Louie Louie The Restaurant in Las. Vegas Nevada serves sushi, unique sushi rolls, and hibachi. This is a full service restaurant and bar.
We started out by sharing a salmon tostada.
The salmon is very fresh and it’s topped with pico, avocado and herbs. Under is a creamy sauce that is bright and very lime-ee.
We shared one of the Louie Louie Specialty rolls called the Ozzy Roll. (tuna, salmon, avocado, wasabi tobico ((also spelled tobiko flying fish roe)), black tobico, masago ((capelin roe)))
This was an amazing roll bursting with all kinds of delicious flavors! It’s so detailed.
Teeny tiny lemon wedges with little tiny crisp things. It’s popping with all kinds of flavors and some heat too!
We also shared a filet mignon and chicken hibachi.
It came out sizzling like a fajita.
The vegetables were zucchini, carrots, onions, and broccoli. You dip them in the creamy sauce (basically a sriracha mayo) and you dip the meats in a ginger-ee type sauce. This also comes with steamed rice but you do have the option to upgrade to fried rice or noodles. Today the beef came out better than the chicken.
Worth a Try!
Louie Louie The Restaurant – 4408 N Rancho Dr Las Vegas NV – 702-483-5744
Echo & Rig is a butcher shop and steakhouse located in the Summerlin part of Las Vegas in Tivoli Village.
Some of the meats they sell.
You walk up the stairs or use an elevator to get to the dining room.
Even at lunch time they start you off with bread and soft butter.
We started out by sharing the fried spinach salad (red onion, cauliflower, broccoli, chile-lime vinaigrette)
I think it’s very good. The broccoli and cauliflower were slightly cooked so they aren’t hard and raw. The spinach magically isn’t oily. It’s very similar to what several of the Thai restaurants offer here without the tempura coating.
I tried the signature house ground burger (chuck, short rib, brisket) with bib lettuce, heirloom tomato, red onion, aioli, and kennebec fries (I asked for medium…..to me it’s closer to medium-rare- rare on end but still good)
It’s very juicy and really is a very flavorful burger. The fries are good but slightly over-done today…….Still a great value for $17 (subject to change). It might be among the best burgers in Vegas……
My husband tried the crispy porchetta sandwich that comes with garlic chips.
I heard that flavors were good but today this ran a little dry….more dry than what he likes.
Lunch at Echo & Rig is Worth a Try!
Echo & Rig – 440 South Rampart Blvd Las Vegas NV – 702-489-3525
Sinful Subs is a very unique casual sandwich shop located in Las Vegas Nevada. This restaurant is by celebrity chef Vic Vegas who has been on multiple TV Shows but is most famous for being on Bar Rescue.
This casual sandwich shop has a gritty New York Theme to it. Many of the menu items have CRAZY Names like a turkey club is named, “Club to the Head.” An Italian type sandwich is called, “Knuckle Sandwich.” They also offer some snack-at-tizers like meatloaf fried in crispy wonton wrappers and served with mashed potatoes and gravy. The weekend only breakfast called, “Walk Of Shame” is three layers of French toast layered with eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, American AND Cream Cheese, and a hash brown with powdered sugar and maple syrup.
I tried what they call TV dinner. (medium sized sandwiches come in medium & large)
I think a better name for this is a Thanksgiving? This is surprisingly pretty good……The bread is better than from several other sandwich shops I’ve been to. The turkey is called roasted turkey breast but it seems like the better turkey lunch meat? It’s very flavorful…..I think the turkey was heated up in turkey stock? Stuffing A-OK. Mashed potatoes are A-OK I confess that I didn’t try the turkey gravy…..I can tell by looking at it that it came from a jar or a can so I passed on that but all together everything was tasty. Even the corn was nice and flavorful. The cranberry sauce is a similar quality to the gravy. Overall a surprisingly pretty good! This is also filling. I’m a pretty good eater and ate the corn and half the sandwich so I got another half for another time. At the time of my visit this sandwich doesn’t cost much more than fast food and is much better than anything fast food….(only $9.49 subject to change)
My husband tried the chicken parm that is called Italian Chick-en Vegas (large)
It’s made with hand breaded chicken fingers, a rich tomato sauce and lots of melty mozzarella cheese. ($11.99 subject to change)
Sinful Subs is Worth a Try!
Sinful Subs 5135 South Fort Apache Rd Las Vegas NV – 702-998-2555
Milpa Mexican Cafe is located in Las Vegas Nevada.They are a small but high quality Mexican Cafe. High quality heirloom corn from Mexico is used in the house made stone ground mass and tortillas. They offer all day breakfast and brunch, 9 kinds of vegetable, grain, and taco bowls, tacos, sides, coffees, Oaxacan hot chocolates, a few cocktails, beer, soft beverages, and more!
