Burger Bliss at Burger Bar? - CLOSED

Burger Bar

3950 South Las Vegas Blvd.

Las Vegas, NV 89119

When I learned we would go to Vegas for a few days, I hastily wrote down some restaurants I wanted to try. First on the list was this place at Mandalay Bay, Burger Bar. My excitement wasn't even directed towards their burgers. I mean, I wanted to try them, but there was something else lurking on the menu that pulled me towards Burger Bar: the Nutella Milkshake. More about the shake later.

Burger Bar is located in the shopping mall that connects Mandalay Bay to the Luxor. This casual eatery is the brainchild of one of America's most talented chefs, Hubert Keller. Keller's restaurants include world-renowned Fleur de Lys in San Francisco, Fleur by Hubert Keller, and Las Vegas. Keller has also been featured on various versions of Top Chef, as a judge and contestant and as the author of two cookbooks, with another on its way soon. With these accolades, I was even more excited to try this place.

There are three locations of Burger Bar (this one is in St. Louis and San Francisco, and another is on its way to China later this year). This long and narrow restaurant is packed at 9 p.m. on a Monday night when we arrive. I know this is Vegas, and most people are on vacation here, but it is still a minor shock to see people eating so late. The restaurant is dominated by a long bar that caters to hip patrons fresh off their gambling wins and losses.

The menu here is, of course, dominated by burgers. They have 10 chef's burgers that you get as they are listed on the menu. They also have the build-your-own-burger option, where you pick what kind of patty and what you want on your burger. They offer eight types of meat with which to build your burger.  Meats range from beef to exotic options like buffalo, salmon, and turkey. It's not crazy exotic, but if you dislike beef, you have other options. Toppings are numerous here. They offer 47 different items to complement your burger. Some crazier ones include jalapeno bacon, pan-seared foie gras, grilled half a lobster, cranberry sauce, and black truffles for $30. We did not get too crazy with our picks, though. Let's see how they turned out.

Before we got to the burgers, we had this Appetizer Sampler with Skinny Fries, Buttermilk Fried Onion Rings, and Buttermilk Fried Zucchini. The fries and onion rings were the best of the three. The zucchini was too mushy and needed to be helped out by the plethora of sauces we got. Almost all of the six sauces we got were to our liking. The lone exception was the White Barbecue Sauce. The best of the bunch was the spicy ketchup, the cinnamon honey sauce, with the king of all being the chipotle aioli. This sauce could have made even wooden Popsicle sticks taste great.

Now, on to the burgers. First up was Katie's selection. She got a varied version of the Hubert Keller Burger. She had an Angus burger patty with blue cheese, sauteed spinach, caramelized onions, and a red wine and shallot reduction, all on a ciabatta bun. She felt this was a well-balanced burger with a subtle taste. The sharpness of the blue cheese was neutralized by the spinach and sweetness of the onions. It was a very juicy burger.

Writing this review, I realized I might have screwed up with my choice of burger. I should have gone with something more exotic. I was overwhelmed by the options for toppings here. I know what I was thinking in my head, though. All genres of food that we try, I have my, "go to item", that I use to judge a new restaurant by. In Mexican restaurants it's carnitas, in Italian places it is lasagna. With burgers, it is a Bacon Cheeseburger. My burger included bacon, cheddar, caramelized onions, and aioli. Pretty pedestrian, but this burger was delicious and very juicy. As I wanted, the burger was cooked medium rare, and the patty had a good flavor. The toppings were a great compliment to this burger and worked well together. The next time I am here, I will get a little more crazy with my selections, but at least I know Burger Bar makes a good burger.

As delicious as this Nutella Milkshake looks, it was equally as delicious to drink. It was not overly sweet and had a good chocolate/hazelnut flavor. The serving size of this shake was not the biggest, but it might seem that way only because we were sharing it. It's a good thing we split it because I was really stuffed from the burgers.

