fast food burger is Dave’s Double from Wendy’s, so let’s see if In and Out can beat it.

Jaburritos is a unique place that is open for lunch and dinner and serves Sushi Burritos and Sushi Bowls.  I can’t imagine a sushi burrito, but I think that my curiosity is going to get the better of me and I will have to go try one.  

Maxie’s serves what they call elevated diner food for breakfast and lunch seven days per week.  If you partied too hard the night before and you want to load up with something hearty at a cheap price…and can talk your crew out of Hash House A-Go-Go, then this might be the place for you.  

Nook Express is your place for coffees, teas and pastries.  Hours seem to change for this stop frequently, but you can usually count on them to at least be open on weekends.  

If Nook Express is closed, then check out Sweet Sin by Claude Escamilla, which is also a great place for your caffeine concoctions, but also has terrific macaroons!

The Linq Sandwich Co is a sandwich shop that is open for lunch and dinner every day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  It’s more than a slightly better version of Subway, this place is actually great and will customize your sandwich anyway you want. You’ll be able to fill up cheaply and quickly if you need to.  

The Tilted Kilt Pub and Eatery is basically an Irish-themed Hooters.  If that’s what you’re into, then go for it, but I’d rather get good food.  It’s not so hard to see some skin in Vegas that you have to go to a restaurant with a gimmick of having scantily clad waitresses…all you really need to do is go outside.  

Open during most hours of the day, Virgil’s Real Barbeque features some of the finest smoked meats and most decadent sides.  The key there is a nice spicy dry rub and the macaroni and cheese pairs well with anything.  If you’re going to go here, you might not spend a lot, but you had better be ready to eat a lot.  

Open for lunch and dinner seven days per week, Yard House features American food with a menu of more than 150 items!  There’s a little something for everyone from lighter and healthy fare all the way to more substantial portions if you need to get something heavy on your stomach.  

The nice thing about The LINQ is that you don’t have to go far to get great food.  It’s actually the LINQ promenade that enables such as thing as it draws in a ton of pedestrian traffic, so the restaurants are able to attract more than just the hotel guests or people who are gambling on the property.  

We would recommend The LINQ if you are in the younger crowd and the sort of party atmosphere that pervades throughout seems like something that would appeal to you.  You might find the place a bit noisy, the crowd a bit rowdy and the place a bit busy if you’re in your mid-30’s, or older.  Maybe not, maybe you won’t mind.  Either way, there’s really no way to argue with the incredible selection of great food options, so you absolutely should check out the Linq Promenade even if you aren’t staying.  Of course, the High Roller is a hot attraction, so there’s a pretty good chance you were already going there.

The Mirage

The Mirage Resort and Casino is a Polynesian themed Las Vegas Strip Resort Casino that first opened back in 1989.  This would have been right around the time that all new casinos to come to the Strip had some sort of theme, so you could say the Mirage sort of ushered in an era.  

As it sits now, the property houses 100,000 square feet of gambling real estate and is home to just over 3,000 rooms.  

The Mirage would replace a smaller property known as Castaways, which there really isn’t much to talk about there.  Originally owned and designed by Steve Wynn, the casino that would become the Mirage had an artificial volcano as its centerpiece, which still remains there to this day.  The Mirage would also finance its own construction through the sale of junk bonds, making it the first Las Vegas property to ever do so, though they might have gotten the idea from what Donald Trump was doing in Atlantic City at the time.  

The time had come for Las Vegas to try something new in order to compete with New Jersey, who had authorized gambling for Atlantic City and had really started opening some truly impressive properties.   One natural advantage that Atlantic City had over Las Vegas is that the casinos are literally right next to the ocean, whereas Vegas is surrounded by desert for miles.  That means that many visitors would have naturally gone to Atlantic City, or other Atlantic beachfront tourist destinations anyway, but this gave an additional incentive for those who enjoyed both gambling and beaches.  

Las Vegas had to act fast if it was going to avoid having its share of the gambling tourist market siphoned, and it did.  What Vegas would do is open all of these themed casinos, which seems silly, but it gets people talking and that’s what counts.  Another aspect of this strategy is that many Las Vegas casinos would be erected such as to have something of interest to the whole family, including non-gamblers, such as children.  

With that, a new era of casinos such as Circus Circus and Excalibur, wave pools, amusement park style rides and arcades would create a new sort of Las Vegas that would hope to cater to a market that no gambling town had really been targeting prior–family travelers.  As we can see all these years later, this strategy paid off and Las Vegas remains the #1 single city tourist destination in the United States for those looking to have a good time.  

At the time that it first opened, Mirage was able to gain some instant publicity by being the largest hotel in the world, which is almost like a gimmick unto itself.  What would happen is that ensuing hotels would continue to beat one another by a handful of rooms in total room count, that way they could make this claim.  In the age before the Internet, being mentioned in newspapers, magazines and on the news as having opened the largest hotel in the world was a great attention grab!

Another thing that the Mirage did was that they began hosting the Siegfried and Roy show, which itself would rise to national promise and be featured in a few TV specials.  Once again, this was actually a much more effective way of marketing to the masses than sending direct mail or being featured in catalogs (though they also did the latter) would be able to accomplish.  

The property would change hands in 2000 when MGM Grand would acquire MIrage Resorts. MGM Grand would later rebrand itself MGM Resorts International, given its expansion into other areas, but that did not result in an actual change in ownership.  The property would later be sold to MGM Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust, with MGM to continue to operate the casino based on a lease with the new holders of the physical property.  That’s barely a change in ownership as the two companies are only legally distinct and might as well be the same thing.  

With that, we are ready to see what The Mirage has to offer to guests of the property today.  

The Mirage is priced as a property kind of between the middle and top tiers.  In addition to a Resort Fee of $39/night, weekday rates are sometimes under $100 and sometimes over $100 for their standard rooms, depending on the demand season and whether or not there are any special events going on in town.  Weekend rates can be all over the place based on demand and special events, so expect those to run anywhere from $150-$500 per night, which is obviously one hell of a wide range, but demand is as demand does.  

In addition to the artificial volcano, resort amenities include wireless internet access for guests, the Secret Garden and dolphin habitat, which is an excellent attraction if you are bringing any kids along, the MIrage Pool with cabana and daybed rentals available for an extra price, a full service spa with a wide array of services at an extra cost, a full service beauty salon, a range of shopping outlets that you can look over here, and the bare pool lounge in which women can sunbathe topless, “European style,” if they wish.  

Currently, the main headlining show is The Beatles Love, which is a Cirque du Soleil show that is accompanied by music from the iconic band.  Additionally, Shin Lim, who was the only two-time winner of America’s Got Talent, brings his unique magic show, Limitless, to the property.  Aces of Comedy is a regular comedy act on the property, and the main showroom also brings in a wide variety of nationally-recognized talent with the schedule of events available on the property’s website.  

With that, let’s turn our attention to the 100,000 square foot casino floor and see what there is to gamble on!

The Mirage features thousands of the newest video poker, slot and video keno selections along with a great many of the classics.  While there are plenty of penny slots available for those who don’t wish to bet too much per spin, there are also a wide assortment of slots for high rollers with the largest denomination being $1,000 PER CREDIT!  If you need to bet huge to get your juices flowing, then The Mirage is the place to do it.

As we have mentioned before, especially for low-roller slots, the Las Vegas Strip is known to offer the worst average returns in Nevada, so for those of you gambling on a budget, you might do well to go elsewhere.  For those of you, however, who are not inclined to sweat the percentages and only care that you’re gambling at a stylish resort, we wish you luck!

There is a sizeable tables games pit with many dozen tables that spread Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Three Card Poker, Casino War, Mississippi Stud, Let it Ride, Crazy 4 Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em.  Even at such a huge resort, not all of the more exotic carnival games are necessarily going to operate 24/7, so if you have a specific one in mind, then you might want to call ahead for the usual days and hours of operation.  

The BetMGM Sportsbook has all of the sports and racing action you could ever want across its several high projection screens.  No matter what sort of events you are into, odds are that you will be able to watch them on the premises in a fun and comfortable environment.  

With that, we will turn our attention to what they have to eat, which after all, is the absolute best thing about the Las Vegas Strip.  Most people will never have the chance to eat everywhere the Strip has to offer, so read below to see if you think that The Mirage has any standouts that you absolutely have to check out!

Open for breakfast and lunch seven days per week, The Pantry is a casual American diner cafe type of affair that is very modestly priced and offers breakfast during all hours that they are open. The establishment is simply appointed, but comfortable and is a great place to go if you are in the mood for an omelette!  Eggs might not cure your hangover from the night before, but they are a heck of a good treatment!

Tom Colicchio’s Heritage Steak is the property’s most upscale steakhouse, but is well worth the price as the dishes are cooked over an open wood fire.  The eatery has this to say, “Tom Colicchio’s Heritage Steak adds a modern twist to traditional culinary staples. Tantalize the senses with the aromatic open kitchen, adding unmatched appeal to both sight and smell. The aroma of an open wood-burning grill brings the excitement of the kitchen to your table. See and feel the flame while chefs hand craft specialties right before your eyes.” The best sort of food is the kind that you can see being prepared, so you can’t go wrong with an open kitchen.  Besides, you can let your olfactory sense kickstart your appetite and get your taste buds ready for the deliciousness that is to come.  The lobster tail is to die for!

Open for dinner service Wednesdays-Sundays, Costa is the property’s upscale Italian eatery that is aesthetically-pleasing and offers traditional Italian classics.  If you ask me, Italy is responsible for some of the best food in the world, so it’s always a smart decision not to mess with it too much.  That being said, Costa serves it up the traditional way and we highly recommend that you try the lasagna!  

Closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but open for dinner service the rest of the week, OTORO is an elegantly appointed Robata Grill that also specializes in sushi, which ius what I will be having, thank you!  If the question is sushi, the answer should always be yes!  Go with a big group and get one plate of every type of sushi they have, and a few seafood samplers while you’re at it!

Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays, but open the rest of the week, The Mirage is also home to a Diablo’s Cantina location that has this to say, “Diablo’s Cantina unleashes its unique brand of south-of-the-border dining, drinking (and a little decadence) at The Mirage. Diablo’s features a wide variety of mouthwatering specialties including freshly made salsas and guacamoles, along with entrees like the Beef, Chicken and Shrimp Enchiladas. With a selection of tequilas and signature cocktails, it’s the perfect place to celebrate with friends and party the night away.”  The food is flavorful and filling, and if you have been to one of these locations before, you know what to expect…but there’s certainly going to be something on the menu that you wanted and haven’t had a chance to try yet.  

Open for dinner service Thursday-Saturday, STACK is the property’s slightly more economical upscale steakhouse.  They actually have a little bit of everything here, and so can you, by ordering the Surf and Turf!

The Still is your seven day a week lunch and dinner headquarters for craft beers and familiar appetizers and mains in a sports bar type environment.  If you’ve already got your big bets down and want to eat while watching the big game, then this is the place to go!  The menu features a little bit of everything from a little bit of everywhere, but is predominantly American, reasonably priced and the food is solid.  

If you’re ready for a slice Wednesdays-Sundays, then you can check out the California Pizza Kitchen.  You may well have got one of these the frozen way when it was on sale at your local grocery store, which is fine enough, but you’ll like it even more fresh.  

Paradise Cafe is your poolside spot to grab a breakfast or lunch while you relax.  This is usually when you are going to want some sort of light fare, but those with an appetite are still taken care of as they can order one of the eatery’s substantial and hearty burgers.

The Roasted Bean is the property’s bistro and serves a wide variety of desserts and pastries as well as all of the specialty coffee drinks anyone could ever want.  

Finally, Snacks is open seven days per week for breakfast or lunch, but you should definitely try one of the breakfast sandwiches.  If you need to get something on your stomach, and you want it fast and at a low price, then this is the place to go.  

In addition to the normal bars one would expect in the casino, there is also the Parlor Cocktail Lounge, where you can enjoy cocktails or drink it straight with piano accompaniment–classy!

With that, we would conclude our section on The Mirage by saying that it is exactly what it appears to be, somewhere between the middle and highest roller resorts on the Strip.  For that reason, we would recommend the property if it seems like it would appeal to you and will say that we are mostly impressed with the different eateries that are available on site.  This isn’t going to be the place to go on a budget, but it won’t break the bank compared to some of the others, either.

The Orleans

The Orleans Hotel and Casino is not located on the Las Vegas Strip, but it’s nearby enough that we are going to go ahead and include it in this section. This New Orleans themed casino caters largely to locals and opened in December of 1996 on Tropicana Avenue. There is very much a focus on the gambling here with 135,000 square feet of total gaming real estate against a comparatively trim 1,886 guest rooms and suites.

It’s a little under a mile from the Las Vegas Strip, but there is a regular shuttle during most hours of the day and evening that will transport you to The Linq, or back. For that reason, if you’re looking to stay a little more cheaply and perhaps not have a ton of hustle and bustle around you all hours of the night, then you might consider spending weekend nights at The Orleans, besides, you’ll probably save a few bucks.

The Orleans Arena can sit as many as 9,000 and the property is also home to a movie theater as well as some bowling lanes, 70, to be exact. It is owned by Boyd Gaming, always has been and is part of the BConnected Players Club.

Unfortunately, maybe you won’t save that much money anymore. The Orleans has recently decided it is a Resort, and at more than $37/night, actually charges a higher Resort Fee than many properties that are actually located on the Las Vegas Strip! I’m old enough to when Boyd Gaming placed an emphasis on customer value, mostly because it wasn’t that long ago, those were the days.

Another thing that I have discovered is that the room rates now seem to be basically in line with many of the Strip properties, so you’d better not assume anything and take your time to comparison shop. Depending on the day of your stay and what the other hotels are doing, you might think that you are getting a low price and end up paying more than you otherwise might have…kind of like shopping at Wal-Mart.

Guests of the property will enjoy crappy wireless Internet if they don’t want to pay for more than the Resort Fee, and potentially decent internet if they want to shell out an extra ten bucks a night on top of the Resort Fee. Why should Internet that is actually reliable cost $10 extra per night, who the hell knows? You probably have unlimited data with your cell provider, anyway.

The resort (snicker) pool is called BQuenched and is actually a fairly small affair compared to many others. Cabana rentals are available and there is a kiddie pool if you want to bring the little ones along for the stay. We have to it that, with the bowling alleys as well as the movie theater, the property is still a reasonably good destination for families.