It’s casual. Your order at the counter, pay, and grab a number and seat yourself. They run the food to you when it’s ready.
Between us we tried all the tacos and a side of arbol potatoes. All of the tacos were very good but I did favor some over others.
Chicken Adobo Tacos – Citrus ans Adobo marinated grilled chicken, cabbage, cilantro, pickled onions, radish, salsa verde. These had a delicious char taste on the chicken.
One is the fish taco (maui maui) not sure what is next to it because many of the tacos look the same here. The taco next to it might be the Cauliflower Tinga? – Tinga marinated roasted cauliflower, cabbage, cilantro, pickled onions, radish, salsa verde………I thought this one had the most delicious flavors! I could go for one right now!
Not positive but I think this was the beef barbacoa. The barbacoa is very jiggly here with lots of fat. The flavor is good. My husband liked this one more than the asada but I liked the asada better.
I didn’t try the Birria Queso Taco (braised beef) with cheese and this ULTRA POWERFUL salsa Arbol sauce……..This one ain’t for tenderfoots. The most powerful sauce ever to be paired with birria.
Grilled Steak…..(maybe not your favorite but this one was my favorite of the beef tacos) caramelized steak and onions, guacamole, salsa macha, (I’m not much of a beef person but this one was one of the most delicious to me) and Mushroom Carnitas onions, avocado, salsa verde, salsa guajillo, cilantro
I think this was the shrimp taco – Lime & Garlic Shrimp, cabbage, cilantro, pickled onions, radish, salsa verde
Las Islitas Mariscos is a Mexican Seafood Restaurant with three locations in Las Vegas Nevada. The Craig Road location is large and festive looking inside.
This location serves soft beverages and beer.
They start you off with complimentary tostadas, crackers, and salsa.
My husband tried the shrimp rancheros.
He got an enormous platter of refried beans, vegetable studded rice, salad, tortillas, and shrimp in a ranchero sauce. It was ok but might be better on some days…….Today the shrimps were not infused with the flavors and could have been cleaned better.
We think I did better with the fish al lemon.
I also got an enormous platter. This is a mild white fish filet that has been breaded and possibly fried in butter (it taste like butter) It has a heavy creamy blanket of a lemon and chile laced sauce…….The sauce actually taste good but it seems like it might be mayonnaise based? This plate also contains tasty buttered toast, vegetable studded rice, salad, and a mix of vegetables (carrots, potatoes, and a squash-like vegetable).
Service was friendly and efficient. Serving are large and generous.
That was my trip to Las Islitas Mariscos.
Las Islitas Mariscos 2555 W Craig Rd – North Las Vegas NV – 702-329-2174
Tasty Bite is a small mainly American-Chinese Take Out Restaurant located in a North Las Vegas Nevada Strip Mall. It’s not a fancy place but it seems clean. They do mainly take out but do have a few tables for indoor dining.
The menu is hanging on the wall.
Under appetizers I never noticed paper wrapped chicken before so we gave that a try!
WOW! they are HOT fresh out of the fryer.
They aren’t wrapped in paper…..Inside is very moist, very flavorful ground chicken laced with allspice with an amazing caramelized exterior….almost dark like a grilled hamburger.
We also got complimentary egg drop soup.
For my main I tried the hot Szechuan garlic chicken that came with steamed white rice.
The chicken is masterfully tender. I got a bunch of tender crisp green bell pepper, a few kinds of mushrooms, and onions in a spicy-not-too-sweet sauce. I think that this is pretty good!
My husband tried the hunan beef.
This is really different…….Really great flavors and heat….The beef is very tender but was fried at such a high temperature that the texture of the beef just disintegrates in your mouth….It’s like no other.
Did some take out here- All the take out was very large portions. Everything was enough for two meals for me.
Fish in black bean sauce…reasonably good. The fish is cooked to perfection, and is mild in taste. Maybe slightly soy forward.
Thai chicken salad – really different – the sauce is sweet and spicy……The small sliced hot peppers are too hot here. The chicken is good. The salad is extra generous in size and is very fresh.
half of F-12 Hot and Spicy Chicken with some of the rice (I dripped sauce on the rice) This one is MIGHTY SPICY………but it’s a good spicy taste and not just heat. I taste garlic. I taste ginger. There is a small amount of sweetness to it. This one has lots of cilantro in it. The dark meat chicken is masterfully tender and developed with good flavors……not a lot of vegetables here…..got some bean sprouts, onions, and very HOT peppers……This one might be too spicy…..I’d get it again but mix it with a more bland vegetable dish….yes a bit too spicy today. (Maybe the peppers ran hotter than normal?)
Half of the Chicken Chop Suey – masterfully tender and infused with flavors sliced white meat chicken. Lots of vegetables here – zucchini, bean sprouts, onions, broccoli, snow peas, water chestnuts, and mushrooms. This one is very good.