Burger Bar really lived up to the hype. The burgers were great, and the milkshake rocked it. The prices here are high, but being on vacation, you must occasionally splurge. Burgers start at $10 and increase depending on the number of toppings and extras you want to add. We had heard that service can sometimes be an issue here, but we did not experience that. Our server, Harmony, was efficient, kept things moving, and was sweet. We look forward to returning and trying other burgers here, but I wonder if I can get away from the Nutella shake.

Out of five ponytails (because in 2006, Hubert Keller was declared the winner of the best culinary ponytail. Mario Batali must be distraught!), five being best to zero being worst, Burger Bar gets 3.5 ponytails.

For more information on Burger Bar, click here: http://burgerbarlv.com/

Dining With Royalty at the Earl Of Sandwich

Earl of Sandwich

3667 South Las Vegas Blvd.

Las Vegas, NV 89109

This may seem like an odd stop on our food tour of Las Vegas, but there is a reason for it. We are getting our very own Earl of Sandwich in OC. It is going to be at Downtown Disney in Anaheim. So I really wanted to preview it before we got our own at home. I also was a little tired of walking, and this was about halfway from where we started our walk this morning to our hotel, so it seemed like a great place to stop and have a light lunch before our afternoon nap.

Now for the mandatory history lesson. In 1762 John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, and commander of the British navy, invented the sandwich by sliding some meat in between two pieces of bread. Thus the sandwich was born. Something more mobile than the food of the day. Flash forward to present times, and the 11th Earl of Sandwich is still involved with sandwiches and a namesake restaurant, Earl of Sandwich.

Earl of Sandwich is not the type of restaurant that you would expect some British royal to be involved with, unless his title happens to be Earl of Sandwich. Then of course it makes sense. There are now 18 of these casual sandwich shops, with more on the way. This Vegas location is located in the mall area of Planet Hollywood, just outside the casino.

The menu at Earl of Sandwich is not going to blow you away their variety. They feature 12 hot signature sandwiches, assorted salads, wraps, soup, and desserts. Ordering is done at a counter and then you are given a pager to let you know when your food is ready. It took no more than five minutes for the sandwiches to hit our table. This is how it all came out.

Sandwiches are wrapped in gold foil and presented like gold bricks. We will start with Katie's sandwich selection, the Full Montagu. This sandwich consisted of roast beef, turkey, Swiss and sharp cheddar cheeses, tomato, lettuce, and the earl's mustard sauce. Katie felt that the bread was like Schlotzsky's Deli. I thought it was more like a ciabatta type bread. Katie enjoyed the thin sliced cheese, the fresh ingredients, and the mustard sauce on this sandwich.

I went with the Original 1762 Sandwich. This basic sandwich came with roast beef, sharp cheddar, and a creamy horseradish sauce. This sandwich was much mellower than the ingredients in it would suggest. The sharp cheese was not prevalent here. There needed to be more horseradish sauce on this as well. The roast beef is made in house, and it was tender, with a mild flavor. The bread held the contents of the sandwich well, and this was a hearty sandwich.

The item that stands out the most at the Earl is this Peanut Butter Brownie. Most of the time you see packaged baked goods at a sandwich shop they have been sitting there for who knows how long. This was not the case here. The brownie was baked perfectly. Not too doughy, with a slight crunch to the outer edges. The peanut butter sandwiched between the split brownie was the real thing, and it was plentiful. This dessert made it worth coming here for sure.

Now I know what we are in for when the Earl of Sandwich comes to Downtown Disney later this summer. The sandwiches were good, not great. I do not crave them like a crave that peanut butter brownie. The sandwiches are pretty solid though. I look forward to trying one of their sandwiches that features bacon the next time I come here. The prices were a steal in this neck of the woods at $6 per sandwich. I hear that they can have long lines at times, but that was not the case when we were here at 2 on a Monday afternoon. See you in summer Earl, just make sure to have some peanut butter brownies with you!

Out of five decks of cards, (because it is said that the 4th Earl of Sandwich was a big card player/gambler, and he did not have time for meals during games, so he was brought sandwiches), five being best to zero being worst, Earl of Sandwich gets 3 decks of cards.

