Viva Las Vegas!!!

Is that title too obvious?  I thought of using something else, but then I wouldn't have been able to post this Elvis link.   
   
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Knbh7TkX6A
 
Friday January 23, 2009
 
Once again, my plane landed early, though this time only by 20 minutes.  My dinner destination was a place quite a bit north of the city, Bob Taylor's Ranch House.  According to my waitress, this place was way out in the middle of nowhere when it first opened.  Now, the suburban sprawl has found its way here.
 
I called from the airport to see how crowded they were.  The young lady said they had almost a full house.  When I got there around 9:00PM, the parking lot was practically empty.  Here is the entrance towards the restaurant.

The dining room where I was seated had only two other tables occupied and they were close to leaving.  It makes me wonder why they stay open until 11:00PM.
 
The entire restaurant is decorated with a Western/ranch house theme.  There are old cowboy movie posters, ropes, bull horns, sometimes sitting next to a flat screen tv or fireplace.

The menu and wine list came with an attractive leather cover.

Considering the Western theme, it was inevitable that the menu would feature the steaks.

 
The first item out was the hot, hard crusted garlic bread.

When I was coming in to the restaurant, I expected to smell sizzling meat.  Instead, it was the powerful aroma of garlic.  This must have been why.  This delicious bread disappeared in no time!
 
I was asked if I wanted to soup or salad.  When I heard they had clam chowder, I told the waitress, "I will take that, unless you have some interesting salad dressings".  She told me all the salad dressings were made there and the house dressing was similar to a Thousand Island, but also including steak sauce and worcestershire sauce.  "Interesting, I'll try that!"

This was a good switch off, as I really enjoyed this salad.  The house dressing reminded me of a mild honey mustard.
 
My steak, a 24 oz. ribeye arrived (it was a special).

This was a good, satisfying hunk of meat, cooked properly, but it was nothing that made me go wow.  What I did really like were the Ranch House potatoes. 

These are shredded potatoes, along with four different cheeses, plus mushrooms.  Excellent!  I thought it was strange to give me one lone onion ring, but it was soaked in steak juice, which could only make it better.  And since I love sauteed mushrooms with my steak, I got a side order of those, too.

 
The dessert list offered nothing that particularly appealed to me, so I passed.  My waitress, in her mid 30s and a real beauty, had an interesting accent that I couldn't place.  She ended up being from Buffalo.  I'm sure she misses the weather back home right about now!
 
Some of you may wonder why I chose this place, out of the thousands in Las Vegas, to eat.  First of all, it represented a slice of old Las Vegas, I wanted to experience.  And secondly, I found out through the website that the owner is a huge Steeler fan and has a lot of Pittsburgh stuff hanging around.  I couldn't resist one last photo on my way out.

 
Bob Taylor's Ranch House
6250 Rio Vista Street
Las Vegas, NV
702-645-1399
 
http://www.bobtaylorsranchhouse.com/#
 
I checked into my hotel, The Artisan, right where I-15 and Sahara meet.
 
Much more to come.....

Buffetbuster, great photos as usual. Ribeye's my favorite cut, and that one looks mighty good. Believe it or not, I ate at Bob Taylor's just a couple of hours after you did that night. Oh wait..... that was Kewpee last week, wasn't it? Never mind...

Good call on the salad. WJ would have been all over you about ordering clam chowder in the desert :)

 Thanks for another fine review BB. I find it hard to believe that you didn't make a dessert stop at another place on your way back to town??? Are you sure you are feeling ok?

That garlic bread looked heavenly!

bill voss


Good call on the salad. WJ would have been all over you about ordering clam chowder in the desert :)

There are times when I am eating something Roadfood "inappropriate" that I think to myself, wanderingjew is going to be disappointed in me!

Was in Vegas two days in October and never hit anyplace that I would have enjoyed more than this window into the past. A menu from 1955, salads pre-tossed without being served with an inadequate little cup of dressing on the side, delicious shredded potatoes to strike fear into the American Heart Association . . ..

buffetbuster

The dining room where I was seated had only two other tables occupied and they were close to leaving.  It makes me wonder why they stay open until 11:00PM.

Must not market themselves very well at all. It's really been under the radar on this site and others.

Thank you for sharing this place. Great pixs too.

