As promised, I am dedicating an entire post just to the amazing food that I got to try during my Weekend trip to Vegas! 

Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill

Wolfgang Puck was on of the first meals that I had in Vegas. Throughout the trip we actually ate there twice, once on our first night there and once for lunch on our third day. 

On the first night, we ate Wolfgang after a loaded night at Porter Robinson at Hakkasan. Which means we were having this amazing food at 4 am in the morning. We had the Italian Sausage Pizza which had Crème Fraiche, Mozzarella, Red Onion, Fresno Chilies, Baby Spinach and we added Pepperoni. We also ordered an Eggs Benedict because in my mind it was technically morning and I love me a good eggs benny. 

The pizza was absolutely AMAZING. It was probably the reason we decided to eat there again later that weekend. The highlight was definitely the italian sausage. BEST. ITALIAN SAUSAGE. EVER. I don’t know how or what, but it was the most flavourful bites of sausage I’ve ever had on a pizza. 

The second time we ate there we shared the Pepperoni pizza which features San Marzano Tomatoes, Red Onions, Fresh Oregano. And of course we had to add the italian sausage to it. The highlight of this pizza was surprisingly the San Marzano tomatoes. It made each bite flavourful and juicy and I think the taste brought the ingredients together perfectly. 

Gordon Ramsey Burger

Our second meal in glorious Las Vegas was Ramsey Burger. We had their Hellfire Wings and Truffle Fries to start along with their Creme Brulee Orea Milkshake. In my honest opinion, the wings were a little disappointing. They weren’t very hot and nor did they stand out to me at all. BUT their truffle fries definitely made up for that disappointed as they were BOMB. 

We shared their Hells Kitchen Burger which features Asadero Cheese, Roasted Jalapenos, Avocados, Roasted Tomatoes, and a Jalapeno Pesto Aioli. Their burger was EXQUISITE. We weren’t quite hungry at that point (probably because of our hefty 4 am meal the night before) so we just ended up sharing one burger. Their patty was juicy and fresh and the flavours were rich and delicious. 

StripSteak at Mandalay Bay

Oh my f*cking GOD. Stripsteak was the most luxurious and delicious meal I had on this entire trip and we had some DAMN good food all throughout. I have never in my life had better steak. Or steak that even came CLOSE to the mouth-watering tender marbled goodness of their Prime Creekstone Dry Aged Rib Eye. Really makes me doubt how I’ll ever eat non-dry-aged steak again. And even if I somehow find a place in Vancouver that serves it, will it taste as good? PROBABLY NOT. 

We ordered their America’s Best Oysters and Wagyu Fillet Tartare to start. The beef tartare wasn’t really my cup of tea. It featured basil pesto, truffle potato foam, russet potato chips. I kept tasting mustard or horseradish in the dish, which I hate, so that might have ruined the dish for me. 

Their fries might actually have been a huge highlight of the meal for me. The fries comes on a platter of three which features garlic fries, truffle fries, and another one which I can’t for the life of me remember. Garlic fries were hands down my favourite of the three. We also ordered their Brocolini side which was phenomenal as well. 

He ordered the World Wide Wagyu tasting plate which showcases three different Wagyus from around the world. The Japanese A5 NY Strip was our favourite, and stood up against our beloved dry-aged rib eye quite well. The other two, the American Rib Cap, and the Australian Short Rib were both amazing as well. But still the Japanese A5 and Dry-Aged Rib Eye blew them out of the park. 

District One Kitchen & Bar 

District One was something we found on the internet but we were both super glad we left the strip to try it out. They are a Asian fusion restaurant that features Vietnamese flavours. We were drawn in from a photo of their lobstor pho. We knew we had to give it a try. We had their Surf and Turf pho which featured half a lobster as well as rib eye steak. How ridiculous does that sound. Going into it we suspected that this place was popular mainly for the novelty of lobster in pho rather than for the taste but boy were we wrong. The soup was authentic and amazing and surprisingly it paired really well with the lobster and steak combo. We also ordered the big bone soup and OH MAN is it big. I’ve never been the biggest fan of bone marrow but I have definitely been converted. It was impressive how tasty the bone marrow, fat, and fall-off-the-bone meat was with the classic Vietnamese pho soup.