For more information about the Earl of Sandwich, click here: http://www.earlofsandwichusa.com/

Get A Going to Hash House!

Hash House A Go Go

3535 South Las Vegas Blvd.

Las Vegas, NV 89109

Imperial Palace kind of has a reputation with some of my friends. When I told them I would be coming here for breakfast, most of them asked, "Why would you want to go there?" I admit, IP is not the most glamorous hotel on the strip. They do not have the biggest casino around. The decor looks like it looked when I first started coming to Vegas in the early 90's.

I am not afraid to admit that I do like Imperial Palace. They at least try. In this day of age with all of the big fancy hotels opening up, with their sprawling casinos, it is a breath of recycled air that Imperial Palace has stayed true to itself. They can be called cheesy for having celebrity impersonators dealing black jack, even though most of these dealers only slightly resemble who they are trying to be. At least most of the people here look like they are having a good time. The same can not be said of the mega casinos, which feel very sterile compared to the good old IP.

It is not just the fun vibe of the casino that has brought us here of course. We are here to eat, and there is a place that has been on my list of places to try for some time now. A place that has been on numerous television shows. Been featured on many lists as a top breakfast spot. A restaurant known for huge breakfast portions. Of course we are talking about Hash House A Go Go.

This location of HHAGG at Imperial Palace is very large. We got to the restaurant at 10am on a Monday morning and still had a thirty minute wait. Not too hard to make use of time waiting in a casino, so we threw a few dollars in a poker machine and made ten dollars. That's how this big gambler rolls.

Anyways, the vibe inside the restaurant could be classified as a hip, new age style coffee shop. Pop hits blaring from overhead speakers. Young, hip servers slinging around huge platters of food. The menu here can be a little overwhelming. Not really outrageously huge, but almost everything on it kind of has a twist, so reading the descriptions is a must. Let's see how are food came out.

I was perplexed as to what to get. I settled on the Hash House Famous Meatloaf Hash. This hash combined two eggs, roasted red peppers, meatloaf, spinach, and mozzarella cheese. I really liked this breakfast, but it lacked the wow factor for me. It really needed something else to bind it together, maybe some gravy? The meatloaf here could not stand on its own, kind of bland. The potatoes were cubed too big for my taste. It kind of sounds like I did not like this, but that is not the case. I was just expecting more. The portion size is large and the elements of this plate were all very fresh. I really liked the biscuit as well.

I had seen this Fried Chicken Benedict before on TV shows, so I was really happy when Katie ordered it. For starters this thing is seriously huge. This Benedict was made up of sage fried chicken, spinach, smoked bacon, mozzarella, tomato, scrambled eggs, and chipotle cream, all served on top of a split biscuit and mashed potatoes. Big time flavor is what comes to mind here. The chicken was tender, the chipotle cream was delicious, and the biscuit wrapped everything up nicely. This is a must get when coming here.

Not that we needed anymore food, but I knew this would be our only chance to come here for this visit to Vegas, so we ordered an Apple Cinnamon Flap Jack. The flavor here reminded me of apple cinnamon Cream of Wheat, very comforting. I am always leery about putting syrup on fruit pancakes, but it really made a difference here. This was more like an apple danish than a flap jack. Not as heavy as I imagined, and for as full as I was, I did not get tired of eating this.

I may not have been wowed by my meal here, but the other things we got more than made up for it. Hash House A Go Go will definitely be on my list of places to have breakfast in Vegas from now on. The service was pretty good for us on this busy Monday morning. The food came out hot and in a timely matter. Prices were great for the amount of food you get. Most breakfasts were $10 to $15, not bad for a big breakfast on the strip. They also have three other locations in town, off of the strip, in case you do not want to be seen inside the Imperial Palace. We will proudly come to Imperial Palace anytime for this breakfast though.

Out of five red dresses, (because the international running/drinking club, Hash House Harriers is known to run in red dresses), five being best to zero being worst, Hash House A Go Go gets 3.5 red dresses.

