GREEK VILLAGE CAFE

GREEK VILLAGE CAFE

Last weekend I went to Greek Village Cafe with my friend Emily.  It's never very crowded everytime my friends and I go, which is disappointing because in this economy I don't know how they will end up staying open much longer.  So if you live in Henderson and want some excellent Greek food, you should go!!  

My friend and I started with a hookah and the trio of dips.  We mixed mint and mixed fruit together and it was sweet and refreshing.  You pick any three dips you want.  We picked hummus, a spicy cheese dip and babaganoush (the eggplant spread).  They were all really good and served with warm, fresh tasting pita (unlimited).  My friend ordered the meat balls.  They are lamb and beef meatballs, I've had them before they are very good.  I had the gyro salad which was a Greek Salad topped with schwarma meat (lamb) and tzatziki sauce.  It was really good.  

9550 S Eastern Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89123
(702) 463-7300

LINDO MICHOACAN

LINDO MICHOACAN

I went to Lindo Michoacan Sunday night with a friend.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect lazy sunday of frozen yogurt and movies.  I saw I LOVE YOU MAN.  It was so funny!  So then we went to Lindo Michoacan on Desert (there are 3 locations in Las Vegas and then Viva Michoacan which is awful in Henderson).  We both got margaritas.  I got mine with patron silver and grand marnier on the rocks with salt.  It was a huge serving!!!  Most authentic Mexican places servce a big margarita!!  They also serve warm chips with a salsa that is hot hot hot and a bean dip to neutralize the salsa. It was so great.  

We also started off with an order of the guacamole which they make fresh in front of you.  It's one of the best guacamoles I've ever eaten and they give you a large portion.

Our meal came with a traditional tomato soup with skinny noodles.  It was a really solid and delicious tomato soup.  Beats the hell out of campells!!!

My dinner date wanted to try something traditionally Mexican so we started with the grilled cactus appetizer topped with grilled meat.  It looks like green peppers but was a lot thicker and has a weird flavor.  I didn't like it at all.  My friend thought that it just tasted like green peppers. I disagreed.

Our served recommended our entree called pollo sarandeado estilo tia ester which is grilled chicken basted in a sarandeado sauce (tomato and spices) with dried chilis, Mexican spices and mayo.  It was really great.  It packed a ton of flavor and wasn't too spicy.  It was served with refreid pinto beans and Mexican rice, as is every entree.

They have a huge menu and a lot to choose from.  I would definitely go back!

www.lindomichoacan.com

KAIZEN SUSHI: FEATURED ROLL

AVOCADO TRAIN ROLL:

I don't need to write much about the places I've already been to, unless I have something really good and unique that I feel I just have to tell you about.  Which is why I am featuring the avocado train roll which had soft shell crab, lobster salad, white fish, crab and spicy mayo then drizzled with eel sauce and topped with avocado.  Then at the end of the roll is a little ball of avocado stufed with the same ingredients without any rice or seaweed.   It's a very cool presentation and and has great flavors and textures.

HASH HOUSE A GO GO

HASH HOUSE A GO GO

I went to Hash House a Go Go this weekend with a friend.  I had to try the famous fried chicken and waffles!!  We shared a farm scramble, the you pick 3 mix in options, so it was scrambled eggs, chicken, avocado and cheddar.  It was WAY too buttery and had a cheddar overload.  It came with a biscuit and home made strawberry jam that was fabulous and soooo yummy.  The potatoes were amazing, I don't even like plain potatoes and I thought these were SO GOOD!!!!

My favorite pick was the sage fried chicken and waffles platter, which is pictured above.  The fried chicken had an excellen taste, but wasn't really crispy enough for my taste.  It was served over a BACON waffles.  Yes, they bake the bacon right into the waffle, how brilliant is that?  It was served with fried leeks which were outstanding and then drizzled with a maple caramel reduction that had a little kick to it. I think the sauce would go well in one of my stir frys.  This was a unique and delicious meal.  I'm in no rush to go back though.  They give you portion overload and this isn't the kind of food I would typically recommend anyone eat more than a few times a year.  It's bikini season, I think I'll eat my waffles without bacon from now on.

http://www.hashhouseagogo.com

BOTERO

BOTERO

I went to Botero at the Encore (part of the Wynn in Las Vegas) for the second time this past weekend.  It wasn't as great as I remember, but my dinner date was also not as into the restaurant and food as I was so that could have ruined it slightly for me.  We both agreed that the service was PHENOMENAL!!  I started off with the Orange Blossom cocktail which was really light, refreshing and not too sweet.  I'm not exactly sure what was in it, but it did have a lychee.  I love those lil Asian pears.  

