food

Mini Cheesy Meatloaf

While trying to decide what I wanted to cook for the week I got this craving for meatloaf. I know it seems like a weird craving but for some reason it just sounded so good. I remember my parents making a cheese stuffed meatloaf as a kid, we didn’t get it all the time but it showed up on the dinner table often. It was quick and cooked in the microwave; we had a thing for meals cooked in the microwave so much so we have a huge recipe box full of microwave only recipes, who knows maybe I’ll but one of those out in the future. Now I have had some good meatloaf and the bad, I think there is a fine line between something delicious and just a block of meat; and unfortunately it doesn’t take much to cross into the bad. I think this is why meatloaf gets such a bad rap often times it is hard and flavorless, I have had many people tell me how gross meatloaf is and then they describe that cafeteria meatloaf from elementary school. I am sorry there was no way to make that taste good. So when I think about what I was served as a kid it was always full of flavor and stuffed with cheese how can you go wrong with that. Now honestly I can’t tell you the last time I actually had meatloaf but I had to do something about this craving so I came up with this:

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Since I did not have my parent’s recipe on hand and I didn’t really know where to start but I did know what I wanted in it, simple flavors and cheese. I did a little research on the good old internet and crafted my own recipe. I took bits and pieces from recipes online and my knowledge of how my parent’s always whipped it up or guesses on how they whipped it up. The biggest decision I made was to make it in small individual loaves versus the large loaf that most people remember being served at the dinner table. Next I wanted to have a sweet & salty type sauce on top to help with moisture and below you can see the whole recipe. Don’t forget to make adjustments as you see fit, a little more spices here or less cheese (but who wants less cheese) cooking is fun and should be enjoyed so use what you love!

Mini Cheesy Meatloaves

1 lb ground beef (or any other ground meat you prefer)

1-2 eggs lightly beaten (I used two medium eggs adjust for the size you have on hand)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 medium yellow onion diced

1 tbsp dried orageno

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp granulated garlic or minced garlic

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 cup plain breadcrumbs (you may need more or less depending on how wet your meat is, I used an extra 1/4 cup)

Salt & Pepper

Ingredients for the Sauce

1/4 – 1/2 cup Ketchup

1 tbsp Horseradish Mustard (next time I will up this to 2 tbsp)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

Heat oven to 425° F and then place your oven rack in the middle of the oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

While the oven preheats get a large bowl and put in your ground beef, spices, Worcestershire sauce, lightly beaten eggs and breadcrumbs. The next part is messy but the only way to make meatloaf, remove any jewelry and then get your hands in there and mix it all up. At this point if it feels really wet add additional breadcrumbs just to soak up the extra liquid and help keep things together. Once you have it all mixed up throw in your onion & shredded cheese and give it another good mix. Feel free to add everything all at once then mix it up, I did in two mixes because honestly I forgot those two ingredients on the other side of the counter and I decided to write this exactly how I did it not that it matters but you never know. The joys of cooking, you can improvise as you go through it is never exact and that is half the fun. This is how it should look once mixed up, meat doesn’t look dry and everything is fully incorporated.

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Once everything is mixed up you are going to form 4 to 6 loaves with your hands, and place on your greased cookie sheet. It all depends on how big you make them, I only made 4 this time. I got two on the larger size and two smaller ones, which was perfect for lunch the next day.

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After you have formed your loaves and given your hands a good scrubbing it is time to make the sauce. In a small bowl take your ketchup, mustard, spices and sugar and give it a good stir. Once it is all mixed up spoon the mixture over each of the loaves giving them a nice top coat. The sugar in the sauce will begin to caramelize and become almost like barbeque sauce.

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By time you have sauced the loaves your oven should be nice and hot. Go ahead and place them in middle of your oven for 25 – 30 mins or until the center is no longer pink. At 25 mins I pulled mine out and as you can kind of see below I cut into it to make sure that it was cooked through and it was perfect. Depending on how the size and thickness you may have to adjust the cooking time.

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Once you remove them from the oven let them sit for 5 mins to rest before diving into your yummy dinner! Just look at all the melted cheese mixing in the with sauce, yum! I served mine with asparagus that was tossed with garlic salt and parmesan cheese and red potatoes that I cooked in the microwave and topped with butter, salt & pepper.

I really enjoyed this dish, it has a nice texture not hard like some meatloaves can get if they are over cooked, I think the small loaves help with this. The nice thing about the onions is that they soften up and add moisture to the loaf which really helps keep the texture soft and more like a really good hamburger. I ended up bringing the leftovers to work so my mother and I could enjoy them and they were just as good the next day.

I would love to hear how yours turns out or if you made any changes and how they worked, just leave me a comment!

Tacos El Gordo

The first of many reviews I hope and boy is it a good one!

