FOOD
As much as I like the CANNERY EAST, I just did not explore the food there. They do not have a buffet until around September, but poker players thought the restaurants were good. I had a cordon blue panni sandwich at the deli and I would not have another. It was dry and tasteless. I was treating relatives while there and went to places where they felt comfortable.
SAM'S TOWN buffet is not what it once was, but I got plenty to eat there. I took four relatives and they seemed to enjoy themselves too. I miss the old days when it ended with a visit to a homemade chocolate store. What a fine buffet it was then. We all got plenty to eat however, and I used up one of my coupons.
SALVADORAN ILOPANGO on Tropicana
Located in the plaza across Pecos from the plaza where the Pinball Museum is located, this little spot served me one of the nicest breakfasts of my trip. I was the only gringo. There was a large table of men sitting more than eating and I wondered if they were looking for day work. My waitress was a pretty young girl. Passing through was a heavy older woman with smiles. She had a cane and wore a loud colorful dress.
This is not an expensive restaurant interpreting Salvadoran food for gingos. It is the kind of place I often ate in costa Rica or Mexico. Small, with diner tables, maps of Central American countries on the wall and two televisions going in Spanish. One was a heavy romance complete with some good sex scenes and an overly dramatic attempt at suicide. The other television presented the news.
I loved it all, but the food was the best and I do not even know the names of all the tastes. No one asked me how I wanted the eggs. Next time I will say, but they were fine. The rest was great. There were at least four tastes: a serving of gallo pinto which was blander than the Costa Rican variety with that special sauce, but still so good I did not know if I wanted any Tapatio hot sauce or not. One chorizo. Not the Mexican variety of ground up meat but a fat link that tasted more like Spanish chorizo. I loved it. One mixture of potato and vegetable wrapped in corn silk, like an empanada with no pastry. Something I can't remember. With all this came two of the most wonderful, hot circles of bread. I drank horchata, listened to the Spanish banter, watched the overly dramatic soap opera and just had a pleasant morning emersed in Central America. I'll be back there again. Pupusas are on sale for 99 cents on Wednesday. There were many foods including the soup of seven seas. Much of the menu was in Spanish but most was translated and there were pictures of some of the foods on wall.
EL CORTEZ DINER
Poker opponent Action Jackson has been down on his luck so I used my comp and at my suggestion, I treated him to a nice prime rib dinner which was big enough for him to take home a second meal for the next day. I loved it. I chose the huge one. With $5 off the bill was $20.
The conversation was less than happy. I don't like to see these larger than life characters living on the very bottom edge and not really knowing where the next rent is coming from. Most of his storied this time were not happy ones.
GOLDEN GATE DINER
Dining solo one can't go wrong at the counter of the Golden Gate. I was swinging in from an all night poker game and I was hungry. Prime rib at 4am before bed. Not my usual old retired guy pattern.
The cooks and waitresses were really into the late night banter. It was so entertaining and right there in front of me. The prime rib was wonderful. I love that place.
MAIN STREET STATION BUFFET.
I enjoyed everythingI sampled for breakfast. Since the lines were short I had the chief cook me two over easy eggs and then just dribble the mushroom, onion, peppers on top. It was fine, but at home I cook those a bit first. So next time I will borrow some mushroom and onion already cooked or some of the nice mixed peppers in the pepper and sausage.
The only thing I don't like at the MSS buffet is the hot sauce. Like many other places they serve Tabasco and I prefer the Louisiana sauce.
The sticky buns are really excellent. The price was good $7.53 with the tax. That is about as cheap as any place. I see the the Fitz serves a meatless two egg, potato, toast for two dollars. So that might be a light breakfast. However, that dollar shrimp at Golden Gate is the best light snack. Perhaps that is not served until lunch.
GOLDEN NUGGET BUFFET
I ate at the Nugget Buffet but it cost me $8 even with my ten dollar poker comp. It is more expensive on Saturday because they give this free, cheap champagne. I hate that stuff. The food was good, but only worth the $8. Because it was a brunch, it had foods other than breakfast foods. I enjoyed that. I tasted a fine piece of prime rib, some barbecue pork, and two helpings of smoked salmon with capers, tomato, but no horseradish sauce. I had plenty of fruit including some really good grapefruit. I finished with a little ice cream cone.