1/2 of General Tso’s Chicken. Today the small green hot peppers are extremely HOT! The rest is A-OK but I rarely order General’s from most places.
Watch Out…….Sometimes the hot peppers they use run MOLTEN HOT! but for the most part most dishes were reasonably good!
Tasty Bite is Worth a Try!
Tasty Bite 3073 W Craig Rd North Las Vegas NV – 702-646-8803
Esther’s Kitchen is a seasonal Italian Restaurant located in the arts district of downtown Las Vegas Nevada. They use local ingredients as much as possible and make their own sourdough bread, pastas, pizza, and more!
At the original location on 1130 S. Casino Center Blvd (soon to move next door) They offer seating at the bar.
They also have a small patio and a dining area with an open kitchen.
We started out by enjoying their house made delicious sourdough bread with sides of house churned butter, cambozola blue cheese, pecans, and pickled grapes, and cannellini beans with lard, speck, and pistachio oil.
Next we share a seasonal salad called Troy’s Peaches and Tomato Salad.
Besides tomatoes and peaches this contained stracciatella cheese, red mustard, and pickled peach vinaigrette.
For my main I tried the seasonal wild Mediterranean Bronzino with harissa farrotto, caramelized squash, and salsa verde that taste pretty much the same as shrug sauce.
This came adorned with tiny squashes and tiny reduced and peeled sweet heirloom tomatoes and everything was prepared to perfection.
My husband enjoyed the house made Bucatini (Amatriciana & Guanciale, red onion, chili, parsley) with the beef and pork meatballs.
We wanted to try dessert here. I took a chance with the blackberry pavlova….(Somethings I hate them when the crisp meringue taste like egg white to me)
This might be the best one I’ve tried. It’s light as a feather. Not too sweet and it doesn’t have that egg white taste…….I enjoy the pops of sweet basil…….REALLY GREAT but could use a tad more lemon or just a sprinkle of lemon zest…….I would still get again.
I have to say……
Esther’s Kitchen is Worth a Fork!
Worth a Fork!
Esther’s Kitchen (Soon to move next door to a larger location)*****UPDATE MOVED NEXT DOOR******
1130 S. Casino Center Blvd Las Vegas NV – 702- 570 – 7864
NEW ADDRESS IS 1131 Main St Las Vegas NV – 702-570-7864
The Great Las Vegas Taco Festival was held at Craig Ranch Park in NORTH LAS VEGAS Nevada October 27-29TH 2023. Besides TACOS there were all kinds of things like a car show, carnival rides, margaritas, eating contests, a chihuahua beauty contest, craft venders and MORE! (If you were there the right day and right time)
We tried ………
An award wining mango habanero taco and a bulgogi beef taco from El Chino.
Both tacos are tasty but the spicy chicken taco is the one to get here….It really developed with lots of delicious flavors.
Next we try
the chicken and rib eye tacos from 911 Tacos & Beer.
Both tacos had ingredients in them that wasn’t in their description on their sign…..But still both are tasty and flavorful with tender fillings.
We also tried El Fuego Tacos.
We tried an asada and a chicken taco. These ran extra salty today. I can’t eat either taco.
Moving on
FINALLY fish tacos
From Ole Manny’s Seafood Shack we tried a shrimp and a fish taco and their hot habanero salsa.
Both are good…..The taco shells are the tastiest so far on these. The fish is fried perfect and seems free of oil….It’s tricky figuring out on how much salsa to use here because the salsa is extra strong but the right amount of drops makes it very good.
Going to fit in one more taco.
We tried a chipotle chicken and a birria taco from Slanging Tacos.
These both have extra tasty shells with lots of flavor to them….These both also are larger tacos with lots of filling…… The chicken taco is very tasty but it’s the tasty sauce and tasty shell that is delicious…..The chicken needs those flavors to be good. The birria is good but you have to buy the consume separately.
That was what we tried at The Great Las Vegas Taco Festival
This is a collection of the most frightful horrifying foods served to us in Las Vegas Nevada in no particular order. OK my claws are out and here it is…….
At Casa Don Jaun downtown besides cold chips that seemed purchased and oregano laced salsa I tried a chicken fajita salad. I got an uninspired warm salad that was topped with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and chicken that was drowning in salty soy sauce. Oh and a glob of guacamole. YUK! It tasted like they used half a bottle of soy sauce to make this.
The chicken ramen was made with good chicken but the broth was below standard. It tasted like some sort of instant broth with added salt. This was absolutely terrible and most of the ramen they offer at this restaurant is made with this too. I had the chicken ramen. Not all but most of the ramen they offer is a combination of pork and chicken broth.
