Category Archives: Bars/Lounges

Las Vegas Weekend

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http://www.visitlasvegas.com/vegas/index.jsp

I was in Las Vegas this weekend for a bachelorette party, my first in Las Vegas. As the saying goes, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” but I wanted to share some the meals we had and share some of the not so good experiences.

I left on Friday night and unfortunately my flight got delayed. But at least I had a friend to pass the time with. I was a bit annoyed going through security though. I was chosen to basically get “frisked” or padded down so I had to step into the plastic case to wait for a female security guard. I was standing there without my shoes for a good 5 to 10 minutes while the guard in front of me was yelling something like “female assistance, no alarm”… there were 3 guys who were also called out and they were immediately padded down and let go. My things were sitting on the conveyor belt as everyone else passed through. It’s uncomfortable getting stared at. Finally a male guard got my stuff and I went through the machine that puffs air at you and I was allowed to pass through and put my shoes back on. I guess they might be short staffed but to allow three men to go through while I stood there and waited isn’t right. As people passed through, even they were giving me pitying looks.

When we finally arrived in Vegas, we checked into our hotel and met up with the girls at Blush Lounge at the Wynn. It was a pretty chill place, music I actually recognized, nice outdoor patio, and an older crowd.

On Saturday morning we had brunch at Bouchon in the Venetian.

We had beignets, the ones on the left are raspberry filled and the ones on the right are their classic ones covered with cinnamon sugar and served with peach preserves and nutella. Not as light as I remember beignets are in New Orleans but still yummy.

I had the croque madame, one of my favs. Those fries hit the spot and plenty to share.

A unique thing, chicken and waffles, in that the waffles have chives, sweet and savory. My friends said the chicken breast was really moist. It was served with maple syrup and gravy (mushroom I think).

Saturday evening we went to see Thunder From Down Under and all I can really say is that it was corny but I can see how it can appeal to some people. We also went to XS Nightclub at Encore which I guess is the newest club in Las Vegas and I thought highly overrated. We stayed at the Encore so went to the concierge to get free passes. When we got there, they said we needed one pass for each girl. We only had five passes because the concierge didn’t say we needed one per girl and it also doesn’t say it on the pass itself. So we were a bit irritated that we actually needed to pay to get in ($25 each x 4) when we could’ve just gotten more passes. So that started out the night on a bad note. Although the place is really cool with the outdoor pool area where you can enjoy sitting around (if it wasn’t so cold) but then the music wasn’t very good and the people in general were very rude. One of our friends was trying to leave and as she was walking away, a guy shoved her, she landed hard on her left knee and face (hurting her nose and two front teeth)… the guy just kept on walking and a bouncer was kind enough to stop to help her up. So rude.

We ended the night on a better note by going to Tao in the Venetian where the music was better and a girl in our group ran into people she knew so it was more fun to hang out with friendlier people. Some of the other girls went to gamble and had some good luck.

The weekend ended with a all-you-can-eat/drink mimosa brunch at Envy Steakhouse. Bacon & sausage… yum!

Uncharacteristically for me, I couldn’t have dessert, was too stuffed with the buffet. The piano player at this place was great, very entertaining. The atmosphere was very fun, kind of old school but a good note to end the weekend on.

Back at the Wynn, the hotel is vibrant.

We spent the afternoon shopping at The Palazzo and got my first pair of Jimmy Choo pumps! I swear, they were a good deal, on sale!

The parasols in the Palazzo before you enter the Venetian.

We walked for the 4 hours before our flight so I thought I’d be ready to sleep on the plane but couldn’t really doze off comfortably.

I feel much better today after napping for 3 hrs this evening. It’s highly irregular for me to go to Vegas this often and both were very different experiences. Both were great fun but this might be it for the year.

Congratulations to the bachelorette! The wedding will be June in Honolulu. I just got the confirmation for our tickets (great price, less than $300 per person), can’t wait!

Palomino and Chez Papa Friday Night Happy Hour

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After a tough day at work, I embraced the idea of going to happy hour to enjoy half price drinks and some fattening bar food.