Guests of the property will also have access to the Fitness Center, which is open from 6-6 and features state-of-the-art weightlifting machines and cardio equipment. One thing that we noticed is that the pool seems to also close at six, which seems really early.

In of other options for things to do, the property is home to Spa Orleans, which is open Thursdays-Sundays and, credit where it’s due, seems to have surprisingly reasonable rates…one might even call it a bargain. There is normally a barbershop and beauty salon, though the beauty salon is temporarily closed as of the time of this writing. If that’s going to make a difference in whether or not you want to stay there, then we would recommend that you check out the property’s website to see if that has changed.

Century Orleans 18 is a Cinemark theater that shows both classic movies and occasionally first run movies. The idea for this was actually kind of pioneered by Boyd as the Gold Coast was the first Vegas casino to have the idea to run first run movies in its theater.

The bowling alley now lists themselves at 52 lanes, but is great fun for the entire family. In addition to the lanes and snack bar, this area of the property also features a video arcade, so this is a playground for adults of the kid variety and actual kids. The arcade mentioned is called Time Out and is kind of like a miniature Chuck E Cheese, minus the pizza, although the snack bar may have pizza.

Kid’s Tyme closed during Covid-19 and is still closed as of the time of this writing, but will likely open again at some point in the future. We’ll save the flowery language and say that this is the play place where you have the chance to lose your kid (not literally) for anywhere from 1-5 hours while you run off and do adult things. Just make sure they are potty trained!

The Orleans Arena features live sporting and concert events many nights out of the year and has historically brought in bigger acts than you might expect. We would recommend that you check out their website for more details on shows and sporting events.

The Orleans Showroom is a bit more intimate as it consists of 850 seats for attendees, but it has also featured an impressive list of performers over the years with many more to come. Once again, we don’t know when you’re going to be reading this, so you should go to their website and see if there are any events that you would want to plan a trip around.

The Bourbon Street Lounge is temporarily closed as of the time of this writing, burn when it opens back up, is a great casual environment to enjoy some cocktails and watch the game of your choice on one of the big screens. When it was open, it often had some live music on weekends.

In of its gambling operations, The Orleans has everything that you would expect for a casino of its size. To start with, the property is home to more than 2,600 combined slot, video poker and video keno games. Even with the size of the casino floor, that’s a lot, so it can get a bit tight in places. Denominations range from pennies to $25’s.

The Orleans is also home to a Live Keno lounge that, surprisingly, is open 24/7. This Keno Lounge is an affair with sixty seats and cocktail service if you want to stick around and watch the drawings.

The property is home to a couple dozen gaming tables that spread Baccarat, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Pai Gow Poker and Let it Ride. The property is also home to a sizable poker room that consists of 35 tables mostly dealing No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em and Limit, but there are sometimes other games when demand is sufficient.

One nice thing on the Boyd Casino websites is that they have a little widget that you can use to search for your favorite slot games by denomination or title. If you’re lucky enough to have a local or regional casino where you live and have some machines that are among your favorites, then you will be able to see if it can also be found at The Orleans, no guessing games!

The New Orleans Race and Sports book says on their website:

With seating for 125 people, new generation LED reader boards, and the latest high-resolution giant screen televisions, the Race and Sports Book makes all major race and sports events instantly available. The Race Book provides 13 betting windows for pari-mutuel wagering, while the Sports Book features seven betting windows. Exciting promotions to celebrate each sports season make the Race and Sports Book a hub of constant activity and fun.

Although, there are probably better locations if this is your main form of gambling. We have to be honest on this one and say that we don’t think that the viewing is particularly ideal as the TV’s aren’t always easy to see without craning your neck.

With the gambling options discussed, we will take the opportunity to turn our attention over to the dining selection at the property, which we can promise is ample, as are most of the portions! This is one area where The Orleans is definitely a rival for some of the Las Vegas Strip casinos.

I’m going to go ahead and switch things up by discussing the fast food options available first. This property is home to quite a few low priced outlets, including the snack bar at the bowling alley. Amongst these are Subway, Sbarro PizzaJava Vegas, Baskin Robbins and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. That pretty much covers the food court type places, so let’s see what kind of proper sit down restaurants the property has to offer.

The Prime Rib Loft closed at some point during the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to reopen, but hasn’t yet. Given that it’s the end of the main demand season, there’s a good chance that it won’t be coming back until 2022. When it does, the website has this to say about it:

Come visit the newly remodeled Prime Rib Loft, same great service, same great food! The Prime Rib Loft is primed for hearty appetites! Overlooking the bustling casino action, it is definitely “Fine dining at its Prime!” The restaurant’s comfortable and attractive ambiance combines with its reasonably priced, superb menu to make this specialty dining room a must during every visit to The Orleans.

True to its name, the Prime Rib Loft is famous for its delectable cuts of prime rib – the Orleans, English Cut, Cajun Style and the Real Beefeater Cut (an extra thick double cut with bone)- all specially selected and dry aged to ensure tenderness, then seasoned and slowly roasted for incredible flavor. All prime rib selections are served with a giant baked potato AND your choice of bacon bits, butter, sour cream and chives.

More favorites include additional beef dishes, chicken, seafood and pasta. Begin and end your meal with fabulous appetizers and scrumptious desserts.

Basically, the idea is that they offer the same quality and flavorful food as many of the higher priced Vegas resort eateries, but they do it at a price that is a huge bargain. It’s probably fairly basic, in honesty, but the hearty meal will definitely be enough to fill you up.

Alder & Birch is open now and is an American Steakhouse that features quality cuts at a reasonably affordable price by Vegas steakhouse standards. It’s a fun and casual atmosphere that is obviously not the finest of fine dining, but you won’t notice as soon as you raise the first bite of one of the tender and juicy steaks to your lips.

Big Al’s Oyster Bar brings you seafood cajun style with the eatery’s staples being the fresh shucked oysters and clams. As long as seafood is fresh, and it definitely is at Big Al’s, you can’t possibly go wrong.

With forty beers on tap, after the two-hour happy hour is done, Bailiwick turns into a full-service lounge that offers some excellent American style apps and entrees. Don’t worry, there’s no need to button your collar, the atmosphere remains casual and fun even during dinnertime. The burgers are great!

Copper Whisk Cafe is open for breakfast and lunch every day and also has dinner service on weekends. This casual and fun American diner style restaurant just gives you delicious staple foods that will fill you up. If you’re not in the mood for all day breakfast (is that possible?), then they have a wide assortment of specialty burgers and one of them is sure to be right up your alley. If you want to live really dangerously, then you can always order an omelette AND a burger and use the omelette as a burger topping. I’m not saying I’ve ever done that…okay, I have, but it was 2:00a.m. and I’d had a few to drink.

Ondori Asian Kitchen is open during lunch and dinner hours and is a simply appointed restaurant that serves a variety of Japanese and Chinese food classics as well as sushi. Personally, I couldn’t imagine not going for the sushi, but maybe they’ll have a different selection that you want to try.

The Orleans is also home to a T.G.I. Fridays, of which there are several nationwide. This is a chain restaurant and sports bar that, in my opinion, is generally subpar even by those standards. They’ll offer a good value and get you full, but I think that most of the dishes are pretty bland. Don’t worry, if you like it, I won’t judge and neither will they, so stop on in!

What we can conclude from all of this is that The Orleans remains focused on driving value to its visitors in just about every area except the hotel rates. In our opinion, the Resort Fee is pretty ridiculous, the property is barely a resort and the hotel rates don’t always save you money compared to some of the more major properties that are actually on the Las Vegas Strip.

With that, we do have to it that it’s a great place for families to stay given the wide variety of cheap eateries and activities available for the whole family, especially the theater, bowling and arcade. You might end up saving enough money just on the dining to make up for the fact that the room rates are a bit higher than we would like to see for this property.

The Palazzo and The Venetian

One of the finest properties on the Las Vegas Strip, this property is brought to you by The Las Vegas Sands corporation, who brought to its guests the disgusting and repugnant monstrosity that is triple-zero Roulette. That’s right, they took a game with a House Edge of 5.26% House Edge (less than 95% RTP) and decided that wasn’t bad enough yet.

For that reason, we are going to give this one a very undetailed listing along with its sister property The Venetian. There is no possible reason that this writer would ever want to spend any money at this property or encourage anyone to do so. Triple-Zero Roulette is simply unforgivable.

The worst part is that many gamblers actually put up with it! I don’t know if they realize that a certain, “Special Symbol,” which is what acts as the third zero is a bad thing or if they just don’t care, but either way, this property saw fit to increase the House Edge of a game that already had a through the roof house edge by Table Game standards.

We will spend some time talking about then restaurants, though, because it’s possible that you might want to go and give some of those unique selections your business, but for the love of Pete, DO NOT gamble here. It’s time for the gambling public to take a stand against this sort of ridiculousness. The gambling public failed to vote with its feet on Resort Fees, and now those are everywhere, including at some Tribal Casinos, let’s not fail again!

Rooms: Over 3,000

Gaming Space: 105,000 square feet.

Owner: Las Vegas Sands

Opened: 2007

Status: Sucks.

Aesthetic: Thinks it’s a museum.

Rooms: Super Expensive.

Room Rates: A lot.

Resort Fee: $45 per night.

Slots: They have some.

Table Games: They have some of those too. They specialize in Triple-Zero Roulette.

Race and Sports Book: Yup..

Poker Room: Yeah, one of the most luxurious and expensive properties in the world and they can’t even keep the poker room open 24/7, at least, not as of the time of this writing.

Amenities: They’ve got some.

Nightlife: Sure, if they didn’t finish bleeding you dry with Triple-Zero Roulette during the daylight hours.

Okay, you might want to eat at one of the restaurants, which would be understandable. For that reason, we will go ahead and give those a proper review. To be very clear, we are doing this for you, not for them.

BRERA Osteria is an upscale Italian restaurant that features a wide variety of savory and delicious traditional Italian dishes that includes one of the most fantastic lasagnas you’ll ever have in your life. Paired with one of their many selections of fine red wine, guests will especially enjoy the accompaniment of the wood-fire oven baked bread. There are a lot of great Italian restaurants in Las Vegas, but this one is more than just a restaurant, it’s a true experience. We know that it’s not much to look at, but the food is legitimately excellent.

Majordomo Meat and Fish is an upscale steakhouse that also has a popular location in LOs Angeles. This establishment focuses on the choicest selection of meats and the freshest seafood, prepared relatively simply with the focus of the plate being only excellence.

Estiatorio Milos features mainly their seafood and is a Greek and Mediterranean restaurant, of which there are surprisingly few on the Las Vegas Strip. They have this to say:

If you’re looking for authentic Greek food, Milos is it. Founded by chef Costas Spiliadis, Milos is one of the world’s most celebrated Greek seafood restaurants.

The signature fish market is on full display for guests to choose what they want and how it’s prepared. Complementing the iconic fresh seafood is a produce market. Patrons are able to select from an array of fresh fruits and vegetables to accompany their meals.

A raw bar features whole fish sashimi using the day’s fresh catch. Enjoy a variety of crudo and tartare preparations, including Greek Ceviche.

Not only can you choose the fish that you want, but many of the dishes are prepared over an open-fire, and there’s nothing quite like an expertly cut and seared salmon to delight the eyes as well as the taste buds. If you must go to these properties at all, make sure not to play Triple-Zero Roulette and make sure that you eat here.

Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano is another place for Italian cuisine that is a bit higher end than the one we mentioned earlier. This is more focused on visually appealing and creative Italian dishes whereas the other was more along the lines of what you would expect to have served up to you if you went to dinner at someone’s house. Personally, I prefer that option of traditional, simple and hearty…but for those of you who want something with a little more flair, then this might be the Italian restaurant for you.

Mott 32 is a very upscale and swanky Chinese fine dining restaurant. What they say differentiates them from the others is that they are focused on a truly authentic Chinese dining experience and focus on the more traditional ways of preparing traditional Chinese staples, such as the Peking duck. I’ve never been and wouldn’t know if this is true or not, so please shoot us a message and let us know what you think if you stop in here.

Moon Palace by David Chang is a quick stop for cheaply priced snacks and treats.

Bouchon serves all three meals of the day, the French way. This elegant and upscale French restaurant takes great care to prepare every dish with the flavorfulness and consistency that would justify the fine dining price tag. For those of you who wish to enjoy a delicious French meal in a poolside atmosphere, this is one to check out.

Yardbird Southern Table and Bar is a casual American restaurant that cooks a variety of typical American sandwiches and entrees in a bit more of a country way. Of course, we would recommend the burgers but if you are looking for a place to get full at a relatively inexpensive cost, then you can’t go wrong with this one.

CUT is another fine dining steakhouse, this time brought to you by Wolfgang Puck, that is located on the property. What makes it different from the other steakhouse? Let’s hear it from them:

CUT delivers innovation at every level through its unique culinary, service and design combination. The restaurant presents a contemporary twist on the classic steakhouse through global influences and Wolfgang’s philosophy of offering only the finest and freshest available ingredients.

From prime dry- and wet-aged beef to shellfish and sautéed and roasted whole fresh fish, CUT provides broad appeal. In addition to the restaurant’s renowned signature cuts of beef, guests also can enjoy an extensive array of entrees including the Snake River Farms American Wagyu Short Ribs Double Thick; Kurobuta Pork Chop with apple-quince “moustarda;” Seared Main Diver Scallops; and Whole Roasted Stonington Maine Lobster with black truffle sabayon.

Which steakhouse should you choose? We have no idea. If you end up doing both, then let us know which of the upscale steakhouses you prefer.

Chris Barish brings Black Tap Craft Burgers and Beer, which does what it says on the box for lunch and dinner. If you’re looking for a specialty beer and want to combine it with a hearty and delicious specialty burger, then you can do it here at a reasonable price.

Buddy V from Cake Boss, the hit TV Show, brings you his Italian Ristorante, this is now the third Italian place on property, and the second at a casual price point, so let’s hear in their words what they think makes them different from the others:

Buddy Valastro has made his way from New Jersey to Las Vegas with a casual Italian restaurant based on his large family gatherings. Try favorites based on beloved recipes from his mom, grandmother, and aunts: big portions of Valastro Sunday gravy or Lisa’s Linguine and Clams with Lobster. Sit on the patio for envious views of the Las Vegas Strip.