Tacos el Gordo – Las Vegas Blvd

3049 S. Las Vegas Blvd

Las Vegas, NV 89109

**Edit 1/21/15 – The Las Vegas Blvd Location has closed but Tacos el Gordo has two other locations in the Las Vegas valley to try!**

This a hole in the wall taco shop located in a strip mall next to the Wynn hotel and casino on the Vegas strip. I have been to this taco shop more than once because it is just so good. If you are looking for a place that you can get authentic Mexican street tacos than this is the place. I heard about them from one of my coworkers, who said that her and her sister love their tacos and I needed to try them. So luckily for me they were willing to take me on my first visit and navigate the menu and ordering process.

Because this is a small place how you order your tacos all depends on how busy the place is. I say this because the very first time I went here it was in the middle of the week and just around 5:30 pm and there was barely anyone there, so we were able to walk right up to anyone and order. Yet the second time that I went which was a Saturday smack dab in the middle of the day the place was packed, wall to wall with people. When it is like this there are separate lines for each of the meat types, so if you want more than one type of taco you have to stand in each line. This can be kind long depending on what you are ordering.

Now on to the food! First up here is a shot of the menu; they have one posted right outside of the entrance which I loved because I was waiting for my friends so I was able to peruse what was available.

As you can see each taco runs $2 – $2.25 depending on the meat. Then there are different types of fries and what I would consider a tostada, because it is a tortilla covered in meat the topped with another tortilla these run around $4.

For my first trip here I ordered taco de lengua (tongue), taco de tripa (tripe) & taco de adobada (spicy pork). This was the first time that I have ever eaten tongue or tripe, I figured if I am going to do this I am going to do it right! And my friend was telling me how the only thing she orders is the tongue and I wont be disappointed.

First up let’s talk about the tongue:

I ordered all of my tacos on flour tortillas, the default is corn. I just am not a fan of the consistency so I opted for flour which they graciously obliged. As we can see it is topped with onions, tomatillo green salsa and cilantro. Since this was my very first time eating tongue I have nothing to compare it to but to me it was cooked perfectly. It was nice and tender and great flavor, some bites did feel softer than others. But it wasn’t at all chewy or tough which I was kind of imagining because it is a muscle. Now there was a little too much onions on this taco for my tastes, so in some bites it was a bit over powering. The nice thing was that the salsa and cilantro worked really well with the tongue. Overall it had great balance and I would recommend this to anyone who likes tongue or wanted to give it a shot this is the way to go.

Next up is the tripe taco:

Again this is a first for me as well. I have had other people talk about eating tripe tacos and how good they are so I just had to try it at this place. I was not disappointed at all and actually this became my favorite of the night! The tripe had a nice salty crunch then with the salsa and cilantro it was a perfect blend. On my second trip I had three of these that is how impressed I was with them. Now the downside is I do not know exactly what kind of salsa this is but I would say it was along the lines of a tomatillo, it wasn’t spicy but it had a nice mellow flavor so it did not overpower the meat. This is defiantly one to try!

Last but not least we have the Adobada taco:

Adobada taco is a spicy pork taco. The meat is roasted on a large spicket so the outside gets all crispy but the inside parts stay nice and juicy. This taco is topped with a traditional salsa and then an avocado type sauce, cilantro and onions. This addition of the sauce created a creamy texture and everything melted together. They were not heavy handed with the onions on this one so for this particular taco it added to the flavor. Now on top of the meat there sits a piece of pineapple which they slice off and put on top of the taco on request. I missed this part my first time there and was a bit disappointed about it, so I made sure to ask the next time I went and that is the way to do it. The pineapple has the roasted sweet flavor that combines with the spicy pork that just works so well together. It is something that at first you wouldn’t think would be good but then once you bite in you realize you shouldn’t have doubted it!

Now for the last and final photo I wanted to be sure to show you what the fries look like when you order them, my friend got the Adobada & Asada fries; it was an half & half type deal and this is what she received.

I was pretty full off of my three tacos so only had a couple bites but this was pretty yummy and is certainly big enough to share with the whole table if you wanted. She was only able to eat about a third before she was too full to take another bite.

Now for the overall review, the food is great; there is no question on the fact that they know what they are doing. But the restaurant its self is very tiny, there is limited seating and the seating they do have is really small and cramped. So if you are looking for a relaxing place to sit and chit chat this is not it. It is all about the food, you suffer through the cramped seating and hard benches because you know the tacos are going to be worth it. I would like to see them in a bigger space so that they can provide more places to sit so that once you have stood in their massive line for tacos you can actually sit down and enjoy your food. This is the main ding on their review. The other thing I should mention is be sure to as for a fountain drink and not just say a soda. Because I made the mistake of asking for a soda and they gave me a can, it wasn’t until after I already paid and sat down did I realize I had an option for fountain drinks which I would have preferred. Even with the small amounts of seating and my can of soda I was completely satisfied and in all honesty within two days of my visit I was already craving their tacos. Now that the weather is warming up here it is the perfect time to go and enjoy their outdoor seating with some yummy tacos! Be sure to check them out you wont be disappointed.

Crockpot BBQ Ribs

I came across this idea of cooking ribs in the crockpot on of course Pinterst. The new mecca for food, crafts, clothes you wish you had and your dream wedding. It will suck you in with all the delicious food and normally I just pin these foods and say I am going to make them and rarely go back. But seeing this idea I just knew I had to make them. So I went out and if you know me personally you know that I hate grocery shopping so the fact that I decided to go just to buy ribs is saying something! The pin I came across lead me here and I used her recipe as inspiration to create the ribs to my liking.

