Las Vegas Food #1: Buffets (Le Village Buffet, Flavors, Spice Market, & Paradise Garden)

I found some very cheap flights and went on a very short trip to Las Vegas. Of the many eating options in the city, Las Vegas does have a reputation for buffets. Upon arriving, I saw advertised that there was a deal where you got unlimited 24-hour access to five buffets in various casinos in the Harrah's chain for $49.99. I was only going to be in the city for about 36 hours total, so this seemed like a good way to go. Timing wise, I was able to get four meals out of this deal, working out to under $13 per buffet before tax and tip. 

Le Village Buffet in Paris:

I arrived in Las Vegas early in the morning. This meant it was time to have breakfast. I stayed in Paris, so after arriving at the hotel, I bought into the buffet deal for a late breakfast at Le Village Buffet. This was the only highly themed buffet I dined at. It was set in a Paris street, with a cloud filled sky up above. The restaurant would have fit right in at Epcot.

Le Village Buffet was somewhat themed foodwise. There was all the standard breakfast items you would expect, along with more French breakfast items such as crepes (which I did not sample because of huge lines), quiches (which I did sample, both the meat and vegetarian versions, both of which were good), and smoked fish (smoked salmon and smoked trout- I enjoy smoked fish).

One major disappointment. There was no French toast on the buffet. I wanted very much to say I ate French Toast (which isn't French) in a casino buffet pretending to be Paris in the Nevada desert. Besides the lack of French Toast, this was actually the best of the buffets I sampled in Vegas. Read on...

Flavors in Harrah's:

This was buffet #2 for lunch. Of all the four buffets I sampled, this was the most unappealing, heading towards the Golden Corral level of food. The cigarette stench from the casino floor also drifted into the buffet, which is a bit disgusting. Wonder how long it will be for all these casinos in Las Vegas to go smoke free?

The buffet was vaguely internationally themed, with various world cuisines. Everything I tasted here was really mediocre. Not impressed. Flavors lacked the flavors...

Spice Market in Planet Hollywood:

Spice Market was buffet #3 for dinner. Similar to Flavors, Spice Market was also internationally themed. The food on this buffet seemed better quality with a better variety. I'm not sure if this is the difference between lunch options and dinner options on buffets owned by Harrah's.

First plate of food included a trip to the Mexican section of the buffet, with quesadillas, rice, beans, and guacamole.  From the American section of the buffet, I had some BBQ ribs (meat wasn't very tender).

Plate #2 mostly consisted of the Mediterranean section of the buffet. This seemed to be what they were pushing in all of the buffet's advertisements. There was lamb skewers, tabouli, roasted vegetables, stuffed grape leaves, and large cubes of feta. Just like the ribs, the lamb was a bit too chewy.

Paradise Garden in The Flamingo:

My final buffet in my 24 hours was at Paradise Garden in The Flamingo. This was my second breakfast buffet in Las Vegas. They had pretty standard breakfast items, although I preferred Le Village Buffet for breakfast. I found it interesting that they had French toast on the buffet in this restaurant, but the French themed buffet did not.

I had a strawberry filled crepe here as well.

Desserts were interesting, especially for breakfast. They were very colorful tarts. The weirdest one was the fruit tart which came with a syringe of raspberry syrup.

Overall, this was a good deal for food for my short time in Las Vegas. Breakfast buffets seemed to definitely be done better compared to the lunch and dinner buffets I tried, which were sort of hit or miss. After this trip, I can cross the Las Vegas buffet thing off my list...

City Dog Cantina in Tampa, FL

Had dinner at a restaurant in Tampa called City Dog Cantina. They seemed to be mostly bar, but they had a decent menu including all day breakfast. I ordered the French toast.

This meal came with two thick slices of French toast, topped with powdered sugar. Two slices of bacon were served on the side. Everything on the plate was as expected. Nothing was exceptional or creative, but it was a good serving of French toast for dinner.

Cafe Du Japon in Daytona Beach, FL

I was in Daytona Beach and was looking for another Japanese restaurant which I had visited in the past. After being unable to find it, asking around told me it had closed up and I should try Cafe Du Japon instead. Cafe Du Japon is like a sushi speakeasy. GPS will give you directions, but you end up a somewhat sketchy storefront with a question mark in the window and old neon signs advertising Beer & Wine and Internet. There's nothing with the name of the restaurant, nor is there any indication that they serve Japanese food if you don't already know. Seems like a bit of a strange advertising method, but the word of mouth about Cafe Du Japon must be good because they were busy.

I tried three sushi rolls at Cafe Du Japon. I had the Fuzzy Caterpillar Roll, Orange Country Roll, and Spicy California Roll (left to right in the photo). All of which I enjoyed. The presentation on the Fuzzy Caterpillar was very nice with the sauce antenna on the plate!

Market Street Diner in Celebration, FL

It looks like the long time restaurant in downtown Celebration formerly known as Market Street Cafe has been rebranded to Market Street Diner. It's a subtle name change, but still a name change. It looks like the interior was renovated since the diner was known as cafe.