We met up with our friend Susan who lives in SOMA and who is familiar with some the places in the city to have happy hour. We started out at Palomino near the Embarcadero which has Happy Hour 4-6pm. They have a very nice outdoor patio and with the beautiful weather on Friday, it was packed! There is a bartender outside selling limited drinks for $5 (like a cranberry mojito, wine, tequila shots, etc). Unfortunately, there were no tables freeing up outside. But to note, apparently you can make a reservation for happy hour if you have enough people, maybe 10 to 15 in the party.

We ended up finding a spot inside as one of Susan’s former co-workers was there at a table so we squeezed ourselves right in so that we could order food before 6pm. They have a selection of appetizers that are half off and pizzas are $5. There were additional drinks like draft beers and green apple drop which were $5 as well.

Please excuse my poor pictures from my camera phone, my hands were shaky (maybe because I was hungry….)

This is the calamari served with a marinara and (we think) a garlic aioli. The batter was nice and crisp and the aioli was spicy with raw garlic, yum!

A personal sized rotisserie chicken pizza. If you like really thin crust pizza then you’ll like this. I wasn’t too much of a fan because I like more toppings and less cheese but it’s not bad for $5.

Potatoes gorgonzola…. man, these were heavenly. They have a really good fryer in their kitchen because these were so crisp and stayed really crisp even after they cooled down. The gorgonzola went well with the fries although not spread very evenly so some fries had none and some fries had a ton plus after a while, the cheese solidified so it was hard to scoop up more onto the fries that had none.

After chowing down and enjoying a few drinks, we went to meet up with some other people at Chez Papa Resto in Mint Plaza. The happy hour there is until 7pm. We just went to meet them for drinks while they were having dinner, so had them order us a lychee martini ($6). Chez Papa also has a Bistrot on 18th Street which we’ve eaten at with our families for a birthday many years back although nothing sticks in my mind if it was really good but it wasn’t really bad. One of the reasons why I’m glad that I have a way to keep track of where we’ve eaten and if it is worth returning to.

Well, back to happy hour. Here is the lychee martini. A bit strange and Susan said it was different than the first time she’d had it, the first time it was clear and sweeter. Today’s lychee martini tasted like it had star anise in it, was very cloudy, and it didn’t really taste like a lychee drink except for the two lychees in the glass…

Happy hour is fun, a needed stress relief from a chaotic day.

Palomino
345 Spear Street

Chez Papa Resto
4 Mint Plaza

Fort Bragg Weekend Trip Day 1

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Ron planned us a nice trip for the long weekend. We left late morning so didn’t arrive at our destination until 1:30pm. We drove about 3 hours to Fort Bragg… driving along the coast was beautiful.

We arrived first at the North Coast Brewing Company Restaurant. They usually have tours on Saturdays but we were late (it starts at 12pm) and actually they didn’t have a tour due to an illness.

We got to try 4-oz samples of 12 beers.

I ordered the deep fried shrimp po’ boy. A bit hard to eat because the shrimp kept on wanting to escape but overall pretty good. The shrimp tasted really fresh and freshly fried, not soggy at all.

Mmm…

Ron had the pulled pork sandwich with the garlic criss cut fries. The sandwich was very messy to eat. The garlic fries didn’t have quite enough garlic.

Our favorite beers are the ones with the glasses removed… the dark beers are really good when cold but at room temperature a bit weird, kind of like cold coffee. Their light beers in general were good. I hope we can find it somewhere in SF, Bevmo is probably a good place to check. Scrimshaw was my favorite.

After lunch we went to Glass Beach to walk off our full bellies. Glass Beach used to be a local dumping ground and it’s been mostly cleaned up. What is left though are the broken glass bottles that have been polished by the waves and rocks over the years. What you end up with are these small polished “stones”. We went beach combing and collected some pretty rocks while waiting for the sun to set.

We saw all these washed up jellyfish on the beach. A bit sad but also still dangerous, according to a local there, they can still sting so don’t touch them.

There were small tide pools as well. Ron found this cool anemone.

Ron carrying my handbag… he he…

We are still learning our digital SLR so our pictures are coming out a bit funky, looks like the setting sun is a explosion on the horizon.

After our walk, we checked into the Beach House Inn and had a nap before going out for dinner. The inn was actually a hotel but the interesting thing about the place is having a huge tub in the living area.