At Victories Cafe in The Cannery besides being served over microwaved rolls that turned hard……I tried the Asian Chicken Salad. The chicken had a weird texture…..It was tender but unusually dry??????But it was the sauce on it that made me gag….It was very sweet…It just didn’t taste good.
The rice was good from Little Hong Kong but everything else was below standard……My husband tried the Szechwan beef that was hard and chewy in a sauce that we didn’t care for….Sadly we tried Mandarin hot braised vegetables and they were in the same exact sauce as the Szechwan beef. Maybe the worst dish we had there was the vinegar marinated milkfish…..I had Caribbean vinegar marinated fish before that was delicious. The fish dish from Little Hong Kong has all dried out and chewy and only tasted like old fish and vinegar…….
Sometimes you get bad food at food festivals.
Recently at the USA Today Wine and Food Festival I tried this piece of beef from Kusa Nori……Somehow they made this saltier than salt….I thought I was going to be sick after tasting it..
Same thing happened at the Great Las Vegas Taco Festival.
I wasn’t able to eat either of these tacos from El Fuego. They were so over salted that to me they weren’t edible.
Back to restaurants
EllaEm’s Soul Food won a Best of Vegas Award so I thought they’d be good. OK maybe it’s my bad for trying the fish…..(not the best) but you can clearly see problems with most of the sides. I had mixed vegetables that look like from frozen that have nothing added to them. In the middle are sweet potatoes that are sweet beyond belief. To the right is macaroni and cheese that is all dried out. My husband also had a very dried out chicken fried steak.
Bob Taylor’s Ranch House might be one of the oldest Steak Houses in Las Vegas. My husband found out that his burger was thrown on the grill from frozen. He asked for medium – rare but he got grey in the center and all dried out. I tried the BBQ chicken salad. They did give me tender chicken but it was covered in a cloyingly sweet bbq sauce and was served over warm soggy iceberg lettuce.
We had a good visit to Secret of Siam Thai Restaurant so I wanted to go back because they offer a lot of different fish dishes on their menu. I tried the green Apple Pompano……The slaw that came with it was delicious……..but……
The fish was horrifying…….It came out like they boiled it in glue. I dug and dug with my fork and it was next to impossible to get flesh to eat….But when I managed to get a small morsel……..ICK!
It’s FORKING gross…..It’s that old fish taste.
That was The Halloween 2023 Special Edition of The FORKING Truth where I shared the most frightful, horrifying foods served to me in Las Vegas NV.
Have something good and don’t go hungry on Halloween.
The USA Today Wine & Food Festival was held Saturday October 28TH in Trivoli Village in the Summerlin part of Las Vegas Nevada. The tickets were general admission and VIP. The VIP tickets got you in one hour early (12:00), a few more tables to sit at and entitled you to more wines to pick from, and two additional tastings.
One tasting was
prosciutto wrapped grapes
and the other was
black Angus filet with squid ink risotto topped with shrimp from Harlo Steakhouse.
Everyone could try the following.
I thought among the best tastes today TWO came from Ichiza……One was an Asian beef dish with rice that was delicious and tender. The other was some sort of layered cracker with two kinds of fish (I think both were tuna) One layer was a fish with a curry sauce. The other was seasoned with rice.
To me the very best bite of the festival came from Anima By Edo.
It was all high quality and unusually delicious together. Wagyu pastrami, torrija, caciocavalla cheese, port balsamic glaze.
One thing was not edible…to me ….and also my husband………
This Angus beef from Kuta Nori almost made me sick from too much salt…….It seemed saltier than straight salt.
There were a few more things that were good or ok.
My husband ate something shrimp from The Crab Corner.
This swai from California Fish Grill wasn’t so good over uninspired rice.
Hussong’s Mexican Cantina made pretty good Margaritas. I didn’t try the Duck appetizers but I heard that they were pretty good.
Goufrais Southern Californian Chocolate taste like thick chocolate frosting to me.
My husband tried a tiny pulled pork slider. He said it was ok. I didn’t catch where it came from but I think it was from Project BBQ.
In The Black Cookie Company made a variety of cookies….With nuts, nut free, and gluten free varieties…….Tried a few that were ok.
Crossroads Kitchen offered plant based meat-like cigars that were tasty and a pastry with onion, almond, and a vegetarian egg.
If you are here at the right time you might catch some demos.
Crazy Pita arrived late. I tried part of a pita with hummus spread on it. They told me that they were preparing meat dishes that will be ready later.
Evel Pizza offered BBQ beef pizza
Soul Foo Young was a no show.
Refrigerator chilled pork sandwiches from Sr Frog. And something crab in the other cups.
Lots of sliced meats, cheeses, fruit, crackers and more at Boar’s Head.
And some of the cheese comes with rind.
That was a little Taste of USA Today Wine & Food 2023 Las Vegas
