Summer House is a unique California Style restaurant located in the Durango Casino-Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada. Other locations of Summer House are in – Disney Springs on The Lake, Chicago, and North Bethesda MD. This restaurant offers a wide variety of different foods for different appetites and tastes. They offer appetizers and starters like meatballs, shrimp cocktails, guacamole, edamame, and cheesy dream puffs. They also offer sandwiches, tacos, pastas, pizzas, and entrees. Unique to this restaurant is a cookie bar and more!
It’s modern light and airy inside.
outside is a nice airy patio for when the weather is nice.
We started out by sharing the potato salad deviled eggs.
It like they are mixed deviled eggs and potato salad together stuffed into the egg whites. Then they sat the eggs on top of what taste like tartar sauce. Then they topped the egg yolks with capers and chives.
For my main I tried the Costa Mesa Salad with added salmon.
I do have to give them credit for giving me a really fresh tasting piece of salmon that is nicely grilled and prepared to a perfect medium. The salmon is really good. The salad contains queso fresco, charred corn kernels, pico de Gallo, avocado, quinoa, tortilla strips, chipotle creama, and lime vinaigrette. The flavors are good. My only minor peeve is that all the greens inside are extra chopped and very soaking wet…..like marinated…….Maybe it’s usually not as soaked?
My husband tries the Prime Cheeseburger that we were told was ground in-house. (cheddar, lettuce, tomato, pickle, mustard, mayo (requested not to add), fries)
I didn’t try it but I was told that the burger was very good. The skinny fries got cold fast.
Service was efficient and plates and silver were cleared quickly.
Summer House is Worth a Try!
Summer House at The Durango 6915 S Durango Dr Las Vegas NV
The Durango Casino Hotel offers many new restaurants and an Eat Your Heart Out food court with many options. If you live in Las Vegas you saw commercials all day long on how amazing the food is. If you go on Facebook you read everyday about praise for some of the restaurants there. They say on TV that the restaurants here are the best of Las Vegas and include a few of the best from New York and California. They say they offer the best pizza, the best sandwiches, the best burgers, the best steak house….ect.
One of the restaurants I heard the most buzz about was Prince Street New York Pizza. They offer several styles and flavors of pizza that are, square, regular NY slice, and grandma style.
The caesar salad is different here and contains pepperoni.
The dressing taste bottled.
I start with a slice of Mercer Margherita (It’s the grandma style pizza)
This isn’t thick like most square pizzas. It’s a nice thinner square but is very dense…..and hardly seems fermented. This one is topped with two cheeses, tomato sauce, olive oil, garlic, and basil……I like the fresh basil but the sauce is cloyingly sweet….(It’s suppose to be topped with Prince Street Pizza Sauce…???)
My husband tries a square of pepperoni…..I think it’s called spicy spring.
He said that the pepperoni is good but the sauce is kinda sweet…….(This one is suppose to be topped with Fra Diablo sauce….?????)
I go for a second slice. The four cheese Fresh mozzarella, regular mozzarella, ricotta, pecorino Romano, and garlic. This one is thicker than the grandma and not quite as dense.
After a bite I honestly don’t want a second bite. This is not seasoned at all. I didn’t get any garlic in this bite. It taste very flat and not the best ricotta. My husband tries it and says that this isn’t seasoned at all. He also said that he didn’t get any garlic either.
The Fancy Prince is next. (mozzarella, original sauce, basil, extra virgin olive oil)
This one is thin and foldable. It seems slightly more fermented than all the other slices we’ve tried. I don’t know what original sauce is but the sauce on this slice is so sweet that it turns both of our stomachs.
From this experience I have to say to be a fan of Prince Street Pizza you need to enjoy your pizza unseasoned and made with extra sweet sauce.
Prince Street Pizza 6915 S. Durango Dr. Las Vegas NV – 702-567-7848
www.DurangoResort.com
www.PrinceStreetPizza.com
www.ToastTab.com
We didn’t get to eat much at Prince Street Pizza so we thought we’d share a pastrami sandwich from Uncle Paulie’s.
It comes on a baguette or sourdough…..My husband picked the baguette.
ICK!
WTFork is this?? I pulled out some slices of meat so you can see what I see.
This is gross….Neither of us can eat this. It just doesn’t taste good. It doesn’t even seem like real beef. The ends of it are tasteless, black, and crunchy.