Buddy Valastro, of TLC’s Cake Boss, has brought his first restaurant to Las Vegas at The Venetian. Buddy V’s Ristorante, a partnership with veteran restaurateurs Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla, is inspired by Valastro’s family gatherings. The menu offers twists on Italian-American favorites, as well as Valastro family favorites like Sunday Gravy, Steak Pizzaiola and Linguine. The renowned baker’s restaurant, of course, also serves an impressive dessert selection including Cannoli, Nutella Cake, and Valastro’s famous Lobster Tail Pastry.

Well, that sure doesn’t say a whole heck of a lot about the food. Take from that what you will. The restaurants that I want to spend my money in spend most of the time telling me about how great the food is.

CAPRI Pool Restaurant is another poolside casual stop, this time American, for breakfast and lunch. If you want to grab a bite to eat and don’t way to stray too far from the tropical relaxation, then you can get something quick and tasty here.

Spritz Restaurant and Bar could be described basically the same way that we just described CAPRI pool restaurant.

LAVO is yet another Italian restaurant that likes leading with its chic atmosphere, but it sure just looks like a casual, and very dark, restaurant and lounge to me. Either way, maybe they will have something to say in their description about what makes their food special:

Part restaurant, part lounge, LAVO has decor inspired by Mediterranean bath houses in Southern Italy. An epic one pound of Fresh Ground Imperial Wagyu, Italian Sausage and Veal meatball tops the dinner menu, along with Italian classics and cocktails. From October to March, you can dance on the tables with Champagne after eating while you wait for your eggs benedict at the famed LAVO Party Brunch every Saturday. Every Sunday, indulge in a bottomless Italian brunch experience with unlimited options and live chef stations. Come with friends to mix a fine dining experience with celebration in a way that is uniquely Las Vegas.

Not so much. But, just looking at the picture of the Lobster Benedict with Caviar makes me almost want to cry that I can’t have it right now.

Sushi, Sashimi, Ceviche, all of that and more can be found at Sushisamba, which has Brazilian, Japanese and Peruvian influences. That certainly works for me, I like spicy sushi. We would recommend the Sashimi platter.

TAO Asian Bistro features a wide variety of entrees and appetizers in the style of China, Japan and Thailand in an upscale environment. Guests here will elite in the attention paid to the preparation of the high quality and fresh food that can be found here!

Celebrity Chef Emeril Legasse brings to you another edition of Delmonico Steakhouse, this time located at the Venetian and Palazzo. I have no idea how many steakhouses one place needs to have, but maybe they all fill up every time they are open, who knows? Anyway, this celebrity chef led eatery has this to say:

Owned and operated by renowned Celebrity Chef Emeril Lagasse. Delmonico Steakhouse features a steakhouse with a New Orleans-style twist. Enjoy Delmonico specialties like dry-aged bone-in rib steak and Chateaubriand, a large center cut filet, carved table side. Sample the barbecue shrimp and double-cut pork chop.

At least it talks about the food. They had some dishes pictured and none of them looked particularly special to me. Sometimes names and personalities sell better than the food, you know how it is. I mean, he sells jarred pasta sauce with his name on it in grocery stores…I tend to think this is more about a brand than anything.

Canaletto is another Italian eatery, this time a casually priced affair that is open for lunch and dinner. Let’s see what they have to say…I don’t know how anyone staying here could ever pick one. I hope they have an Indian restaurant, at least one, since they seem to be home to 4,927 Italian places. The sad thing is that I love Italian food, but sheesh!!!

Italian Dining 

Italian fine dining to its core. Famous for rotisserie and grill meals. Fresh baked breads, soups, salads, pizza, pastas and more. Chef Gianpaolo Putzu recreates the flavors of Italy. Pair your meal with a bottle of wine from Canaletto’s extensive list.

Bon appetit! Although, you probably won’t even which Italian restaurant you’re in at this point.

Canonitas is a Mexican restaurant that is situated along the replica canals so diners at this restaurant can watch the gondolas drift lazily by. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and, if nothing else, will be at least good viewing. The restaurant has this to say:

Enjoy traditional Mexican foods while watching the gondolas glide by on the canal. Where heritage and innovation combine. With a menu of soulful, scratch-made Mexican favorites for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

From street tacos in hand-pressed tortillas to spicy sauces. House-made guacamole from authentic recipes. Every meal is a feast for the eyes, ears, and a joy for the taste buds. Experience the sizzle of carne asada and the rattle of jalapeño margaritas.

Everyone loves street tacos. That’s what I am going to be getting, anyway, if someone manages to drag me to the Venetian.

Breakfast, Lunch and Weekend Brunch can be had at the Canyon Ranch Grill which offers casual American food at a comfortable price. If you got a little too party hardy the night before and need something that is more than hardly hearty to to recharge, then this is the place to go. After a night of a few too many to drink, you can never go wrong with a huge omelette, maybe even two.

Casanova is another Italian Eatery, which I think makes 4,898, located inside the Canal Shops. The price and atmosphere are both very causal and this is open for all three meals of the day as well as for late night dining if you need to get something on your stomach before going to bed.

Carlo’s Bakery. Cake Boss guy, except this is a bakery.

Chica is open nearly around the clock and serves up excellent Latin inspired dishes and cocktail concoctions that will leave you wanting more. The good news is, given that this casually priced and cheap restaurant is basically always open, you’ll be able to get more anytime you want it.

Grand Lux Cafe (both properties) is a casual American restaurant where you can load up at a reasonable price for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you’re hungry and want something quick, this is one of the go-tos for the property.

Neapolitan style pizza is all yours at a reasonable price at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria. It looks like a traditional New York pizzeria and the best part is that all of the pizzas are hand-tossed and made fresh!

Hong Kong Cafe is your place for lunch, dinner or a late night meal if you find yourself with a craving for Asian food and want to grab something quick, tasty and at a low price point.

Mercato della Pescheria is another one of the Italian Restaurants for this property. I don’t even know what to say about any of these that would differentiate one from another anymore. It would be like going to a city block in New York that had only Italian restaurants on it and trying to guess as to which one is best. Here’s their description:

Located in St. Mark’s Square. Bringing together an authentic fish market and gourmet eatery. A bustling, colorful, delicious scene. Hand-painted designs adorn the walls. Cured meats hang from the ceilings. Charcoal oven delicacies fill the air. Everywhere you turn, it’s an ode to Italian tradition.

Fish selections flown in fresh from the waters of California, Mexico, the U.S. East Coast. Enjoy foods from the land as well. Imported cheeses, house-made pastas, vegetables, salads, and Roman-style pizzas. Finish the meal with espresso and gelato.

Roman-style pizzas is at least interesting. That is something that you probably can’t get at some of the other ones.

Noodle Asia is another casual and cheap Asian dining stop for lunch, dinner or a late night snack.

PrimeBurger is located in the Venetian Grand stops and has a few other locations in Vegas. This is another place for specialty burgers, craft beers and great cocktails. Is there really a such thing as a bad burger? Probably not. But, there are very good and great ones…and PrimeBurger is at least very good.

Royal Britannia Gastropub is something unique for these properties and features a wide variety of brews as well as English pub fare. I think you all know what I am going to say, but I’m going to say it anyway, you’ve got to get the fish and chips.

Smith and Wollensky is, I’m not even kidding, another upscale Steakhouse, which there are so many of at these properties that it almost doesn’t mean anything anymore. Let’s see what they have to say that might make you want to choose them:

Smith & Wollensky, “America’s Steakhouse” has made its return to the Las Vegas Strip, now open at the Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. Sitting two stories tall, the all new classic steakhouse is just steps away from the South Canal Turnaround and features a warm inviting atmosphere, complete with a tavern-like lounge located off the promenade level, an upper-level impressive wine wall, and a peek-a-boo view into the famed butcher room; luxurious art deco inspired bar and an intimate all glass private room overlooking the bar and promenade. Private event spaces accommodate from 20 to over 400 guests.

Well, that certainly didn’t tell us anything about the food.

The X Pot is an Asian eatery that seems more focused on providing a unique design and some sort of interactive light show with your dinner. That might be for some of you out there who are curious about such a thing, but I just want great Peking Duck. This writer would take a on this place…I don’t even like normal restaurants that emphasize decor more than the food, much less ones that actively seem to try to draw your attention away from the food. That said, the prices are cheap, so maybe give it a try.

There weren’t enough Italian Restaurants yet, so let’s add in Trattoria Reggiano, which is a location that can actually be found at a few other casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. Let’s have them explain what they have to offer…because, to me, these are just empty words when there are such an absurd number of Italia eateries to choose from all in one property:

Tucked away in the Grand Canal Shoppes, this no-frills classic Italian trattoria features authentic Italian specialties. At Trattoria Reggiano, we honor family, friends and the traditional Italian feast. This is why we source local, responsibly grown ingredients every chance we get. Our food is prepared with love from the farm to table, where our guests are treated to a true Italian experience, in our traditional Italian street-side Trattoria setting. 

Adding to the charm of Trattoria Reggiano is its intimate setting. Subdued lighting, wood surfaces, and muted colors create an old-world feel that transports you to the kitchens of the home country. And when it comes to service, you won’t find a friendlier staff. All the attention and care that you would receive in Italy is here. It’s the subtle touches, like quiet refills and knowledgeable recommendations, that transform an ordinary experience into something sublime that you’ll love.

Farm to table. Authentic Italian. Those word actually tell me something! This might not be the most upscale fine dining experience that these two properties have to offer, but the food is certain to be rock solid, so check this one out if you’re hungry!

Trustworthy Brewing Company is a brightly lit brewpub that features a great many of its own craft brews and is especially known for its IPA. In addition to that, they feature a great many delicious American staples such as stacked burgers and appetizer samplers. More than just a place to eat and drink, guests of this restaurant can also have a little bit of fun with their Skee Ball and Shuffleboard. The Hickory Burger and Bavarian Style Pretzel are both great choices.

Finally, Truth and Tonic is the Las Vegas Strip’s first Vegan restaurant (probably for a reason) and I am going to let them explain themselves because I am a die hard(arteried) omnivore:

The first fully vegan restaurant on the Strip, Truth & Tonic playfully takes its cues from the apothecaries of yore. Offering plant-based options with maximum flavor, you can indulge guilt-free. Located on the fourth floor of The Venetian tower, dine in a relaxing café setting.

Dishes with Benefits

Our chef has crafted a menu packed with nutrient-dense superfoods. The use of turmeric and black pepper together ease inflammation. Including avocado oil in meals is known to increase brain function. Mushroom powder acts as a booster to help detoxify, sustain energy, and enhance immunity. There are gluten free options throughout the menu, along with a nutrient analysis for each dish and drink. Approved by our nutritionists and savored by guests.

The good news for me is that I usually indulge on shellfish and thick juicy hamburgers with a fried-egg as a topping, perfectly guilt-free, I assure you. However, if you think that our place on the food chain is morally wrong, and you can’t tell what has meat or dairy in it and what doesn’t at other restaurants, then you can stop in here and know that you’re safe.

With that, would we recommend The Venetian? Hell no! They invented single-zero Roulette. They have some of the worst slot returns in Las Vegas. They are an abomination to everything that Vegas was once about. However, if you absolutely must eat there, then we hope we have helped give you an idea where you might want to go.

The Strat

This property is probably better known as, “The Stratosphere,” especially for people who were in Vegas prior to the rebranding (and who still mostly call it that). The most notable feature of this property is the fact that it is home to the tallest observation Tower in the United States.

The Strat is technically the Northernmost casino on the Las Vegas Strip, though most visitors wouldn’t even recognize it as being on the Strip. Clark County says that it’s not The Strip, due to being within Las Vegas city limits, but then, more than one Strip casino (in the early days) opened because they wanted to avoid the city’s scrutiny into potential criminal ties that various owners and operators might have, at that time, so you be the judge!

If you want me to be the judge, then I’m going to say it’s NOT on the Las Vegas Strip, simply by virtue of being so far from the next nearest Strip casino. I’m not even sure how safe of a walk that would be during daylight hours, as I have never contemplated walking to The Strat from The Strip. Also, you’ll forgive me if I refer to it as, “The Stratosphere,” here and there, old habits and all.

Bob Stupak would open Vegas World in 1979, which is relevant because part of Vegas World sat where The Strat does now. Vegas World was notable for having an outer space theme that pervaded throughout as well as being one of the first casinos to offer tourist books and coupons that would occasionally have tremendous value (if played right) in order to draw people in.

With that, of course, Vegas World was mostly seen as a low-rollers paradise and would also garner a good bit of local traffic. One of the more gaudy aspects of the property was that the outside of the property was once adorned in $1 bills, but they eventually did away with that exterior. That was a huge mess, too, because they all had to be power washed down and would see employees picking up the wet bills from the ground.

In fact, what would become the Stratosphere was originally meant to be a giant neon sign for Vegas World, but soon morphed into an idea for an observation tower and restaurant.

Ultimately, Stupak bit off more than he could chew on the project and, after a fire in August of 1993 during the construction, he would have to get some money from outside investors in order to complete the project. Ultimately, Vegas World would be closed with its hotel towers simply becoming part of The Stratosphere.

Unfortunately, the observation tower itself was kind of the property’s ONE draw. In the years after opening, it struggled to get any visitors as ownership believed that the cost of the property, as well as the presence of the observation tower, should be enough to get anyone in. This would be in the mid-90’s when The Stratosphere was far from the only new Strip property, and much effort was being expended by some casinos to attract guests who wanted luxury, others to attract family-oriented travelers and still other Strip casinos to attract low rollers.

More than that, The Strat has a serious location problem. It sits more than a mile North of Circus Circus Hotel and Casino as well as some two miles away from the Fremont Street casinos Downtown. In other words, The Strat can all but completely forget about tourist foot traffic and, while I haven’t walked up there myself, my understanding is that the area immediately surrounding The Strat, which is called, “Naked City,” isn’t exactly the safest trekking in the Las Vegas area.

Stratosphere would file for bankruptcy (Chapter 11) in 1997 and would be sold, through the bankruptcy court, directly to Carl Icahn, who has bought a few casinos out of bankruptcy (he would buy Tropicana Atlantic City out some years after this) in his time.

While it certainly helps for the property not to be saddled under crushing debt, Icahn also understood that the property’s target market, particularly given the horrendous location, needed to be for value conscious gamblers and locals. The property would become profitable and is still seen, to this day, as a potential value destination for Las Vegas visitors.