BBQ Crockpot Ribs

2-3 lbs Pork Loin Back Ribs

1 1/2 – 2 cups BBQ Sauce – use your favorite store bought or homemade sauce

Chili Powder

Sage

Onion Powder

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Garlic Powder

**Now I didn’t put measurements of the spices because truthfully I am a firm believer of trust your taste buds and eyes which means apply to your liking, some people like more chili powder some like less. I eyeballed it to my tastes and I would say I used 1 tablespoon on each slab of ribs of everything except the garlic salt, this I would say is only 1/2 tablespoon per slab.**

The night before gather up your spices and unpackage your ribs; leave the membrane on to help keep things together. (the long slow cooking will make this tender and perfectly fine to eat) On a large cookie sheet lined with tin foil apply the seasonings to your liking on both sides, be sure to rub it the seasonings into the meat; you want everything nicely covered. Once you have seasoned the ribs to your liking cover your tray with tin foil and refrigerate until you are ready to put them in the slow cooker.

The next morning get your slow cooker out and unwrap your ribs. For this recipe I am using a 6 qt oval crockpot. You are going to then place you ribs with the meat against the stoneware standing on end thickest part on the bottom (mine where pretty much the same thickness so I just stood them up with the meat against the outside). There will be a hole in the middle of the crockpot this is ok. Also it is ok if they over lap a little but try to keep them all against the stoneware as much as possible. Once you have them in the crockpot take your favorite BBQ sauce and pour the sauce over the top of the ribs to it runs down the back and front of each slab. It is ok if not every section of the meat is covered. Just make sure you have a nice ring of sauce across the rib tips that are pointing up. While things heat up the sauce will melt down and through the ribs making everything delicious. You will also notice that towards the end of the cooking time the sauce will fill the empty space in the center and be bubbling away.

At this point you are ready to go, just put the lid on and set to low and cook for 6-8 hrs. I first checked on them at about 6 hrs because my crockpot runs hot and decided to let them go to 7 hrs, which turned out perfect. You should see that the meat is pulling away from the bones especially on the ends of the rack. I pretty much use this tip no matter how I cook ribs.

Once your ribs have cooked up all nice and tender remove them gently from the crockpot with tongs, mine were so tender that they did come out in pieces. Once out of the crockpot baste them with a little extra sauce and serve.

I dished mine up with a side of oven roasted asparagus; which is one of my go to side dishes because it is so simple. Place asparagus on a tin foil lined baking sheet drizzle it with olive oil and season with garlic salt, onion powder and dill. (adjust seasonings to your favorite flavors) Put the pan under the broiler on high for 3 -5 mins, watch carefully to not over cook. The asparagus should be bright green and still a bit firm which gives it a nice bite.

I hope you take the chance and give this recipe a try, don’t be scared to use your favorite spice rub that you picked up at your local grocery store or if you have a tried and true spice rub mix that you make break that out for these lovely crockpot ribs. Cooking should be fun and recipes are just guidelines.

Weiss Deli & Bakery

2744 N. Green Valley Parkway

Henderson, NV 89014

702-454-0565

While at work the other day we were trying to decide on some place to go for lunch, because of course where you are going for lunch is something you discuss instead of actually working. We wanted something different from our normal go to places; not that they aren’t good, they just get a little old after awhile. So while searching that very popular review site that rhymes with help for places near my address I found Weiss Deli & Bakery. This deli is located in a strip mall on the corner of Green Valley Parkway and Sunset, near Trader Joes. Honestly I have been over here and have never noticed this place before. We got there around 11:30 am and there were two other parties seated so we had our choice of seats; at first this made me weary because it is always weird to eat in a place that is empty. A waitress at the end of the restaurant waved us to the back to take a seat in her section; because this is a seat yourself kind of place. Even though I had been a bit skeptical with the lack of patrons that all shortly changed through our lunch as every booth and table except for the one behind us began to fill up as it got closer to noon.

They did have a wide range of deli favorites from corn beef sandwiches to matzo ball soup; this soup was very popular I would say because I saw about 5 bowls travel past our table to the ones around us. I decided to go with something I have never had before which was called “Ceily’s Stack”.

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The Ceily’s Stack is two potato latkes stuffed with braised brisket topped with Muenster & Provolone cheeses and then drizzled with brown gravy sauce and sour cream. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised on how good this actually was. I mean it certainly isn’t the prettiest thing to look at but everything worked really well together. The braised brisket was really the shining star, it was perfectly tender and juicy with a great beef flavor. I would come and just have brisket and the brown sauce if it is on the menu. The brown gravy sauce was exactly what you would expect from a good brown gravy it had great beef flavor and it really worked well on this dish. They put a good amount of cheese on this dish which as a cheese lover is fabulous and it was melted perfectly. Now the description says that this dish comes with sour cream which I did not receive and I do think that this would have added something to the dish, because after a few bites it needed either more gravy or something else to dip each bite into, and sour cream has that tangy bite already and if it was paired with the brisket and latkes it would have added another layer of flavor. Now I am not sure if I am just not a potato latke person; because I have never had them before, but to me they were a little too soft and flavorless. To me they got lost in each bite, I think I would have liked them more if they were a bit crunchy to give this dish some texture. Towards the end of the dish I just pushed the latkes to the side and ate the brisket, cheese & gravy. I would say that if you want something different and are a fan of the latke then give this one a shot, just be sure to ask for extra gravy.