They bread was warm and tasted fresh.  I like the olive loaf, my guest prefered the french bread.  We started off with two appetizers.  The first was the crudo tasting with tuna in avocado and soy, halibut in spicy tomato, salmon in a lemon sea salt, and hamachi in tangerine puree.  I really like the dish.  I love the fresh, slinly sliced raw fish in a light viniagrette.  My dining partner hated the leafy green stuff on top and thought everything just tasted bland and like it was in oil.  It doesn't pack a ton of flavor, but it is a nice contrast to the huge steak you will devour in your second or third course.

We both LOVED the other appetizer which was fried frog legs in a lemon butter with a fennel salad.  I thought the frog logs were delicious and the lemon butter was really great.  The fennel salad tasted like cole slaw gone bad.  My guest liked it, but not me!!  We had both never had frog legs before.  Yes, they do kind of taste like chicken.  They were really good.  I would order these again.

We both ordered steaks for dinner.  My friend got a New York Strip cooked medium rare with the peppercorn seasoning.  He didn't like that you had to dip the steak into the sauces.  I of course ordered the petite filet.  I'm too tiny to order a different cut of meat unless someone wants to share with me.  I ordered it chimmichurri style and rare.  It was served to me medium rare.  It was pretty disappointing.  Still a great cut of meat, but it wasn't what I ordered and I didn't feel like waiting for a new steak.  It was pretty surprising that for $38 for a steak and they couldn't seem to cook it properly.  I still kind of enjoyed it, but filets, in my opinion should ALWAYS be RARE.  

We skipped dessert. We were going out to some clubs that night and didn't want to make ourselves sickly full.

The thing I love most about Botero is the way it is cleverly decorated and designed around the artwork of Fernando Botero, who is famous for painting these adorable short fat people.

I've been to Botero twice now and I won't feel a need to go back for a while.  There are a lot of great restaurants in Las Vegas I still haven't tried yet and I am moving to Los Angeles.  Anyone have any recommendation in LA?

CARNE VINO

CARNE VINO

www.carnevino.com

Carne Vino, by Chef Mario Batali is the newest Italian restaurant in the Palazzo Hotel (Las Vegas Strip).  It is absolutely amazing!!  A PERFECT meal!!  I enjoyed (almost) every bite.  I went with a friend and we sat at that bar.  I had a really great drink with some kind of bourbon amd home made ginger ale off their cocktail list and then I had a dirty martini with three olives.  They used real olives.  None of that pimonto bullshit.  Why do other places do that?  It is SO GROSS.  They didn't give me a plate for the olives though.  We started with two appetizers and then we ordered two pasta dishes.  We ordered one dessert and were given another one on the house.  The bread was delicious and served with two kinds of butter.  I try not to eat it because I want to enjoy the other food, but I just couldn't help myself.

The first appetizer we ordered was the grilled octopus with with potatoes, puntarelle and chiles.  It had great flavors, was good perfectly and really delicious!!  It was rich, yet a little light at the same time.  This was our favorite appetizer.  The other one was the tuna crudo, it was sliced from the leanest to the fattiest tuna over a home made pesta sauce which was really light and flavorful and would be great on a pasta, but it didn't add too much excitement to the tuna. It was extremely fresh fish with a great flavor all on it's own though.  

Our favorite pasta dish and overall dish of the evening was the cannelloni with guinea hen and leeks.  Cannelloni is a delicate rolled pasta.  Some cheese was baked on top and it was in a really light sauce.  It was amazing!  We didn't enjoy the ravioli di stracotto.  It was basically a duck liver ravioli with acero balsamico.  The pasta tasted undercooked.  It was hard and had an grainy texture.  Since this was a fine dining Italian restaurant, we felt weird complaining because we weren't sure if that's how it was supposed to be served.  Most of the time Ravioli is soft and kind of breaks apart easily with a fork.  I also thought the sauce tasted a little bit like dirt.  It didn't have a nice flavor.

For dessert we ordered the honey glazed carrot cake.  OH MY GOD!!!!  The cake was served with walnut mascarpone gelato.  It was so dense, moist and had great flavors.  This was hands down the best carrot cake I've ever had.  It was drizzled with honey and was just simply fabulous.  The extra dessert they brought us was their most traditional Italian dessert, the chocolate bamboloni.  These are little balls of fried dough with candied pecans and bourbon caramel dipped in a rich chocolate sauce.  They were pretty good, but I liked the cake a lot more.

I would go back to this restautant again.  They also have a pre-theater menu that will get you in and out in time for Jersey Boys, which I saw on Broadway and is a terrific show (by the way)!!

COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH

COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH:

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, the cocktail of the month is the

IRISH CARBOMB

a deadly mixture of Jameson and Guiness then you drop the shot of Baily's into the mixture and drink fast (before if curdles!!)

Please drink responsibly tonight and NEVER drink and drive.

I will be celebrating @ Fado's on Eastern tonight in Henderon.  See ya there!!!