Uncle Paulie’s – 6915 S. Durango Drive – 702-567-7854
www.DurangoResort.com
www.Toasttab.com
Now we are off to Shang Artisan Noodle. They are suppose to be one of the very best Chinese Noodle Restaurants in Las Vegas. They specialize in the pulled or shaved noodle.
This one is different. It’s like a small restaurant in the food court. You can either go on the wait list for service inside or go on the wait list for taking out to the food court. The original location in Chinatown is always busy with a long line outside the door. I left there a few times because I didn’t want to stand out there and wait to get in. I thought waiting 25 minutes for a seat in the food court wouldn’t be too bad.
We shared a bowl of chicken chow mein with the hand pulled noodles.
The noodles are very long and chewy. I like the lettuce mixed in with the noodles. It’s in a mild kind of soy based sauce. The lettuce sort of lightens the dish.The only downside is the chicken. Most of it is overcooked and very dry……..So we don’t finish this one either.
www.ShangArtisanNoodle.com
DurangoResort.com
My husband generously suggests that we get something from Nielsen’s Frozen Custard.
He gets a small cup of chocolate custard.
It’s mildly chocolate but is smooth and very creamy.
I decide to try a vanilla concrete blended with peanut butter Reese’s Cups.
This is enough for FOUR People……….It’s creamy but you don’t get any Reese’s Cup taste you do get small hard pieces of Reese’s chocolate through it. I’ll go back to Nielsen’s and enjoy something in the future but will never order a concrete again.
On another visit I got a small cup with Reese’s topping and it was MUCH BETTER.
Niesen’s Frozen Custard – 6915 S. Durango Dr. Las Vegas NV – 702-567-7853
www.NielsensFrozenCustard.com
www.DurangoResort,com
On another trip we made it to Irv’s Burgers.
Irv’s Burgers offers breakfast, burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, fries, milkshakes, floats, and cookies.
My husband tries a burger. (They bake the buns here)
He said that it was juicy and tasted better than it looks.
He also got a Chilli Cheese Dog.
The hot dog is good. He said that the chilli is good. He thought it needed more cheese.
I tried Irv’s Pastrami Sandwich.
The rye bread is good and also is nicely toasted. Flavor-wise this is good and the hot honey mustard and pickles go well with all the flavors. Today the pastrami is a bit tough………It needed another hour.
Irv’s Burgers – 6915 S. Durango Dr Las Vegas NV
702-567-7843
www.DurangoResort.com
That was My trips to The Durango Casino/Hotel Eat Your Heart Out Food Court.
The Cook’s Country Recipe for Potato and Cheese Pierogis can’t be beat. Today I made the Pierogis with sweet potatoes and I thought cranberry salsa matcha would be great with them. This made 32 pierogis for me. I did have extra filling and scrap dough left that I put together and made a crazy kind of small 2 serving lasagna with. Serving size is difficult to determine because I don’t know if you want this for a side serving or a whole meal…….I like this for a side serving so I’ll say at least 10 servings.
Ingredients for around 10 side servings
2 1/2 cups bread flour + extra for lightly flouring surfaces
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 yolk
salt to taste
4 average to small size sweet potatoes – peeled
1/4 cup whipped cream cheese
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
dash nutmeg
sea salt – to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.
The sweet potatoes go in a pan or. baking dish with about a 1/2 cup of water. The pan or dish gets covered and they stay in the oven till fork tender. (about an hour)
The bread flour, baking powder, sour cream, egg, yolk, salt go in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix at medium-high speed for 8 minutes. Cover the dough so it doesn’t dry out. This needs to rest about 30 minutes. You can chill it but then you will have to let it warm to room temperature.
While the sweet potatoes are hot mash them with the cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
Roll out about 1/3 of your dough on a board or rolling mat. If desired use plastic wrap over the dough so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin. (us flour as sparingly as possible.)
Roll around 1/8 inch.
Remove scap dough and either use for something else or toss because it is much tougher second time around.
Fill about 1/2 meatball size and pinch the middle shut.
Then finish closing it up.
Repeat with rest of dough until done.
Place the pierogi on trays that are oiled or sprayed with nonstick spray because they might stick.
Boil them in batches in salted water till they float.
You don’t need to fry them but if you want to fry them I do one stick of butter with a splash of canola oil. If desired fry on each side on medium heat till done.
