Thursday, January 17, 2008

A Vegetarian Las Vegas Part 4

Friday morning was a work related lecture at the Rio. Lunch was provided and was excellent; roasted veggies, assorted cheeses, breads, fruit and veggies. Quite surprising for conference food. The wife had a salad and good coffee at the Giorgio cafe at Mandalay Bay. She had a nice pasta salad with bocconcini and fresh basil, and cheap too.
After a nice walk on the strip, we went to the Venetian for an early dinner. We ate at Enoteca San Marco. There was a short wait to get a table, which is always a good sign. The food was quite good for casual dining. We had a fabulous selection of goat and cow cheeses, with antipasto and accompaniments. After that, we had bitter broccoli with spicy lemon oil and grilled eggplant and roasted peppers. Both of these selection were excellent. Even the Margherita pizza was excellent. Follow that up with a Negroni with Tanqueray 10 and a few signature martinis and you have one great meal. Even if the staff were completely unaware of the menu; the bartender sure had his act together. There were even roaming operatic singers than we could hear while sitting on their 'patio'. Highly recommended.

Saturday was the breakfast buffet at Mandalay Bay. Lots of veggie options; much like the Luxor, but much more. At $16, it wasn't cheap but it was very good. There was as much better fruit selection. There was smoked salmon for any fishetarians. Again watch for the wrapped pastries, some container ham. We even were able to make and smuggle out a couple sandwiches we made.

We were stuffed until dinner which was at the Mandalay Bay buffet. I'm not sure of the cost because it was part of our friends wedding package. Gotta love the sponsors. The selection was huge: pasta bar with many sauces, Tex/Mex, very fresh salads with lots of toppings, and lots of Asian foods. Just watch the egg rolls. The breads were like rocks but they had excellent hummus and baba ganoush. If you do seafood they had lots and even sushi. There was large selection of great deserts. Even this meal passed the dummy test.

After a good walking and lots of socializing, it was back to Giorgio cafe for pizza, terramiso and good decaf espresso.

Sadly on Sunday it was time to go. There was just the basic food for vegetarians at the airport. The Asian food place had fresh edamame, but they were always sold out and the veggie sushi looked very sad.

Overall we found that there was lots of vegetarian options in Las Vegas. If you will note we never ate at Subway once. From a previous trip, we learned that the Caesar's food court had lots of options. Perhaps the smartest thing we did was go to Traders Joe's and got food for the room. There was a Whole Foods that was even closer.