The Latest Food Goss!

Casual Dining

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Yep, It’s a Buffet

What:     MGM Grand Buffet

Website: Click here

Where:  3799 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Rating:  

Why:

The first dining venue to the left if you enter the MGM Grand from Las Vegas Boulevard, after the Centrifuge and just past the Sports Book, is the rather unimaginatively named “The Buffet” – which is fitting really because the buffet really was quite unimaginative.

Its presentation is clean and well-lit and space does seem to be used well. The seats at the tables and in the booths are reasonably comfortable so it’s an easy place to rest for a quick bite before moving on.

Otherwise, the buffet is a little forgettable. Not bad, not great, definitely a buffet – but that’s pretty much it.

A kind description might be passable food at a passable price with barely passable service. Another description might be a low-rent dining experience with underwhelming service at a second class price in a second class venue in a first class casino.

All whining aside, the service was efficient and mildly sociable – not cold, not warm, but still there. Great friendly service would probably be wasted on a plain buffet like this one, although the guy tending the bar was quick with a smile and a joke – he was straight out of a Billy Joel song, although we didn’t hang around long enough to find out if there was “some place he’d rather be” … and there probably is.

It is a fixed cost to dine here and you are required to pay upon entry. In a tipping country, this places you into an interesting position because you are asked whether you want to pay the tip up front or pay it afterwards. Call me picky, but a tip is to indicate the level of service you got, not the level of service you hope to get – so we opted to pay that later. This was lucky because we’d feel pretty miffed to have paid a 20% tip for the absence of service we received in full. Granted, there’s not too much they need to do given that it’s a buffet and you are technically paying for all you can eat and it’s all ready to go, and perhaps the staff are quite used to being ignored or mistreated by drunken people who just lost their money at the craps tables – and we’re certainly not needy patrons, but surely it’s not that difficult to sustain at least a fake smile for more than a fleeting second and make eye contact at least once while regurgitating the usual spiel you probably said a thousand times today.

Perhaps if you pay the tip up front to the person on reception (who is not the person who shows you to your table and/or “serves” you), the service might be a little more professional like in every other venue in this casino, but that seems unlikely.

In fairness, there was actually some quality food available if you include the decent sized prawns/shrimp and crab legs, and the lamb and beef cut from the bone while you wait are also good quality. Otherwise, though, the food was regularly refreshed and passable – not bad, not incredibly tasty, but paled into insignificance when compared with the better offerings.

For the USD$39 price, you would probably expect slightly better, and we also had a discount of USD$25 thanks to some freebies offered to us elsewhere in Vegas. So, we really only paid a net of USD$14 each, which was pretty much value-commensurate. However, the food filled us up and was satisfying at least to that extent. That should be at least the minimum provided, but then again, that is what this venue provided.

There were some tasty things available, but it’s probably a “visit once only, and only then if you get a discount” place.

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Casual Asian Glam

What:     The Grand Wok and Sushi Bar

Website: Click here

Where:  3799 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Rating:  

Why:

Among the better casual but quality dining restaurants on offer in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, The Grand Wok and Sushi Bar exhorts the talents of its Executive Chef, Bill Chan.

Open from 11 ’til 11 on most days and 11am until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, this glossy well-lit restaurant looks part cafe and part classy restaurant thanks to the glass enclosed private dining room in the centre, surrounded by booths and tables (like Happy Days but Asian). The restaurant offers, and provides, tasty and high quality Pan-Asian cuisine at a reasonable price.

The service is casual but friendly and the food is swift. You can choose from the larger a la carte menu or from the shorter appetizer and half-serve menu if you want to move on quickly to your next gaming table or get quickly to your show.

The kitchen is open to be viewed by all at the back of the restaurant and it is a well-oiled machine, whose staff will happily beam smiles back at you if you happen to be looking in their direction when they look out at the customers, as they do frequently just to see what’s going on.

While the cuisine is a Pan-Asian mix of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean and Vietnamese, the interior of the restaurant seems Japanese inspired and provides welcome viewing relief from the flashing lights of the gaming machines section in the casino right outside. Not that those lights don’t also make for a stimulation of the senses, but the interior of the restaurant provides a serenity that is otherwise somewhat lacking in the hustle and bustle of the casino.

What casual Asian dining experience is complete without fortune cookies? These are of course freely available upon your exit, and if you expect the customary crisp cookie that immediately crumbles and half falls to the floor when you extract the small typed fortune, you won’t be disappointed – although the parts of the cookie that you manage to catch in your mouth are tasty too.

Incidentally, my fortune advised me to be more real – which for a moment made the venue seem more rap than ramen – but otherwise the experience was quintessentially Pan-Asian and the food was excellent.

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A Safe Bet

What:     Citizens Kitchen and Bar

Website: Click here

Where:  3950 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV, USA

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Why:

The casino resorts in Las Vegas can be quite confusing, even (or perhaps especially) when you’re sober and not gambling. Everything is designed to ensure you are forced to walk through noisy flashing light gaming areas before you can find whatever non-gambling thing you are looking for.

But even die-hard gamblers and revellers out to “tear up the town” have to eat – and so these resorts usually do restaurants well. Sometimes you want fine dining, sometimes you want buffet, sometimes you want swift and cheap take away – and sometimes you want comfort food. Tucked away in the middle of the “Restaurants” section of the Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort, Citizens Kitchen and Bar is all about the comfort food.

The venue’s website accurately portrays it as “Serving up breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week, 24 hours a day” and having “Carefully crafted menus featuring American comfort food”. It’s a pretty basic promise, and that’s what it delivers on. It’s certainly not health food – don’t come here if you’ve just come from the gym and want a skinny half-strength decaffeinated soy latte with a side of quinoa oats and half a cranberry. However, it’s comfort food and it certainly won’t kill you – you might even really enjoy it.

