Last Monday was our travel day out to Vegas. And it went about as well as air travel can these days. The lines weren't long. No one was surly or stupid. The most amusing thing was the woman right next to us when we checking our bags who kept finding stuff in her carry-on that needed to go in her checked luggage (nail scissors, etc). This, of course, was after her checked luggage had already been sent over for inspection. On the no fun at all front was the poor shmuck who was trying to change his reservation which was charged to a company card which he didn't have with him. I've been that guy (altho it was only a rental car and not an about-to-leave plane) and I know just how frustrating it is to feel left hung out to dry like that. The only downsides of the trip out were: (1) we were dressed for arrival in Vegas weather and not the low 30s RDU at o'dark thirty departure weather; (2) completely full flight on the way out and Sarah was stuck in a middle seat and the guy on the aisle was one of those expansive sitters. But at least it was a non-stop. Sure they only give you crummy snacks and the bagel sandwich I bought at RDU was quite revolting. Again, non-stop. And the babies on board kept the screaming & wailing & gnashing of teeth to a minimum. And our bags were already on the baggage claim carousel by the time we walked down there. Since we were renting a car for the whole trip, we just had to hop the shuttle to the spiffy new rental car center -- it's like a whole terminal just for rental cars. Access to the Strip from there was even easier than from the old buildings at the airport. Driving up the Strip towards Mandalay Bay, we not only passed the "welcome to fabulous Las Vegas" sign but also the site of the next LV Whole Foods. Which was, at one point, scheduled to open on 2/13 but they're clearly behind schedule.
One of the best things about this trip was that, unlike some others, we didn't have any extreme dud meals. I like to plan where we're going to eat. Okay, I'm pretty obsessive about it. And, especially now that we've been several times (this was our 6th trip together and my 8th), there's a growing list of favorites. I like to balance the places we know we love (Lindo Michoacan, Burger Bar) and new places we want to try. And also to keep some kind of slight glimpse of sanity to the pacing and progression of meals so that we don't leave LV feeling like Augustus Gloop or Mr. Creosote. But anyway, there are always one or two meals that remain open and end up getting decided on-the-fly. Sometimes this works out and you end up by chance w/ something good. We wandered into a nice little deli in Luxor where I had a great chopped liver sandwich on our first trip back in 98. A few trips ago we discovered that there's usually no wait/no reservations needed for the bar area at Spago in Forum Shops at Caesars and that's become one of our fallback options. Sadly gone now (displaced by the sprawling Barney's) is the infelicitously named Tsunami (at Venetian) -- another chance discovery where I had some of the best unagi I've ever tasted. But sometimes the magic doesn't work and you end up at the 24-hour coffee shop at the Trop. Or the Sahara buffet. Or the vaguely Hawaiian themed burger joint in Desert Passage (now Miracle Mile).
All of which is a much longer than I'd planned intro to our Monday night dinner at Noodle Shop, at Mandalay. Was it stunningly great? No. But it was a nice meal and pretty high up on the comfort-food scale. At least if you're idea of comfort food is Asian noodles. I had one of the specials, flank steak and fish ball soup noodles. The soup was just insanely rich and wonderful. Very very beefy. Good noodles. Lots of big pieces of steak. And the fish balls, while strange (to me) texturally, were very good, particularly along with everything else. It was an enormous portion too. Definitely recommended, esp. if you're staying down in the four corners area.
(next time: sushi (this time for sure) and a meatloaf sandwich)