Neon Nights In November Birthday TR: 11/13 - 11/21 @ Cosmo, Wynn, & ???

I've been on-and-off sleeping yesterday and time just flew by doing that.
Tons of things to catch up with, still going to finish this TR right now, work, and house stuff as well.

Overall, I finished up $55 for the trip, could have finished up much higher had I not played on the last night after Aria Buffet.
Gaming was high-and-low at times, some big $100+ bonuses on minimum, other times just absolutely nothing.
In terms of comps:

1. Rooms were fully comped (rates, resort fees, taxes, etc.).
2. Food & Restaurants were mostly comped except for Sapporo Revolving Sushi at $32, Border Grill at $38 (mother paid for that), and tips.
3. Shows were mostly free except for Opium at $56.
4. Attractions were mostly free except for Twilight Zone Golf at $14 (father paid for that) and Titanic Exhibit at $32 (father paid for that too).

I paid $88 overall, tips were about $60, gaming won $55, which means I only spent $93 for 8 nights/9 days at Vegas. That was a really nice trip overall.

 

Food Review (in order of how they came on the trip):

Hattie B's: I had the medium spicy chicken with Collard Greens, Bread, and Crinkle Cut Fries. My mother had non-spicy chicken with Coleslaw, Bread, and Crinkle Cut Fries. The chicken was great for me, moist in the center, just spicy enough for me and the fries were perfect, crunchy, salty, and soft in the center. The bread was okay, I wish they toasted it slightly because it felt like just bread with no flavor except for what was soaked in from the spiciness. The collard greens were okay as well, they were quite peppery which, I like spiciness, but it took over the greens flavor to me. My mother said even though she ordered no spiciness, she felt like it was still peppery. She liked what she had too for the most part. B+

Pronto: I had the Turkey Avocado Panini and Rainbow Cake. The Panini was very good. It came out hot and the turkey, pesto, avocado, and bacon all came together in one bite. The Rainbow Cake was interesting, in the way of it looked dense and heavy to me but it was dense but light to me. It looked heavy to eat, but it tasted like it melted in your mouth. It wasn't too sweet which I like because I don't like cloyingly sweet cakes, but I think the flavors of vanilla, pistachio, and cherry are a little odd. It would have been better if it was spumoni flavored: chocolate, pistachio, and cherry. But other than that this was good on the trip. B+

Wicked Spoon: Wicked Spoon is my 2nd favorite buffet and I think after having Wynn, it is still 2nd overall. What I liked most from the buffet was the salads, the seafood stew, the carved meets, ramen, the macarons, and the sorbets. I'm not sure why they have eliminated sushi on this buffet because other than the poke and ramen, I was expecting more from the Asian section. They recently made that change this year and I wish they would bring it back. Maybe they lost the chef who did that. Overall, it was very good, other than the BBQ pork which was dry. A-

Wynn Buffet: The atmosphere at the Wynn buffet is really nice. I do enjoy looking at this buffet because it is decorated in high class like Cosmo and has flowers and an open setting. I haven't been to the Wynn in years so I wanted to try it again, this time for dinner. I have to say Wynn takes 3rd overall because while I thought there were items that were exceptional, a lot of the food items placed in the good category overall which to me is really difficult to beat my top 2. My Top 5 buffets are really good and I would eat them anytime, so if you are in this category I think it's good. The highlights of Wynn were the Sui Mai, Fresh Fruit With Lychee, BBQ Pork Ribs, Poke, Penne and Meatballs, Sorbet and Creme Brulee. All of those tasted great. The things that didn't work out for me were the Salmon which was overcooked, the T-Bone Lamb which was unevenly cooked - tough on one side, perfect on the other (I'm not sure how that happened?), carrots with butter cream, and the Beef Ribs could have been cooked longer. B+

Top Of Binion's Steakhouse: If it wasn't for this steakhouse, I wouldn't go back to downtown. I just didn't enjoy my time there. Self parking was hard to do and the crowds were enormous. As for the steakhouse, it was very good. The raspberry salad was great. I love raspberries and I like this salad and the dressing. The Prime Rib was perfectly medium for me and it was so good that I didn't even want to put Au Jus on it lol. The vegetables were nice, potato was cooked well. The mushrooms could have a little more flavor but everything came together on the plate for me. The view was fantastic if you like downtown places. You can see hotels and lights for miles up on the 24 floors. A-

