Trader Joe’s Shrimp Seafood Burgers
I didn’t have access to a grill or a pan with cooking oil so I just baked them. These were okay, edible but nothing great. I think it would definitely taste better on a grill!
Trader Joe’s Uncured Turkey Corn Dogs
My likes for sausages continue (please, no jokes). Wanted to try the turkey corn dogs, couldn’t taste the difference – it was good! Heated it up in the oven with our leftovers from night one (curly fries and long john silver’s).
Probably our only trip to the Vegas Strip this time around and it was to try Eggslut! This is my first time trying it and I wasn’t expecting much but it actually was quite good! They are located in the Cosmopolitan hotel. They have a super long line but don’t worry, it moves quite fast! They are more of a take out place but there is some hotel seating areas…and it does seem to clear up as you pick up your food!
Truffle Hashbrowns | $6.00
duck fat, truffle and rosemary salt
We got two sandwiches and two sides of hash browns! The hashbrowns were so good. How could they not be??
Fairfax Sandwich | $11.00
Add bacon | $3.00
cage-free soft scrambled eggs, chives, caramelized onions, cheddar cheese, sriracha mayo in a warm brioche bun
Chan super enjoyed this sandwich, but gotta add the protein. The person in front of us was actually telling us this one was a dud but Chan was happy he didn’t listen. He would definitely get it again!
Gaucho Sandwich | $16.50
seared prime tri-tip steak, cage-free over medium egg, chimichurri sauce, red onions and dressed arugula in a warm brioche bun
Of course I had to go bougie on my choice, no can even tell an egg was in this sandwich – was too focused on the meat. It was delicious!
The Black Sheep is a newish restaurant Chan found online that we tried! This was the meal after Chan finally bounced back from the food poisoning spell so he definitely kept playing it safe. This restaurant is located down by the Durango so I was happy about that too lol.
S. Pellegrino
Chan has been doing a lot of carbonating of drinks lately which got me to realize that I also like plain carbonated water! So instead of alcohol, I downed this whole bottle. Forreal.
Fried Beef Crisps | $9.00
thai chili tajin dust, chili lime sauce
I’m going to assume this is some kind of beef fat? It is deep fried but comes out super airy and crispy not crunchy. My complaint, it was SO salty. Hard to enjoy.
Oxtail Empanadas | $15.00
pickled shallots, lotus root slaw, coriander chimichurri
Pretty good! Not that you can tell it’s oxtail inside but I liked it. One of the better dishes of the night.
Salmon Skin Tacos | $12.00
two salmon skin tacos filled w/salmon tartar, tobiko, anaheim peppers, micro cilantro
Okay, I don’t even remember this dish so either it was junk or I didn’t even eat it. I don’t know how I feel about entire salmon skin being your taco shell. But if that’s your thing, have at it!
Steak Tartare | $14.00
asian pear, egg yolk aioli, beef crisps, pickled thai chili, julienne green onions
I almost forgot what this dish was! They serve their steak tartare on top of the fried beef chips. Heh…like I said, it was salty…
Braised Pork Jowl | $29.00
tumeric flat noodle, chinese broccoli, sesame seed crumble, chili broth
This was good, the pork jowls was of course super soft and tender. Tasted good but nothing special. Another soupy dish I wish I had a bowl of rice for lol.
Special Duck Confit
This one was also just an okay dish, the duck wasn’t spectacular in taste or anything. I enjoyed the couscous and veggies below better. I guess this shows me that I prefer Chinese roast duck above all other preparations.
This restaurant was just okay to me. The service was good but the food was a bit underwhelming.
Happy Aloha Friday! No food in this post. Just a few pics from the Vegas Strip. I’m not big on being on the strip, too much people and too expensive. I remember the days when parking used to be free at the hotels, now they all charge minimum $20-$25 which is insane. Also, no validation even if you dine at their restaurants! Check out some pictures from the Bellagio! They say Vegas is slow now but dang, you wouldn’t know it if you were here! Enjoy.
Another visit to Vegas, another success. This is one of the meals Chan and I look forward to most. I lose out the most because we are helped by an awesome sommelier – unfortunately I don’t drink. He did try to include me by giving me a non-alcoholic drink which I enjoyed a lot! It was like a tea infused champagne. Don’t worry, I still got my mocktail! Second visit to Sparrow + Wolf, this restaurant will be a forever visit as long as Nick the sommelier works there. For my first visit, go here. Let’s get to it!
Sage Me From Myself (proofless) | $12.00
cold pressed blueberry, raspberry, pineapple, and fennel bulb
scented with sage and lemon
Delicious as always. $2 more this year but what can you do. Still good!
Peruvian Steelhead Trout | $23.00
ikura roe, koji mango, ninja radish
Nick basically takes care of us all night and orders all the food for us to pair with various drinks. I thought this was salmon but as you can see it is trout! This was good! Such interesting ingredients…
Oysters on the Half Shell | $27.00
cold pressed rhubarb, strawberry, opal basil flower
They really mix the most interesting ingredients to create one dish, and I think I would not order these dishes if I saw it myself on the menu. Good thing Nick knows what he’s doing. I haven’t had a bad dish yet!
Hearts of Palm | $21.00
spring peas, kizami wasabi, cucumber blossom
This was good, very pretty but nothing super special.
Grass Fed Beef Tartare | $22.00
confit egg yolk, grilled ciabatta
Mmm beef tartare, one of my favorites as you know. Good dish!
Steamed Clams | $26.00
green curry, peanuts, thai chili preserve
Oh this was so nice. Nice spicy curry – wish I had a big bowl of rice to sop up all the clams and sauce!