Next up was the Veggie Melt:

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The veggie melt is served open faced or closed and is a roasted portabello mushroom, sauteed spinach, roasted peppers, tomato, caramelized onions and cheddar-jack cheese on top of grilled rye bread, this also came with a choice of fries, cold slaw, potato salad or fresh fruit. My mother ordered it with the side of fruit and received two wedges of cantaloupe, a strawberry and two orange slices. This was a lot better than most sides of fruits where you get a couple cubes of melon and some grapes. I had a couple bites of this sandwich and it was also really good, granted at first look it looks like it was put in the oven just a little too long to melt the cheese, but it worked out. Again they were not shy with the cheese so for the cheese lover this is a good place to eat. The veggies were cooked well and the portabello was nice and meaty, not over roasted so it still maintained all the goodness of a protabello. But for me I really enjoyed the spinach it wasn’t over cooked and melded really well with the flavors of of the rye bread, then you got the creamy texture of melted cheese.

As you can see the portions are surely on the large side, and what is shown above is nothing compared to some of the items I saw go past our table. The sandwiches are piled high with meat, definitely not for the faint of heart. I know that I will be back to try other things on the menu because the food was worth it. I do think the service was ok, not really slow or fast either. My soda was only refilled once and that was at the end of the meal while my mother’s ice tea was filled up a few times throughout lunch. But in all honestly this is what I kind of expect when I go to a diner/deli the home town feel where they run on a different time than everything else around. Our waitress was chatting with all her tables, a few of which I think might be regulars, which is a good sign, because obviously they are doing something right when they have regulars they actually recognize. On the decor side of things it isn’t the nicest place, it is in an older building and it shows. On the walls are artwork that if I am not mistaken were for sale by local artists, I take this as a nod to the art supply store right next door. I do think in some way the fact that it isn’t all gussied up is what makes it feel like a true deli, something you would find on the corner in New York or Jersey a place that locals flock to because they know that the food and people are what it is truly all about.

Hash House A Go Go

Hash House A Go Go at the Imperial Palace

I happened to be going to the Imperial Palace to see a show the other night and before hand we decided that we should get some dinner at the Hash House. I have been to their other locations in the valley so I knew what I was in for. The reason I say know what I was in for is because they serve giant plates of food. You will see what I mean below in the photos. I am going to dive into the food and then after talk about the restaurant itself.

First up was the chicken and biscuits; it is seared chicken breasts on top of biscuits & mashed potatoes all topped with a veggie cream.

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Now on the menu description it says chicken breasts, which to me means a plural; so I thought there would be two on my plate, but it only came with one. Now in reality one is plenty as you can see because it is a mountain of food as is, but if you are going to describe two there should be two. Now the chicken was cooked well and had a mild flavor, the mashed potatoes that it sat upon were kinda dry and could have used some seasonings because to me it was a bit bland. The biscuits were either a bit over baked or they have been sitting out because the crust was a bit hard and stale and on top of all of this the veggie cream sauce that was poured on top was cold. So this was weird when you have warm potatoes, chicken & biscuits then cold sauce it was very unappealing. So I would definitely skip eating this dish.

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This is one of their stuffed burgers it is cheddar cheese, bacon & avocado stuffed in between two beef patties. Well as you can see it certainly is a sight to be seen. The burger is too big for the bun as you can tell, my friend had to eat the burger off the sides before she could really begin actually eating dinner. While it is a lot of burger that’s really all it was, a lot of beef, she said that the stuffing ingredients were lost inside with everything that was going on beef wise. She mentioned that it was a little undercooked and not seasoned as well as it could’ve been.

Overall I feel like they are trying too hard to maintain this image of having super huge food that they are cutting corners when it comes to quality. Just because they have been featured on a couple TV shows and they know that this alone is why most people will go out of their way to go here. Maybe they feel like they can slack on the details, but this is no way to gain followers and return guests, by letting things like cold and bland food hit the tables. I will be honest and say that I am making this statement based off my last encounter with this restaurant in the M Resort as well as this experience above; because I had a similar experience during this trip as the one before at the M, bland & cold food. While I understand that some quality can be lost when you have a busy service, but this was not the case for my trip that night, there was plenty of empty tables in the whole restaurant and plenty of people running around and even gathered together chit chatting. Our waitress seemed very uninterested in us, I asked for lemons for my water and never got them, it just seemed like she had some place better to be the entire evening. I think the only time she seemed halfway interested in us was when she dropped the bill at our table. So honestly I would say this is a place to skip if you are looking for the details, but if you have friends or family in town and they really want to try this place because they saw it on the Food Network or the Travel Channel then I would say OK but go to the one on Sahara, I had a better experience there than the other two locations. Just be aware that you could get cold and bland food.