For more information on Hash House A Go Go, click here: http://www.hashhouseagogo.com/vegas/

Betting on a Good Meal at Garduno's? - CLOSED

Garduno's of Mexico

2400 North Rancho Dr.

Las Vegas, NV 89130

We made it to Vegas right in time to have dinner with some family friends. Some of them live in Vegas and some of them live back in Orange County. The ones that were here from OC were here for a bowling trip. They come to Vegas at least two times a year and almost always eat at Garduno's.

Garduno's has won numerous awards for their Mexican food. On their web site, they claim to have won, "Best Mexican Restaurant in Las Vegas", fifteen years running. There is another location in town at the Palms Hotel, and these restaurants are an offshoot of a couple of other restaurants from New Mexico. This location of Garduno's is situated off the beaten track, at the Fiesta Hotel and Casino. This casino has seen its better days, and it caters mostly to locals. I was excited to try this place because most locals know the best places to eat, so I had some high hopes that this would be good.

Above is the lovely Jamie posing in front of the salsa bar at Garduno's. At the salsa bar, they featured five different kinds of salsa. The best of the bunch, in my opinion, was the red salsa, which had a little kick to it. I do wish that it had a little more chunk to it, but it was good nonetheless. The bean dip was also a personal favorite as well. I almost always enjoy bean dip when it is offered. The chips here were pretty good.

Debra Jo does not really like to get crazy when it comes to Mexican food, so she almost always gets a taco plate. She likes this restaurant because they offer ground beef tacos. She finished most of this with no problem but did not make too much of a dent in her rice and beans.

Richard got a little more adventurous in his selection for dinner with the New Mexico Chili Bowl. This chili combined ground beef, refried beans, hatch red chili sauce, melted cheese, and tortilla strips. He was not too happy with the spiciness of this chili, but the bites I snuck of this were full of flavor. This chili was a little soupier than a chili, but it did not diminish my thoughts on this plate.

Jamie must take after her mother when it comes to eating because she chose a basic Closed Quesadilla. At Garduno's, they offer two types of quesadillas, open and closed. The open one is coming up. This closed quesadilla usually comes with sour cream, jalapenos, and pico de gallo. Of course, Jamie reverted to her preschool days and omitted all of these options to come up with a quesadilla that any five years old would envy. She did eat almost half of this though, so maybe she can stay up past when the street lights come on.

Now as promised is the Open Quesadilla. This open version seemed more like a Mexican pizza to me, but whatever they call it, Katie was not too big of a fan of this. This tortilla was covered with cheese, melted, and then dusted with chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, and sour cream. The result was a quesadilla that turned out dry. This would have been helped by some refried beans, and some chicken that was not overcooked. Katie would not get this again.

Trinity, the big carnivore of the group tried the Steak Fajitas here. This half-pound serving actually looked like a half-pound of meat. I very rarely order fajitas out because they almost always load you up with onions and peppers, and then they skimp out on the meat. This was not the case here. The meat had a great flavor, and there seemed to be plenty of it. Trinity for once seemed very happy with her meal, and her parents were happy she was eating, so she would stop talking for at least a few minutes. Just kidding T! (not really though!)

Both Denise and I went with Chimichangas for our dinners, and we both had the same mediocre reaction to them. Mine was filled with Machaca that can best be described as dry, (notice a trend here?). The meat was also bland tasting. Mixing the meat with the beans and rice made this better though. Denise's Pollo Chimi presented the same problem, it was desert dry as well. Fitting since we are in Vegas, but not fun to eat dry chicken.

I am sure you can see how this review is going to go by reading it. We were not that impressed by this place. The food was okay, with a lot of the food below average. I am sure there are better Mexican places to eat in Vegas, this is just not one of them. There were a few bright spots here. The bean dip, the New Mexico chili, and the steak fajitas were all good, but could not make up for the dry meats in the other meals. Service was consistent throughout our visit here. Almost all of their prices hover around the $12 mark. Portion sizes were pretty good for what you pay. We are in Vegas, so this place might be a gamble for you to try. Sorry, I could not resist it.