 

Nice report Buffetbuster...food and atmosphere look great,not a sterile Vegas showroom restaurant...any Hopalong Cassidy posters?...oh and one onion ring seems strange to me too...and looked so on the plate!!!!

Interesting.  I lived in Vegas for two years (almost 30 years ago) and never once got near to that neighborhood.

How did you find it?

Oh, with those mushroom-laden potatoes and sauteed mushrooms, Julie would have been all over that meal.  It's too bad we aren't Vegas people.

Fantastic looking meal!!! Ribeyes are certainly my favorite, and that one looked excellent. And the prices looked pretty reasonable, at least compared to places I frequent.

"One lone onion ring...soaked in steak juice." THAT sounds delicious.  Makes you wonder why you don't see it on menus more often.  Heck, I'd eat a dozen!

mar52


Interesting.  I lived in Vegas for two years (almost 30 years ago) and never once got near to that neighborhood

When I first lived in Vegas, in the early 80's, Bob Taylor's was considered way out there!!!
There was nothing else around; but now lots of new housing developments have encroached on that area...
 
I went there once , back in the day.........
loved the rustic atmosphere; the steak was good, but not remarkable...
(not like "wow, you've just gotta have the steak there!!"..)
 
Usually a one lone onion ring is served placed on top of the meat, so it does'nt look so lonely...
 
great pics, buffetbuster!

Al-The Mayor-Bowen


 Thanks for another fine review BB. I find it hard to believe that you didn't make a dessert stop at another place on your way back to town??? Are you sure you are feeling ok?

But Al
 
The moonlite Bunny Ranch....... Never mind this is a PG website 
 
 
BB
 
That was a mighty fine looking ribeye, I think I am in love with those potatoes, and yummers on the sauted shrooms
 
Looking forward to seeing the rest of The Viva La Buffetbuster's tour
 

I wish I could take credit for this find, but the only reason I knew about it was because of Bruce Bilmes.  I emailed him a few weeks ago and asked for some recommendations and he very generously sent about 25 names.  As a matter of fact, every single place I hit this weekend, except one (I am at the airport ready to fly home), was either reviewed on Roadfood by Bruce and Sue or mentioned in that email.  Thanks Bruce!!!

Your right on..those potatoes looked awesome...I may needed to have a second helping...the steak also looked pretty darn good.  A fine report, as usual.

CajunKing-
Don't get me thinking about what I didn't do this trip!

Nancy-
Since I don't gamble or drink (I have plenty of other vices, thank you very much), I'm not exactly what you would call a Vegas person, either.  The reaction of people at work last week, was, "Why are YOU going to Vegas?"  Despite that, I really enjoy my time there.  If you enjoy kitsch, people watching and awe-inspiring (and sometimes awful) architecture, you would like Las Vegas.

Ellen-
Thanks for the compliment.  If I remember correctly, you were here not too long ago.  I wonder if there will be any overlapping.  We do have a history of doing that.

Ann-
I agree that these were very good prices for Las Vegas.  All together, I think the total was $60.00.

leethebard-
No Hopalong Cassidy, but I did see Gene Autry and plenty of John Wayne.

Voyaguer-
Thanks for what you said.  It is reassuring to know that there is still room for a place like Bob Taylor's in Vegas. 

buffetbuster

Ellen
Thanks for the compliment.  If I remember correctly, you were here not too long ago.  I wonder if there will be any overlapping.  We do have a history of overlapping

Thanks for remembering my Vegas visit, Cliff........and being it was back in October, I'm definitely overdue with my "Ellen in Vegas" report, huh?!?!!
You're much more efficient than I am with these Trip Reports...
 
I enjoyed 8 days in L.A., and then 8 days in Vegas.... and so far, I've only completed my Day 3 of L.A.
So I better start getting on it again....
(had my tampa  reports, and my pastrami plugging get in the way)
 
And since you just got back from Vegas last week, I bet you are STILL getting all the SMOKE off you!
(and I DON'T mean the smoke from a good piece of meat,either )......
Vegas is fun, but it sure is SMOKEY, huh?!?
 


 

BB, All the planets were in line and we didn't know it.
 
I was in Vegas from the 21st-24th.
 