Settebello Pizzeria

140 Green Valley Pkwy
Henderson, NV 89012

702-222-3556

http://www.settebello.net

I had a friend recommend this pizza place to me a few months back, but it seemed like we just were never in the mood for pizza when we got together or in the area to swing by. So last week I had a craving for pizza and since their location is close to my office I headed over there for my lunch break.

They state that their pizzas are the traditional Napoli style pizzas, using only specific ingredients based off of tradition and baked in a brick oven only fueled by wood. If you would like to read the full history about the ingredients & technique click here to go to their website, sorry there was no direct link to their about us page.

Settebello is located in The District in the southwest part of the valley, you can’t see it from the street because it is located on the inside of the shopping center, so it could easily be missed if you didn’t already know where you are going. Upon entering we were quickly seated and for a Thursday afternoon it wasn’t too busy. Despite the fact that they were not busy it did take awhile for someone to come over and take our drink order. But once our waitress did show up she was very friendly and quickly went over how their pizzas differ from what we are use to since it was our first visit here. The pizzas are only cooked for a few minutes in the hot brick oven and they tend to be a lot softer and cannot hold up to a lot of toppings so she advised us against altering their pizzas by too much. Each pizza is approximately 12 inches around and could easily serve two if you have a small appetite or got one of their antipastos to share before hand. The waitress also informed us that they do not slice your pizza unless you ask them to, since this is the traditional way to be served. I can honestly say that I have never encountered pizza not being sliced before being served but I also haven’t been to Napoli.

I apologize up front for the half eaten pictures even though I had been taking notes before we got the food once it showed up we just dived right in before I realized I didn’t snap a picture, guess that is one downside to good company you get engulfed in the conversation and forget that you are doing a food review blog. Oh well I did manage to remember before more than half was enjoyed.

First up my pizza:

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I ordered the emelia pizza it was a white pizza so it does not come with their crushed tomato sauce, instead it is going to have a cream sauce. This pizza has prosciutto cotto, panna (Italian cream), mozzarella, parmigiano reggiano, basil & extra virgin olive oil. The crust has a nice chewy bite with a nice charcoal flavor from the wood burning oven. Because it is cooked at high temperature it allows the exterior of the crust to get a nice crunch while staying soft and chewy on the inside. The center of the pizza was a lot less sturdy than what most people are use to, so I can see why they would shy you away from putting too many toppings on your pizza. I decided to go with a pizza without red sauce so I was trying something out of my normal pizza box. I was very glad that I did, the panna had this wonderful sour note that blended perfectly with the sweetness of the prosciutto and the smoothness of the mozzarella. I did ask for a side of their balsamic vinaigrette that came with the insalata to dip my pizza in, this added another lovely level of flavor. Even though I only dipped the whole pizza in the vinaigrette a couple times it was a perfect addition to dip the crust in, almost like having bread before the meal. If you come here and you want something a little different I would recommend this one.

Next up my folk’s pizza:

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My parents ordered the settebello pizza it has crushed tomatoes, pancetta, roasted fennel sausage, pine nuts, mozzarella, basil & extra virgin olive oil. This pizza normally comes with mushrooms but they ordered it without them. This was also another lovely pizza, the red sauce had a nice tangy bite of a good red sauce and the crust was exactly the same as the white pizza above. My step-dad quickly devoured this pizza and said that it was good, even though he would’ve liked a little more meat. I preferred the flavors of my white pizza, but for a more traditional pizza I would go for this one.

My mother ordered the insalata (not pictured) to have in addition to splitting the pizza with my step-dad, she was very unimpressed with it. It was field greens with 3 large shavings of parmigiano reggiano, pepper & the balsamic vinaigrette. She said that for $5 there should’ve been at least some tomatoes, she would advise against spending the money on this particular menu item. The vinaigrette was the only good part and it is what made me ask for it on the side for my pizza crust.

For our lunch our bill came to right under $50 including tip; we got 2 pizzas, 1 salad & 3 sodas which comes to around $16 a person, this may not fit in to a lot of people’s lunch budgets but I would say that I don’t feel like I wasted my money. I was satisfied when I left, and for most of us this is big thing you want to feel like you got your monies worth when eating out.

Overall I wasn’t overly impressed with Settebello, the service was a bit spotty it seemed to me there was a lot of running around but not a lot of people helping those that are seated. But when you did get their attention and let them know you needed something they were quick to get it out to you, so to me that part was very good. Also while there are plenty of food options it was just ok. Even though I enjoyed the flavors of my pizza and the crust, I don’t think I am going to be sitting at home and have a sudden craving for their pizza specifically. That being said if I was nearby shopping and was craving pizza I wouldn’t hesitate to stop here.