The property would also change hands on two more occasions after Icahn bought it, ultimately ending up in the hands of Golden Entertainment, who is the current owner of the property. They also did a few major renovations to the property (about twenty million worth) and rebranded it as, “The Strat,” in January, 2020. Of course, given the Covid-19 pandemic, there hasn’t been a huge throng of visitors (comparatively speaking) to Vegas since then, so most people would probably still know it as The Stratosphere.

As it sits now, the property is home to 2,427 total guest rooms and suites as well as some 80,000 square feet of gambling space. It continues to mostly attract locals and Vegas visitors who are coming to town on a budget and, consequently, has some of the lower priced hotel rooms of any major Vegas casino that you will find. Let’s see what else the property has to offer.

The rooms themselves are clean, but are very modest by Vegas standards. Unfortunately, the pandemic of Resort Fees has also spread to The Strat, who is grabbing themselves a $37/night slice of totally unjustifiable charges. $37/night is particularly ridiculous when one considers that properties that are just as nice, and located on The Strip proper, often have lower nightly Resort Fees. The rooms themselves are probably on the lower end of limited service hotels or higher end of economy hotels—take your pick.

In of the actual room rate, slower weekdays are dirt cheap (not counting the Resort Fee—which is sometimes almost double) the room cost that is often barely over twenty bucks. Weekend rates are a bit higher, depending on what’s going on in town, but that’s the case anywhere. Overall, you might save a little compared to Las Vegas Strip properties, but likely not so much that it’s worth having to drive or use public transportation to get anywhere. Friday night rates seem meaningfully lower than the majority of Strip properties, but you won’t generally save a ton on Saturdays; particularly not the night before a home Raiders game, especially.

In of other amenities, guests of the property will enjoy wireless internet access as well as access to a relatively modern fitness center. The property is also home to as many as thirty retailers, but some of those closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and have yet to reopen. As of the time of this writing, there are about a dozen, but we would recommend reading here if you are interested in the current shopping options.

The Elation Pool is located on the eighth floor of one of the hotel towers and features a sizable swimming pool as well as three hot tubs. The Wet24 is an adults-only pool and bar that is located on its own deck and features astounding views of the Las Vegas skyline. This pool is exclusive for guests of the hotel, which makes sense, otherwise it could easily be overwhelmed as it is not that big.

The SkyPod and Observation Deck, obviously, is the property’s best known attraction by which guests can ride to the top and look out over greater Las Vegas. Of course, one must pay for ission to this venue. The Strat is also home to a type of ride commonly seen in County Fairs by which guests will be lifted up into the air and then plunge down at tremendous speeds…the main difference, of course, is that the County Fair rides (that I have seen) go something like thirty feet into the air, rather than the 160 feet to be found at The Strat.

For those of you who don’t like being suspended in the air, don’t be, just jump! The SkyJump is a bungee jump from 108 floors in the air, so there’s almost nothing like that anywhere in the world as is sure to attract pure thrillseekers.

Naturally, many of our readers are perfectly content to scratch their thrill itches with solid ground under them, so for their benefit, let’s talk a little bit about the casino offerings of The Strat.

As we mentioned before, The Strat consists of 80,000 square feet of gambling real estate and compares favorably to other casinos in its offerings. The slot floor consists of some 2,000 slot machines ranging in denominations from pennies to $25/credit. Additionally, the property features a wide variety of Video Poker and Video Keno offerings. Surprisingly, the only notable game we find on VPFree2 for Video Poker (98%+) is a 98.01% Bonus Poker game. The next time I am in the Vegas area, I’ll go take a look for myself to see if I can find better and will provide an update here if I do.

The True Rewards Players Club is one that is especially convenient for Nevadans in that it encomapsses not only The Strat, but also many other Nevada casinos as well as a wide variety of video poker bars and other stops. They claim that this Players Club applies at some 800 locations, but I’m going to go ahead and take their word for it rather than personally it for myself.

The property still offers low-rollers tremendous value on the Table Games side of the equation. Of their 40 gaming tables that spread Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Baccarat, Three-Card Poker, High Card Flush, Pai Gow Poker and Heads up Texas Hold ‘Em, they are proud that many of these games still come with minimums of $5. For that reason, if you are a low-roller who plays Table Games almost exclusively, then the Strat would be on the short list of casinos we would recommend for you…just understand that you’ll likely want to use some form of transportation other than walking to get around.

The property is also home to a somewhat modest-sized William Hill Sports Book location for your betting needs. You’ll probably want to catch nationally televised games at one of the Video Poker bars, in one of the restaurants or one of the 55 inch LCD HDTV’s in your guestroom, though.

In of entertainment options, Benachek’s Mind Games is a popular mind-reading show that has been endorsed by none other than Penn & Teller, true Las Vegas Entertainment icons. If you’re into mind-reading shows, then I would strongly consider taking that one in based on their recommendation alone.

Xavier Mortimer is a highly accomplished magician who has amassed quite an online following and has appeared on major national programs such as America’s Got Talent and Masters of Illusion. He might not be quite as well known as Criss Angel and David Copperfield nationally, but that’s probably on the horizon for this young man and, again, is a show we would recommend if magic is your thing.

Named Best New Act in America by America’s Got Talent (and they should know), Illuminate is a combination of music, dance and comedy and is the property’s well-acclaimed variety show. The Dragon Room plays host to a location for the L.A. Comedy Club, so that’s your spot for up-and-coming comedy acts.

The Remix Lounge is one of the property’s bars and features live musical entertainment, generally speaking, from Thursdays-Saturdays. In of regular shows, there is also MJ Live, which is a tribute show that happens nightly (as of the time of this writing) dedicated to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson himself.

Finally, the property’s showroom occasionally plays host to well-known national acts. For the remainder of 2021 (on select dates) Sammy Hagar and Friends is performing, but if you’re reading this after November of 2021, then we would recommend checking out The Strat’s website if you want to know what else is coming up.

With that, we will turn our attention to the dining options available at The Strat!

Top of the World is exactly what you would expect it to be: Situated more than 800 feet in the air, this is the upscale dining establishment located in the observation tower for which former dress is strictly required. If you can stretch out your meal for eighty minutes, then you’ll have the opportunity to look down on Vegas from every angle, as the restaurant completes a 360-degree rotation in this time. This restaurant is open for dinner nightly and requires either an entree purchase (per guest) or minimum total purchase of $45 per guest otherwise.

Open during the evening from Tuesdays-Thursdays and for lunch and dinner otherwise, PT’s Wings and Sports is a casual American Pub eatery that specializes in wings and is probably the best place in the establishment to watch nationally televised games, especially if you have money riding on the outcome!

McCall’s Heartland Grill is mainly known as a semi-upscale American food eatery that specializes in steak and seafood. The dress code for this establishment is business casual, but doesn’t seem as though it’s too strictly enforced as long as you don’t show up in swimming trunks, or something. You can probably get away with jeans, though. It’s open for dinner service from Thursdays-Sundays.

Strat Cafe is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from Monday-Thursday and transitions to 24/7 the rest of the week. This is just a quick stop and casual environment for economical sandwiches as well as some grab and go items and coffee drinks.

108 Eats is the quick panini and dessert stop, you guessed it, on the 108th Floor of the Observation Tower. It open in the middle afternoon to late evening Monday-Wednesday and late morning to loathe evening the other days of the week.

Elation Pool Cafe and Bar has extremely limited hours for a Las Vegas pool, but for whatever reason, many Las Vegas pools seem to close pretty early. In any event, there’s no set schedule for food and the website proclaims that food is available at the bar, “On a limited basis.” I guess we would recommend calling for more specific information if eating near the pool is going to be very important to you.

Nunzio’s Pizzeria is open from 11:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. every day of the week except for Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It’s pretty much your standard pizza place with standard pizza place prices and selections, including stromboli, calzones and a handful of salad options.

It should come as no surprise that The Strat is home to a 24/7 Starbucks location—it seems like those are absolutely everywhere! You’ll have to look on a different listing for a, “Starbucks is everywhere,” joke—I think I’ve done it for a few other Strip listings already. Other quick eats locations include Fat Tuesday and McDonald’s.

Overall, whether or not we would recommend The Strat really comes down to what sort of gambling you’re into and whether or not you’re fine with the fact that you’ll likely want transportation to get around other than your Nikes or Reeboks…or whatever shoe you where.

As we discussed in the property history section, Stratosphere is quite an isolated location, which was one of its problems upon opening before, as the Vegas World did before it, it decided to make an effort to appeal to locals and Vegas Visitors on a budget. We think The Strat has a reasonable assortment of dining options, though most are one form of American food or another…basically all of them, in fact, so culinary diversification doesn’t seem to be a huge priority for the property.

With all of that said, we think the best market for The Strat, limited though it might be, are people who are somewhat on the budget traveler end who are mostly interested in shows, Table Games and sports betting. It is in these areas (as well as the observation tower itself, of course) where we think that The Strat competes reasonably well with other Las Vegas, “Strip,” properties.

Treasure Island Hotel & Casino

Treasure Island Hotel & Casino is notable in that it is one of the few Las Vegas Strip proper properties not owned by MGM Resorts International or Caesars Entertainment. Owned by Phil Ruffin, Treasure Island is a Caribbean-themed casino with 2,884 guest rooms and suites as well as roughly 95,000 square feet of gambling space.

This property would originally open in October of 1993, which was right in the middle of the big boom of themed properties and family-friendly ones opening on the Las Vegas Strip. At the time, the property was owned by Mirage Resorts and would open with a free pirate show as its signature attraction, which was sufficient to draw all kinds of foot traffic to the property who would go on to play and pay for other things.

It remains a good natural place for traffic to this day with a pedestrian bridge (over the road) connecting it to the Fashion Show Shopping Center and a tram connection to its former sister property, The Mirage.

The property’s pirate theme and intended family focus, along with a 25,000 square foot arcade, would actually miss its mark somewhat—with the arcade eventually being significantly downsized. While it was great for foot traffic, weekend family visitors didn’t take much interest in the property, and furthermore, there was also a ton of competition in place (including self-competition) for the family demographic of weekend visitors.

With that, Treasure Island was retooled as more of an adults-oriented property, though it would continue to have the Caribbean theme. It was around this time, in the early-2000’s, that a semi-rebrand would take place with the cartoonish pirate signage being replaced by a stylized lower-case, ‘ti,’ with the words, “Treasure Island,” appearing underneath. That name didn’t really catch on the public lexicon and most people would refer to the resort property by its full name. However, the reimaging of the property itself was relatively successful and it would market itself to a more middle-budget adult crowd of visitors.

It was in December of 2008 that then-named MGM Mirage (now MGM Resorts International) would sell the property to Phil Ruffin, who continues to own it to this day. With the MGM Resorts International now having just purchased the operating rights to the Cosmopolitan, could you imagine if the mega corporation still held this property, as well? The Strip would be almost nothing but MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment.

Finally, the Sirens pirate show would end in 2013 to make some space for new retail space. Of course, with it died one of the more well-liked free activities on the Las Vegas Strip, but the property had garnered many loyal repeat guests by that point, convention and meeting visitors and was already drawing a good deal of foot traffic from the other shopping activities.

With the history of the property out of the way, let’s turn our attention to the property’s current operations. The property’s hotel currently operates in conjunction with Radisson, which is probably because that’s excellent for website search traffic and for getting traction on third-party websites. Additionally, those rewards will often be able to take advantage of their loyalty to the hotel chain when visiting Las Vegas.

The Resort Fee is on the higher end of Las Vegas properties, coming in at $39/night. As far as the rooms themselves are concerned, they’re basically what you would expect for a high-end limited service hotel (as far as basic rooms go, anyway)—such as Radisson. This Resort Fee will afford guests high-speed internet access and, unless we’re understanding something incorrectly on their website, access to the fitness center on Monday-Thursday? They are free to message us if they want us to clarify something, but their website literally specifies that it’s Monday-Thursday, at least, for the basic room type.

One of my personal favorite things that the Resort Fee gets you is access to the, “Always Free Valet and Self-Park Garage,” which is a total oxymoron. If the valet is, “Always Free,” then what does paying a Resort Fee have to do with anything? We find that weekday rates range from the high double-digits to middle triple digits depending on what’s going on in town with weekend rates on a standard room generally starting at around $150/night regardless, then going upward depending on demand.

Overall, we conclude that Treasure Island is one of the more costly hotels on the staying side of things. They have one of the higher Resort Fees and it doesn’t seem they are interested in competing for weekday bargain travelers, which is their prerogative. When I first visited the property in 2014, they had an interesting new member offer by which players would get guaranteed amounts of Free Play for earning various amounts of points, which was mathematically positive. It seems they have something kind of similar, as of the time of this writing, for $20-$100 Free Play upon earning 100 points, but it seems you have to create an to access more information on this, so go to their site and do that if you are interested.

With the hotel operations out of the way, let’s turn our attention to the shows and entertainment options, which seems to be an area that the property specializes in:

Mystere, by Cirque du Soleil, is regarded as perhaps the best Cirque show in all of Las Vegas with performances happening most nights of the year. This is the property’s signature regular performance, and with the dazzling acrobats and visual impressiveness, it’s no surprise.

This property is also home to a unique attraction that will entice family visitors called Marvel’s Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N., which includes getting to know more about the history of the Avengers and training to become an, “Official,” operative for the Disney franchise.

Most weekends, various musical performances take place at different venues throughout the property, so we would recommend checking out the applicable page on their website for more details regarding that.

Uncensored International Show at Senor Frogs is basically an all-male revue that is similar in nature to Thunder from Down Under, so that’s something that many ladies, and probably even some guys out there, are likely to appreciate. As of the time of this writing, performances for this venue are Tuesdays through Sundays, so they take Monday nights off.

If men dressed as women is more your cup of tea, then you will perhaps want to check out the Drag Brunch, which is housed at the same Senor Frog’s venue, with two shows in the late morning and early afternoon hours on weekends.

Other attractions at the property include the Oleksandra Salon and Spa, the property’s spacious pool (with cabanas available for rent), and a handful of shopping experiences right on property that can be found here.

The casino itself doesn’t seem to be a huge focal point with the property’s website describing the slot floor as, “Intimate,” without giving a machine count. My experience was that the slot floor was expansive, hardly intimate, but I will say that cocktail service there was really fast—based on the limited sample size of two visits.

