Las Vegas Review Journal -- Best of Las Vegas 2010

Every year the LVRJ puts out its "Best of Las Vegas" list. They indicate a "reader's pick" and "our pick" for each category, but after reading the reader's picks, I'm ashamed to call myself one of them. As examples:

Best Italian food: Olive Garden
Best hot dogs: Costco
Best Mexican food: Macayo
Best Seafood: Red Lobster

So I'm not going to bother listing the reader choices. You can read the entire results at bestoflasvegas.com. Here are some of them.

Category	LVRJ Pick	Address
Bakery	Great Harvest Bread Company	Lots
Chinese Restaurant	China Mama	3420 S. Jones
Deli	Chef Marc's	7591 W. Washington
Diner	Peppermill	2985 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Family Restaurant	Red Robin	lots
French Rest.	March Bacchus	?
Gourmet Rest.	Todd's Unique Dining	?
Indian Rest.	Origin India	?
Italian rest.	Gina's bistro	4226 S. Durango
Japanese rest.	Raku	5030 Spring Mountain Road
Mexican rest.	Dona Maria	Two
Microbrewery	Chicago Brewing Co.	2201 S. Fort Apache Rd.
Middle Eastern rest.	Ibo Turkish Rest.	9755 W. Flamingo Rd.
New rest.	Varadero Cuban Rest.	5081 N. Rainbow Blvd.
Other ethnic rest.	Via Brasil Steakhouse	1225 S. Fort Apache Rd.
Seafood rest.	Catfish Alley	2620 E. Flamingo Rd.
Soul Food rest.	Ella Em's	775 W. Craig Rd.
Steakhouse	Golden Steer	308 W. Sahara
Thai rest.	Archi's Thai Kitchen	Multiple
Bar food	Steiner's	multiple
BBQ	T.C.'s Rib Crib	8470 W. Desert Inn Rd.
Coffee	It's a Grind	multiple
Desserts	Layers Bakery	2708 N. Green Valley Pkwy, Henderon
Doughnuts	Winchell's	multiple
Hamburgers	Charlie's down under/Charlie's Lakeside	8603 W. Sahara Ave.
Hot Dogs	Chicago Hot Dogs	1078 N. Rancho Dr.
Ice Cream	U-Swirl	Multiple
Pizza	Anthony's coal-fired pizza	6569 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Subs	Capriotti's	lots
Tacos	Pepe's tacos	lots
Mel for less than $10	Wok On In	1040 E. Flamingo
Place for breakfast	Egg Works	two
Place for a power lunch	McCormick & Schmick's	335 Hughes Center Drive
Rest. With a view	Ventano Italian Grill & Seafood	191 S. Oroyo Grande Blvd., Henderson
Arizona getaway	Tuscon
California getaway	Big Sur
Nevada getaway	Great Basin National Park
Utah getaway	Bryce Canyon National Park
Art Gallery	Compeporary arts collective
Museum	Eortic Heritage Museum	3275 Industrial Road

Hey, those are good restaurants! I don't understand the chain hate. As I always say, "there is a reason they are chains." Let an independent operator take on the competition and do a superior product. Olive Garden/Red Lobster are consistently very good.

Gina's Bistro is actually more competitively priced than Olive Garden so you can't accuse the staff of choosing the expensive place.

Marche Bacchus can be very reasonable if you want it to be. Because it is a bistro with a corkage fee (which is sometimes waived) you can opt for cheese plate and wine and enjoy the lake. If you do opt for the full meal, the prices are much lower than strip prices. It is frequented by some tourists who are in the know.

Quote: teddys

Hey, those are good restaurants! I don't understand the chain hate. As I always say, "there is a reason they are chains." Let an independent operator take on the competition and do a superior product. Olive Garden/Red Lobster are consistently very good.

I had a coworker that worked at Onion Garden, she says all the entrees come frozen and are reheated. I have a hard time celebrating vacation with those two restaurants but hey if you like it go for it, I personally love Quizno's!

Quote: teddys

Hey, those are good restaurants! I don't understand the chain hate. As I always say, "there is a reason they are chains." Let an independent operator take on the competition and do a superior product. Olive Garden/Red Lobster are consistently very good.