We have some good pho in Vancouver but damn we were both impressed.  

I’ve also developed a love for oysters during my trip to Vegas. Maybe I’ve just never really tried to enjoy them now I’m realizing that I’ve been missing out. I’ve got an oyster date with a friend in a couple of days :3 Just couldn’t stay away.    

Hakkasan

Hakkasan is an international restaurant that has received Michelin stars at some of its other locations. If you look at their list of accolades, it’s long but well-deserved. They serve traditional cantonese/chinese food with the ever so slight twist. Although their menu and options were endless, we decided to eat quite simply as neither of us could fit another feast into our tummies. We had the Gai Lan in Garlic sauce, which can I note is the BEST DAMN GAI LAN I HAVE EVER TASTED. And I’m chinese. I’ve eaten a lot of gai lan in my time. I don’t know what about it makes it so good but I’m suspecting that they just have some top-tier veges imported from god knows where. We also ordered their hakka noodles and their steamed dimsum platter. The dim sum included har gau, scallop shumai, Chinese chive dumpling, and black pepper duck dumpling. The presentation was great but I’m thankful that the taste did not stray from what traditional dim sum tastes like. I apologize for my shitty photos by the way. I was honestly too busy stuffing my face to care about trying to take a proper photo (oops!).   Last but not least we tried their Caramel Passion which featured passion fruit tapioca, chocolate cremeux, and salted caramel ice cream. I swear it had a lot more fancy ingredients than that but those are what’s listed on the menu and that’s really the only way I can remember. We also tried their Yuzu Panna Cotta which has a raspberry compote, tahitian vanilla madeleines, raspberry sorbet, and seasonal fruit. Probably wasn’t a good idea to eat these two desserts together because the Caramel Passion made the Panna Cotta really sour. But they were both delicious nonetheless. 

And that wraps up my Vegas food journey. 

All I can think about everyday is the food honestly. I’ve been eating my way around Vancouver trying to chase those flavours. No luck so far. I found a place that serves a 30-day dry aged steak which I think I’ll go try soon. GOD I want to go back so bad. 

I hope you enjoyed my food post! I’m going to go make myself some food now cause writing this up made me HANGRY AF. 

Don’t forget to check out my Vegas Trip recap post if you haven’t already and watch my Vegas vlog!

Until next time, 

Although neither of us enjoy alcohol regularly, we still had a drink here and there when it was necessary (at the pool club, at Hakkasan etc.) The great thing about traveling with someone who is equally as uninterested in getting wasted as you are, was that I never once felt pressured to drink. Which in my opinion makes the times I DO drink much more enjoyable. 

We left on Friday to make our trek down to Seattle. We bought a flight departing from SEATAC airport because the prices were significantly cheaper flying domestic rather than leaving from YVR. That’s a tip for anybody traveling to the states from Vancouver. Usually Bellingham and Seattle has WAY cheaper flights if especially if your final destination is somewhere in the states. 

We arrived in Vegas shortly before 12am and took an Uber to our hotel. We stayed at the MGM because his family has a hotel host there so we were able to enjoy a complimentary room as well as shows, food, and drinks. 

The view from our hotel room

Our first full day, which was Saturday, was spent walking and exploring the strip. His family takes trips to vegas several times a year, so he acted as our tour guide for most of the trip. 

We had a list of food places we wanted to try around Vegas and one of them was Gordon Ramsey burger. I won’t go into too much detail about the food in this post as I have a separate post dedicated to all the food places we tried, so make sure you check that post out. 

Walking the strip was honestly not a stroll in the park as I had imagined. From just looking it seems like everything is quite close together and the hotels at the other side of the strip were just a few steps away. The reality of it is that the hotel properties were SO large that they actually take up entire blocks on their own. So of course each hotel looks like they are right beside each other, because they technically are. But the distance from the start of one to the end of another was a much larger distance than I had imagined. 