Table Games, once again, does not include a specific Tables count on their site, but emphasises that it is also, “Intimate,” whatever that they think that word means. In any event, games include Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Pai Gow Tiles, Three Card Poker, Let it Ride, Big Six and others. The property is also home to a sizable sports book called The Golden Circle. If you’re looking for a specific carnival game, then we would recommend calling in advance to inquire about general operating hours.

Baccarat and Blackjack can be found in the property’s high-limit room which, as of the time of this writing, claims that Table Maximums are as high as $15,000…so if you’ve got a ton of money to put down and want to do it in an atmosphere that could actually be rightly described as, “Intimate,” then there you go.

With the casino operations addressed, let’s see what they have going on in restaurant operations! After all, if there’s one highlight for staying on the Vegas Strip, it’s the many different outstanding restaurants to try in a relatively small area!

Phil’s Steak House is the semi-formal upscale steakhouse and seafood house for this property that is open for dinner service from Fridays-Tuesday evenings. With an average price of about $50 per head, according to them, it’s also reasonably affordable for those looking for a high end dining experience. We would recommend perhaps keeping this on your short list of Vegas steakhouse options, even if you’re not staying on property.

The Seafood Shack is a somewhat high end seafood place that is open for dinner service from Wednesdays-Sundays and, at $35/head average, is pretty comparable to other Vegas seafood places at this level of dining experience. We would also have to say that you might put this on your shortlist if you’re looking for a reasonably priced quality dining option.

Gilley’s BBQ is a casual restaurant for Western-style BBQ and will hardly break the bank with the property repping a $15-$30 dinner range per head. That compares well not just with other BBQ places in the Las Vegas area, but honestly, is within a reasonable range of most quality BBQ restaurants nationwide. Even a few regional BBQ chains (such as Jack Stack) are on the higher end of this price range. We would definitely recommend this one if BBQ is your thing—and it sure is one of mine!

We’ve discussed Senor Frog’s for the entertainment options above, but it is also a place to grab some excellent cocktails and food, which mostly consists of lunch and dinner service featuring an American and Tex-Mex blended menu. It’s open for dinner service Monday-Wednesday and lunch and dinner the remainder of the week. Honestly, it’s a bit pricier than one might expect for a menu of this nature, but that’s probably because of the entertainment.

The Golden Circle Sportsbook and Bar is more than just a sportsbook and features a wide variety of beer and cocktail (some tap beer) selections as well as a menu consisting almost entirely of traditional American Pub fare, such as burgers, dogs and nachos. It’s kind of tough to recommend just as a restaurant in itself, but if you want to eat while getting some money down on the big game, then it’s fine.

The Coffee Shop features breakfast and lunch Monday-Thursday, as well as Sundays, and is open 24/7 on Fridays and Saturdays. This is basically just casual American diner style food at the prices that you would expect from such a place, so it’s a great place to get a hearty breakfast if you need to recover from the previous night—we’ve all been there, at least, I have!

Pizzeria sco’s is open near the Mystere theatre almost all hours of the day, with exception only to the early morning hours. As you would expect, it does what it says on the box and is a great place to go if you want an affordable pizza pie relatively quickly.

Finally, other quick bites and the Treasure Island food court has a few familiar options such as Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen (fried chicken), Pick Up Stix (quick service Asian), Starbucks (of course) and Malena’s Yogurt Plus.

Overall, we note that the dining options at Treasure Island focus on American food, at least, as far as proper sit down restaurants go, so it’s hardly diverse. However, offsetting that fact is the fact that most of these restaurants come in at the low end of the price range compared to comparable food and service elsewhere, with the steakhouse and BBQ t, in particular, being somewhat of a standout.

Overall, we certainly recommend going in and having a look around at Treasure Island, but we don’t consider the rooms to be much of a bargain…of course, they’re probably not going out of their way to attract a bargain oriented crowd. What we will say is that you should put the BBQ place and the steakhouse on your shortlist for dining choices, even if you are staying elsewhere in the city.

Tropicana Las Vegas

While Las Vegas residents and visitors in the know commonly refer to this as, “The Trop,” Tropicana Las Vegas is the official name of this property. Originally opened in April of 1957, this is one of the oldest resort casino properties on the Las Vegas Strip still in operation.

As it sits today, the physical property is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties, a Real Estate Investment Trust that works closely with the operator, Penn National Gaming. In fact, Gaming and Leisure Properties came into ownership of the physical property in 2020, early in the Covid-19 pandemic, in exchange for several months of rent forgiveness on other properties owned by the REIT and operated by Penn National Gaming. It has a Tropical theme, 1,467 guest rooms and suites and 50,000 square feet of gambling real estate.

Earlier in this year, (2021) Bally’s Corporation has announced that it will acquire ownership of the physical property from Gaming and Leisure Properties, but that deal will not close until next year. Thus, as of the time of this writing, it remains owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties.

One of the executives of a high-end Miami hotel, Ben Jaffe, arrived in Las Vegas and purchased the physical land that now seats Tropicana with the intent of building the finest luxury hotel in Las Vegas that would rival anything else in the world. Jaffe would eventually sell all of his interest in the property, first when he didn’t have enough financing to complete the project, and second, when he was found to have ties to organized crime and subsequently needed to divest the majority of his holdings.

With that, J. Kell Housells became the one who buys (weak joke, sorry) and would acquire a majority interest in the Tropicana in the late 1950’s. The Tropicana’s good fortunes began to fade and the property would change hands a few times within a few years starting in the late 1960’s. It would be first sold to Trans-Texas Airways, which seems like an odd casino owner, in 1958…though it would be sold by them to Deil Gustafson (a financier) in 1972.

Ironically, he wanted to do an expansion and renovation, but couldn’t attract enough financing to do so as the property faced intense competition from newly opened properties on the Las Vegas Strip. It became increasingly clear that, without a substantial injection of funds, Tropicana would instead have to change its focus to gamblers visiting Vegas on a budget; it’s short history as a high-end destination seemed to already be a chapter coming to a close.

In 1975, heir to the Stauffer Chemical Fortune, Mitzi Stauffer Biggs, would buy a majority interest in the property. Fortunately, that majority ownership would provide the needed access to funds that the property would need for a major renovation, which began with the construction of a new 22-story hotel tower in 1977. Unfortunately, casino money was being laundered to the Kansas City mob during this time, and the casino manager was himself unlicensed, so Stauffer Biggs basically had no choice to sell the property.

Ramada Inn would come to own the property in 1979, which (by my count) makes that company the sixth majority (or exclusive) owner of The Tropicana in just two and a half decades. They would complete the Tiffany Tower (which was essentially finished by the time they came to own the property) and would build a new 21-story Island Hotel tower in 1986.

Ramada Inns would then create a spinoff corporation called Aztar Corporation, into which it divested all of its casino company holdings. This occurred in 1989 and, while it did not change operations much, would technically mark the seventh owner of the property, though a decade under the same ownership was stable by Tropicana standards.

Ownership would remain unchanged until 2007, at which point, the entire Aztar Corporation would be purchased by Columbia Sussex, which would include the Tropicana. Major renovations were planned to bring the Tropicana back (once again) to competing with the major Las Vegas Strip resort destinations, but the looming financial crisis that would become the Great recession put the kibosh on that, and Columbia Sussex would find itself in bankruptcy just one short year after buying Aztar Corporation! What a mess! I guess they didn’t leave themselves enough room when they bought Aztar.

In 2009, the property would be sold to Onex Corporation (now the ninth owner of Tropicana, for those still counting) out of bankruptcy as this corporation was one of the major creditors. What was left of Columbia Sussex would then sue this company for trademark infringement (!?) for their use of the Tropicana name! Eventually, this matter was settled with then owners receiving the right to use the name in the Las Vegas area.

Yes, “Then-owners,” because the property would then be sold to Penn National Gaming (owner #10, unless I missed one) who would then sell the physical property, as we mentioned, to Gaming and Leisure Properties, in 2020. When the deal with Bally’s corporation closes, by my count, this property will be at a dozen historical owners—although Penn National might still have the casino operations side of things (by lease with Bally’s), so it’s up to you how you want to count it. By my count, this property has changed owners roughly once every 5.5 years!

The way it operates now, the hotel side of the operation exists in partnership with Hilton and the overall property is something unique in Penn National’s operating portfolio. What makes it unique is that it is the company’s sole Las Vegas Strip casino it operates and the company is mostly known for locals and regional casinos, often under the Hollywood Casino brand.

Weekday rooms are something of a bargain here as they do not shy away from reducing their prices if nothing in particular is going on in town, of course, that’s fitting given that it remains one of the Strip’s oldest properties. Assuming no special events, weekday rates on the most standard rooms will usually be in the $49 to sub-$100 range. Weekend rates can range greatly, from $150-ish to well over $200 and even $300 if there is a special event or Raiders game the following day. We find that the weekend rates are not meaningfully different (on average) than standard rooms at other Las Vegas Strip casinos.

Unfortunately, one thing that is remarkably similar to other Vegas Strip properties is the Resort Fee of $37/night, which is just more than 75% of your ACTUAL ROOM RATE, if you happen to be paying $49 on one of the slow weeknights. Effectively, this means that a grand total of around $85 is about as low as your effective room rate is going to get.

The resort fee includes WiFi (which you can get on for free many areas of the property anyway), two bottles of water per day (Ha! At least it’s per day), two for one frozen drinks at the pool…maybe a value if you drink a lot…and free parking (which is free most days, anyway, for anyone). So, you pay a Resort Fee, in part, to get something that is free in the first place. Laughable. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much the standard now.

For those of you who might think, “Well, the Resort Fee includes access to the pool,” you’re actually wrong. Vegas locals can swim in the Tropicana pool for free on weekdays and only pay $10/each on weekends, which is a fraction of your resort fee…unless you have multiple people staying on your room, I guess. Guests have access to the fitness center and can access the spa and salon for extra fees associated with the services.

Probably the worst thing about the pool is that it closes at 5:00p.m.—what the hell!? That certainly seems a little bit early.

In of other entertainment options, Legends in Concert runs Thursdays-Sundays and features various tribute acts, so you will want to check their website for the most current schedule if you’re interested in seeing that show. Purple Reign—the Prince Tribute Show, is a regular performance that occurs almost daily, and sometimes, has two performances in one day. Tickets are a bit pricey, however, and I tend to think any number of people saw Prince himself (when he was alive) for less.

Tropicana is home to a Laugh Factory location, which is a popular comedy club franchise and is open nightly. Rich Little is a comedian and impersonator who, as of the time of this writing, regularly performs at the property from Thursdays-Sundays. Finally, as of the time of this writing, Murray the Magician has a regular slot at the Laugh Factory Thursdays-Sundays.

The casino floor is home to roughly 650 combined slot, video poker and video keno games that range in denomination from pennies to $25/credit. The property is also home to a somewhat small high-limit room. I can’t but laugh at this description of Video Poker from their website:

Experience the thrill of electronic poker!

Play at a faster pace and avoid pressure from other players with this one-person game that offers better odds of winning, depending on your skill level.

Video poker is a great way to practice before you step up to a live poker table.

The last sentence is just a riot as, with exception only to perhaps learning the hand rankings, Video Poker will teach a player precisely nothing about how to play Live Poker! Also, Tropicana doesn’t even have a Poker Room…so maybe they mean Table Games, but again, the only useful piece of information Video Poker might convey is how to understand hand rankings!

Anyway, it just convinces me that the person that wrote that page doesn’t know a whole heck of a lot about gambling, in general.

Table Games include Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Mini Baccarat, Bad Beat Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Heads up Hold Em and Three Card Poker. Learning how to play Video Poker properly will not meaningfully help you in any of these games. They also make it a point, on their website, to highlight that they have Triple-Zero Roulette, as if that’s some sort of benefit.

I typically don’t list Promotions for these listings, as they are always changing…but I did happen to glance at their Promotions page and it amuses me to no end to mention that every specific promotion mentioned was over at some point in the past! That kind of makes me think that the actual gambling side of operations is almost an afterthought, but we’ll let you decide for yourselves.

The property appears to be home to a scant five listed eateries, as of the time of this writing, one of which being a Stabucks! I guess this isn’t really the place to go if you want a long list of diverse dining options without leaving the property, so let’s see what else they have listed.

Robert Irvine’s Public House is a casual and casually priced American Pub style restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days per week. It seems basically fine, but there’s nothing that would really make it seem to stand out from any other American sports bar type of restaurant–including major chains.

They have Trago Lounge listed as a restaurant, but it doesn’t seem to actually have any food that they care to list on their website. With that, we would say that the safest thing to do is just assume that they maybe have some basic bar food and drinks, if any food at all, but you can call and ask them yourself if it’s important to you.

Open for dinner service Wednesday-Sunday, Oakville Tuscan Grill is the property’s somewhat upscale (business casual) steakhouse that places particular emphasis on their assortment of well over 100 fine wines. Prices are on the higher end of the middle range for Las Vegas steakhouses, and while we’re sure it’s fine, nothing about this establishment jumps out at us to the extent that we would think you should go out of your way—unless you really like fine wine. There will at least be one of those that you haven’t had before.

Red Lotus Asian Cuisine is a casual Asian restaurant that is open for dinner service seven days per week. It’s pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be.

With that, we find it difficult to recommend the Tropicana for anyone except weekday visitors who are looking to stay directly on The Strip and get (kind of) a bargain on the d room rate. While weekday rooms are on the cheap end, and the rooms themselves are reasonably modernly accommodated and clean, the Resort Fee is a bit pricey for the, let’s be honest, very limited offerings found at this property.

Basically, we look at this as a Vegas Strip casino that looks, feels and operates more like a Regional casino, with exception to the shows. The assortment of available shows is pretty good, and the hotel rates pretty reasonable by Strip standards, so if that’s your primary reason for visiting the city, then you could do worse. It’s not like more diverse restaurants are tough to come by if you don’t mind a short trek to a different property.

Tuscany Suites and Casino

The Tuscany Suites and Casino, or, “The Tuscany,” for short, opened in December of 2001 and is what we would consider a, “Near Strip,” casino, located on E. Flamingo Road. This property consists of 716 guest suites and some 60,000 square feet of gambling real estate, which makes it a fairly modest property by Las Vegas Strip area standards.