Out of five tennis racquets, (because tennis legend, Andre Agassi is from Las Vegas), five being best to zero being worst, Garduno's of Mexico gets 2 tennis racquets.

For more information on Garduno's, click here: http://www.fiestarancholasvegas.com/dining/mexican/

Quick Pit Stop to Freddy's

Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers

12032 Amargosa Road

Victorville, CA 92392

The food options while driving to Vegas are limited to fast food places, coffee shops, or scavenging to find something to eat at the mini-mart of a gas station. Of course, these options are all fine, because they get you back on the road quicker, and that gets you to Sin City faster. We were leaving Orange County at noon, so that put us in Victorville around 1:30, and that would be a good time to stop and eat. One of the truck drivers at work had heard good things about Freddy's, so that is where we decided to get off of the highway and give this place a try.

Freddy's is a chain fast food joint that specializes in frozen custard and steakburgers. Started in Wichita, Kansas in 2002, this chain has been named one of the fastest-growing burger concepts in the US. They operate over fifty stores in nine states, with 30 more stores slated to open in 2012. With all of this expansion, I was excited to see what they had to offer.

When we walked in the Victorville location it was really hopping. A lot of these people had the bloodshot eyes of a return trip from Las Vegas, but there were also a lot of families sprinkled in the mix as well. Kids were all over the place. After checking out the normal fast food restaurant menu, we ordered at the counter and waited for the food to be brought out to the table. This is how it came out.

Katie will start off Freddy's experience with her lunch, the #6 Combo, otherwise known as the California Steakburger Combo. This differs from a regular steakburger by omitting the usual mustard and pickles that come on their burgers and adding Freddy's sauce, which is more like a thousand island type sauce. Is it just me, or is the California Burger trying to resemble an In-N-Out burger? Anyways, Katie really liked the fresh ingredients here, but this burger lacked juiciness that most burgers have. She called this burger, "good, not great". She also liked these fast food fries. 

Driving the highways makes a guy hungry, so I went with this #4 Combo, a Single Steakburger, and a Hot Dog. First up the burger. Like Katie, I did not note the juiciness that should accompany a burger. The thinness of the patty can be seen in the picture above. I maybe should have gotten a double to make up for the lack of meatiness here. The burger came with pickles, mustard, and onion. The fries at Freddy's were fine, but a little hard to handle because they were so small. I would have liked these more if they had been bigger.

The best part of this meal was the Hot Dog. Not the usual hot dog bun here, they used more of a hybrid, bun/toast, which is buttered and toasted. A very nice touch that adds a slight crunch and enhanced flavor when bitten into. The hot dog itself was not to be outshined here either. They use Vienna Premium Beef Franks here, which have a good snap and a nice beefy flavor. Solid fast food hot dog at Freddy's.

Of course, Freddy's is known for their frozen custards, so we could not leave without splitting a Peanut Butter Cup and Banana Sundae. Truthfully, I wanted this as concrete, which is their version of a shake, but it came out as a sundae. Mistakes happen, so it was not a big deal. I have had a few frozen custards lately and have decided they might not be for me. Custard melts too fast and doesn't hold its consistency. The custard here was kind of bland tasting, but the toppings almost helped make up for that. The banana was very fresh, and you can never go wrong with peanut butter cups. This would have been made better with some hot fudge or chocolate sauce. I will have to make sure to try a concrete next time I am here. 

Freddy's was okay but did not seem better than any other place to stop along the highway to Vegas. The food was good, but not great. The burgers were okay, and the only standout for me was the hot dog. The staff here was really working hard. There was a large staff and it did help get the food out quick, which in turn got people back on the road quicker which is the goal at these roadside eateries. 

Out out of five keys, (because the city of Victorville's motto is, "Key City of the High Desert"), five being best to zero being worst, Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers get 2.5 keys. 