Hey if you're not doing anything NEXT weekend

Ellen-
We must have been going to different places, because I wasn't anywhere that was smoky.  Thankfully, because I hate having that on me.  Which places were smoky?

joerogo-
Too bad we didn't know while we were out there.  Sometimes, I think I should post ahead of time where I am going, just in case a situation like this pops up.  The same thing happened last week when nocarolina was in the same restaurant in Ohio that I was, just a few hours later.

buffetbuster


Ellen-
We must have been going to different places, because I wasn't anywhere that was smoky.  Thankfully, because I hate having that on me.  Which places were smoky?

The GOLD COAST and the ORLEANS were brutal.... (we stayed at both places, so we were around those casinos a lot)
(my sis likes playing blackjack; way too much smoke around there; even the "no smoking" BJ tables are really not immune, as people hover behind the tables with their cigarettes, etc)
I mostly enjoy poker, and even though they have non smoking poker rooms at those places, customers hover over the rails of the poker room with their cigarettes...
And even a new joint like the RED ROCK STATION, (WAY off the strip) is so ruined by the smoke ...IMO....
it's a shame , cause it's a stunning, cutting edge place...
(it would've been  cool if they could've taken a cutting edge approach and made the whole casino non smoking...)(I know that's a radical step,though)
with a Lucky Strike bowling alley, and a Salt Lick BBQ, and a good prime rib buffet, among other things...
but the smell and the dirty ashtrays and ashes add an ugliness to it....
 
I'm glad to hear you dodged the smoke somehow.... you were lucky..
Actually, the fact that you don't really gamble helps...cause you're not around the smoky tables as much, unless you're watching a buddy play..
 
And I just realized why the smoke was'nt so bad for you...
cause THANKFULLY, the Vegas restaurants,  by law, had to all go NO SMOKING about a year or 2 ago.....  
(before that it was "smoking and no smoking sections", but of course the smoke really does'nt know the difference, as they say!!)
 
It DOES make dining in Vegas more pleasurable now, but  I do believe an  alter effect of it is that since people can't smoke DURING their meals, they tend to smoke even more AFTERWARDS in the casinos...
 
Yeah, Cliff, it will be neat to see if our Vegas Trip Reports end up overlapping!!! 

buffetbuster

bill voss


Good call on the salad. WJ would have been all over you about ordering clam chowder in the desert :)

There are times when I am eating something Roadfood "inappropriate" that I think to myself, wanderingjew is going to be disappointed in me!

How did I miss this thread? I must have mistaken it for another one, since there have been several Vegas threads.

I should send a photo with my "look of disapproval" you can look at it anytime you're tempted to order something "regionally inappropriate"

I'll take Old Vegas over the new stuff any day.

Hey, Wandering Jew, I miss the Old Vegas , too!
(and I like to say it's "when Vegas was VEGAS!")

BB - Great report as usual.

Go Cards!

Saturday January 24, 2009
 
I have been to Las Vegas about a dozen times and I always stay at one of the big hotels on The Strip.  Since I was planning on spending very little time in the casinos, I thought it would make more sense this time to stay off The Strip.  I found a room for $80.00 a night at The Artisan. 
 
What a bizarre place!  I could have done without the all parking is valet parking, but I really enjoyed everything else about my stay, especially the theme.  All the rooms are suites and feature paintings from a particular artist.  I was in the Marcel Duchamp suite.

The elevator, foyer, hallways were all also covered with famous art prints.  Here is the hallway outside my room.

 
The lobby was incredibly dark and busy with more art and a large fountain.

Sorry how dark the photo is, but I still wanted everyone to see what the place looked like.  No sense wasting space on the ceiling either, when we can stick more paintings up there, too!

 
When I checked into the hotel around 11:00PM the night before, the hotel was hopping!  The bar was full and plenty of people were just milling around.  It reminded me a little of a hotel in South Beach.  When I went down to the lobby at 6:00AM, on my way to breakfast, I didn't see one other soul.  You mean everyone in Vegas doesn't want to go out for a pre-sunrise breakfast?
 
My destination was Hash House,

located in a nearby strip mall.  I liked the place right away when I noticed they had matching curtains and clock with the Hash House logo.

 
They offer just about anything you would expect a breakfast place to carry, but if they are proud enough of the hash to put it in their name, then I am going to focus on the hash.

Some great sounding options, but my love of ham won out and I ordered the ham hash. 