The original owner of the physical property was a certain Charles M. Heers, who planned for a large Caribbean-resort themed casino, but could never drum up the funding for such an operation. The property would sit and do nothing for more than a decade, but eventually, Heers would agree to partner with the Ellis family (of Ellis Island Casino and Brewery Fame) with plans to build the Italian-themed Tuscany casino.

Apparently, the original deal with Ellis would see the two properties (Tuscany and Ellis Island, who are geographic competition for one another) combine into one company and operate the casinos all as one. Tuscany’s claim is that Ellis intended to abandon that original plan, get in on Tuscany, acquire the operating rights and flat out sell Ellis Island. As a result, Heers backed out of the deal and the property is owned and operated by Heers’ CMH Real Estate Development.

As with Rio, this property is an all-suites hotel and rates are generally just under what can be expected from most casino properties on the Las Vegas Strip. Weekday rates can usually be found in the $70 range per night, provided there are no special events those days or other projected high occupancy. Per the usual, weekend rates are all over the place and are mostly predicated upon the overall demand for rooms in the area. They’re usually going to be in the three-digits (almost always) and even the basic suites are over $200 if there’s something going on, like a Raiders home game the next day.

As you would probably expect, there is a Resort Fee of $39/night, which is actually more than a few of the high-end resort casinos that are actually located on the Las Vegas Strip. I wonder if these places have something akin to a Roulette Wheel, just numbered 25-49, and they spin that to decide upon how much a Resort Fee should be.

Their main hotel page doesn’t say much about the amenities, but we understand that there is at least a pool and guests will have wireless internet access. The basic suites are pretty much in line with what one would expect from a limited service hotel.

Rat Pack is Back, as of the time of this writing, is one of the property’s headlining shows and takes place in the Copa Room every night that is not a Sunday. Craig Canter, who has done tributes to a few major musical artists, is performing Monday evenings as of the time of this writing. There are other weekly performances at this property, as well as other varying acts, so we would recommend checking their website for more details about the current schedule of shows.

In of their casino offerings, Tuscany Suites is home to more than 600 combined slot, video poker and video keno games.

The casino used to be home to live table games, but those closed during Covid-19 and all indications would make it appear as if they may never come back. However, if you’re willing to settle for the electronic versions of the casino staples Blackjack, Roulette and Craps; they do have those.

Finally, Tuscany Suites is d with Circa Sportsbook, so you can get your sports bets down right near the main entrance to the casino.

As of the time of this writing, Tuscany has four eating establishments to choose from, which include Tuscany Gardens, an Italian restaurant with this to say:

Enjoy a taste of Italy at the award-winning Tuscany Gardens! Our elegant fine dining Italian restaurant features quality steak, savory entrées, like seafood and veal, your favorite Italian classics and homemade pastas complemented by the chef’s famous sauces. To top it off, indulge in one of our mouthwatering homemade desserts and a bottle of wine from our ‘Wine Spectator’ award-winning wine list for the perfect romantic evening.

We would expect that this place is at least decent, especially considering that the casino is Italian-themed, so it better at least be okay.

Pub 365 is a sports bar American pub type location that claims to have 365 rotating craft beers and, naturally, is open 365 days of the year. It’s really more of a place for drinking than dining.

Cafe Bottega is a casual Italian-style cafe that is open 24/7, with the exception to being closed from 9:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. during the late night hours. This stop is mostly known for snacks, coffee drinks and breakfast foods and has this to say:

Casually elegant, artisanal food and drinks take center stage at Caffé Bottega, our relaxed, Italian-style eatery. Enjoy fresh-baked pastries, tasty breakfast sandwiches and ROC2 hand-roasted organic coffee in the morning. For a quick bite, try one of our artisan flatbreads, panini, soup or fresh salads.

Either way, you’ll probably find yourself stopping in at this one on a few occasions if you end up staying at Tuscany Suites. It’s just a quick place for grab and go at a casual price.

Marilyn’s Cafe is a small American diner type of restaurant that is open starting at seven in the morning into the late evening hours, seven days per week. If you’re interested in more of a full breakfast in a proper restaurant setting, and at a low price point, then you might choose this stop over the Cafe Bottega.

Overall, it would be tough for us to recommend this property to anyone coming in from out of town mainly due to it being very limited in gambling and dining options. They actually have an impressive array of shows for a property of this size, but for those coming from out of state or out of the country, you would probably want live table games to be an option at any time.

We would consider this something of a value property, and given that all of the rooms are suites it technically is (compared to the price of suites in other casinos), but we don’t really see that there’s enough in the way of cost-savings at this one to justify everything that you’re giving up.

Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino

Henceforward, we will simply call this casino, “Westgate,” as its official name is a complete mouthful. This property originally opened in July of 1969 and has borne several different monikers over the years, which we will get into briefly. As it sits now, it is home to 2,956 guest rooms and suites as well as just shy of 55,000 square feet of gambling real estate.

Located on Paradise Road, we should mention that this property is another one in this section that is not on the Las Vegas Strip proper, instead, it’s roughly a mile east of Circus Circus and a few other places on the Northern end of the Las Vegas Strip. Most people would probably opt for some form of transportation from the Northern end of The Strip to Westgate, but I didn’t think it was such a bad walk as long as it’s not too hot.

The owner of the property, it should come as no surprise, is Westgate Resorts and the operator is Paragon Gaming.

The property would originally open as the International Hotel, in 1979, but would become the Las Vegas Hilton just two years later. It would exist under that name for over three decades (which is extremely stable by Las Vegas standards) and then change to LVH in 2012. Once again, it would exist as LVH for only two years before adopting its current name.

The property was originally built by Las Vegas magnate, Kirk Kerkorian, who thought that it would be a good idea to have a new hotel near the Las Vegas Convention Center. He also reasoned that the hotel might become popular enough that other properties might open up along paradise and create a sort of, “Second Strip.” Of course, we know that didn’t exactly materialize, though Kerkorian was clearly correct that other properties could exist and thrive away from the Strip. We see that even today with properties such as Ellis Island, Tuscany, Gold Coast and many others.

One funny story involving this property, and kind of the, “Second Strip,” idea was that Howard Hughes was a little nervous about his Sands Las Vegas having another new casino to compete with. In some ways, he was basically what Steve Wynn would become trying to prevent new casino resorts from going up and competing with him, except Wynn instead preferred to try to accomplish those ends via lawsuits.

Anyway, after all of Hughes’ efforts to deter Kerkorian from building the International Hotel and Casino failed, Hughes would himself go on to purchase the land and unfinished structure for the Landmark Casino and Hotel. Essentially, it was Hughes goal to prevent enough business from going to the International that the property would end up crumbling under the weight of its own debt.

The plan kind of worked as Kerkorian would eventually be forced to sell the property due to mounting debts, but it’s pretty likely that would have happened anyway. The International wasn’t performing terribly, but it needed a few years to find its feet and Kerkorian’s debt load was pretty tremendous.

Kerkorian would sell his shares of International Leisure (the parent company of the International Casino, which also owned Flamingo, at the time) to Hilton, but then Hilton would go on to fully purchase the property of the International and assume all debts. That event would take place between 1971 (purchase of International Leisure shares) and 1972 (fully ownership by Hilton) and the name was changed to Las Vegas Hilton sometime in the interim.

Over the remainder of the 1970’s, the property would perform astoundingly well, and consequently, would see not one, but two, major hotel expansions and renovations. In the intervening years, ownership of the Landmark Hotel and Casino was being bounced back and forth like a ping pong ball with none of the owners able to successfully compete with the Las Vegas Hilton.

We have to touch upon the 1981 fire, as unfortunate an event as it was, just because it financially shaped the history of the property as another ten million had to be injected to rehabilitate some of the rooms and other interior structures. There were also a few deaths, so you can go and read about that if you want to, but we’re not really here to discuss tragedies…it just has to be mentioned as part of the history.

In the same year as the fire, another hotel expansion was already underway and served to make the Las Vegas Hilton the largest hotel in the world, at least, as of the time those rooms would officially opened up. The property was doing great mostly from convention center traffic and would continue to be the largest hotel in the world, by room count, until an expansion by the Flamingo in 1990.

It was in 1985 that the Landmark Hotel and Casino, originally built to compete with Las Vegas Hilton (which, again, was International Hotel at that time) would file for bankruptcy. Landmark would change ownership yet again shortly thereafter and would eventually close, in 1990, the same year that Flamingo took over as the largest hotel (by room count) in the world over Las Vegas Hilton—-which was itself still quite successful.

Also in the 1980’s, Las Vegas Hilton would open, “The Superbook,” which was known for being the largest sports and race book in all of Las Vegas. That’s actually kind of fitting considering that, prior to the opening of the property as International Hotel, this area was once home to a racing track!

The property remained successful even in the mid-90’s, at which point, in an effort to attract high-rolling Asian gamblers, they would build a suite exclusively for Baccarat. Other casinos (including Las Vegas Hilton, of course) had Baccarat Tables before, but Las Vegas Hilton was the first to dedicate so much money into building a suite exclusively for players of the game.

Ownership would technically change in 1998 when Hilton Hotels would spin all of its casino holdings, which included the Las Vegas Hilton, into a separate company called Park Place Entertainment. Naturally, Hilton either simply allowed Park Place to continue to use the Hilton name for the hotel, or otherwise chose to license the rights to use the name to them.

Shortly thereafter, Park Place Entertainment decided to focus their full attention on properties located on the Las Vegas Strip proper, but efforts to sell the Las Vegas Hilton fell through and the whole thing ended up tied up in litigation for some years. This was also a strange choice by Park Place Entertainment, as Las Vegas Hilton had still been performing well mostly due to its close proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In 2004, ownership would successfully change hands this time, though this sale was to a company known as Colony Capital who would acquire financing from Goldman Sachs to aid them in making the purchase. This would take place in the Mid-2000’s, but unfortunately, the Great Recession would come a few years later and result in a devastating drop in visitor traffic to Las Vegas. While all of the more tourist-oriented casinos in Las Vegas would feel the sting, Las Vegas Hilton arguably felt it more than anyone as the Great Recession would particularly devastate convention center traffic.

It was during this time that Colony Capital found itself unable to make its loan payments to Goldman Sachs, so rather than find a way for the two companies to ride it out together, Goldman Sachs instead decided to foreclose upon the property.

The following year, the licensing agreement that the property had (which transferred from owner to owner) to use the Hilton name would expire, and as a result, the property would rebrand as simply LVH. Some people actually believed, even at this time, that this was just to sound more trendy and that the property was still owned by Hilton, though that hadn’t been the case in over a decade.

The LVH had performed so badly throughout the Great Recession that, despite the fact that Colony Capital wanted to prevent the foreclosure and see it through, they realized that the portion of the hotel that they still owned was worthless, as it had all but financially failed at that point. Simply put, they had no leverage.

It was during the years between 2012-2014 that Goldman Sachs would partner with Gramercy Capital, in conjunction with their own foreclosure, to come to own the property outright. Neither of these companies really had any intent to hold it long-term, so the goal was to find a buyer and get out from this investment.

With that, in 2014, the property would be purchased by Westgate Resorts, who would announce an intention to convert the property, in the coming decades, to be a mix of hotel rooms and timeshare units. Given that this process could take as much as twenty years, in total, it’s kind of tough to say exactly where they are with that at this time.

That basically brings us to where the property is today as Westgate Las Vegas, so let’s see what the current hotel, and its nearly 3,000 guest rooms and suites, has to offer:

Weekday rates for the hotel can range anywhere from $50 to $100, typically, depending on what’s going on in town with major events sometimes resulting in higher rates. Weekend rates can vary greatly on standard rooms, but can typically be expected to be in the mid-100’s to mid-200’s, unless there is a major event going on in town.

One thing that the Westgate likes to do a good bit of the time is offer certain amounts of daily Free Play and Resort Credit with hotel stays, so that could be seen as partially offsetting the cost of the room. Of course, the $36.99/night Resort Fee offsets it the other way. As of the time of this writing, the credits that they are currently offering on their standard rooms (with a minimum two night stay) essentially offset the Resort Fee…if you look at them as having their full stated value.

Even with that, this is probably one of the better values in the general area of the Las Vegas Strip…and you are less than one mile from the Northern end of the Strip, so this might be a place that you should put on your shortlist if you are visiting Vegas on something of a budget. It’s not exactly what we would call cheap, but there are definitely more expensive hotels out there.

The rooms have been modernized over the years, including some renovations and upgraded furnishings by the new owners, Westgate Resorts. Overall, we would say that what you should expect from this property is comparable to the high-quality rooms that can be found at other limited-service Westgate branded hotel properties. We definitely think you should compare the different offers and room types on their website to try to get the package that you think is the best value for you!

In of the property’s amenities, Serenity Spa is the property’s spa that guests can access with the extra charges for services that one would expect.

If you’re looking to get married, then one old-school Vegas throwback is that the property is home to a wedding chapel. I wonder if they also offer annulment services and document printing at the hotel’s front desk?

Cabanas are available for rent at the property’s sizable outdoor pool and guests will also enjoy access to wireless internet as well as the modern fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment. Guests will also be able to schedule time at the pickleball and tennis courts, if they wish. I’m not going to pretend to know what pickleball is, do you play by hitting a pickle around?

The property is also home to a dozen, or so, shopping outlets. If you want to look into what specific shops they have for guests, then you should visit their webpage for that here.

In of entertainment options, Barry Manilow has a number of dates scheduled throughout the end of 2021 and in the first half of 2022, so if you’re a fan of his, you’ll want to see their website for more information on those performances.

If you’re into magic shows, then Jen Kramer is the property’s regularly performing magician, as of the time of this writing. Apparently, she has been featured on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us, Masters of Illusion and NBC’s Today Show, so that’s a pretty impressive TV performance resume!

As of the time of this writing, Soul of Motown is a musical performance that happens during select times on Thursdays-Sundays and is a popular event held at the property. This particular event is something of a tribute act that features the hits from a wide-variety of Motown artists, so we would definitely recommend checking it out if you’re into that kind of music.

