People are pretty used to a lot of vending machines, including the Redbox that rents out DVDs. A new one I saw at the Las Vegas airport was a Best Buy vending machine chock full of nice gadgets, including iPhones, iTouch, digital cameras, chargers, headphones and other goodies. The day will come when the vending machine is all we’ll see and retail stores will no longer exist.
Best Buy Vending Machine
As you may have read, my sushi hunting in Vegas has been a complete fail for me so far. A little disillusioned, I asked my researcher friend to find me a decent sushi place.
She found Okada at the Wynn for me, and the although the look of the restaurant was semi-fusion, I liked the ambiance there. The first thing you see is the wonderful waterfall and koi pond, although I didn’t actually see any koi. Perhaps, they were being fed somewhere. The sound of the waterfall is very relaxing and would be perfect for meditation.
Waterfall
As per my usual test, I ordered the sushi combination dinner as shown below. Although the quantity was low, the quality was very high and the portions were generous, fresh and prepared correctly.
Sushi Dinner - $46
Although the miso soup was a wopping $6, the green tea was free. As readers of this blog knows, the free green tea is the indicator I use to see if a Japanese restaurant is authentic or not.
For desert, I tried the Creme Brulee shown below, which was well prepared and delicious.
Creme Brulee - $4.50
All in all, I can finally say that I found some good sushi in Las Vegas. Yes, it’s a little pricey but that’s expected and as long as you’re not looking for bargains, I recommend a trip here.
3131 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109-1967
(702) 770-3320
After being fully burned at BarMasa at Aria, I was over with the over-priced Asian-fusion crap and decided to checkout something more traditional. I inquired about a traditional Japanese restaurant that a local would go to and was told to see Hamada, located in a restaurant mall type area.
Although, by LA standards, this place is pretty large for a mom-pop type restaurant, by Vegas standards, it’s not that large. However, the first indication about it’s authentic nature was when both the hostess and waitress both spoke Japanese. So far so good.
One thing I did notice was that the restaurant was completely empty. I may have been the only customer there. That’s always a bad sign.
The menu consisted of the usual traditional type dishes, so I ordered Hiya-yakko (cold tofu) to start, and a sushi combination for my dinner.
Hiya Yakko - $5
The tofu was okay, but not great. Nothing wrong with the way it was prepared, but the tofu itself wasn’t fresh.
And below, you can see the low quality of the sushi itself. The tuna was not fresh, and everything was sub-par, including even the egg sushi. In fact, the ginger was even dry, which is a clear indication that they are not busy enough to use up their ginger. But how hard is it to keep your ginger fresh? At least it wasn’t $90, but I’d rather pay more and get good sushi.
So far, I’m batting zero in Vegas for sushi. At least the green tea was free.
Sushi Dinner - $27
Come here for the non-sushi traditional Japanese food. Actually, just skip it.
Hamada of Japan
365 E. Flamingo Rd.
Las Vegas, NV
(702) 733-3005
As a change, we decided to checkout the Las Vegas branch of Bouchon Bistro, a French bistro cuisine opened by acclaimed chef Thomas Keller. Located upstairs in the Venetian, this restaurant has the ambiance that you would expect from an upscale bistro.
Upon out waiter’s recommendation, we tried the Sweetbreads, which was prepared perfectly but not a dish that I would try again. There was nothing wrong with it, just not my type of dish.
Sweetbreads - $13
For our main course, we tried the Poutlet Roti. As you can see from the picture below, it looks like a big pile of chicken, which is exactly what it is. As you would expect, it was prepared perfectly, but I’m not sure the ambiance and name makes the price tag worth while. Of course, if you are price conscience, you shouldn’t be coming here.
If you like excellent service, and upscale French bistro and you happen to be in Vegas, check this place out.
3355 Las Vegas Blvd.
S Las Vegas, NV
(702) 414-6200
bouchonbistro.com
Now that the November 9 has been set at the 2010 WSOP, it’s time to reflect on my trip this year.
Compared to 2007, this year’s WSOP was better organized and seemed to be running a lot smoother. I liked that the 1st day wasn’t a marathon 16 hours, and instead was not even 12 hours (including the 90 minute dinner break). This made the experience more enjoyable and I actually had a lot of fun, unlike in 2007.
During my day off from the tournament, I saw an interesting spherical camera device that was hanging above one of the tournament tables. There was an operator (see the guy in the white hat on the left) that was controlling it using what appeared to be game console controllers. The sphere had multiple camera lenses on it, including one at the bottom (see picture below).
360 degree camera?
I don’t know what this device was but it was not being used at an “important” table so I assume it was some kind of experiment, perhaps by ESPN.
Just like in 2007, I stayed at the Rio for the advantage in the tournament to being closer to it during the breaks. As a matter of fact, I was able to leave the table a couple of minutes before the 20 minute break, get back to my room, order food, go to the bathroom, and still make it back in time. One thing I didn’t know until this year was that I could just ask room service to leave the food in my room even if I wasn’t there in time. This made it a lot easier for me to have my dinner waiting for me in my room.
Something I did this year was to go to the grocery store near the Rio (Food For Less, a few blocks away) and stock up on food to put in the frig in the room. This is a lot cheaper (including the taxi cost) than eating and drinking from the room bar. This was definitely the smart move and I’ll be doing this again next time.
The only thing that was a fail at the Rio was the internet connection, or lack thereof. It was so intermittent, it was basically unusable. I literally spent several hours total over a few days talking to the customer service people for the Internet service.
