Brazilian, Japanese, and Peruvian cuisines. Not exactly what you think of together, huh? Sushi Samba, in the Palazzo, Las Vegas, aims to meld these three cuisines into one restaurant. I admit, I went there for the Sushi.

My husband wanted Shibuya. I wanted something new for the sake of something new. Since we were staying at the Palazzo, we decided to try Sushisamba.
Though I am a bit of a food connoisseur, I do not claim to be familiar with South American fare. Because of this, both my husband and I decided to get the modified Omakase, tasting menu for only $100 per person. This was not supposed to be available unless the whole table got it, and my Mother-In-Law was not hungry enough. (She ordered a lamb chop and grilled asparagus that she raved about.) Though our waitress was very helpful and worked with the chef to make us a modified version. We also made sure to let it known we wanted Toro (fatty Tuna, yum) and Kobe beef whenever possible. What a great experience! Our meal included such things as Kamomoto Oysters from Washington State with some kind of soy sauce, slivered Kobe beef with mushroom sauce, and a selection of Sashimis, one with an awesome citrus sauce. We had Lobster, Scallops, a traditional Brazilian Seafood Stew, and an assortment of great desserts, including mochi ice cream, my favorite. Even the drinks were different. I had a Figo, a fig martini drink. If you like Sake, there are many to choose from here. They even have a Sake Sommelier, along with a wine Sommelier. If you have too many drinks, like I did, you’ll even find that the bathroom stalls are interesting. Each stall is a tall cylindrical pod and you can see parts of the restaurant from the sinks through slits in the walls.

Shibuya Japanese Sushi Restaurant at the MGM Grand

Shibuya at the MGM Grand is one of my favorite restaurants. It is a Japanese restaurant that we love for the sushi. My husband’s favorite is the standard menu fare tuna tartare. It comes in the form of a cylinder minced with truffle oil, sea salt, and a dab of caviar on top and a garnish of gold leaf.  This is also one of the few sushi restaurants that carry toro, in the form of otoro for connoisseurs. It is always delicious. The sushi is always very fresh and served at the perfect temperature. Don’t worry if you don’t like sushi, they also have very good steak and from what I can tell, chicken. It’s not in my nature to order chicken when there is Kobe steak carpaccio and sushi available. One of the many times we ate here, I had the 5 course chef special. What a treat! I had everything from toro (excellent fatty tuna sushi mentioned above), to Kobe carpaccio, to sake (salmon sushi) with caviar. If it wasn’t upwards of $150, I’d do that a lot more often. I love it when they carry mochi ice cream. If you don’t know what mochi is, you’re missing out. It’s a gelatinous sweetened pounded rice around ice cream balls. Yum.

The service at this restaurant is also impeccable. When finished with a plate, it disappears before your eyes. When full plates are brought, the waiter explains exactly what is on the plate and is highly knowledgeable enabling them to answer all questions.  Also they are very friendly and are quite ready to explain any sushi or sake nuance to the unenlightened without making you feel dumb.

This is one of those restaurants that, even though I like going to new places, I always seems to end up at. It’s located just past Rouge inside the Studio Walk, across from Fiamma, which is also tasty. Also, if you are a sake drinker, they have an extensive selection to choose from. I am not a fan, myself. Shibuya, however, a big fan.

Sensi at Bellagio is considered casual dining, at least by Bellagio standards. My husband and I have eaten there twice now, and overall we enjoyed it. While eating at the Bellagio, it’s hard not to compare everything to Picasso, which is an amazing gastronomic experience. One of the things my husband liked the most was the gratuitous use of granite. Walls, floors, countertops, rough cut, smooth, granite was definitely a favorite medium of the designer. Also as a design element, a live lobster and shrimp tank was prominently displayed in the restaurant. Many places will show lobster, but seeing the shrimp was a new twist. The kitchen in also visible, separated only by a pane of glass. Though in a small space, it gave the restaurant a slightly more open feel.