Foie Gras | $28.00
milk bread, pineapple, onion chili compote, mole blanco
Okay, this wasn’t quite as memorable since I had foie gras the day before. But the grilled pineapple added a nice acid to the rich foie gras!
BÁNH CUÔN | $20.00
ground duck, wood ear mushroom, habanero, coconut
Another great dish that I wish I had a bowl of rice for! Nice and spicy, so good!
Lumina Farms Lamb | $46.00
artichoke, saffron, matbucha, almond, vaduovan, lamb jus
I love lamb and this was good, but there was a protein that blew my socks more so below
Charred Broccolini | $16.00
green goddess, black garlic, fines herbes crumb
What a wonderful way to eat broccolini! I loved it! Yet another dish I probably wouldn’t order on my own.
Black Pepper Honey Pork Secreto | $38.00
sweet potato banana puree, peanut nuoc cham
Here’s one of the best dishes of the night! A humble pork dish but the flavors were amazing, still waiting on that bowl of rice lol
Vietnamese Coffee
maracaibo cremeux, coffee ice cream, black okinawa sugar, condensed milk espuma
Yes, we had some room for dessert at the end. Don’t worry, the three of us shared this. It was very nice, I enjoyed this deconstructed take on vietnamese coffee!
Kamamalu Market Spam Musubi
This is my lesson in…just because it’s on social media doesn’t mean it’s good. This may be a controversial opinion since the ratings on Yelp are so high for this place and their spam musubi but it was not good. It’s just plain spam musubi. The spam I think is full sodium so no thanks already and there is no seasoning to the spam…so what am I missing here? I got the regular and the spam and egg one – both were just whatever. I mean, I make better musubi at home (sorry). Would not recommend.
Toshi’s Delicatessen & Restaurant | $18.70
I’ve expressed my love for Toshi’s in the past and will continue to do so. They have great food and I love that’s it run by hardworking folks but I definitely could not afford to eat here regularly. I’ll just continue to do my random check-ins when I have time and money lol.
This plate includes 2x chow fun, 1x veggie stirfy, 1 shoyu chicken thigh, 1 hot dog (lol). This was almost $20 – whew. But as always, I love the old school wrapping and we just don’t have shops like this anymore. Gotta keep them in business!!
One Plus One Drive Inn is a small eatery tucked away by Longs Moilili – not in the most savory area but they are consistent and serve up good food for a good price. We recently ordered a party pack there for an office lunch. Here is their Party Pack C which costs $398 (feeds 28-32).
Medium Pan House Noodle
Good, not great. A bit bland, I definitely needed my hot sauce.
Medium Pan Mochiko Chicken
Good!
Medium Pan BBQ Chicken
Always good, and don’t all drive inn’s have the same recipe for this lol
Medium Pan Teriyaki Steak
Not my thing but I’m sure this was good
40 pieces Fried Shrimp
Really good. The shrimp is cut flat and breaded so nicely. It was light and crispy. They give you a big tub of tartar sauce for this.
Small Pan Macaroni Salad
Basic
Medium Pan Oriental Chicken Salad
This salad looks great but my complaint is that it’s stuffed into this little pan. Wish they would give you this portion but just place it in a bigger pan – it was very very hard for folks to eat from this since the lettuce is buried below. Good otherwise!
Kevin’s Kitchen is the newest Chinese restaurant in town and it’s very popular! They are in the same lot as Times Supermarket on Beretania – right next to Epi-Ya Boulangerie & Patisserie. They specialize in Cantonese/Hong Kong food and are known for their roast meats. Roast Duck? I’m there. There are some really high reviews on Yelp so I had to come! They are a sit-down Chinese restaurant but also offer take-out plates in the back of the restaurant. Just walk into the restaurant and let the staff know that you are there for take-out and they will direct you towards to end where there is a cashier and the roast meat chopping station. They have some great lunch bento specials for a great price – that’s what I’m here for!
First things first, the staff are all pretty calm and nice right now. Even though the restaurant is crazy busy – I didn’t sense any anger, hear any bad mouthing in Chinese, etc. It was a bit chaotic but they didn’t seem frazzled. The restaurant is full of people but a good mix of Chinese people and local folks. The lunch specials are only until 2PM and though their online menu says there is a mini and large size – their menu on display does not show any sizes so it’s basically all the large prices. What am I doing? Let’s get to the food!
One Choice Bento (Roast Duck) | $13.00
$13 bucks for all this roast duck is a freaking commodity. Someone said this was the juiciest and tastiest roast duck they’ve had and well, they’re not wrong. This was really good roast duck. I appreciate the choy sum, abundance of rice with the succulent roast duck. It tastes as good as it looks. Highly recommend!
Char Siu / Roast Pork Bento (Large) | $13.00
I had to sample each roast meat to give a full opinion. I really really enjoy the char siu, the meat was nice and tender that was sweet but not too sweet. I would recommend this. Roast pork is more of Chan’s thing and he mentioned that it was good but not as good as Mei Mei since the skin isn’t as crispy. Caveat is that we did have this not fresh – though I did air-fry the pork to eat. You be the judge!
Roast Duck / Shoyu Chicken Bento (Large) | $15.00
All roast meat plates that come with duck is 2 dollars more, makes total sense to me and I don’t mind it. The shoyu chicken was good, nothing mind blowing but it’s what you expect from Chinese shoyu chicken! Nice anise shoyu flavor, tender pieces of chicken.
If I came back, I would get the char siu and roast duck combo for sure, winnahs!!!