On my first time eating at the restaurant under the Market Street Diner name, I tried the Atlantic Fish Po' Boy. This was a huge filet of fried cod topped with lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce, all served on a roll. The sandwich fillings overflowed off the bread, but still held together well. The fish was hot and crispy with a nice, flavorful batter. I had tater tots as my side.

The restaurant seems pretty consistent of how it was pre-name change. It's what you would expect from a diner type restaurant with food that seems slightly above average for this type of place.

Fire on the Bayou in Orange City, FL

In honor of Fat Tuesday, today we visit a cajun restaurant in Orange City called Fire on the Bayou. I found this restaurant when they showed up on the top of the listings for Orange City restaurants on my phone. It was new to me.

They had all the standards you would expect, ranging from poboys, seafood boils, gumbos, and more. I ordered the Taste of Nawlins, served with Jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice, and andouille sausage. The portion size of this dish was huge, with just one of the bowls being enough for a meal. The jambalaya contained chicken and sausage and had a good kick to it. It was much more stew-like compared to many other versions of the dish, but I enjoyed it. Of the three, the jambalaya was my favorite. Gumbo was my second favorite, topped with three large shrimp. The red beans and rices were good, but seemed pretty ordinary compared to the gumbo and jambalaya. The andouille sausage topped the red beans & rice. Slices of French bread were served on the side, perfect for soaking up the stews...

I enjoyed my meal at Fire on the Bayou. I would gladly return.

PR's Taco Palace in College Park, FL

I visited PR's Taco Palace in College Park for lunch recently. This restaurant used to have a few locations, including one in Winter Park which was around forever and another in Longwood which was much shorter lived. As far as I know, their College Park location is the only PR's remaining.

I had the Lunch Combination, where you got to pick three items off the menu. I picked a tamale, something called a Truck Stop, and rice & beans. The Truck Stop was almost similar to a quesadilla, filled with cheese and beef pressed (and possibly fried) in a tortilla. The Tamale was smothered in cheese. Rice and beans were pretty standard. It was interesting that the normal sides counted as an item for the combination. I had the option of picking something which would be considered more of an entree in place of the rice and beans.

Pretty standard of what I'd expect from a Tex-Mex lunch special. Everything was good, but nothing ground breaking. It's good to know that there is still a PR's Taco Palace still around in Orlando...

Kelly's Homemade Ice Cream in Orlando, FL

I stopped for ice cream at Kelly's Homemade Ice Cream in Audubon Park. I had a waffle cone with two scoops: peach and pistachio. I enjoyed the pistachio most of the two flavors, although it was interesting that it wasn't the typical green color of pistachio ice cream. I'd return for more ice cream!

St. Johns River Steak & Seafood in Sanford, FL

I ate at St. Johns River Steak & Seafood located in the Sanford Marina. This location has been host to several different restaurants, none of which seem to survive very long. This includes two which have been featured on this blog before: Limoncellos and Efes Turkish Restaurant. Downtown Sanford has been booming lately and the marina is being redeveloped, so hopefully this bodes well for the survival of St. Johns River Steak & Seafood.

I ordered the Key West Combo. This dish included jerk mahi and shrimp in a honey mustard sauce, along with conch fritters, rice, and broccoli. The mahi and shrimp were very good, although I've had much better conch fritters elsewhere.

There was a birthday at our table so the restaurant brought out a huge slice of chocolate-peanut butter cake. For a surprise slice of cake, there were no complaints!

4R Cantina Food Truck at Disney Springs

4R Cantina Food Truck recently opened at Disney Springs. Similar to the other 4 Rivers locations, smoked meats were served here but with a Mexican twist. They had standard items including tacos, quesadillas, and nachos, but the one item everyone was talking about was the taco cone.

I had the Brisket Barbacoa Taco Cone. The cone was made from a deep fried tortilla spiraled into a cone shape. This was filled with shredded brisket, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, queso, cilantro, jalapeno, and lime. It was all very tasty and the cone shape made it mobile with the food truck's lack of seating. My complaint about the whole thing was the shape of cone and getting to the bottom. There was plenty of good stuff like guacamole and sour cream at the top, but it was hard to mix up those ingredients to the bottom since the cone got narrower and narrower. Regardless, I very much enjoyed my taco cone!

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Food (350 First, Blue Strawberry Coffee Company, White Star Ale House, Need Pizza, Grin n Goose, La Cantina, Newbo City Market, Parlor City Pub, and Great American Popcorn Company)

Last summer I visited Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a week. I wrote a blog post on my food travels there, but for some reason never published it. Better late then never. Here is my thoughts on Cedar Rapids food from Summer of 2017...

350 First:

This was located on the top floor of the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Cedar Rapids where I was staying. After flying in, I had dinner here. The restaurant had lovely views of the city. There was city skyline in one direction and a massive Quaker Oats factory in the other. I ordered the Pastrami Ruben. The sandwich was good as far as ruben sandwiches go. It was pretty standard and was served with fries and a pickle. The almost three hour process that I took to have this sandwich wasn't nearly as good as the sandwich. The kitchen was hopelessly backed up. The servers were flustered. Managers were placing the blame for the restaurants issues back onto the customers. Don't eat here at dinner time if there's a convention going on in the hotel...