We were told by the check in clerk to try the Chilean Sea Bass, as it is a house specialty. Therefore my husband ordered it. It is served in a bowl with a miso reduction, water chestnuts, wilted spinach, and a nifty ginger foam on top. Although the fish was cooked through, the asian flavors reminded me very much of sushi. I would recommend that dish, as it was delicious. It was priced at $40. I ordered the dry rubbed ribeye steak. It was a bit grizzled, and in places difficult to cut, but the dry rub had an exceptional flavor. It came with about 3 thin waffle cut fry/ chips, and a garlic crème sauce to dip the steak in. We chose not to order an appetizer so that we could get the dessert tower. Anyhow, we filled up on complimentary bread and goat cheese. Yum. Back to dessert. Tåhe “try everything for $38” dessert was a bit overwhelming to look at and disappointing to eat. Neither of us could identify anything that was amazing. The presentation was very nice, it came on a three tiered rack with little bowls and cones of various bite-sized samples, so I can’t complain about the quantity. But the desserts were too untraditional. There were 3 crème brulee, but no original. There was green tea, raspberry, and butterscotch. I would have preferred regular. They were too weird. We both agreed our favorite item was some pistachio ice cream, but it was only about 2 tablespoons worth and we had to share it. The chocolate mousse was decent, and the tapioca pudding was good, but as I said much of what they had used strange flavor combinations, and weren’t that great.
Overall, we enjoyed Sensi. On my own scale of 1 – 10, it probably earned a 7.

Saturday, January 19, 2008 was the official Grand opening of the Palazzo Hotel and Casino. It had been open before that, but the big names, Wayne Brady, Aretha Franklin, etc showed up for some Grand Opening hoopla. My husband and I were in town so we decided to check it out. Not surprisingly, it looks very much like the Venetian, but with less extravagance, like murals on the ceilings, and more simple elegance. The casino was nice, similar to the Venetian. There were only a few restaurants open while we were there, but I have heard that many more are forthcoming. Names such as Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, Charlie Trotter, and Emeril Lagasse will have restaurants there. Also, rapper Jay Z has his 40/40 Club there.

The most appealing elements were the lobby and atrium. The atrium is a grand area with beautiful, huge skylights, a waterfall, various potted greenery, and escalators to the shopping level.
The shopping level is sort of a mix of the Wynn’s Esplanade with their high end names, and the Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes, sans canal. It actually attaches to the Venetian Grand Canal, but the gondolas do not venture in to the Palazzo shops. The most remarkable store is certainly the beautiful Barney’s New York. The décor inside is similar to that of an art museum. It is almost completely white, open and has a beautiful spiral staircase in the center. As you would expect of Barney’s, there are various designer clothes and shoes to lust over. Don’t worry about your husband, there are many comfy chairs to sit in and play solitaire on his Blackberry.
The remaining shops include names such as Jimmy Choo, Coach, Chloe, Tory Burch, Christian Louboutin, Diane Von Furstenberg, Van Cleef & Arpels, Anya Hindmarch, Poleci, Lambertson Truex, Phillipe Charriol, Edidi, Piaget and Michael Kors, among many others. Less than half of the shops appeared to be open, with many displaying “Opening Spring 2008” signs on their windows.

As far as the suites, which I have only seen pictures of, they appear to be very similar to those at the Venetian’s Venezia Suites. That is to say, they are nice, but nothing we have not seen before. Even though it is being marketed as it’s own new hotel, it’s actually sort of like THE HOTEL at Mandalay Bay vs Mandalay Bay, it is really just an extension of the Venetian. They even share the same players card, called Club Grazie.
So if you are a fan of the Venetian, you might as well check it out. I’m glad I went, since it’s always nice to check out a new property, but I wasn’t wowed like I was the first time I saw the Wynn.

I wrote a previous article on comps. That article is more of a primer on comps and the benefits. This article will give you some more information and perspective on comps and how to start maximizing them. So once you have been to Las Vegas, and you are planning a return trip, this is when you should try a tactic to get more comps. The first thing you should do is to call Casino Marketing to book your room. You can find this phone number on the back of your Players card, which you should have signed up for on your last trip. This is usually an 800 number. When you call you can give them your players card number and the dates you hope to visit. They can then possibly give you a better rate based on your account activity. That means how much you gamble and spend when you visit one of their properties. This is why it is so important to get a players card and to use it. Using it means that you book your room through Casino Marketing or directly through the casino/hotel rather than a budget website.

I know I have backed budget websites such as www.kayak.com or www.lasvegas.com, but if you are looking for comps, you are better off booking through the hotel itself. If you are a one time or first time Vegas visitor, those budget sites are great.

You also need to make sure that when you eat at a restaurant you charge it to your room, which is linked to your account. Also, you can get show tickets right through the concierge or ticket office in the hotel. That also works if you are seeing a show at a sister property, you can charge that to your room as well. I know I have also backed discount, same-day, ticket brokers and I still do, especially if the show is not at one of hotels sister properties. Remember, this article is about how to maximize comps. If you would rather save the money because you are not spending much otherwise at your hotel, go ahead and use a discount ticket seller.