Border Grill: Border Grill was great as always, I've had the brunch now I believe 3 times now and this time was just as great as any other. What I don't like about BG is that they do charge for their Voss Water ($0.50 per table), but luckily the food makes up for that because water should really be free. The Blood Orange Lemonade was great, one of the best mixed non-alcoholic drinks I've had at Vegas, the Tamale, Campecha (Ceviche), Parfait, Diablo Chicken, and Yuca were all really good. They did bring out cookies and their ice cream with it, the cookies could use less salt, but it was nice to do that on my birthday. A-

Sapporo Revolving Sushi: The sushi at this place in Chinatown was great. I don't have many good sushi places in Riverside but this one is really good here in Vegas. The sushi was soft, not too cold, and tasted fresh. The ramen was delicious as the broth was flavorful, not overly salty, and delicate to eat with the pork, vegetables, and ramen together. The pineapple sorbet was great and refreshing, everything was good despite this being really the only meal that I had to pay for. This one was rated really high on Yelp so that's why I chose to eat it. A-

Hell's Kitchen: This place is very fancy and if you like GR then you will like the setting of this restaurant. The decor is nice, the view is great and off the strip where Serendipity 3 used to be, and the waiters were fast and attentive. The pumpkin soup was really nice and light, hot and the vegetables on the bottom worked for me with the soup. The Wellington is their specialty here and they cooked it medium rare for me which was perfect, and it works with their demiglaze. The potatoes were good the only thing that didn't work so much was the carrots and parsnips. They were cooked well but it didn't have anything extra added to them. My mother liked the pizza however, I guess I disagree. The toppings were nice but I found the dough to be not cooked enough. The sticky toffee pudding was way too sweet in my opinion, the cake and the ice cream would have been enough, but I felt the cavities coming on when you add the caramel to it lol. Overall, I used the Diamond Celebration Credit on this, and I'm glad I did, the prices are really high here. While it was decent to good, I don't know if I would go back, there's cheaper places to eat and have good food as well. B

Tournament Of Kings: The food at ToK is solid. It seems like a step down from HK earlier in the day, but as long as the place serves food that is cooked well and tastes good I am satisfied. The tomato soup was decent for the most part, it was hot and you can taste the tomato. The corn was a bit overcooked and the chicken was mostly moist except for the breast. It's tough to cook a whole bird as is so that everything cooks evenly correctly and nothing dries out. The potatoes, biscuit, and apple pie were very good. The show was fun too, to watch. B

Lemongrass: Other than the table next to us arguing all throughout the dinner, the food at Lemongrass was great. Both of our soups were really nice, my duck and pork soup was great, the broth was delicate, light, and not too salty. All of the meats were cooked well but not over, the noodles had a chew but were not mushy, and the vegetables were great. My mother liked all of here soup too except for the trite. She's not a fan of weird meats like that but the Pho she had was great otherwise. A-

Aria Buffet: What can I say about Aria Buffet, it is my favorite and still has retained that title for the last 12 trips. Everything was good to great, with more items on the great side. My favorites are the duck salad, beet salad, ramen, seafood, watermelon, tuna steak, cioppino, Tandoori Chicken, Duck, Poke, and all of the desserts. The only item that I didn't love so much was the Paella which was a little overcooked. Other than that I love putting this buffet last and it makes me really sad to leave the next day because it is my last meal of the trip. A

 

Yeah it was a great deal to go for that long
I'm probably not going to head to Vegas anytime soon until after April 12th, 2020. Mainly because I don't need any tier points for any of my cards. Cosmo's tier runs out on April 12th and I have 31,000+ tier points from mLife. @Texas Steph If you are doing a meet in late April/early May, that would be a great time for me to go.

 

Thanks for reading!
I could go anytime after April 12th next year. I would love to do a group meet next year

 

Nice I would like to come to that.

 

Looks like Cosmo wants me to come back!

 

MyVegas does give some free Aria Buffets, those are one of the best rewards left on the game.
M's Studio B buffet is also really good and is a lot cheaper than other strip buffets.
I will look out for your TR. Thanks for reading along mine as well!

 

Yup I've had that problem too.
I usually get LP the fastest on the Blackjack game. It's boring but it gets the job done faster than the normal game.

 

Thanks for reading!