Tuesday, July 14, 2009

What's Really The Best of Las Vegas?

Each year, the local Las Vegas Newspaper, the Review Journal, publishes a special issue of "The Best of Las Vegas". The categories selected range from local businesses, entertainment, sports, locations, dining and hotels and related services. The selection process is nominations from the readers of the paper as well as their editor's picks.

To summarize the favorites selected, which will help you plan your next visit to Las Vegas, here's a recap:

The "Best Strip Hotel" selection is the Bellagio according to the readers and Caesars Palace as the RJ pick. The Bellagio continually is the readers pick while Caesars Palace continues to update and re-invent itself. For the Downtown area, the reader's pick is the Golden Nugget, the crown jewel of downtown which provided many updates this year such as the Shark Tank rising out of the swimming pool, new buffet, Lillie's Noodle House and more. The RJ pick for the downtown area is the Golden Gate Hotel with its 99-cent shrimp cocktails.

All of the hotels feature their own special dining choices, from buffets, coffee shops to gourmet rooms. The "Best New Restaurant" category went to the Hachi Modern Japanese located in the Red Rock Hotel Casino as the Reader's choice and the B&B Ristorante in the Venetian as the RJ's pick.

Other dining categories selected are: "Best Coffee Shop", the Caf Bellagio as selected by both the readers and the RJ staff, "Best Seafood Restaurant" is Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab Restaurant in the Forum Shops, the Reader's pick, and Michael Mina at the Bellagio as picked by the RJ, "Best Gourmet Restaurant" is the Bouchon in the Venetian (Readers pick) and the Mix in Mandalay Bay (RJ), "Best Mexican Restaurant", Gardunos located in the Fiesta Ranch Hotel (Readers) and Casa Cocina in the Cannery Casino (RJ).

Other selections are: "Best Italian Restaurant" is Terra Rossa in the Red Rock Hotel Casino (Readers) and Terra Verde at Green Valley Ranch (RJ), "Best Steakhouse" is an old favorite, The Steakhouse located in Circus Circus (Readers pick) and the Canal Street in the Orleans Hotel and Casino. For Asian food, the readers pick was PF Chang's China Bistro in Planet Hollywood Hotel while the RJ's selection is Ping Pang Pong in the Gold Coast. Let us not forget the Las Vegas Hotels staple, buffets. The reader's pick for the "Best Buffet" is the Buffet at Ballagio and the RJ's pick is Le Village Buffet in the Paris Hotel. The reader's pick for the "Best Brunch is split between the Buffet at Bellagio and the Bally's Steak House while the RJ choice is the Broiler located in the Boulder Station Hotel on Boulder Highway.

For the best Breakfast specials, the reader's pick is any of the locations in Station Casino's but the RJ picked "Wild" at selected Station Casinos. Lastly, for food, let us not forget Shrimp Cocktails, a long time favorite in the Las Vegas casinos. The reader's picked the shrimp cocktail at the downtown Las Vegas Golden Gate Hotel while the RJ selected the Hacienda Casino by Boulder City.

M. Dubson is a traveller and thrill seeker who has stayed all across the country, from Las Vegas to Atlantic City.

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