My husband and I go to Vegas frequently enough that we now try to patronize the hotel that we are staying at for all of our meals and entertainment. We also charge absolutely everything to the room, from shopping, to eating, to spas, to shows. We also have both of our players card linked to each other and always use our players cards at card tables and slot machines. Then the night before we check out, and when we’re pretty much done spending, we go to the players card desk and ask them to analyze our spending patterns. They in turn call the front desk so that when we check out the next morning, we will have some spending comped, usually in the form of food and beverage credit. That means they just deduct that amount off of our bill. We have to check out at the front desk, rather than using express checkout, but hey, it’s worth it.

Staying at the Wynn is definitely something that I would advise you to do. Often touted as the most luxurious hotel on the strip, staying there just might make you think that your normal life sucks. My husband and I stayed at the Wynn in August of 2007 because of a promotion that was mailed to us through the Red Card program, aka, casino marketing. The deal was a Resort Room (their basic room, hah! basic!) for $239 per night Friday and Saturday night. If you think that’s steep, you should know that the Resort Room we ended up with was going for $700 per night that weekend without the promotional price. While I ‘m not sure I could justify spending $1400 to stay there for two nights, I am delighted with what my $500 got me.

We began our experience by trying the “give the check-in person 20 bucks trick”. It worked. He glanced down at the $20 tucked between the credit card and the ID, and by the time we asked if any upgrades were available, he replied, “I’ve already taken care of it, you will have a great view of the fountain show.” Score. Our room was on the 29th floor (amazingly, they have 60 floors!) with a floor to ceiling plate glass window overlooking the Venetian and Treasure Island. The strip view is slightly blocked by the new Palazzo tower at the Venetian, but I am not complaining. We also looked down into the Water and Light show that the Wynn has. The funny thing about that show is that it is for guests only. You can’t enjoy it from the outside in general public areas. You actually have to be in the hotel or on their verandas to see it. I thought that was kind of nifty. Anyhow, the room was very spacious, with a very comfortable bed. There is a nice couch and footstool, a desk, a wet bar and mini-fridge, 3 phones, and even an electronic panel to open and close the curtains. It was, duh, very clean and nicely decorated. Bathrobes were provided as well as cute little complimentary slippers. The bathroom was great. There were dual sinks, a sit down vanity, deep single person jet tub, separate toilet room, and a large marble shower. The bathroom toiletries were awesome. My hair was like silk after using the shampoo. Another neat thing about the hotel is that when you get off the elevators and are walking to your room, you can sense the curvature of the hotel as you look down the hallway.

The pools are very nice. My husband and I ate breakfast overlooking the Tower Suites VIP pool from Tableau, a great restaurant. Then later on Saturday, we swam and sipped expensive alcoholic concoctions at the main pool. If you look at a map of the property, you can see that this pool is shaped like a long dumbbell. There were a lot of people in it, It is August in Vegas after all, but we didn’t feel too crowded. We stayed at the shady end of the dumbbell. The sunnier end, near the poolside cabana bar was much busier with young people seeing and being seen. It was a little bit tricky finding a lounge chair, since people that have left will leave their towels on the chairs and make them appear occupied. In my opinion, they should have cleaned the chairs off quicker, but that’s a pretty small complaint overall. For the most part, the service at this hotel is amazing.
For example, we went to the Terrace Point Café late Friday night after we arrived. It was something like 10:00pm. We were really hungry for fresh berries with crème fraiche and a smoked salmon plate that we usually order off of the breakfast menu. Even though it was not on the evening menu, we asked. The waitress said she would check, and sure enough, satisfied our cravings. That is the kind of thing that at many other places, you would hear “we don’t have that at night” and if you have a polite server, ”sorry”.

My husband and I used the concierge, via the telephone in our room, to reserve dinner at Okada and tickets to Spamalot. They were very helpful, and allowed us to pick up the tickets at the concierge desk rather than waiting in the box office line, which in my experience, is usually long. Okada is the Wynn’s Japanese restaurant and it was very good. I’ll write more in a future article. But let me say, if you like sushi, this place carries OhToro and ChuToro. It’s fatty tuna for you non-sushi-lovers, and it’s awesome. Spamalot was also a good show if you are suitably inebriated and a Monthy Python disciple. I’ll also write more about that in a future article.
So, if you feel like living the high life for a few days, check out the Wynn. Try on some Manolo Blahniks at one of the only two north American stores, shop for a Rolex, buy a $300 La Perla Bra, sip expensive drinks while floating in paradise, laugh at ultra cheesy songs in Spamalot, lay around in a divine hotel room all day, or shop for a Maserati, no a Ferrari. Oh, decisions…. Whatever it is you choose to do at the Wynn, I’m guessing you will enjoy it.

