My trip review (with pics)

[yo vanilla]

Well I'm not a hot Canadian girl but I hope you guys like my review anyway and leave some comments We just found out my wife is pregnant with our 3rd, so we didn't do much nightlife type stuff. Didn't want to be around the smoke, she gets tired real easy now, so we enjoyed ourselves with restaurants and relaxing and other things (some of which I'm not going to share but feel free to use your imagination )

But I'll tell you about the places we went and ate at so it still can be usefull, right?

Full photo album here http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...0Vegas%202009/

Thursday: Flew in at 8:50am, went to TI for check in

TI is... well, I don't have anything bad to say... but I wish we'd have stayed elsewhere. We were familiar from our stay there last year which brought the choice.

We saved a few hundred bucks over other choices and the rooms are all remodled and nice, but the pool was less than great and we spent most of our time off the property. Which is to be expected, but every place we went was a long walk south so it turned out to be a less than ideal location.

TI restaurants and such: The Coffee Shop has good breakfast, Kahunaville does not. Francesco's Pizzaria is nothing to write home about. Where's my pizza sauce, btw? Didn't eat anywhere else.

Christian Audigier the Nightclub: I read lousy reviews of it on Yelp. And c'mon who thought a nightclub should be named after a fashion designer? Although we swore off nightclubs we planned to stop in just to see, since we're at the hotel already. But we just weren't compelled. Bonus: I saw a tv ad while riding the escelater and found it's pronounced "Audighey". That answers that.

Verdict: friendly staff, recommended for a moderate budget, better than slumming at the Imperial Palace, but we won't stay there again.

[yo vanilla]

The view out our room:




We could see the Mirage's volcano out the window

OMG short sleeve button down!

[yo vanilla]

Good God those pictures are big lol.

Thurs night we ate at Nine Fine Irishmen at NYNY. Yelpers were right, it did look like Disneyland's version of an Irish pub, but the food was surprisingly good. I had fish and chips while she had a chicken pot pie bigger than her. There was no band playing. The bill was about $60, not bad. Afterwards we listened to the dueling pianos at The Bar At Times Square and walked down the strip.

Oh yeah, earlier I stepped on this young feller's blue suede shoes in front of PH, the least I could do was offer him a picture with us

[yo vanilla]

On Friday we had lunch at the Paris, Mon Ami Gabi on the terrace. It was awesome. I had a tuna burger and she had a seafood crepe. The bun was... meh, and I was expecting a tuna steak as opposed to the ground tuna I got. But the service and the atmosphere were great and her scallops were perfect. Highly recommended if you aren't there with Team Dude.

Imperial Palace - once I walked through decades of cigarette stench to get to the classic car collection in the back, this was the highlight of my trip. I love cars. I wanted to see the 67 Shelby GT500 I knew was there, (I've been obsessing over old Mustangs lately), but my jaw dropped to the floor, along with everything I was holding, when I saw a genuine, pristine 1967 Ford GT40 on display. This is my favorite race car. Holy Shit.

Henry Ford Jr started the Le Mans program in the early 60's to beat up on Enzo Ferrari because of a merger gone sour. Ferrari had been dominating Le Mans, last won overall in '64 with a 250LM, but the GT40 put an end to that - becoming not only the first American car to win the prestigious 24hrs race in '66, but doing it four years in a row. To this day Ferrari has not won Le Mans overall since.



I know what you're thinking and the answer is yes, I would stick it in there


Can't forget the GT500

[yo vanilla]

Friday night we got dressed up. I mentioned in one of the "what do guys wear" threads wondering if all the guys even make an effort despite all the girls going to the nines. Lol, nope, most don't. I saw dudes in t-shirts and trainers leading girls in hot dresses everywhere. C'mon.

Ate at Bradley Ogden at Caesars. Very, very good. The chef gets all the food from particular farms, fishermen, etc for quality. At first the waiter was stuffy but he warmed up to us. We sat next to a waterfall which was kind of noisy but still soothing.

We had an organic chicken dish, bleu cheese souffle, artichoke soup, seared yellowfin tuna, and peanut butter pudding for dessert. All that and a coffee for $126 + tip. Oh, and they give you a small butterscotch pudding with your check. Good place to take a girl!



Next we went to the Mirage to see Jay Leno, one of my all time favorites. I love Leno. What a guy.

[yo vanilla]

On Saturday we ate at Japonais at the Mirage. The yellowfin sashimi was excellent. The calamari dish was cooked perfect but I thought the sauce was a bit too sticky and sweet. Sarah got the rock, literally a rock heated to 400F on which you cook thin slices of beef for 2 seconds per side.

We also got 4 more rolls - octopus, tuna, she had two cucumber rolls. They were good but not great. The service was very good, though the music was a touch too loud making it hard to talk. The bill was about $100 with tip.

Later on a cool guy our age smoking a stogie offered to take our picture, for no other reason than he was impressed to see someone wearing a tie. And I concur, more of you schluffs should!

[brazeneye]

I was thinking about staying at the TI, but with your review, I think not Might as well spend extra and stay somewhere where I have a great pool/etc, amenities in the hotel that I would like to take advantage of!

Your wife is adorable!!

[yo vanilla]

I was thinking about staying at the TI, but with your review, I think not Might as well spend extra and stay somewhere where I have a great pool/etc, amenities in the hotel that I would like to take advantage of!

Your wife is adorable!!

Thanks!

Yeah it's.. you know, the service was good, the rooms were clean and modern, it's got a tram to the Mirage, it was really crowded so it's not like a forgotten moldy oldie or anything. I don't have a bad thing to say about TI, I definitely wouldn't give a nasty review. But if you can spend a few hundred bucks extra on the hotel, think about it.

[AKBoarder]

Dude, I dig the tie-bar, very mad men-esque outfit there.

Sounds like exactly the kind of trip my fiance and I are looking to have in August, just fly out there, relax by the pool, hang out in the room, eat a couple nice meals and enjoy each other's company..

[yo vanilla]

Yes it was a good, relaxing couple trip. I would say don't do much planning overall for a trip like that, but definitely plan the restaurants.

[IRockNvegas]

Cool trip, gotta love the weather huh? Looked like you 2 hit revolution lounge? Also seems like you enjoyed Caesars , that's a nice property. Thx for sharing

[AKBoarder]

Yes it was a good, relaxing couple trip. I would say don't do much planning overall for a trip like that, but definitely plan the restaurants.

Yeah, definitely will on that count, especially since the girl really wants to go to mesa grill and stuff

[IndianDude]

Nice writing mate.

I'm digging the vest and jeans. That's what I was going to do myself when I go there in July, but not sure yet.

[wat]

Definitely give you props on the vest/tie combo. It's a nice way to stand out from "Team Dude", as Jack calls it. Of all the people I saw in Tao the night I went, maybe 2 other guys wore the vest/tie combo, and I got a few compliments on dressing up.

Nice trip report!

[VegasKid]

Yeah I agree, I am not a fan of the whole jeans and t-shirts with designs. Not classy at all, plus everyone is wearing this everywhere now. It started in NY and slowly made its way across our country. Should die out soon though.

I always wear dress pants in Vegas, never jeans. Its usually a dressy button down, a suit, or a "suit dress shirt button down" with a tie. I do the same when Im in NY though.