For more information about Freddy's, click here: https://freddysusa.com/

Is It Wise to Go to Sage? CLOSED

Sage

2531 East Bluff Dr.

Newport Beach, CA 92660

Orange County Restaurant Week feels like Christmas to food bloggers. I love plotting out where we are going to dine, perusing the menus, and of course eating. I usually pick restaurants that I have never been to and also offer some of the greatest amounts of food. This year, due to a week full of obligations and an impending vacation we were only going to be able to make it to one restaurant. It always seems to work out this way for us during restaurant week. So I carefully chose where we were going, and the choice was Sage.

I have wanted to try Sage for some time now. I have heard good things and their restaurant week menu looked good. Sage is slipped into the corner of an out of place shopping center in Newport Beach. Sandwiched between a CVS and a Ralph's, it could be easy to miss this place.

Sage has been around since 1997. Opened by Chef Rich Mead, former employee at the IRS, he came back to his true passion of creating food using local sourced ingredients. The dining room at Sage is dominated by the color white, and is made very comfortable by the attentive wait staff. Off to one edge of the dining room is a tiny bar that is filled from our 6pm arrival until we left at 7:30. The dining room fills up with people throughout our visit as well, so I am really expecting the food to be good. Lets see how it came out.

I always like a unique bread basket to start off, and we were presented with a different one here at Sage. There was some pretty good bread here, and a cracker type bread that resembled cheesy naan. No butter was used here either. We were given a tomato humus, which was a nice variation from the normal bread and butter used in many restaurants.

Katie started off her three course meal with this Blue Crab Spring Roll appetizer. This was served with a green papaya salad and a spicy dijon dipping sauce. Unfortunately the salad or the dijon sauce really over powered the taste of the spring roll. It also did not help that the spring roll lacked big crab flavor. The plus side of this appetizer was that it was made with very fresh ingriedients.

For my starter I went for the soup option, the Roast Weiser Farm's Butternut Squash Soup. This soup was playfully topped with creme fraiche and pomegranate molasses. The result was a smooth, mellow soup that had little spoonfuls of surprise flavor from the creme fraiche and the molasses. Not overly rich, but a satisfying soup.

Katie had no problem choosing an entree out of the three that were offered on the restaurant week menu. She selected the Roast Goat Cheese and Garlic Stuffed Half Chicken. This chicken was moist and tender. There was a mustard au jus that added a mellower flavor than its name would suggest. Katie really enjoyed that this was paired with goat cheese. She was also excited by the broccolini with garlic, but was less enthused by the egg noodles. She felt these added nothing to this plate.

If you are a consistent reader of this blog, you are not surprised by my dinner selection this night, the Grilled Hanger Steak with Chimichurri Sauce. If there is a steak on a restaurant week menu, I will almost always gravitate towards it. This dish had many layers to it. First off, the steak was cooked a wonderful medium rare.  The chimichurri sauce had a nice little tang to it. I felt the serving size of this was a little on the small side, but after seeing Katie's large serving of chicken I just expected more. The steak was served with grilled vegetables and curried Israeli cous cous. The veggies were fine, but the cous cous was just okay. I would have liked a side item with a little more substance.

The Meyer Lemon and Meringue Tart really surprised Katie pleasantly. The meringue was light and fluffy and the lemon flavor really refreshed her. Even not being a lemon fan, I found this to be a delightful dessert.

The Warm Chocolate Truffle Cake was calling my name. I really enjoyed the cake portion of this dessert. It was made even better when I mixed it with the sauce that was drizzled on the plate. The other component of this dessert was a spiced cherry port compote. I am not too big on cherries, but this worked here. Kind of made this dessert more of a black forest type dessert.

How to sum up our dinner at Sage? First off you should know that none of the items above are available on their regular dinner menu. These items were made for restaurant week only. With that being said, I would like to come back and try some of their regular dinners. The items we had on this night were very solid, but nothing that really blew us away. Katie really liked her choices a lot better than I liked mine, and after trying bites of hers I can admit that she did a better job of ordering the better items. I will get her back though, restaurant week is only 11 months away!

Out of five comic books, (because in X-Men there is a mutant character named Sage, who has perfect memory skills), five being best to zero being worst, Sage gets 3 comic books.

For more information on Sage, click here: http://www.sagerestaurant.com/