Ron made reservations for dinner at the Rendezvous Inn. We ended up ordering their two tasting menus, Ron ordered the crab with wines and I had the mushrooms (without wine).

I was feeling self conscious so only took pictures of my food 😀 My first course was the mushroom soup with these interesting mushrooms. The soup was full of flavor and the mushrooms (to me) tasted like meat… it was rich and filling.

My second course was venison with mushroom polenta and some squash. The venison was delicious, never had it like this before and I think I like it. The meat is a bit tough but very lean. I didn’t really like the polenta though so only picked out the mushrooms.

My last course was the bone marrow, made into a custard in the bone and also the tail meat with mashed potatoes. The bone marrow custard was a bit weird, not actually that flavorful. The meat though was very fatty but the meat very tender. I was already so full after the venison that I could only eat a few bites before packing the rest for later.

Ron had a crab bisque, crab ravioli, and these are the crab cakes.

I would say the mushroom tasting menu was better. It’s deceiving because you think you’re only getting mushrooms but then comes out all this meat! Oh so full!

To top it off, passion fruit pastry… so yummy! We both wanted a bigger one, these were only one bite each.

The weekend just keeps on getting better.

Victor’s Pizza and Alembic Bar

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We met up with a friend tonight for dinner. He used to live in SF so picked the places we went tonight.

First stop, Victor’s Pizza. Apparently our friend Arjun says that almost everything they had was delicious. We had eyed their calzones as we were waiting for our table so we got Calzone “B” with pepperoni, salami, and mushrooms. The breading is nice and chewy and the ingredients seemed very fresh. This was a mini size and is plenty for 2 people. Ron and I had leftovers because I also wanted to try their pasta.

I chose the carbonara. The bacon was good and there was a lot of it! It was a bit oily though and very filling. We ate about 2/3 of the dish so we have enough for one more meal.

After dinner we tried to go to a wine bar down the street but it was packed full. There was a 30 minute wait to get inside. Instead we drove over to the Haight to Alembic Bar. One of Arjun’s friends recommended it. Apparently it had been written up recently in the New York Times.

It was really crowded there too and we had to wait about 15 minutes to get inside. They have a rule “one person out, one person in”. We were lucky to get a table to sit and chat. We had a few drinks, including one not on the menu. A mint julep. The poor bartender had to make three of these for our table and to make the ice, she pound a block of ice in a canvas bag with a mallet. She was beating the bag with a vengeance. The drink was worth it though, ICE cold!

Very refreshing and a good way to end the night.

Victor’s Pizza
1411 Polk Street (between California & Pine)

Alembic Bar
1725 Haight Street (between Cole & Shrader)

Poleng Lounge

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http://www.polenglounge.com/

Tonight I went out with Vicki and Joyce for dinner. We hadn’t had the chance to catch up before the holidays so this was our chance. I found Poleng Lounge on Opentable and it seemed to have good reviews and it was easy to make a reservation.

The restaurant was pretty empty at 6:30pm but then that is pretty early to have dinner. It seems like they have music in the evenings and a pretty mellow atmosphere.

We ordered some yummy appetizers, roasted edamame, roti, and sweet potato fries with banana catsup. The edamame was salty and smoked, yum. The roti was nice a hot but the accompanying curry was a bit cold. The sweet potato fries were delicious and the catsup was unique.

We ordered the shaking beef. The beef chunks were a good size and the dipping sauce complimented the meat well.

The garlic lobster noodles were a bit greasy but very yummy. The noodles a bit chewy and lots of garlic. Don’t order this on a date!

They have delicious cocktails too! I’m sure you’d be happy with whichever one you order.

We had a bit room left for dessert (probably I had more room than Vicki and Joyce…) and ordered the bread pudding.

One of the best bread puddings I’ve had. There was a slight burnt crust on the bottom because of carmelization and the rest was moist and delicious. It was served with a taro (I think) tapioca with a bit of black sesame seeds. That was really yummy.

I’d like to go back again on a weekend and see what the night scene is like… it’s pretty close to where we live so I think this may be a nice place to frequent. Here we can have the cuisine we miss from Singapore.

Poleng Lounge
1751 Fulton Ave @ Masonic