Spicy Tuna Sushi

10345 S. Eastern Ave. #190

Las Vegas, NV 89102

702-722-2424

Spicy Tuna Sushi is located in the southeast side of the valley just past St. Rose Parkway and has quickly become one of my favorites in Las Vegas, they have a wide range of sushi rolls, shashimi & entrees that would please anyone. They are located in a strip mall right next to a Trader Joes. If my friend hadn’t taken me here I don’t think I would’ve known the place existed. When you walk in right in the center of the room is the sushi bar with the chefs working away behind it. Along the sides of the restaurants are these tiny private booths, which I love because it is a lot more private and you can really just focus on your friends or family. It is a little dark inside because the floors are black and so is the ceiling but each of the booths do have their own light.

I went here with my friend over the weekend she suggested a few days before that if I need a sushi fix this was the place to go, and we just happened to be on this side of town that day.

We were seated quickly in one of the side booths, the waitress took our drink order and before she could get two steps away another server brought us each a small cucumber salad with a spicy dressing as well as a bowl of edamame to share. After our day out in the sun we were starving so we ordered five rolls! Well really I ordered the 5th roll because I just couldn’t help myself, they all sounded so good. We got the Aloha roll, Double D Special, Monkey Special, Sun Devil Roll & Tempura Roll.

First up the Aloha Roll: (I apologize for the glarey photo there was no way to get a good picture in the light of the restaurant with red tuna on a red plate)

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The Aloha roll is crab, cucumber, avocado & fresh tuna. This was a very simplistic and delicious roll, the tuna was very fresh and really made this roll. I did have to add wasabi and soy to really make it pop and if you are like me who prefers pieces of tuna over minced up spicy tuna this is one I would suggest.

Next up we have the Double D special:

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The Double D special roll is shrimp tempura, crab, cucumber, spicy salmon & avocado on top served with orgasm sauce. This was also really good, the spicy salmon on top was just the right amount of spicy, but you loose the salmon flavor with it being minced up. The avocado did cool down the spicy and blend well with the shrimp and crab that are rolled up inside. The orgasm sauce isn’t pretty to look at it but it has great flavor and I ended up keeping it on the side to dip the aloha roll in instead of soy sauce.

The next one we had was the Monkey Special:

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Now the monkey roll was the most interesting of the night it is a fried banana, topped with a crab mixture and then there is a slice of tuna and it is all topped off with a drizzle of eel sauce. I was surprised on how much I liked this one. I mean really it sounds strange with fried banana, but it really works. The sweetness of the banana counteracts the sour of the crab mixture and the sauces on top. Really I could’ve just eaten a bowl of the crab mixture that was inside this roll, it was so light and refreshing. The biggest problem with this is that it is hard to eat, especially with chop sticks it will easily fall apart and you have to eat it in sections. I would certainly order this one on my next trip here, and I would suggest that you take the chance on the weird banana roll and go for it.

Next up was the Sun Devil Roll:

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The Sun Devil roll is smoked salmon, cream cheese, avocado, ebi & spicy crap all fried and served with yum yum sauce. This was one of my favorites of the night, it was just the right amount of spicy and the yum yum sauce was the perfect match to this roll. You got a nice kick of spice and then the flavor of the smoked salmon, it wasn’t too prominent just enough to know it is there and honestly it could’ve used more for my taste. If you want something that is spicy I would suggest this roll, it isn’t overly spicy so don’t expect it to burn your mouth it is just the perfect balance.

Last up is the Tempura Roll:

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The tempura roll is eel, crab, avocado & cream cheese deep fried then it is drizzled with eel sauce. This was my other favorite roll of the evening. The eel sauce was perfectly sweet and really help elevate the flavor of the eel and crab inside. If you like fried rolls this is one to be sure to get, you won’t be disappointed.

They do have over 80 rolls on their menu so it may take you awhile to pick what you want, but to start with look to any one of these and you won’t be disappointed. The only reason they are not getting a five star rating is that at the start of the meal we waited a long time to get our order placed. Our waitress was busy up front talking to the hostess to notice that we had decided and wanted to order. Another server that came to the table next to us ended up taking our order. After this though they were quick to clear our plates through out the meal and refill our waters. The one nice thing about most sushi places is that their entire wait staff seems to help with food deliver and plate clearing the same goes for Spicy Tuna. The rolls did come out to our table quickly, one at a time with to me just the right amount of time in between. Definitely put this place on your to try list for sushi in the valley.

Joe’s New York Pizza

7580 S. Las Vegas Blvd. #105

Las Vegas, NV 89123

702-897-1717

I stumbled across Joe’s New York Pizza on my lunch from work a few weeks back, it is located on Las Vegas Blvd in front of the Premium Outlets. When you walk in it is a small pizza joint and you walk up to the case of pizzas on display and order by the slice for their no delay lunch. They do have other menu options like whole pizzas, salads, calzones, subs & pastas. Once you pick out your slice or slices they will put them in their rotating oven and warm them up. The choices of pizza seem to change per visit so you can always get something different.

On this trip I ordered their lasagna pizza and the super meaty, their pizzas are mainly served on a thin crust, but there are a couple that do have a thicker crust.

