rm upstairs at Rick Moonen’s rm seafood
The economy forced Rick Moonen to close his gourmet dining room for a year. But his recent second season Splurge responsibly on Top Chef Masters convinced the powers that be at with these secret Mandalay Bay to allow him to reopen it. His kitchen bargains at the Strip’s finest restaurants now features some of the most talented chefs in town creating dishes such as a spiral-sliced scallop drizzled with a semi-frozen foam of black garlic and squid ink, or a five-spice roasted pork belly. But since they re-launched in a tough market, prices are a fraction of what you’d pay for similar fare elsewhere: Five-course tasting menus start at $65 a person. (AM) Inside Mandalay Place, 3930 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 632-9300
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Society Café
Taking the casino café to a new level, Society is one of the best places in town for breakfast: the food is great and the décor is stunning. Highlights include pumpkin and buckwheat pancakes with pumpkin butter and candied pecans, and 15 Frosted Flake French toast UNDER $15 with caramelized bananas and chocolate cream — both $15. If you want to avoid the sweet, go with the trio of mini-quiches. You’ll get ham and gruyere, salmon and chive, and asparagus and goat cheese, all for $14. (AM) Inside Encore, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 770-3463
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New York expatriate Sam Demarco offers up some of the most decadent upscale bar food in town. Among the best: a plate of Philly cheese steak dumplings. At $14.44, these potstickerstyle dumplings are stuffed with a glorious combination of steak and cheese, and accompanied by siracha ketchup. Other snacks in the price range include a duck reuben eggroll and Indian tandoori chicken wings. (AM) Inside The Palazzo, 3325 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 7928900
Hubert Keller’s Fleur de Lys is both delicious and pricey. Fortunately for those who want to sample the Top Chef Masters finalist’s cuisine without breaking the bank, Executive Chef Steve Wolf has created a lounge menu. Seventeen dishes are priced below $15, with five desserts just $5 each. A set of four truffle onion soup shooters will only cost you $6, while the spicy rock shrimp with glass noodles and Asian vegetables is just $12. (AM)
First Food & Bar
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Ceviches and tiraditos, combining fresh raw Caña Latin fish with intense citrus flavors, are the specialty Kitchen at this hip new Town & Bar Square haunt. They’re all delicious, and the priciest selection might be the stunning hamachi tiradito at a reasonable $16. Caña’s menu of delectable small plates also includes a creamy-rich, secretly spicy serving of mac & cheese for $8. It’s a steal. (BR) In Town Square, 6599 Las Vegas Blvd. S. #210, 722-6060
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The Bootlegger Bistro 50
Desert Companion
Fleur de Lys
Inside Mandalay Bay, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 632-9400
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Lola’s in the Holsum Lofts offers a wide variety of Louisiana cuisine for Lola’s under $15. But it’s the Louisiana oysters that will keep you Kitchen coming back. The best in Vegas, they’re brushed with lemon butter marinade and Parmesan cheese, then grilled to perfection. You can get a half-dozen for just $11.49. Another surefire bargain hit is the chef ’s own creation: a crawfish version of hushpuppies known as crawpuppies for $5.99. (AM) 241 W. Charleston Blvd., 227-5652
At the Bootlegger Bistro you can get a pasta dinner and a show for $15 or less. The restaurant, which has been in the family of former showgirl and ex-Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt for generations, features live music nightly, with several generations of Strip performers performing regularly. It’s a taste of old Vegas included in the price of the meal. And the menu features eleven different pasta dishes under $15. (AM) 7700 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 736-4939 JULY//AUGUST 2010
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Country Club
If you’re missing the sweet Southern hospitality of brunch at the former locals’ Strip favorite Commander’s Palace, Chef Carlos Guia is doing an updated version in his wellappointed room at Wynn. Go Saturday to skip the live jazz and all-inclusive Sunday price ($59) and revel in the delicious affordables, which include French toast bread pudding with glazed bacon, sweet corn chowder and a smoked Chipotle burger. (BR) Wynn Las Vegas, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 248-3463
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‘Wichcraft One of our best sandwich shops shouldn’t be on the Strip, but it is, an old-school lunch with modern flavor as conceptualized by the great Tom Colicchio. Try rare skirt steak with fried eggs and oyster mushrooms on a roll. If you’re real hungry, you want a thick slab of meatloaf with cheddar, bacon and tomato relish on a roll. This food is too good to be on a roll, but lucky for us, it is. (BR) MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 891-7777
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Magura Restaurant
This east-side eatery sells the best Bulgarian food west of the Rockies. Salads, grilled meats and veggies dominate the menu, complemented by cheese, yogurt or both. Fight the heat with tarator, a cold cucumber, yogurt and fresh dill soup that will have you wishing your bowl was a swimming pool. Throw your arteries to the wind with the wonderful kashkave pane — battered, pan-fried cheese that’s sinfully good. Everything is fresh and nothing costs more than $11. (JH) 1305 Vegas Valley Drive Ste. C, 693-6990