Las Vegas 2013 NASCAR Trip

The fountain in front of Aria is pretty impressive. We liked Aria and are thinking about staying there in the future. The casino has an open feeling, with nice, high ceilings. The restaurant selection is good, and we even had a little luck gambling.

 The race was fun, but not as good as previous years. Gordon ran badly all day, and I forgot my scanner charger, so we didn't know what was going on. I'm thinking about watching the race from a sports book next year. Might be a fun change with no traffic to fight. Something to think about.

 French Onion Soup from Mon Ami Gabi at Paris. We had breakfast at Mon Ami the first morning in Vegas. The soup was rich, salty, slightly sweet with the caramelized onions and very tasty. I had the Croque Madame  to go with it. It came out without the fried egg  (Croque Monsieur) but other then that it was good. Dawn had the Bananas Foster Pancakes. They were good, but not quite what she was expecting. They were more like a big crepe. Dad had the Eggs Benedict and Mom had eggs and bacon I think. 

Lunch at Lemongrass

Saturday for lunch we drove down to Aria to check out Lemongrass. Lemongrass serves authentic Thai food. The restaurant decor is quite unique. Ropes are strung all over to form a canopy. Its different, and very modern looking. Above is the Panang Duck Curry Mom ordered. She liked it so I had to give it a try. It was very rich (that seems to be a theme on the trip) with a strong peanut flavor. I liked it and was glad to get to try it.

 Dawn and Dad ordered the Pad Thai Ghoong. It was good, but not the best Pad Thai I've tried. 

 For appetizers they push a Dim Sum cart around. Mom picked a steamed dumpling and I had to try the chicken feet. The waiter was impressed, and happy that I ordered them. Apparently they don't get many chicken feet orders. I wonder why. Anyhow, they were mostly skin and didn't taste bad, but all the little bones and tendons were pretty gross. I don't think I would order chicken feet again, but at least I've tried them. After that I ordered the Tom Kah Chicken extra spicy. This was a savory and sour soup with chicken, coconut milk, lemongrass and galangal. It was very sour and not very spicy. Decent, but not something I would order again. To finish up I tried their Yellow Chicken Curry. This was good and fairly spicy. Mom tried it and drained four glasses of iced tea afterwards. The curry reminded me of the curry Dawn makes, which I love. Overall I would give Lemongrass a B-. It was good, but I think there are better options for Thai out there. 

 After lunch we swung in Jean Philippe Patisserie for some dessert. The way they display everything really makes you want to try one of each. Luckily, we had just had lunch so weren't very hungry. That didn't stop the girls though. On the right is the Triple Chocolate Dawn and Mom ordered. It had cake, mousse and chocolate ganache with a macaron on top. They both said it was really good. I bought a couple of small chocolates. One was the Rustic with praline cream covered in milk chocolate. The other was Amaretto I think. They were both creamy and fresh tasting. Some of the better chocolates I've tasted. On the way out I saw a rice crispy treat that I had to try. It was good too.

 Grimaldi's Pizza at Palazzo.

Grimaldi's serves hand tossed, coal-fired brick oven pizzas. The pizza was good but I'm always a little disappointed with pizza because nothing lives up to Howards. We tried a traditional pie, and one with a garlic white sauce. Both were tasty. Another pizza option at Venetian is Pezzeria de Enzo off the casino. In my opinion the pizza is just as good as Grimaldi's and they have awesome garlic knots.

 Lunch at Swish

Having lunch at Swish Shabu Shabu has become a Vegas tradition for us. Dawn always orders the Shabu Shabu and I get the Sukyiyaki. Shabu Shabu is a Japanese hot pot dish that consists of a boiling seaweed broth that you swish your food around in to cook. Hence the name Swish. Sukyiyaki is similar, but instead of seaweed broth you cook in Sukyiyaki sauce. Sukyiyaki sauce is quite a bit stronger flavored then Shabu Shabu. We like it so much that we just ordered a Shabu Shabu pot so we can make it at home.

Snacks in the gold lounge.

Another fun trip to Las Vegas is in the books. I think the highlight of this trip was all the great food we tried. Rao's and Cut were top tier restaurants that I would love to go back to. P.J. Clarke's is a winner, and you can't go wrong with Swish. It was nice to be able to go chill in the gold lounge when we were tired of gambling in the evenings. Free food and drinks...can't beat that. The only bad thing about a Vegas trip is that as soon as you get home, you're wanting to plan the next trip. We have a vacation to California coming up this July but after that we're already talking about a quick run to Vegas with the kids. Hopefully we can get it done.

Lemongrass Menu
Grimaldi's menu
Mon Ami Gabi Menu