Blue Strawberry Coffee Company:

Visited this coffee shop a couple times for food because it was quick and convenient to where I was staying. One visit was for breakfast and one for lunch.

I had the Big Boss Burrito on my first visit here. The burrito was filled with bacon, egg, cheese, potatoes, green peppers, and onions. The whole thing was pressed on a grill. Sour cream and salsa were served as sides. I liked it!

I had the Grilled Asparagus Sandwich on my second visit to the Blue Strawberry. This was basically a grilled cheese with mozzarella and provolone. Grilled asparagus, roasted red peppers, and basil were grilled into the sandwich. It was okay, but sounded better on the menu's description that it actually was. Asparagus was too round and separated the bread too much to work on a grilled cheese.

White Star Ale House:

This was a restaurant recommended by the front desk at my hotel. Overall, it ended up being an okay restaurant, but was very forgettable. The menu was generic and while the food was good enough, it was nothing that made me want to go rushing back.

I had the Roasted BBQ Pork Shanks with Baked Cheesy Potatoes as my side. The barbecue sauce was spicier than expected, but good. The pork was nice and tender and came off the bone easily. Cheesy potatoes were sort of bland.

Need Pizza:

There were two restaurants serving pizzas in downtown Cedar Rapids. Need Pizza seemed to be doing much more business than their counterpart, so the assumption was that they were that better restaurant.

I shared a pizza topped with pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, kalamata olives, and mushrooms. The pizza was okay. Not the worst pizza ever, but not something I'll be craving any time soon. There was a bit of a cheese overload on the pie, which I do not enjoy. I guess Iowa isn't really known for their pizza...

Grin n Goose:

Grin n Goose was one of those restaurants where my initial reaction was to wonder if they were focusing more on food or alcohol here. Luckily they did food well.

I had the Turkey Club. The sandwich consisted of an Asiago bun filled with sliced turkey, lettuce, tomato, garlic aioli, bacon, swiss, and American cheese. I had French Onion soup as my side. The sandwich was as expected, while the soup was better than expected. Sometimes French Onion soup is basically bread with a little onions and liquid poured over it. Thankfully in this case, there was much more of the soup than the bread submerged in it. Plenty of gooey cheese topped the bowl...

La Cantina:

I had Mexican food at a restaurant called La Cantina. I ordered the Enchiladas de Mole. The chicken enchiladas were topped with a mole sauce alongside refried beans, rice, and sliced onions. It wasn't my favorite mole sauce ever, somewhat lacking in the chocolate flavor found elsewhere, but it was still pretty tasty. It was also a good value for the price.

Newbo City Market/Roaster's Coffeehouse:

This was Cedar Rapid's big food hall. I tried some Beer & Cheese soup from a booth called Roaster's Coffeehouse.

Parlor City Pub & Eatery:

Brisket Sandwich with onion rings. This is not something I'd reccomend. Meat was chewy. The roll was stale, and the rings were soggy.

Grant Wood is from Iowa. American Gothic was standing near the restrooms in here.

Great American Popcorn Company:

Ice Cream from a popcorn store!

NY Food (Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, Veselka, Totto Ramen, Sunnyside Pizza, Halal Truck, Shiro, and Dave's Bagels)

Continuing from my recent trip which took me around New England, New York was the next stop on the journey:

Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery (Manhattan):

This place has been on my radar for a while. They specialize in Knishes and have been around since 1910!

I had a Spinach Knish. Spinach was mixed into the potato in the knish. I very much enjoy knishes, and this was no exception!

Veselka (Manhattan):

I went here almost immediately after visiting Yonah Schimmel's. Pierogi are hard to resist and Veselka is one of my favorite restaurants in New York. Their Sunday Brunch was happening and I tried the bacon, egg, & cheese pierogi. The waiter told me I wanted them fried. I should have gotten them boiled. The amount of crispiness from being deep fried made them seem like empanadas more than pierogi. Filling wise, bacon egg and cheese in a pierogi was really good!

Totto Ramen (Manhattan):

Google listed this as a highly rated ramen shop in the city. They specialized in a type of broth which I had never had called Paitan. This is apparently a chicken based broth.

I had the Miso Paitan Ramen. It was noodles in chicken paitan broth, topped with miso, egg, scallions, bean sprouds, onions, and pork. Delicious!

Sunnyside Pizza (Queens):

This is a pizzeria in Queens that has good New York style pizza, available by the slice.

I had a slice of cheese and an eggplant/ricotta slice. I do enjoy that they put sesame seeds on the crust.

Halal Truck (Queens):

I had a Lamb/Chicken combo from a random Halal food truck in Sunnyside. They made the standard NY Halal cart fare a little more interesting by adding bell peppers and onions in with the meat. Served over rice and lettuce, topped with white and hot sauce.

Shiro (Grand Central):

I had an Eel Avocado Roll from a fast food sushi restaurant in Grand Central from Shiro.

Dave's Bagels and Grill (Queens):

I had an everything bagel with lox cream cheese.