I'm not saying that Olive Garden and Red Lobster don't taste good. However, it is easy to please when your food is loaded down with fat, sugar, and salt. Your brain becomes over-stimulated, which of course feels good, but also induces overeating. A quality restaurant will please with using fresh ingredients, new ideas, and types of fruits and vegetables other than those you eat all the time (rice, potatoes, wheat, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce). I must admit I'm not the model advocate for cause of healthy eating, but I try. In closing, the next time you're at the Olive Garden or Red Lobster, ask to the nutritional facts on their menu. It is enough to scare me away.

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

I had a coworker that worked at Onion Garden, she says all the entrees come frozen and are reheated. I have a hard time celebrating vacation with those two restaurants but hey if you like it go for it, I personally love Quizno's!

I think you mean Olive Garden and if so, your coworker is an idiot. She was probably a server or a hostess and in most cases is not at the store during prep.

Quote: Wizard

It is easy to please when your food is loaded down with fat, sugar, and salt. Your brain becomes over-stimulated, which of course feels good, but also induces overeating. A quality restaurant will please with using fresh ingredients, new ideas, and types of fruits and vegetables other than those you eat all the time (rice, potatoes, wheat, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce).

Hear, hear! This may come off as backtracking, but I actually have only been to Olive Garden twice in my life, and to Red Lobster once when I was about 11 years old. I have been to Applebee's twice (once was just for a drink). Their food is pandering (lots of cheeses, fatty meats, etc., that stimulate the pleasure receptors in the brain), but I find their service very good. I also like to seek out fresh ingredients and new preparations; as a matter of fact was just at North Pond in Chicago recently.
----------------------------------------------------
Anyone who gets those "Five dollar Footlongs" at Subway should check the nutritional info on those as well. Almost anything is better than eating that for lunch (including some things at McDonald's).

For the record, it's just as easy to make fatty, sugary, starchy, salty foods with fresh ingredients as it is with processed/frozen ones. And viceversa.

Quote: Nareed

For the record, it's just as easy to make fatty, sugary, starchy, salty foods with fresh ingredients as it is with processed/frozen ones. And viceversa.

I disagree. Explain. (It's a lot harder to make unhealthy food with fresh, natural ingredients. It's not impossible, but you have to really try hard.)

The onion garden comment was a reference to an episode of Will & Grace

Quote: teddys

... pandering ... that stimulate the pleasure receptors in the brain....

Right on! I'll go for more of that!

Quote: teddys

I disagree. Explain. (It's a lot harder to make unhealthy food with fresh, natural ingredients. It's not impossible, but you have to really try hard.)

Not at all.

Take the following fresh ingredients:

ground beef
2 whole eggs
some cheese suitable for melting
chopped onions, parsley and spices to taste

With that you can easily cook hamburgers with a fat content high enough to clog an artery, more so if you fry instead of grill. All fresh ingredients.

Converesely take the following:

egg whites
chopped mushrooms
parsley, spices onions, etc. no salt.

Do an egg white mushroom omelette, pack in a vaccum bag and freeze. Later you can thaw it out, zap it in the microwave and eat it. it won't be very good, but the fat and sodium content will be low.

Those are hurried examples. Given time I can come up with better.

The easiest way to preserve food is to salt it or load it with sugar. The reason is simple: bacteria don't grow in environments containing too much salt or too much sugar. Salt, sugar and honey never spoil. They can be eaten by some bugs (sugar and honey in particular), but not broken down by bacteria. So traditionally processed foods are high in salt or sugar.

Fat takes freezing better than other fluids due to its high melting point. it can be solid at room temperature, after all, so freezing won't matter too much. The other traditional preservation technique is dehydration, and that works aabout as well on meat as it does on vegetables.

But that's 19th century tech at best. There are plenty more options now for preserving food. Pasteurization, ultrapasteurization, irradiation, vacum packing, ultra-low temperature freezing (below -40 degrees) and many more.