The Bronx Wanderers have wandered themselves to the Westgate Las Vegas, so if you’re wondering what sort of music that they might perform, let’s see what they have to say:

The Bronx Wanderers, are up close and personal, yet larger than life, take you on a journey of the greatest music of our time. A multi award winning show by the Las Vegas Review Journal & Yelp and TripAdvisors 2020 Travelers Choice. The story is about a family that delivers a ionate, heart-pumping mix of Rock N Roll’s great American Songbook from the first generation right through today’s current hit-makers. Buckle your seat belts!

This is definitely a well-acclaimed act! The best part is the fact that they perform nightly, so it definitely won’t be difficult to see one of their shows.

Sexxy is a topless female revue for those of you who are into that sort of thing. Is it more sexy, or perhaps exxtra sexxy, when it’s spelled with superfluous X’s? If you decide to go see it, then please let us know if the exxtra letter makes a difference!

As of the time of this writing, free entertainment at the International Bar can be found at Westgate certain nights of the week. This are mostly local up-and-coming Vegas musicians, but you should definitely see their website for more details, especially if you’re wanting to schedule your stay to correspond with these offerings.

Also as of the time of this writing, Super Karaoke can be found at the Superbook on Thursday nights, so if you think you can sing like a superstar, or want to watch others who think they can, then that would be a great night for you to stay at the property.

Family Pride Bingo, as of the time of this writing, is a Bingo event that occurs monthly and goes to benefit LGBTQ+ causes. For those of you who love both Bingo and inclusivity, then you should probably schedule your stay to correspond with this event. Hell, if we happen to go to Vegas in the same month, you might even see me there. Please come over and say hi…I promise I don’t bite.

Beyond that, the property features a wide variety of special performances and concerts throughout the year, so we would recommend checking out their website for more details on special acts.

I think we are finally ready to turn our attention to the casino floor, which as mentioned, is more modest than some coming in at just under 55,000 square feet of gambling space.

As you would probably expect, Westgate leads with its Superbook, which remains the largest sports and racing book in all of Las Vegas. Like we mentioned before, it even has karaoke on Thursday nights, as of the time of this writing. In of seating, there are some 350 seats available, so it’s not the largest in that regard, but it does have a 220×18 FOOT video wall display, which is staggering. It is open from the early morning to very late evening hours, seven days per week.

The property is home to several hundred combined slot, video poker and video keno games, with partial listings of slot titles available on their website. Typically, a player can find just under 600 total machines on property…and I can say that they are pretty well spread out, for the most part, so it’s not hard to get around.

The property is also home to just shy of forty gaming tables and six poker tables, so if machines aren’t your thing, Westgate has you more than covered.

As of the time of this writing, the Poker Room opens for business at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, Thursday and Friday, then opens at 10:00 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. How late it stays open mainly depends on how much action there is that particular day. We would recommend checking out their website if you are reading this towards the end of 2021, or in 2022, as these hours might have changed since this was written. Both Limit and No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em are the games dealt here.

Table Games include Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat and Craps. They do not seem to list any carnival games on their website, so for the time being, we won’t either. If you’re looking for a specific carnival game, then we would recommend calling and asking about it.

With the casino operations covered, the time has come to talk about the restaurant options available at the Westgate! So far, it seems like the property is something of a value and has all of the entertainment…and most of the casino gaming options…that a person could want, so let’s see if they’re able to satisfy all appetites!

The Edge Steakhouse is the property’s upscale(ish) American style steakhouse that features a wide variety of choices for cuts as well as some excellent seafood dishes. As of the time of this writing, it is open five nights a week, for dinner service, on Tuesdays-Saturdays.

Fresco Italiano serves up some of the best in traditional Italian classic dishes, such as pastas and delectable seafood choices. This dining establishment is open for dinner service seven nights per week, and is actually ranked #1 for Italian restaurants in Las Vegas by TripAdvisor.

Many of you out there have probably heard of Benihana, which is a reasonably priced Japanese exhibition-style chain that has this to say:

At world-famous Benihana, enjoy delicious Japanese menu options prepared exhibition-style by master chefs on Teppan grills. Selections include fresh sushi appetizers and entrées featuring free range chicken, New York strip steak, filet mignon and fresh lobster tail. Benihana provides an authentic cultural adventure amid lush Japanese gardens and flowing water features. Discover the taste of Benihana…Las Vegas style!

We would imagine that many of our readers have been to one of these before, so you will have some idea of what you are getting. I haven’t been to this one, though I have been to one or two Benihana locations and I have always found the sushi and sashimi to be delicious, which is all that I would ever get at a place like this…but that’s because I really love sushi! It is open for dinner service Wednesdays-Sundays.

Silk Road Asian Bistro is a upscale casual Asian style restaurant with a wide variety of the dishes that you would expect. The dishes are carefully prepared and always flavorful, so this is one stop that we would recommend for late lunch or dinner on Thursdays-Sundays.

Rikki Tiki Sushi is a stop for exquisitely prepared sushi in a very calming and tranquil environment. This location is surrounded by lush gardens and the koi pond, so it strikes as being very authentic and the ambiance actually adds to the flavor of the food, whereas in many other places, the aesthetic is used to distract from mediocre food. You definitely have sto stop here, Wednesday-Sunday dinner service, if you’re into sushi as much as I am!

Open from 7:00 a.m. until the early morning hours, Sid’s Cafe has just about everything that you are looking for if you are in the mood for Casual American for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Don’t worry, if you happen just to have a sweet tooth that day, Sid’s also has a wide variety of delicious and decadent dessert choices.

Drafts Sports Bar and Grill Express is the place to go for great cocktails, craft beers, drafts and some excellent wings, sandwiches, burgers and other American Sports Bar staples. The best part is that the prices are comparable to most other American sports bar locations in Las Vegas, which means that they will hardly be budget breaking. It is open starting at 11:00 a.m. Monday-Thursday and opens in the morning hours on weekends.

Fortuna is a quick grab and go stop for ready made sandwiches, salads and Starbucks coffee drinks. If you’re on your way out to check out the Strip or Downtown and need something quick, then this is the place for you. If you just need a late-night snack, that’s also fine, because this outlet is open 24 hours per day.

Where’s the Mexican food? Don’t worry, Westgate also has that covered with Nachos Tacos Authentic Mexican, which is a casually priced and friendly Mexican restaurant that does what it says on the box. It opens at 11:00a.m. on Mondays-Fridays and then at 8:00a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays! I’ve never thought about having pollo fajita-style nachos for breakfast before, but it might not be a bad idea!

Another Japanese inspired location is Bar Sake and Robata Grill, so we will let them speak for themselves, from the website:

A real unique dining experience, Bar Sake & Robata Grill offers a one-of-a-kind, Robata-Style menu helmed by renowned Chef Masa Shiga that highlights a variety of meats, seafood and fresh vegetables cooked on skewers and slow-grilled over a high heat. Robata-Style cooking originated from a centuries-old, country-style cooking by Northern Japanese fisherman around a communal hearth. Bar Sake menu highlights include Suzuki, a fresh Chilean Seabass; Nasu, a Japanese eggplant served with sweet miso; Asupara Maki, a bacon-wrapped asparagus; Ise Ebi, half a lobster with Yuzu butter; a mouthwatering Gyu New York Filet served tare or with salt and pepper; and a collection of sushi, including the Spicy Tuna Roll, Farmers Market Roll and the signature Bar Sake Roll.

That sounds positively divine! Unfortunately, they closed at some point during the Covid-19 pandemic and have yet to reopen as of the time of this writing, but you can check out the property’s website to see if that has changed—we sure hope so!

Cordovano Joe’s Pizza does pretty much what it says on the pizza box and is open from 11:00a.m. Mondays-Fridays and starting at 8:00a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Maybe a slice of pizza AND a taco for breakfast? Sure, why the hell not! You’re in Vegas; live a little! At least, if you’re into New York Style thin-crust pizza, anyway. This writer says, “It’ll do.”

Finally, burgers, salads and fresh fruits are available to you at the Pool Bar and Grill during most hours that the pool is open, so you certainly can’t go wrong with that.

Overall, we would recommend Westgate for those Vegas visitors who are on something of a budget as the property has the best sportsbook in town, reasonable hotel prices and packages (though we wish they would get rid of Resort Fees), a wide variety of restaurants for a value property and also an excellent selection of shows.

The only downsides to this property are that you will have to walk (or use other conveyance) to get to the proper Las Vegas Strip and you’ll definitely want to rent-a-car or use some sort of rideshare service if you intend to visit Downtown Las Vegas.

Still, Westgate offers an excellent overall value and is jam packed full of entertainment and excellent dining options. If you’re not careful, then you might just spend your entire trip there without actually leaving the property!

The Westin Las Vegas

We are listing this because the property still operates as a hotel and has some restaurants, but the casino operations shutdown in 2017, so it is no longer home to a casino. That’s relatively recent, so we wouldn’t want past visitors reading this page to wonder why it’s not on here.

Wynn Las Vegas + Encore

As we mentioned in the Encore listing, we would be listing all of the different restaurants and casino operations for both properties together here, because that’s basically how they are treated on the property’s website. The Wynn property opened in April of 2005 and is itself home to 2,716 hotel rooms and just under 180,000 square feet of gambling real estate.

The history of this property doesn’t have much to it, especially since it’s so new, so we’re going to get right into the hotel and gambling offerings.

We’re not even going to mess around discussing room rates, other than to say that rates for standard rooms can range anywhere from $150-$900 with slower weekdays being on the lowest end of these and busy weekends being on the higher end. Even some weekdays that don’t really have much going on in town will still run north of $200/night, but if you’re even contemplating staying at the Wynn, then you’re probably not very concerned with price anyway.

Of course, the Room Rates are evidently not high enough, so go ahead and add a $45 Resort Fee, per night, on top of those. I believe that’s tied for the highest Resort Fee on The Strip, but again, if you’re at The Wynn, then your plan is pretty much to part with as much money as possible as quickly as possible.

All of that said, I must it that my experience in of customer service is top-notch, they were exceptionally nice to me, even though I was just there to use a few free play coupons!

Apparently, the Resort Fee includes access to Wireless Internet, access to the rooftop pools and hot tubs, access to the fitness center (for up to two guests—why not all of them?) and then you will also have access to a concierge who will be very happy to schedule other things for you to go and pay for. It’s intriguing that the Resort Fee should cover all of these things that were free, except for perhaps the WiFi, before the implementation of Resort Fees.

For those of you who don’t really gamble and won’t have comps, one particular slap in the face (or wallet) will be that your Resort Fee does NOT cover the $25 valet fee. You will still be paying that, even if you’re staying at the property and paying a Resort Fee. I’m sure it’s just because they are parking your car in luxury, as opposed to some sub-standard parking facility that is not as luxurious.

Of course, even the simplest rooms on offer at the Wynn are bright, tastefully appointed and elegant. We would probably have to say that they look kind of like upscale bedrooms might look in the more affluent suburbs around major cities, so for some people, it’ll be just like staying at home. If that sort of experience is worth the hefty price tag that you’re going to run into, then that’s definitely something you should consider if you’re thinking about staying here.

The Wynn has a wide-variety of entertainment and experience options for its guests, even beyond the sizable pools, hot tubs, two fitness rooms, spa and salon and the barbershop. For instance, Wynn offers various cooking classes with masters of the kitchen on certain days of the week, so if you’re looking to get a cooking lesson directly from an Executive Chef, then we would recommend attending one of these sessions.

Whether it be for Bachelor parties, Bachelorette parties, birthday parties, anniversaries or family getaways, The Wynn has custom packages to accommodate special events that are both large or small, so that’s definitely something that you should check out if you can afford the price tag on these sorts of packages. We’d have to say that, if you have the money to spend, then why not? There’s no doubt in our mind that, even though the events may be lavish, there is still a to be had on fun!

For those of you who prefer to do your gambling on the links, then you and your golf betting buddies can reserve tee times at the Wynn Golf Club, which is arguably the finest golf course in the Las Vegas area. As you would probably expect, this does not come cheaply, either, so get ready to open up your wallet far wider than you might have to for your local country club.

Do you know what a NutriDrip IV Drip is? I sure as heck don’t, but if you like those, there’s a facility at Wynn where you can do exactly that…or would it be done to you? I don’t know. Fitness gurus might also enjoy SoulCycle, which is apparently some sort of exercise bike class that has a visual experience with a video wall, or something. I’m really out of my element here, I generally don’t go to Las Vegas for exercise, though I do walk a lot while there.

The two properties are home to more than two dozen different shops and retailers, many of which, as you would expect, are high-end. If you come to Vegas for the shopping, among other things, then you might want to take a look at some of the boutiques and other locations on offer here.

Other entertainment options include Wynn’s Lake of Dreams, which describes itself as:

Discover the all-new Lake of Dreams show, a multimedia experience that blends colorful puppetry, an immersive soundtrack and state-of-the-art sound and lighting to create an unforgettable spectacle on Wynn’s signature water attraction. Sparkling with 5,500 LED lights, the 3-acre Lake of Dreams is framed by a 90-foot performance waterfall and 1,500 pine trees, the backdrop for sensational visuals.

That’s definitely something to check out if you’re in the mood for a lightshow. You probably have something similar close to you if you live in or near a major city, almost for sure during the Winter season, but this is something relaxing to do all the same.

Given the size and scope of the property, it should come as no surprise that both Wynn and Encore feature a wide variety of nationally-recognized acts throughout the year, so we would recommend checking out their website to see what shows might correspond with your visit, or perhaps, if you would want to schedule your visit based around when various headliners are going to be performing.

XS is one of the property’s happening nightspots and is a European style pool that often features live entertainment in an intimate setting. Once again, the acts are ever changing, so we would have to recommend checking out their website for more specific details around the time that you are going to be visiting.

Encore Beach Club and EBC at Night are the Beach Club at the Encore side of the property that also features frequent live entertainment. Again, this is not any kind of set show with a single performer or group, so you will want to check the website for schedules for the time that you will be in town.

Overlook Lounge, Aperitifs and Spirits is just a high-end lounge for cocktails that occasionally features entertainment. For me, “Aperitifs,” just means that there’s a on both pretension and price.

Parasol Down is a brightly lit and attractive lounge that is not quite so pretentious and also offers a stellar view of the Wynn Lake of Dreams. Eastside Lounge is a cozy environment, but still maintains the aesthetically elegant feel, and is a place for appetizers as well as handcrafted cocktails.