If that wasn’t bad enough, even the checkout service on the TV was not working properly. As you can see below, I guess the Internet service wasn’t working for the hotel either.
Rio TV
Despite this one glitch, my stay at the Rio was good and I plan on staying there again when I return to the WSOP, hopefully next year.
Unlike my trip back in 2007 to the WSOP, there was no “Gaming Life Expo” this year. I guess it didn’t work out for the booths. In any case, since the glasses I bought back then were destroyed during my trip to Vegas, I had to get new ones. The WSOP store were selling the Poker Armor glasses for about $60 but with a 10% discount with the Harrah’s players card. These glasses have less coating on the bottom so it’s almost clear when you are looking down at your cards.
Poker Armor Sunglasses
Just like in 2007, I had to make a big decision with a medium pocket pair (10s) hoping they had AK, but turned out to be KK in one case, and QQ in another case. Both of these decisions turned out to be my downfall because I didn’t have enough chips to work with after these bad calls. I have to learn to know when to let these hands go.
Doyle Brunson shown here on day 1D
Right after dinner break on day 2, an active player raised, got flat called by the guy next to him, and I decided to put what is called a squeeze play on them with 10-7 suited. The active player quickly folded, but the flat caller went into the tank. After a long time, he called with K-10, which was bad since I didn’t have 2 live cards. Nothing came and I was out of the tournament with a whimper.
Although I didn’t cash like my last outing in 2007, I felt a lot more confident and relaxed. I never felt nervous like the last time, and I felt like I knew what was going on at the table at all times. What a difference 3 years and winning a couple of tournaments make. I really want to go back in 2011, and will probably do more than just one event.
TV table from day 1B
My first day at the WSOP did not start well for me. After starting the day with 30,000 chips, at one point, I was down to about 12K. Mostly, this was due to a lot of loose play on my part but I was determined to not play scared this time.
After slowly working my way back to about 22K, I picked up A, J off suit. The flop was K, J and 5. I bet out and unfortunately, got one caller. This caller happened to be the tightest player at the table. Not good for me. The turn was an Ace giving me 2 pair. I decided to make a big move and went all in. The tight player called with Q – 10, giving him a straight. Basically, I had 4 outs (2 Jacks and 2 Aces). I stood up to get ready to leave the table, when a miracle Ace came on the river for me giving me a full-house.
This double-up got me excited enough to start playing well and managed to finish the day near 60k, which is above the average chip stack.
Next: Day 2A on Friday.
Tom Colicchio from Top Chef owns Craft restaurants and he’s got a Craftsteak in Vegas so we decided to check it out. Located in the MGM, I had high hope for this restaurant after the bad experience at BarMasa earlier in the week.
We decided to go for the gusto and order the Angus Beef Selection (Chef’s Angus Menu – $110) where the chef will pick 3 courses for you.
The meal started with warm fris salad which tasted just like breakfast in your mouth when the poached egg melted into the bacon. However, my favorite salad was the Persian cucumber salad, which was light and vinegary. This was the perfect prequel for the steaks.
Next, the main course. It wasn’t surprising that the Filet was cooked to perfection at this well known steak house, but the Porterhouse was not only perfectly prepared, but we were both surprised at the great seasoning as well.
Unlike at other outings, I made sure I had room for desert. Personally, I like very light desert so the Sorbet with fruit was perfect for my taste. However, for decadent pleasure, the Monkey bread with banana ice cream was to die for. The clever mix of monkey with banana just tops off the greatness of this dish. If you just want to get great desert after your dinner, I highly recommend getting this desert.
It was a nice change to be completely satisfied with a great meal. Personally, this was too much food for me, but if you want to taste the different offerings here, let the chef decide for you and I’m betting that you will be as happy as I was. Be sure to make this place one of your stops in Vegas.
BarMasa Entrance
The new Aria Hotel and Casino is located in the new City Center in Las Vegas. The entire complex is stunning to look at. It’s a complete change from the 80′s look of the Balagio, Paris, and Mirage. BarMasa is located towards the inside left. The entrance is so large, you might not even realize what it is.
By Los Angeles standards, this restaurant is gi-normous, but by Vegas standards, about what you would expect. Basically, it’s a bar and one large room with mega-high ceilings.
Service is very good but maybe because it’s new, some of the servers seems a little tentative, like they’ve never done it before. The prices here are somewhat expensive, even by Vegas standards. We decided to try the Sushi sampler for $98 shown below.
Sushi Sampler
Although it may be hard to tell in the picture, the portions are very small. The selection is good and everything is fresh but the preparation technique is not top notch. In LA, you could get this same thing for $20. The strange thing was the sushi chef loaded the cucumber roll with wasabi to the max. I’m used to wasabi, but this was over-kill.
There was no need to even ask about “free” green tea. I knew what the answer was going to be. All in all, although the ambiance is good, don’t come here for the sushi. It’s over priced and not close to anything that I would consider great sushi. In fact, I would have to rate their sushi sub-par and would never order it here.
I’ll have to look for another good sushi spot in Vegas this trip.
It seems like just last year but it’s been 3 years since my last WSOP. There were no big name poker players on the plane from Los Angeles but Gene Simmons was right after us in line.
One thing that I did notice is that in 3 years, they have improved the registration process a lot. Instead of an ad hoc room, they had a cage like they do for a small casino, and another table area for pre-registered people like me. Registration was quick and easy and everyone was very friendly.
This time, I’m not hear to just cash. I’m here to win.