I usually make my own cranberry sauce but picked up a can. I forgot how bad canned cranberry sauce taste and added some of the salsa matcha I made that is published on my website……These days you can buy salsa matcha at the store if you want but this one here is very good.
Sweet Potato Pierogis with Cranberry Salsa Matcha
A Special THANKS!!!! To Cook’s Country Magazine so I could do what you see here!
I came across these Chocolate Frosted Doughnut KitKats at my local Walmart Grocery and decided to give them a try. I wasn’t sure about trying them because I find that I usually only like half the flavors they make. This one I sure had my doubts but I haven’t tried a new flavor in a very long time so I tried anyway.
They are chocolate frosted up top and doughnut colored underneath..
They sort of smell like doughnuts……
My gosh….This actually taste like a chocolate frosted doughnut!
HOW THE FORK did they do that?
I do have to say that the Chocolate Doughnut KitKats are
Dining out with dogs in Las Vegas is just a “Fluff” story. It all sort of started with my late dog Louie. He was elderly and came down with aggressive cancer. We were told that Louie probably only had three months to live….maybe up to 6 months…..Well Louie always loved eating and always loved going out to eat so I thought the nicest thing I could do for Louie was to take him out to eat as often as I could. The good news is that Louie made it another 17 months. Today I take my current dogs out to eat when I can and when the weather is right.
The dogs got to go to SNS Diner BBQ in North Las Vegas. They always love going here. You might have seen this restaurant on Food Network’s Diners Drive Inns and Dives.I got a two meat plate with chicken and brisket. My two sides were slaw and macaroni and cheese.
The dogs got to eat, brisket, chicken, macaroni and cheese.
The dogs also got some meats from my husbands 3 meat plate.
And they are back to me for more off my plate.
The Dogs always love going to SNS Diner BBQ.
3229 Losee Rd North Las Vegas NV – 702-269-9696
www.SNSDiner.com
The next week it was FORKING COLD and WINDY here so we took the dogs to an In-Out-Drive Thru
The Giant Aussie pushed the beagle/chihuahua out of his seat so SHE CAN OBSERVE.
Then they got to eat the cheeseburger at home because it was TOO FORKING COLD to sit at a table (I did try).
Look at them…..The Giant Aussie is smiling….The Beagle/Chihuahua is trying to inhale the burger threw the air.
The Giant Aussie is always first.
Now it’s the Beagle/Chihuahua’s turn.
I gave them about 1/3 of the cheeseburger. They will get the rest for snacks.
My dogs always welcome an In-And-Out Burger.
They also got to try Those Guys Pies. This restaurant was also featured on Diners Drive-inns and Dives on Food Network. This restaurant as the name implies offers pizzas, sandwiches, and Thrifty ice Cream.
We shared an Italian White Pizza (ricotta, mozzarella, broccoli rabe, garlic, caramelized onion, roasted tomatoes, lemon oil) with the sausage on the side for the dogs.
They also got beef dog biscuits from the dog biscuit vending machine that they have inside.
The dogs always enjoy Those Guys Pies!
5585 Simmons Street North Las Vegas NV
725-251-5826
www.ThoseGuysPies.com
That was Dining Out With DOGS in Las Vegas for January 2024. We hope you’ve enjoyed and we hope to see you next month.
The Forking TruthIn Memory of Louie 5-5-2001 – 3-3-2017
Jerusalem Mediterranean Chef’s Table is a full service family owned restaurant, bar, and catering business that is certified kosher and is also certified halal. This business is located close to the Las Vegas Strip and is also close to Chinatown. They offer appetizers like hummus, smoked eggplant carpaccio, shawarma tacos, and Moroccan stuffed cigars. Some of the other offerings are kebob skewers, Lebanese Chicken, 9-hour brisket, steaks, specials, and more.
Inside is a variety of seating. Partial booths, tables, bar in a nice rich modern setting. To the left of my photo is an open kitchen and to right is a large window that lets in bright light during the day.
The soup of the day was bean soup that was well seasoned.
The Pita breads are super fresh and super fluffy. The hummus is very creamy and is very mildly seasoned, It was adorned with cooked chick peas, olive oil, parsley and pickled onions.
The falafels are the moist inside herby type and were drizzled with tahini.