The menu calls is smoky and it indeed was.  I loved how well the ham mixed with the potatoes, onions and peppers.  As good as it was, part of me was still wondering how delicious the traditional corned beef hash must be.  My side of hashbrowns was equally as impressive.

 
For my other side, I chose the sourdough toast.  Yes, toast is considered a side here.  But you absolutely have to order this, so that you can get to select from the homemade jelly tray.

Bruce has an better shot of it in the Hash House review and it is even featured on the Roadfood calendar.  This tray is a real thing of beauty!  I think they should have a room at my hotel with the jellies of Hash House theme!  Anyway, I chose one of peach and one of watermelon, avoiding the many jalapeno and habanero jellies, which take up the bottom four rows.   The watermelon jelly was ultrathin, but still had a strong watermelon taste.  The peach jelly was thicker and contained large chunks of peach.

One my way out, I purchased some jelly to take home.

 
The service here was terrific.  My waitress, originally from Amarillo (is there anyone in Vegas who is actually from here?), told me how much her dogs enjoyed playing in the snow they recently had.  And the owner (was her name Mary?) also stopped in and chatted.  Really nice people.
 
Hash House gets a big thumbs up!
 
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=5508&RefID=5299
 
Hash House
2605 South Decatur Boulevard
Las Vegas, NV
702-873-9479
 
Much more to come.....

I think you might have liked the roast beef hash too--that's what I had at the Hob Knob in San Diego and loved, and I really could take or leave corned beef hash.  I do love the jellies, and that is a seriously weird hotel.  It looks like they were trying to carry out a not-bad idea in about a fourth of the space they would need to do it.

Nancy-
Any other city and that hotel would be famous for how odd and over the top it is.  In Vegas, it just gets lost in the wash.

That gloomy-looking hotel looks haunted! 

You may wish to try the Palms, just off the strip, next time. Lots of convenient and free parking, nice views even from standard rooms, super special prices on weekdays (I paid around $62 on Hotels.com for an early October stay), and an atmosphere even in the casino not too smoke filled. However, although its Little Buddha Restaurant was a very good experience and its coffee shop quite good, the Palms' Bistro Buffet was disappointing. The big deal was the pool area. Damn! That was out of a "Best pools in Vegas"-type show or NBC's Las Vegas series. I sucked in my roadfood-enhanced gut, and enjoyed the scene thoroughly. (The pool area closes from sometime in November until I believe early March.)

I am falling so far behind on my trip reports, if I don't pick up the pace, I will never catch up!
 
Saturday January 24, 2009 cont.
 
Another quick stop before doing some sightseeing was Ronald's Donuts. 

Being Las Vegas, it is of course located in a small strip mall.  According to the review from Bruce & Sue, they specialize in Vegan donuts, which is an odd concept to me.  When I asked the Asian lady behind the counter which were the vegan ones, I had a hard time understanding her.  But, I believe she pointed to the top two rows.  So, I think my bearclaw

and apple fritter

were both vegan, but I'm not 100% sure.  What I do know for sure is that they were both sweet and delicious and I would not have guessed they were anything but a typical donut.  I did buy some other donuts for later.
 
Ronald's Donuts
4600 Spring Mountain Road
Las Vegas, NV
702-873-1032
 
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=5500&RefID=5295
 
I made the drive to west of the city and found Red Rock Canyon.  Located just on the outskirts of a new housing devoplment area, it offered a very pretty 13 mile loop drive.




I wouldn't have minded doing some hiking on to the trails, but there was too much I wanted to do in Las Vegas.  So, I only ended up spending about an hour here. 
 
After being such a good tourist, I felt I deserved a reward.  So I headed to Danielle's Chocolates & Ice Cream.  Hey look, it is in a strip mall! 

I had the shop to myself and selected a three scoop hot fudge sundae.

The three flavors were spiced apple, peppermint stick and mint truffle.  All three were winners, but the subtle mint flavor in the truffle blended so well with the chocolate, making that my clear favorite.  I am a big fan of putting the hot fudge sauce on the side, so I can pour it when and where I want.  Although the sauce was on the thin side, it made up for it by being very warm.  Terrific sundae!  Although tempted by the wonderful looking candy, I passed and moved on.
 
Danielle's Chocolates & Ice Cream
6394 West Sahara Avenue
Las Vegas, NV
702-259-7616
 
 http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=5659&RefID=5566
 
More to come.....