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The slice on the left is the lasagna slice. The lasagna pizza is ricotta, ham, sausage, meatballs, mozzarella, parmesan & oregano. I really liked this pizza the ricotta was perfectly smooth and added a lovely flavor to the meats & mozzarella cheese. I personally took off a piece of the crust and spread the ricotta around so that I got a little bit in each bite because it worked so well with this pizza. My only complaint is that I think it could have used an extra turn or two through the oven, to be hotter, it was warm but needed more heat. I would not hesitate to order this slice again if it’s on display on my next visit.

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The super meaty on the right is pepperoni, sausage, ham, meatball, topped with bacon & mozzarella. This was another good pizza all the meats work well together but it did need more cheese. The sauce had great flavor and the crust is nice and crispy and it too has great flavor, kind of salty & sweet which works well with all the toppings. This slice could’ve used another turn through the oven too and it would’ve been perfect.

Next up we have the antipasto salad.

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The antipasto salad is made of field greens, tomato, cucumber, red onion, green pepper, mozzarella, pepperoni, ham & croutons. You get a nice size salad, the only thing that would’ve made it a better was that instead of pepperoni it was salami. But over all this was a very filling salad and could easily be shared between two people and then get a slice of pizza and make a nice quick lunch.

If you are in the area and looking for a good slice of pizza this is a great place to stop at. Our bill came to $27.34 w/tax. This was for three people and we got three slices of pizza, the salad and 2 large drinks, so for me the prices are really reasonable for a lunch meal that is quick and satisfying.

I Love Burgers

6605 S. Las Vegas Blvd.

Las Vegas, NV 89119

(702) 675-7800

I am a huge fan of the cheeseburger, I often joke that if I had to choose one item to eat forever this would be it. So I was kind of excited to make it over to I Love Burgers, I mean the title says it all. They are located in the back of Town Square and could easily be missed, since not a lot of things are open right by it. This is the type of place where you order when you walk in then you pick your seat and the food will be delivered separately, I thought it was an actual sit down restaurant so this was a bit of a surprise for me.

The menu is pretty straight forward, the only thing I found interesting was that they had columns for pricing they had a classic & more to love, I had to ask what the difference was because there was no information. Turns out the classic is a 5 oz patty and the more to love is a 7 oz. You would think this would be on the menu and it wouldn’t be something we would have to ask, but maybe that is what they ultimately want for the customer to ask questions.

They did have a pretty decent selection of burgers as well as meat choices, you can get chicken, salmon & veggie. They also have a variety of shakes, that I was able to watch get made from my seat and they all looked delicious. I was focused on the burger so I didn’t order one, but if I go back I will give one a shot.

I went for the Inferno Burger; angus burger, pepper jack cheese, roasted jalapeños & habonaro-jalapeño mayo. I must be a kid a heart because I couldn’t resist getting tator tots on the side.

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If you are looking for a spicy burger this is for you, but I was disappointed that the jalapeños that topped the burger were not actually roasted like they were described on the menu but were actually raw. I ended up picking off pieces of jalapeño because it was overpowering everything. I couldn’t taste the meat, mayo or cheese because all I got flavor wise was jalapeño. Now I know ordering a burger that is covered in jalapeños it would taste like them, but when basically all I am eating is jalapeños it really distracts from the actual meal. If the jalapeños had actually been roasted this would’ve been better and actually enhanced the burger. Plus the roasted jalapeños would be a bit tamer and sweeter in a sense which would make it more palatable meal overall. The tator tots were cooked perfectly and really helped when I needed to cool down my mouth.

My friend went with the standard which was just a basic burger with lettuce, tomatoes & onions with a side of the natural cut fries.

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I didn’t try any of the plain burger but it looked really good, and my friend enjoyed it. The fries were cooked perfectly also. But truthfully this place is nothing special. I wouldn’t go out of my way to go here, but if I was in the mood for something casual I would certainly not be turned off of going here while in town square.

Overall I will say that it is a bit pricy for what you get. For my 7 oz burger the cost was $7.99 and to add the tots & small soda it was an additional $4.00. So it made my total meal $12.96 w/tax. Considering that it is “fast food” I am not a big fan of spending $13 on my meal when I can go to a drive-thru and get basically the same meal for about $5 less and get a way bigger drink. That being said I do think that I will go back because I would like to try the I Love Bacon burger because it sounded interesting and a bacon lovers dream and maybe it is what I should’ve went with from the beginning and maybe my trip would’ve been better.

I would say that if you are in the neighborhood and want something fast, because in town square there are limited choices on fast food, this would be a decent choice. Overall it had potential to be a good burger and I would think it is worth a second chance.

Yard House

Town Square

6593 Las Vegas Blvd

Las Vegas, NV 89119

(702) 734-9273

Website: http://www.yardhouse.com/NV/las-vegas-restaurant-town-square/

I should preface this review with the fact that this isn’t my first time here but it is the first time in a long time that I have been here and didn’t order a beer. Because this is the one place where you want to come to order a beer. They have over 100 beers on tap in the center bar (I say 100 because there is truly too many to count), and you can see the kegs in the glass enclosed room right by the main entrance, so the beer flows over head to be served up at the bar. This really is a beer lovers paradise, they have such a wide range of beers that you are bound to find at least one that you enjoy. And if you would like to take a look at their massive beer listing you can click here. My friend is big on ciders so she ordered the pear cider in the traditional yard glass that started it all.