I had never eaten Russian food before, so when I found the Red Square at the Mandalay Bay, I was all over it. My husband and I made reservations for a Saturday night in July 2007. You’ll know you found the right place when you see a giant headless statue of Lenin with makeshift bird poo all over it. This place has an amazing selection of Vodkas. You can actually pay like $200 to take a vodka tasting tour of their frozen cellar. You get to use Lenin’s head to set your drink on. I didn’t take the tour, but I did try one of the caviar appetizers. They offer an ounce of fine caviar with toasts, tiny Russian blinis (itty pancakes), egg yolk, egg white, chives, onion, and crème fraiche to accompany it. We ordered the Osetra at $200. You could get Beluga for $250. I thoroughly enjoyed the Osetra. It was fresh and delicious. We also enjoyed 6 different martinis, such as key lime pie (my favorite), espresso martini, a yummy banana martini with a chocolate covered plantain, a pomegranate martini, a blood orange martini ….and ……and another martini ….of which the name eludes me … go figure. These were all especially tasty. We also tried their monthly special grapefruit vodka. Now that’s strong stuff. But if you like flavored vodkas, it was good. For dinner, we shared a goat cheese salad, which was excellent. The cheese square was breaded and fried almost like a mozzarella cheese stick, but oh, so rich and creamy. I ordered a special, lobster tail and their famous Roquefort filet mignon. It came with a huge pile of mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. My husband ordered the stroganoff with chunks of filet mignon in it. Both meals were excellent. I really enjoyed the flavor of the stroganoff, and the taste of the Roquefort sauce on my steak, which was quite large for a filet. For dessert, which we didn’t need, we tried the Strawberries Romanoff. It comes in a large champagne glass and it has large fresh strawberries in a Grand Marnier cream sauce. If I wasn’t so full it would have tasted better, but it was still very good.

Don’t expect a completely authentic Russian menu however. Borscht is conspicuously missing. I understand that some folks do actually like beets. Rather, the restaurant seems to be centered aroud vodka and fine dining with a Russian influence. The bar is actually frozen so your vodka shot remains cold while it rests on the bar. That’s pretty nifty. The “red square” theme is quite conspicuous around with the bread plates being red squares to the floating square piece of red colored white chocolate in my espresso martini. It’s fun. This place is a nice change from the standard Italian, Mexican, French and Oriental fare from most restaurants.

I would definitely eat here again. And if you are a vodka fan, definitely check it out. It is relatively expensive. Expect to pay anywhere from $50 - $300 per person depending on if you drink much or want any caviar.

Comps are most valuable when they pay for something that you already want. One of the things that I now get comped, but I used to spend money on anyhow is the breakfast buffet at the Wynn. You can visit my article on comps for information.
The first time I ever went to the breakfast buffet was by chance. My husband and I just decided to try it a couple of years ago. It was 10:45 am on a Saturday. We were amazed at the quality of the food. I have been to many buffets in Las Vegas, including the celebrated Spice Market buffet at the Aladdin (now Planet Hollywood). The Wynn’s breakfast buffet kicks it’s butt. The smoked salmon was very fresh, the fruit was excellent quality and delicious. I even love their prunes! And I am not a prune eater. I’m only 30! You can get fresh made-to-order omelets, various quiches, many varieties of Eggs Benedict, and even Asian and Mexican influenced dishes. There is fresh sushi, various great breads, and numerous fancy desserts. There are even a fair number of sugar free desserts. This is actually one buffet that I can eat at and not feel awful when I leave. You know what I mean, when you feel like you’ve eaten a deep fried tire. The coolest thing about that first visit, was that since we arrived at 10:45, we actually made an entire pass through the buffet as it was serving breakfast, yet at 11:00, lunch items began coming out. It essentially made our choices twice as big. Since that visit, we have been back numerous times.
Occasionally, the line is so long at the buffet, that we decide not to wait, and we walk across and down the hall to the Terrace Pointe Café. The food here is exquisite also, honestly I think everything at the Wynn is awesome. My husband likes to get the fresh squeezed carrot juice, which is a pleasant treat, even if you don’t like carrots, like me. We also really like the fresh fruit with Crème fraiche, which we usually split. The homemade corned beef hash is also very good, as is the smoked salmon plate complete with salmon roe and sliced giant capers. Even their coffee is great. It’s nice and strong with a good flavor. And believe me, I am hard to please when it comes to coffee. We often end up spending more money here, usually about $60, but we have never been disappointed.