Thankfully we dedicated almost a full day to exploring the different hotels, casinos, and shops along the way. 

Apparently the Wynn hotel changes their decor quite regularly. During the weekend we were there, they featured a floral/nature set up which was absolutely stunning ?One of my favourite hotels on the strip has definitely got to be the Venetian. Everything from the decor to the architecture was aesthetic GOALS. They even have a canal running throughout the inside of their shopping area as well as outside throughout the streetscape, where you can choose to ride a gondola on with your own personal singing gondolier.

Top: Aritzia | Skirt: Levis from Aritzia | Shoes: Steve Madden from Shoes.com

The last time that I was at this hotel I was probably 12 or 13, and everything was stunning and grandiose. Coming back here a decade later, and I was still in AWE at how amazing this place was. Saturday night I got to experience one of the best dinners I’ve ever had in my life at Stripsteak at the Mandalay Bay. Details will be on the food post. It was probably my favourite night of this trip because we had a (somewhat) relaxed evening which consisted of dinner and a show. Because of the length of our trip, we really wanted to milk it and fit as much as we could into the four day weekend. Although still a little crazy, our saturday night was the chillest of the weekend and filled with all of my favourite things.

We ate like kings and watched O by Cirque Du Soleil. Of the two Cirque Du Soleil shows that I watched this trip, O and Ka, O was definitely my favourite. Although both stages were amazing feats themselves, the O show with the giant tank was just breathtaking. I’ve seen three Cirque shows in my lifetime now, and it’s only fed my love for them more. 

Jacket: Mackage from Aritzia | Dress: Aritzia | Shoes: Aldo | Bag: Alexander Wang

Sunday we woke up slow and went downstairs to eat Wolfgang Puck. We had Wolfgang twice this trip because their Pizza was delectable. After our brunch we headed to the pool to try to get our tan on. We checked out Wet Republic which is the pool club at the MGM. We only had a couple of hours to spend by the pool before we had to start getting ready for our evening at the Billboard Music Awards so sadly we couldn’t stay and wait for Tiesto to come on stage.

We left Wet Republic about 30 minutes before we had to go so that we would atleast have that time to relax and lay by their regular pool area rather than stand around at Wet Republic.    The Billboard Music Awards was such a cool thing that we got to experience this trip. Originally the plan was we would watch the Jabbawockeez on Sunday night instead. However, last minute his hotel host told us he had extra tickets so we changed our plans and headed to T-Mobile Arena. 

It was equally as weird as it was a cool experience because the show was mainly tailored to the fact that it was going to be aired internationally. Being there at the arena we got to see the behind-the-scenes version of what we usually see on TV which included all the stage changes, commerical intermissions, and even the empty stage when they showcase artists performing at other areas in Vegas. 

The most amazing moment of the entire award show was definitely when Celine Dion performed her hit song “My Heart Will Go On” in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the infamous movie, The Titanic. I think of all of the shows and stars that I got to see in Vegas, Celine Dion was the single most EPIC thing I’ve seen in a long time. 

This just happened. My life is complete. You are a LEGEND @celinedion pic.twitter.com/JMOwihqg8v

— Angel Zheng (@angelzhng) May 22, 2017

Top: Aritzia | Skirt: H&M

 Monday was our last day in Vegas and so we made it our shopping day! We visited The North Premium outlets and The Fashion Show Mall. We came back to MGM for dinner and had the simplest but tastiest meal at Hakkasan. 

This was one of the meals that I was the most excited for because of how highly he spoke of the food there. After dinner we headed straight to watch our last show of the trip, Ka by Cirque Du Soleil, and then to the airport to catch our 10 pm flight. 

Las Vegas has been one of my most loved trips yet not only because of all of the adventures that I had there, but also because of the company. Albeit short, I got to see a face of Vegas, that I may not have been able to see if I were traveling with someone else, which made me fall in love with the city. It seems that each time I travel as an adult, I seem to have better and better experiences every time. 

I have another short weekend roadtrip planned soon so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for that. 

And don’t forget to check out my Vegas Vlog!   

More soon,