We attended the restaurant when we had just arrived off the plane in Vegas, tired and a little hungry. That doesn’t normally make for the best setting if you are going to review a place, and we hadn’t deliberately set out to review this venue – but we were hungry, and the service was really good, so we decided “Why not?”.

The restaurant is brightly lit inside with tiled deep green walls adorned with numerous framed pictures. Outside the lighting is slightly dimmer, in line with the lighting of the general casino walkways.

We were greeted at the door and cheerfully ushered to our table outside (it’s all indoors of course, being in a casino, but with many of the casino restaurants, you have outside inside and inside inside – this was outside inside). We had barely sat before being greeted by our waiter for the evening, who was very helpful while at the same time very laid back and casual. If the restaurant served comfort food, he was the comfort waiter – a good combination.

There are separate menus for “Breakfast & Cocktails” (that’s when you know you’re in Vegas), “Lunch, Dinner & Cocktails”, “Late Night” and “Kids menu”, and all offerings are reasonably priced (with the average main dish costing pre-tips around USD$18, or USD$12 on the Kids Menu). Soft drinks are also bottomless.

The Breakfast menu offers all the usuals as well as a selection of “signature” breakfasts. The Lunch & Dinner menu offers a range of appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers plus larger “signature” dishes including steaks, fish and chips, meatloaf and a number of other American favourites, supported by a good variety of sides.

A selection of USD$9 desserts is also available plus the day’s selection of cakes and pastries. There is also an impressive selection of cocktails, beers and other assorted beverages.

Whatever your state of mind, wealth, gaming success or sobriety, if you’re in search of tasty comfort food delivered with good service, this is a good place to come.

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Italy Meets Arizona

What:     Postino

Website: Click here

Where:  7030 E. Greenway Parkway, Scottsdale, AZ, USA

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Why:

The Kierland Commons outdoor shopping centre in Scottsdale, Arizona, boasts a number of excellent restaurants, and this one is a shining example of just that.

At first blush, Postino seems like a smart casual Italian restaurant – and it is at least that – but it is actually also a very worthwhile wine and cocktail bar.

This venue is one of a number of Postino restaurants across Arizona, Colorado and Texas, and their website markets them as “wine cafes” – which seems unkind if this restaurant is typical of the group. The quality of the food, drinks, and for that matter, the professional and ebullient service, makes this excellent venue much less cafe and much more restaurant and wine/cocktail bar. It could be fine dining if not for its more casual and relaxed atmosphere.

Most of the staff are young twenty-somethings and most of them seem to have the gift of the gab and to have received very good training. Our waiter was certainly able to make great food and drink pairing suggestions, which was unexpected but most welcome.

The ambience probably depends upon the time of day – it was lunchtime when we attended and the restaurant was only half full with a relaxed, casual atmosphere where you could have a quiet conversation if you were a duo, or you could come as a group and be seated outside if you wanted to make more noise. However, with tiled flooring and great acoustics, the atmosphere would likely become quite energetic with the after-work crowd, amongst whom we imagine this place is quite popular. Your quiet conversations should probably be reserved for before 5pm or after 8pm.

There are separate menus for the food and the wine / cocktails – the cocktails are certainly worth a look. Be wary though, they carry a potency that will make two more than enough if you want to walk out straight and certainly only one if you are going to go near a steering wheel.

The food itself is predominantly Italian fare, and the generous servings are full of flavour and more than a hint of spice if requested. The pasta is reportedly home made and absolutely delicious. Requests for more parmesan are always cheerfully granted.

As we have found with other venues in Kierland Commons, service is swift and friendly and the food and drinks also come out swiftly.

The restaurant is well-lit, during the day mainly with natural light which is used well courtesy of slightly higher white corrugated iron ceilings. This comfortable brightness seems exemplified in the effervescence of most of the staff. That combined with excellent quality food and drink results in a most enjoyable experience throughout, which will likely be topped off by a fairly modest bill at the end.

We’d have to be quite pernicketty to fault the experience we enjoyed there. It’s a “must visit” if you are passing through or staying in Scottsdale.

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Little Bit of California in Phoenix

What:     The Greene House

Website: Click here

Where:

15024 N Scottsdale Road, Suite #100, Scottsdale, AZ, USA

Rating:  

Why:

Sitting happily amongst other good venues and shops, about 100m up the main drive into Kierland Commons on your right, is The Greene House.

It’s the sort of place you go to if you have had a long day and just want to relax with a good meal and cheerful conversation, or even if you’re in a group and are in the mood to party, and need a good feed at the beginning or end of it.

From lunchtime onwards it’s a hustly bustly yellow-lit hive of happy activity and good food, and you’d best be hungry as the serves are generous.

We visited twice at different times and, despite the place being fairly busy on both occasions, the service was swift and friendly. The food also came out relatively quickly, tasted great and left you wondering what you might order when you come back next time (once you get over your food coma, which you’ll certainly have if you finish what’s on your plate).

The place is very clean with a homely “polished wood” feel, the dress code is casual and dining is inside or outside. In winter it can be a bit cold outside, but having said that, we visited in mid November (barely 2 weeks away from winter in this part of the world) and the temperature outside was just fine – only a light jacket required. It can also get pretty warm here at lunchtime even at that time of year, so you won’t need to stress too much about the temperature generally.

Taking its cues from the Californian west coast, the fare is generally protein and three-veg, but the menu has a good range and most dishes can be cooked to order.

Soft drinks are also bottomless so don’t be concerned if your still-half-full glass of Pepsi is whisked away and replaced with a full one – don’t worry, you’ve only be charged once.

You will also be pleasantly surprised by the bill at the end of your visit – and it’s no surprise that this restaurant is one of the most popular in Scottsdale. We will certainly return there.