With that, we will turn our attention to the casino floor of the two properties to see what sorts of things are on offer there. Between the two properties, there are a total of more than 1,800 combined video poker, slot and video keno machines ranging in denomination from pennies to $1,000/credit. For those of you who need to bet high to get a thrill, then Wynn is the place for you as, even if the machine returned 99% to players, your $10 expected loss per spin would be more than most Las Vegas players are even betting, per spin, in total!

Table Games at the two properties include Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Baccarat and a wide variety of carnival games that they don’t design to specifically list on their website, so we won’t list them here, either. As you could have probably have guessed, you generally won’t find the best odds at a casino such as Wynn, or the best slot returns, either. People who are tight with their gambling dollars are kind of the people that Wynn is inclined to keep out rather than try to deliberately attract.

Of course, poker players might enjoy the fact that the luxurious poker room at The Wynn is open 24/7, and the last we looked, they were listed on Bravo Poker Live, so you can visit that website to see what games are going on at any given time.

Finally, the Wynn Race and Sportsbook is a spacious affair that consists of more than 1,500 square feet of total space and has dozens of TV’s, many of them adorning a large video wall that stretches from one end to another, for you to view whatever sporting event that you feel like getting some money down on. It is definitely in contention for being one of the nicest sportsbooks in all of the city.

It should come as no surprise that a property of this nature would encom some of the finest in fine dining selections in the entirety of Las Vegas, and with that, the two properties combine for ten unique fine dining experiences as well as a wide variety of casual restaurants.

Casa Playa is brought to you by Executive Chef Sarah Thompson, but more than that, also features the work of an expert mixologist and an agave specialist! Rather than try to capture what all this high-end Coastal Mexican restaurant has to offer, we think it’s best to let them speak for themselves:

Casa Playa puts its own distinctive spin on authentic Mexican coastal cuisine with a sustainably sourced menu that merges creativity with tradition. the party and feast on chef Sarah Thompson’s ceviche, aguachile and seafood platters, all sourced from Mexico’s Pacific coastline. Wagyu tacos and suckling pig carnitas alongside freshly house-made corn tortillas ensure the night never ends. Wynn’s expert mixologist Mariena Mercer Boarini has curated a collection of thoughtful, cutting-edge cocktails based on the spirits and produce of Mexico, while agave expert Noah Arenstein oversees the mezcal and tequila selection.

It seems like this place sources only the freshest of ingredients and everything there is made from scratch and to order. Some people haven’t had Wagyu beef in their lives, but here, you can get it in the form of a taco if that’s something that you’re interested in.

Once again, you’re going to want to come seriously prepared to open your wallet if you are going to eat here. It’s for that reason that we only recommend the Wynn, overall, if your budget is in the neighborhood of, “Whatever I happen to spend.” Our concern is that folks with even something of a large budget won’t find themselves with enough to do everything that they want if they’re also paying the sort of room rates that Wynn demands. This is honestly a place that you should only start thinking about if your Vegas vacation budget is in the five figures.

Cirpirani is a fine dining Italian restaurant that isn’t quite as expensive as Casa Playa, but it’s definitely going to be up there compared to other Italian restaurants in town and compares, price-wise, roughly similar to the fine Italian options available at The Venetian and The Palazzo. This restaurant has been tested by the world and has a handful of successful restaurants in some of the world’s largest cities that are highly notable for their delicious dining choices. That being the case, if this brand can be successful in those places, then we’re sure you’re in for a delightful Italian dining experience here.

Delilah is an elegantly-appointed American fine dining eatery that also features live piano entertainment most nights. The emphasis for this place is definitely on the stylish high-end surroundings and musical atmosphere that is sure to impress, but the food is also excellent. According to them, this place is meant to be something of a throwback to the Las Vegas supper clubs in the 1950’s, the sort of places that you would expect to find folks like Frank Sinatra dining!

Speaking of, Sinatra is a fine dining Italian restaurant that is also located at these properties, which is obviously named after Frank Sinatra. This one is even more upscale in offerings and pricing than the previous Italian option listed, so once again, you had better come prepared to part with some money if you’re going to dine here. Indoor dining is available in the brightly-lit and classically appointed restaurant, or you can choose to dine outdoors near one of the elegant fireplaces. As far as the food is concerned, it promises to basically be the classic type of Italian dishes that you would expect—they’re not trying to reinvent the wheel.

Lakeside is a fine dining seafood experience that is perhaps most unique in that it is one of the only Las Vegas Strip restaurants that specializes in Hawaiian style dishes! Speaking of Hawaii, that also happens to be where the fresh fish is caught and flown from everyday, so visitors from the Aloha State certainly won’t feel far from home, and for those of you who haven’t been, you’ll be able to stop in for dinner at this restaurant and get an idea of what authentic Hawaiian food is like.

Closed on Mondays, Mizumi is a one of a kind elegant and authentic Japanese dining experience to be found at these Las Vegas properties, which have this to say:

Star chef Min Kim unmasks the flavors of the Far East at Mizumi, with ocean-fresh sushi, sashimi and modern Japanese specialties. The entire Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Award-winning restaurant looks out over private Japanese gardens surrounding an idyllic koi pond with a 90-foot waterfall. For a private al fresco dining experience, reserve the floating pagoda table, accessible by a private path through lush gardens.

Ocean fresh sushi definitely appeals to me, as does the truly exceptional and gorgeous atmosphere. That said, what doesn’t appeal to me so much are the jaw-dropping prices, but visitors to this eatery usually leaving feeling as though it was worth it. Again, if you’re on anything even approaching a budget, then Wynn probably isn’t the right place for you to stay anyway…but for those of you who have room in the budget for only one or two extremely high-end dining experiences, this should definitely be on your shortlist of choices.

Mizumi also has Mizumi Teppanyaki, and if you didn’t know what that means either (I sure didn’t), it just means that many of Mizumi’s offerings are prepared tableside for you. Once again, you’d better be ready to part with some Bennies if you want to enjoy a full experience at this elegant eatery.

SW Steakhouse undoubtedly stands for, “Steve Wynn,” steakhouse and promises the sort of fine dining lakeside experience that Wynn himself would almost certainly approve of. The restaurant has this to say about itself:

Prime aged steaks and a curated selection of certified Japanese and domestic Wagyu are the stars at the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Award-winning SW Steakhouse. Think A5 Japanese Wagyu, dry-aged tomahawk chops and a chile-rubbed double rib eye, featured on Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate.” Main courses like pan-roasted sea scallops with English pea risotto and black truffle sauce are crowd favorites, as is the prime view of the nightly shows on the Lake of Dreams.

The dishes sound positively excellent, but the lakeside ambiance is also highly unique, even by Las Vegas standards, so if you have a high-end steakhouse in your Las Vegas trip budget, then we would recommend that you at least take a look at this one and give it some consideration. For those of you considering spending your trip at the Wynn, as we said before, price should already be no object for you if you want to come here, so check it out!

Tableau is a brightly-lit and elegantly appointed atmosphere that represents probably the highest end brunch spot in all of Las Vegas. Of course, not all of the offerings on the table can be had at other spots, with dishes such as Lobster Cobb with buttermilk dressing being featured at this location. If you’ve ever wondered what a highest of high society brunch might look like, then you need look no further, just stop in at Tableau. It’s pricey, of course, but cheaper than a few of the other property eateries.

Wing Lei is a Chinese restaurant that has something that most others don’t: a Michelin star. In fact, this restaurant is the first of its kind in the United States to earn such a prestigious honor and has this to say:

The first Chinese restaurant in North America to earn a Michelin star, this Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star winner serves Cantonese, Shanghai and Szechuan flavors, featuring delicacies like tableside-carved Imperial Peking duck and wok-fried Maine lobster. Chef Ming Yu’s dishes are served in a lavish gold dining room inspired by classical Chinese jewel boxes, with a view of century-old pomegranate trees.

If you’ve ever wondered what an Asian restaurant in a league of its own might be like, then we would highly recommend checking this one out. Naturally, your expectation for the check here should be in line with your high expectations for quality. That is to say, this is not going to be cheap.

With the fine dining covered, we will now turn our attention to the nearly one dozen Casual Dining options that are available between the two properties. Even when your budget is as bottomless as your appetite, you still want something relatively quickly sometimes.

Allegro is what es for casual Italian dining at the Wynn, but make no mistake, it’s going to be as pricey as what some other Las Vegas properties would consider upscale Italian. This restaurant, which can be found in some other locations, has this to say:

Chef Enzo Febbraro grew up in his grandmother’s kitchen in Naples and has cooked all over the world, from Paris to Nice, Munich, Madrid, Milan and London. Now more than a quarter-million guests come to Allegro each year to get a taste of his classics, such as lasagna Napoletana, pappardelle with wild boar ragu and creamy signature burrata. Positioned at the hub of Wynn action, steps from the Wynn and Encore show theaters and close to Wynn Plaza Shops, Allegro is a landmark.

Once again, the fact that this chef has restaurants that do well in some of the most food oriented cities in the world should be enough to tell you that the quality and composition of the dishes are top-notch, so if you’re looking to spend just a little less than the two top tier Italian eateries at this properties, this is one you should consider.

It should come as no surprise that The Buffet At The Wynn should have more high-end offerings, and prices, than your average Las Vegas buffet. We suppose that one nice aspect of this buffet is that it is one of the few remaining that are open for breakfast, lunch, brunch and dinner. Here is what they have to say about themselves:

The Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas redefines the breakfast, brunch or dinner experience with a feast of options, including an all-new eggs Benedict station and a Latin Street Food station among the 16 tantalizing food kitchens designed by Executive Chef Jason Duarte. All the classics are here too, from butcher-inspired cuts to shrimp cocktail, sushi and more. The Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas will satisfy every craving.

That should tell you what you need to know, and prices range from the $40-$70 range depending on what meal that you are arriving to enjoy. Where most buffets are proud to have an omelet station, this one has a station just for eggs benedict. I’m not going to lie, I’m tempted.

The Cafe at the Wynn does what a Cafe should with grab and go salads, sandwiches, pastries and specialty coffee drinks. Pricewise, it’s a little bit more than your standard Starbucks location, but the food is great and the prices aren’t too bad. People stopping in at the Wynn just to have a look around the property won’t find themselves with sticker shock, or anything.

Wynn is also home to a Charlie’s Bar and Grill location that specializes in burgers, sandwiches, Chicago style hot dogs and other American food appetizer staples, like nachos. When it comes to the price point, this is one of the few Wynn locations that can truly be considered American Casual, so if you’re stopping in for a look and get hungry, then this is somewhere to grab some eats without breaking the bank.

Goodies on Demand does a little bit of everything with breakfast staples, sandwiches, pizzas, coffee drinks and grab and go items. If you’re looking for something quick and relatively cheap, especially by Wynn standards, then this is a convenient little stop for you.

Jardin is a mostly American brunch and dinner spot at the Wynn that has this to say:

Imagine enjoying the freshest seasonal cuisine in an airy, conservatory setting overlooking shimmering pools and manicured gardens. Dishes range from health-conscious to indulgent with an emphasis on impeccably fresh produce. Choose one of Jardin’s brunch cocktails (think a smoked bacon Bloody Mary) or a garden-fresh green juice. Brunch is ever popular, with mouthwatering short rib and egg sliders and Maine lobster Benedict.

While the Wynn may list this under Casual Dining, we would urge our readers to understand that this would not be cheap by most peoples’ standards. This is definitely going to put you out a few more bucks than your typical American restaurant. Still, it’s not too bad…we would say that this place has prices roughly double what national American food chain restaurants might charge, but it also comes with a quiet and elegant setting. It might be worth it.

La Cave Bar and Restaurant is an American Food and wine bar that is surrounded by lush greenery and is neatly and elegantly appointed. Once again, what es for, “Casual Dining,” might come as a surprise to those who aren’t familiar with high-end resorts, so we would encourage you not to come in here expecting it to be an economical option.

Wynn is also home to a Red 8 location which specializes in Cantonese style dishes and, especially by Wynn standards, will not break the bank. With that said, it remains intimate and aesthetically pleasing, and those of you who have stopped in at one of the other Red 8 locations in Las Vegas will know what to expect here. Overall, you can’t go wrong with this one—besides, their food is great!

Terrace Pointe Cafe is an excellent dining establishment for brunch, lunch and dinner and is surprisingly friendly on the wallet for traditional food staples with a bit of a French flair. It’s also relatively easy on the eyes and quite comfortable, they say this about themselves:

Terrace Pointe Café is a lively meeting place for breakfast, lunch and brunch favorites. Dine inside with panoramic views of manicured gardens or move outdoors to enjoy the patio. You’ll find a variety of favorites, from brioche French toast to a shrimp, crab and lobster club sandwich, or a loaded truffle mushroom Angus burger. A favorite in hot weather: a banana split waffle bowl sundae with all the toppings, enjoyed poolside.

This is one that we would definitely recommend for the fun seafood sandwiches, reasonable prices and friendly service. It’s also a great option for folks who might be on something of a budget who just wanted to stop in and look around the property for a bit.

Urth Caffe is another coffee drink and tea stop that has some of the grab and go offerings that you might find at the other cafe locations between the two properties.

Finally, Wazuzu is another Asian eatery that falls in between Red 8 and the fine dining establishment in of its price point. The restaurant has this to say:

Chef Jimmy Widjaja’s Pan-Asian menu brings together flavors inspired by Chinese, Japanese and Thai cuisine in surprising ways. Although Wazuzu is perfect for a casual lunch or dinner, its glittering 27-foot dragon made of 90,000 individual crystals makes even a quick bite feel like a special occasion. Don’t miss the drunken noodles, which were featured on Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.”

If you decide to try the noodles, please come back and let us know if they are the best thing that you ever ate!

With that, we have concluded our listings for both the Wynn and the Las Vegas Strip ad nearby areas. As far as recommendations go, the Wynn makes no secret of mainly existing to attract an affluent crowd with a nearly bottomless budget, so this definitely isn’t going to be the place for you to stay, in our opinion, unless you’re bringing at least low five figures for your overall Vegas getaway.

Unless, of course, you don’t gamble. In that event, depending on the dates of your stay, you might be able to get away with only bringing $5,000-$7,500 to Wynn for anywhere from 4-7 nights, as long as you are fine with one of their basic rooms.

Simply put, Wynn/Encore are simply the places to go if price simply doesn’t matter to you whatsoever. There definitely aren’t going to be any bargains or any ways to save substantial amounts of money, other than not gambling, in any area of the resort.