The falafels came with a tabouleh salad was very detailed and was made with parsley, mint, quinoa, tomatoes, onions, apricots, almonds, olive oil, and tahini.
The Moroccan cigars are slow roasted ground beef with caramelized onions wrapped up like taquitos with a VERY spicy harissa tahini sauce.
They don’t ask you how you like your burger here but the burger came out flavorful and juicy. It came on a garlic brioche grilled bun. It also came with lettuce, tomato, tempura onions, lots of pickles, tomatoes and seasoned fries with a BBQ Alfredo aioli. It’s all very good but very hard to eat. If you look close at the patty it is almost shaped like a ball. That was my only peeve here.
The house made macarons were very VERY good, and are a perfect sweet ending to any meal here.
They are busy at dinner time especially when conventions are in town. Reservations for dinner are recommended.
That was a little taste of Jerusalem Mediterranean Chef’s Table. It should be noted that kosher restaurants are not for everyone only because you must be understanding…..A lot is involved to bring you kosher meats. Kosher meats cost about three times of what non-kosher meat cost so that might be reflected in prices.
Saveur Magizine named All’Antico Vinaio sandwiches as “BEST IN THE WORLD.”
The legendary Florence Italy Based sandwich shop recently opened in southwest Las Vegas (about 8 miles from the strip) in the Uncommons at Durango and the 215.
Opening weekend it was standing in line only and the line went around the block.
They offer over a dozen different sandwiches on schiacciata bread. About 10 of them contain pork. There’s one beef sandwich, one turkey sandwich, and 5 vegetarian sandwiches.
We waited in line and got to the counter in about an hour.
The owner in the red shirt is hard at work with his employees. They also only have one slicer to slice fresh the meat on sandwiches directly to the bread.
I read the reviews and I thought I’d like the vegetarian sandwich called The Broadway Best.
In the Schiacciata bread is tasty toasted pistachio cream, creamy stracciatella cheese, tangy sun-dried tomatoes, (it was suppose to be….) spicy zucchini, and bitter arugula. This is too much bread for me so I removed the top layer of bread and brought it home and ate the bottom layer folded over.
I had no idea that pistachio cream and the stracciatta cheese would be such a game changer in a sandwich…….It’s such a combination that you have to try…..They sort of messed up on the zucchini….It’s there but it is just squishy plain zucchini. If it was spicy I think this sandwich would have popped! It’s still good though….
My husband tried two sandwiches and had extras to bring home.
Paradisco- Mortadella, Stracciatella, pistachio cream, pistachios – He saids that the meat was very good.
Inferno – VERY GOOD and peppery Porchetta, Nduju (sausage spread), (It’s suppose to have grilled vegetables, arugula.
He really enjoyed the porchetta. He hasn’t had porchetta that was really great in a long time. It would have been better with the grilled vegetables but they were missing…Still a good sandwich. He preferred this sandwich over the Paradisco (Mortadella sandwich)
Of course All’Antico Vinaio is Worth a TRY! Who doesn’t want to try sandwiches that are called “Best in the World”
All’Antico Vinaio’8533 Rozita Lee Avenue Las Vegas NV
I had some lemons to use and I was thinking lemon cookie. I came across an Italian Lemon Cookie Recipe that I had to completely change the recipe but I tried to shape the cookies similar to the original recipe. I think the recipe I read had typos (like 4 cups of flour for 20 cookies doesn’t make sense) and there wasn’t enough lemon in the recipe to taste lemon either (typo?). Made some other changes and came out with something really different. These cookies came out extra light, very lemony, and not too sweet. Servings are very hard to determine here. I made 40 small but very light cookies. I think you might eat up to four as a serving. So that means you will get between 40-10 servings….40 if you only eat one……(you are NOT going to do that)…….10 servings if you eat 4……I think around 15 servings is realistic…….
Ingredients for around 15 servings
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup sweet butter – melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg – beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 lemon – juice and zest
1 teaspoon lemon extract
non stick spray
1 cup 10X sugar (for glaze)
2 lemons for zest and only one lemon for the juice (for glaze)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a cookie sheet with non stick spray.
In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, butter, sugar, egg, milk, juice and zest of one lemon, and lemon extract. Hand mix with a FORK till combined. Roll logs that are ever so slightly thinner than your pinky. Or you can be more precise and divide the dough into 4 and get 10 cuts out of each quarter……….Each 10th gets rolled into a log close to your pinky size and you want each log to be about 4 inches long. You roll it into a fancy knot.
