RJ food critic Heidi Rinella takes you inside your favorite Vegas eateries and let's you know what's worth the bite. Hungry for more? Head to bestoflasvegas.com for all of your foodie needs
An awful lot of good — and some not so good — restaurants have foundered during the recession, but still others have been floating along quite nicely. An example of the latter is Market Grille Cafe, which opened in Centennial Hills about five years ago as a counter-service spot tucked into a strip shopping center. After expanding to a West Lake Mead Boulevard location, the original moved to a full-service spot on North Durango Drive.
Reader Lori Osmany is looking for scungilli, also commonly called conch. I decided to do a little research to determine the differences between the two, because some people insist that scungilli are strictly American, never eaten in Italy. Not true, it appears.
To celebrate its “new era,” Silver Sevens (formerly Terrible’s), 4100 Paradise Road, is offering a $7.77 steak and lobster dinner in The Sterling Spoon Cafe from 2 to 10 p.m. every day in July. The cafe also is offering seven entrees (such as Mandarin chicken salad, a pulled-pork sandwich and eggplant Parmesan) for less than $7, 24/7, throughout July. …
The woman in front of us who ordered six dozen malasadas at Island Sushi & Grill Express underscored a long-held belief: Hawaiians sure love their traditional foods, whether they’re on their eight islands or our ninth one.
Pets are definitely part of our families. I was reminded of that when Annie’s Gourmet Restaurant in Henderson, which has a menu for dogs and allows them on its patio, won Best Family Restaurant in Best of Las Vegas this spring.
When a restaurant has been in business in Las Vegas for 20 years, you might get the idea that they’re doing something right, and in the case of The Pasta Shop Ristorante & Art Gallery, you’d be correct.
Spanish red peanuts evoke a nice memory for me. My dad was a big fan of them — especially when they were hot, which is how we used to get them at a counter in a department store near my childhood home. Maybe that’s why we went to that store more than any other.
Fogo de Chao in the Hughes Center, 360 E. Flamingo Road, is offering a locals’ special, starting Friday. With the purchase of two regular-priced meals (lunch or dinner), residents with valid Nevada ID can get a free bottle of wine, a house-label Malbec that normally sells for $84. There’s a limit of one bottle per four guests, and those who don’t drink wine can opt for a dessert instead. The restaurant also is offering a free meal for kids 12 and younger, with the purchase of a full-priced adult lunch or dinner, on Sundays through Thursdays. …
Celebrity chefs and landmark restaurants continue to come and go in Las Vegas. One of the latest is Carmine’s, based on New York’s Upper West Side and with locations also in Times Square, Atlantic City, Washington, D.C., and the Bahamas. Carmine’s is scheduled to open in July at the Forum Shops at Caesars. Here’s a recipe from the restaurant’s cookbook.
The Palm at the Forum Shops at Caesars, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South, has brought back Classic Summer Lobster for Two, through Aug. 31. It includes a 4-pound Nova Scotia lobster tail, two starters and two sides (such as the seasonal watermelon and mozzarella di bufala salad) for $79.95. …
So here’s how Nacho Daddy’s owner and management see their establishment: as “an American grill with Mexican flair” (also expressed as an “American-Mexican collision”).
What a difference a decade and a half (give or take) makes. I remember when I started doing this column, a reader asked where he could get linguica, a Portuguese sausage. Fresh out of Florida, I didn’t know what it was, and the closest source turned out to be in California. Las Vegas has grown a lot since then, not only in size but also in the sophistication and diversity of its collective food tastes. When we recently had another request from reader Joan McMaken, several local sources were reported.
Reader Elise Meservy emailed in search of a recipe that ran in the R-J early this year. We don’t archive nonlocal stories, and you won’t find them online, but she had the approximate date and I dug through the stacks and found it. With fresh raspberries coming into season, I think it bears repeating.
I suffered from Goldilocks syndrome at Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill at Caesars Palace.