ELLIS ISLAND CAFE
Bill and I ate the Ellis Island steak. They give out a beer but won't give a diet soda. Seems odd. I drank two red wines I carried in with me after using the ACG coupon at the main bar, and I used the free root beer as dessert, but it was not as good as I remember it. The meat was just as nice and the garlic beans were great only the portion seemed more reasonable than those piles of beans that used to come out. I went off my no white carb diet and had a baked potato which was just okay.
GOLD COAST BUFFET
I ate a free senior buffet and the buffet is as good as ever. It certainly beat any of the standard buffets I sampled over my two weeks. They had four flavors for topping biscuits, including red gravy. I had not had that one and enjoyed it. I did not wait for the station cooked eggs but they had that as well. The fruit was better than average. Vegas buffet fruit is often rather bland. This was very sweet. The bacon however, was not very crisp. It is a hard task to find really crisp bacon in any buffet and there is no way to be sure to find it twice in a row. I enjoyed this breakfast and it gave me a good meal under my belt for my drive up to Green River Utah on my way to Denver.
TEXAS STATION BUFFET
I always tried to go at least once every trip for the barbecue and especially for the chili. Once they served four flavors of chili and I could make a meal just on those tastes.
Now I guess they might have two of them on Thursdays, but they do not make them every day. The barbecue too did not seem as tasty as it once was. It is a good buffet if I happen to be there for some other reason, but I guess I am going to abandon that area. Too many other places to go.
EXCALIBUR BUFFET
I know this is given a very bad review in most writing and there were foods that tasted awful, especially the broccoli and sweet potato. Still there were many choices and some of the tastes were just fine.
Deep fried shrimp and chicken were both good.
Cheese ravioli was wonderful.
Grapefruit slices were the best I have had. Not bland.
They offered chocolate milk, nice pecan pie, and butterfinger bits for the iced cream.
At the asking price, it is over priced, but with comp coupons bringing it to under six dollars, I thought it was fine.
LAUGHLIN TROPICANA BUFFET
I was not overly impressed with this buffet, but my buddy Wild Bill thought it was great. He loved the pot roast and raved about it. I did not have anything that tasted bad, but also nothing that tasted wonderful.
I had eaten the Salvadoran breakfast so perhaps I just was not hungry enough.
I did love the pinapple in the fruit mixture and I loved the soft yogurt ice cream because it came in more flavors than the usual and there was carmel topping. With that I had a small chocolate chip cookie that was okay.
I went for breakfast on a poker comp and found crisp bacon. That was good. They allowed ice cream then as well and had some toppings too. Nice breakfast food.
LAUGHLIN RIVER PALMS SEAFOOD BUFFET
This was a good meal. I had enough points left from last trip to pay for Bill and I and we both had great food. I especially liked a creamy seafood dish which over vegetables made a real treat. I tossed I a few shrimp too. I did not eat much shrimp or crab since I get that often and concentrated on the other dished. I did try some cold spicy shrimp. Very tasty. I also thought the cold crawfish was very good and I have just come from Louisiana and eaten it there and been disappointed in other Vegas places. The ice cream lacked toppings. They need a dish of butterfinger pieces.
LAUGHLIN BOILER ROOM
With the host comping my chicken wings and the play comping pints of microbrew I found this a good place to play the 8/5 Bonus game I usually avoid as low pay. I do have to be careful to play a bit slower and drink a bit faster if I want the EV to remain high. I loved the ambiance. The music was great. The one night I really overdid it, I ended up ahead on the VP as well but too drunk on three pints to play good live poker next door. I had a great time. Bartender Mike told me stories of hot peppers he had met and indulged and of his uncanny ability to suffer the hotest with impunity. If you go in there tell him Dewey said hello. I'll be going back there again. The wings were really very, very good and my buddy Bill enjoyed the hamburgers as well.
LAUGHLIN PIONEER GRANNY'S SUNDAY BRUNCH.
Oh, my what food! This was twenty five bucks and well worth every penny. They had the free champagne I hate but they also had make your own bloody Mary. Foods included some wonderful escargot, fine lamb chops, large cleaned shrimp, fresh oysters, and a dozen more wonderful tastes including flaming deserts created by a chef set up to do bannana or other fruit flaming liquored treats. This was an amazing taste experience. Add to that the management of the eaters. Reservations are required and folks flow into the room in an orderly manner, taking tables when they are ready. A waitress makes certain all drinks are delivered and anything needed is provided. Lines are very short. I'll come back for this.
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