Have fun with this……it’s not brain surgery.
They go on your sprayed cookie sheet.
Into your preheated 350 degree oven on your middle rack till slightly browned and cooked……Ovens do indeed DIFFER………In my Whirlpool oven mine took 17 and 18 minutes………Your oven may differ.
While your cookies are baking mix up the glaze in a small bowl…..It’s just a cup of 10X, zest of two lemons and juice of one lemon. Mix well with a FORK.
Dip the cookie tops into the glaze.
Use all the glaze.
For some reason my one dog feels the need to guard the cookies.
There is always something new, weird, different, limited or special edition in the wonderful world of food. We never know WTFork we’ll find when we shop for food.
This month I found several really WEIRD ones from-
www.OfftheWagonShop.com
WEIRD – Archie McPhee Hot Dog Candy
WEIRD – Archie McPhee Pho Candy
WEIRD – Archie McPhee Kale Candy
WEIRD – Archie McPhee Fried Chicken Candy
WEIRD -Sour Gummy Boogers Candy
DIFFERENT – Bacon and Cheese flavored CRICKETS
DIFFERENT (but funny) extra strong Memory Mints
WEIRD – Sour Flush -candy plunger with sour powder dip….Looks and sounds like a #2
WEIRD Pickle Cotton Candy by Chocolate Storybook
WEIRD – Spicy Jalapeño Cotton Candy by Chocolate StoryBook
WEIRD – Maple Bacon Cotton Candy by Chocolate Storybook
WEIRD (and something fishy) Crab flavored candy
DIFFERENT – Craft Beer Lollipops in pale ale, classic lager, and chocolate stout
DIFFERENT – Dee’s Nuts in banana pudding flavored peanuts….???? I think I’d like them with a candy coating but I also think they might be gross if the peanuts are covered in instant pudding powder…??????
DIFFERENT – Dees Nuts in Hot Cheddah peanuts…could go either way?
DIFFERENT – Dee’s Nuts in ranch sriracha peanuts……..ODD thing I noticed…….the first two flavors probably have pork or a meat in them…..Only this can of Dee’s Nuts are kosher and dairy (the circled “U” and the “D”). Isn’t that rooting tooting weird?
I also found a couple really different dog treats.
DIFFERENT – Canine Carry Out – Tacos Minis …
Canine Carry Outs – Hot Dog Minis
And there is usually SOMETHING Oreo…..
LIMITED EDITION – Nabisco ARTIFICIALLY Flavored Black & White Cookies……
Well that was the new, weird, different, limited and special editions foods out there for January 2024. Who knows WTFork we will come across next month.
Gourmet China is an American/Chinese restaurant with a location in North Las Vegas Nevada.
We were planing to dine in but the heat wasn’t on and it was only 45 degrees inside and outside the day we were here.
Gourmet China isn’t a fancy place and only has three and a half tables for dining in. This restaurant is mainly for take out.
They have a wooden frog with coins in it’s mouth at the end of the counter.
We tried egg rolls.
To us they are more like spring rolls……These were crisp on the outside and were somewhat raw and doughy on the inside.
I tried the Szechuan Garlic Hot Chicken.
The Good –
The chicken seems fresh and is very tender.
The vegetables are tender crisp and also seem fresh.
The FORKING Truth.
This is NOT spicy hot at all.
This is NOT garlic-ee
This is SO SWEET you can pour it on pancakes.
This might be the sweetest American Chinese Dish I ever tried anywhere. Just so you know I truly do LOVE sweets but not like this. I think that this is far too sweet for anyone to enjoy.
I tried to fix it by adding their hot Chile sauce but something is also wrong with the hot Chile sauce…….It’s not HOT…….I don’t know WTFork it is?
My husband tries the Hunan beef.
The beef is tender and the vegetables are fresh. This dish was medium spicy and better than the Szechwan chicken……
Your experience may or may not differ, and you also might prefer your Garlic Hot Szechwan Chicken not garlic-ee, not hot, and extra sweet?
Gourmet China
6360 Simmons Street North Las Vegas Nevada
702-776-8998
I haven’t found a functioning website for Gourmet China but you can find them on Facebook.