Marche Bacchus was chosen as best French restaurant. While I agree that this is a great establishement for a wine oriented dinner, it is probably better though of as a light meal with good monetary values on wine in a charming setting around a lake. I would not think of it as a good place to get a full blown French feast with a lot of great sauces. Either stick to the Andre Rochat places on the strip or head out to Henderson for {b]Todd's Unique. Hopefully you are more likely to try Marche Bachus if you think of it as a reasonably priced bistro with good win values (from bins with only a corkage fee).


Chicago Brewing Co. which won for best brew pub, also has a location in Four Queens on Fremont street. Terry Caudill owns the Four Queen's casino, Binion's , Chicago brew pubs and Magoo pubs. This is some of the best pizza to be had for the price. The place downtown is very small. They also feature ghost chili chicken wings which is the hottest peppers in the world. It will whip the ass of a jalapeno. Munch down if you are insane or like a challenge. Don't touh your face with your fingers.

Red Robin best family restaurant?

Choices are updated for 2011

LAYERS BAKERY CAFE
665 S. Green Valley Parkway, Henderson (near Horizon Ridge Parkway)

Last year brought big changes for Layers, too, with a move down Green Valley Parkway — What is it with these bakeries moving down the street? — and the opening of a cafe, which means that instead of confining ourselves to Layers’ diet-destroying sweets, we end up indulging in things such as soups and sandwiches as well.

JOYFUL HOUSE
4601 Spring Mountain Road (near Decatur Boulevard)

Rating: 0 (from 2 votes)
Call us old school, but if we’re in the mood for Chinese food we’re going to go to Las Vegas’ ever-burgeoning Chinatown, and that’s where you’ll find Joyful House. We also like the fact that we see lots of native speakers eating there, and that we can get the best of everything from shark fin to steamed chicken.

CROWN & ANCHOR BRITISH PUB
1350 E. Tropicana Ave. (near Maryland Parkway) LITTLE CROWN & ANCHOR 4755 Spring Mountain Road (near Decatur Boulevard)

Rating: +1 (from 5 votes)
The Brits were the ones who invented fine bar food, back in the pubs of Merry Olde England, so we like to go right to the source. Sure, there are all those beers on tap, but we also like the fact that we can enjoy them along with a Cornish pasty, or fish and chips, or steak and kidney pie. Blimey!

LUCILLE’S SMOKEHOUSE BAR-B-QUE
2245 Village Walk Drive, Henderson (near Green Valley Parkway)

Rating: +2 (from 6 votes)
Rumor has it that the reason — ahem— some of us like Lucille’s in this category is because we can always get a knockout Maker’s Mark mint julep there. But surely you don’t believe that. The real reason we go to Lucille’s in The District at Green Valley Ranch is for the smokin’ ribs, brisket and tri-tip, and the fried green tomatoes and dill pickles. The julep’s just a bonus.


CARLITO’S BURRITOS
3345 E. Patrick Lane (near Pecos Road)

Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)
The chips aren’t free at Carlito’s, but we can get a mega-burrito and a margarita for less than $10, and how cool is that? And if we go on certain nights we can get even more for our money, because Sante Fe sliders are $1 from 4 to 9 p.m. Mondays, beef tacos $1 from 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays — and on and on, right through Sunday.

.....

Olive Garden can be a good choice if you make the right menu choice. I only go there for the unlimited soup/salad/breadsticks lunch. Their salad is always fresh, crisp, and has tasty red onions, olives, tomatoes, and pepperoncinis included, plus they'll grind fresh parmesan on it if you like. Bread is bread, but their minnestroni soup is both healthy and very good. A glass of Chianti makes the meal as far as I'm concerned, and you can't freeze a bottle of wine.

I dislike Red Lobster because of the earlier comment that they lather everything in butter & salt.

Baja Fresh near Sunset Station is the bomb.

Quote: Altut

Olive Garden can be a good choice if you make the right menu choice.I dislike Red Lobster because of the earlier comment that they lather everything in butter & salt.

Olive Garden and Red Lobster are the same company .

Bambini's Pizzeria by Santa Fe Station is recommended by the staff for Italian food.