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If you would like to read about how it all got started click here and it will take you to their website’s about page.

We got to the yard house at the end of happy hour which runs 3pm – 6pm Monday – Friday & 10pm – close Sunday – Wednesday; during happy hour their drinks range in price from $2.25 – 10.00 depending on the size of the glass and on if you order beer, wine or cocktails. They also have select appetizers and sliders that are half off. This is a really good time to come here, their sliders are really good and I will tell you about some of the happy house appetizers that we got, since we took advantage of getting there 10 mins before the end.

But I want to start off with the one item that was not part of the happy hour and that was my dinner. Coming in I knew that I was craving carbs so I went straight for the (Mac+Cheese)².

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This pasta is a mixture of chicken breast, applewood bacon, wild mushrooms, cheddar, parmesan, pasta and truffle oil; I apologize for the messy looking plate, I stirred it up right as it got me without thinking about taking a picture. Oh well you can see all the cheesy glory just as well in the above picture. I really enjoyed this dish, it is the perfect balance of cheese, pasta and chicken, everything just melts together and makes for one delicious bite and hey there is bacon in there and who doesn’t love bacon? I will admit that the truffle oil is not very prevalent in this dish, truthfully I actually forgot it was in there until I double checked the ingredients. Luckily for me this does not change the way that I feel about this pasta dish, it is one of my favorites to get here. Because there is something to be said for the simple dishes, things do not need to be overly complicated to be good, and the fact that this can be accomplished in a busy restaurant is even better.

Next up we have the appetizers, one thing we noted that the appetizers were bigger than we expected, so my friend ordered a total of 3 and her eyes were definitely bigger than her stomach. First up is the Seared Ahi Tuna appetizer:

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This time the mess was not me, the waiter almost lost the sauce on the table as he delivered the food, I blame carrying 4 plates of food to our table all on his arms to be the problem. The Ahi Tuna is seared rare, and served with soy vinaigrette, wasabi and pickled ginger. The tuna was cooked perfectly, often times I have seen tuna ordered and it comes out over cooked, which really takes away the integrity of the tuna, but they got it just right. I only had one bite of this as this was my friend’s dish and truthfully I was sick the week before and didn’t want to risk anything by eating raw fish. But I really enjoyed the subtle tuna flavor and the soy vinaigrette was a nice compliment. I know that it states it comes with wasabi but I didn’t put any on my bite which I wish I did because I think that level of flavor would elevate the vinaigrette up. I have already mentioned to my mother that she should give this dish a try next time she heads to the Yard House since she is a big Ahi Tuna fan, I think she would really enjoy this dish. My friend did be sure to tell me that she really enjoyed this and would have this again without question.

Next up are the boneless wings:

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You can get the wings in buffalo, jerk or firecracker and come boneless or bone-in. We got them plain and they came with a honey barbeque sauce and ranch for dipping. While I normally am a big fan of chicken wings of all kinds these are definitely a dish to skip. They were over fried (that isn’t a dark photo they really were that dark) which made them really crunchy and I couldn’t taste any chicken just batter. The dipping sauces were both really good and had the chicken been up to par this could’ve been a really good dish. I would tell you to skip right over this one, not one of their bests that’s for sure.

Next and final dish of the night is the California Roll:

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The California roll is not your average sushi roll as you can see; they use as described on their menu, a sushi rice cake with cucumber, snow crab, tobiko, avocado fan and wasabi soy sauce. This has actually become one of my new favorite dishes from the Yard House, I never ordered it before because I always just assumed it was going to be a traditional California roll that you get everywhere, but I was delightfully surprised when it came to the table and honestly I actually am kind of craving it as I write this. I really enjoyed the way that it was put together and you got this nice blend of rice, crab & avocado then on the back end there was the wasabi kicker, which I really liked. It gives the whole bite a level up in flavor and it was not over powering so you still got to taste all the other ingredients on the plate. My friend wasn’t a big fan of this because of the wasabi flavor, so she barely touched the dish.

Even with the over cooked chicken dish; which truthfully is the first thing I have had that really was under par, I would highly recommend you check them out if you are looking for a place to kick back and sample some beers and get great food to go along. With over a 100 beers to choose from you certainly won’t be out of choices. I say give the Big Sky Moose Drool a shot if you like brown ales; the first time I ordered it, it was strictly because it was fun to order after a couple already and then it turned out to be one of my go to beers. They do have two locations here in Las Vegas the one at Town Square and the second one in Red Rock casino, you won’t be disappointed at either location. The service we experienced was pretty good our waitress was very attentive at the beginning but towards the end it seemed like it took a long time to actually get our bill, I assume this is because she hoped that maybe we would order more drinks or food while my friend finished her large beer. The service is the only reason I took off a half star.

Blurred Lines of Sanity

A Blog About Life, Love, Food & Everything Else

food

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Yard House