Soulbelly BBQ is an artisanal BBQ Restaurant located in the Arts District of Downtown Las Vegas. The restaurant is by Seasoned Chef (James Beard nominated, Food Network Chopped Champion, Bravo Top Chef) Bruce Kalman.
Most of the smoked magic happens here in the smokers by the patio.
Patio (empty during the day on a Sunday but packed starting early dinner)
Bar and dining room
The menu changes from time to time and daily specials are offered.
The Belly Of Soul – Smoked Brisket, Fried Egg, Cheese Sauce, Pickled Onions, Spicy BBQ Sauce, & Crispy Onions and a side of beans
Ground-In-House Smoked Brisket Burger Macaroni and Cheese Bites
Pastrami Sandwich with watermelon/cucumber salad
Beef Barbacoa Quesadilla with a side of Beans (Special)
Rachel (smoked corned beef with slaw, cheese on rye) with crispy Brussels sprouts (special)
Cool Bar BBQ Fish is a very unique Chinese Restaurant in the Las Vegas Chinatown. They have a car in the dining room blocking a live fish tank.
To the left is an attractive bar without seating. The bar holds a collection of toy cars. They don’t serve mixed drinks here. They offer beer and wine and soft beverages. During the day 7am-3pm they offer a different menu that doesn’t have BBQ Fish. So it’s a cool bar with toy cars instead of bar drinks and the BBQ fish is only offered for dinner.
Anyways-
I tried a herbal Chinese Tea.
it’s kinda sweet and I’m not sure how it’s flavored…….
We shared what they call Chicken Soup Wontons.
The soup is very good and so are the chicken wontons. The soup has a nice gentle spicy finish too.
I really came here to try the Big Plate Chicken because it is one of the most amazing Chinese Dishes that I have ever tried anywhere and I saw it on the menu here. To me it’s like what a Chinese Thanksgiving could be like……….It’s a big chicken stew laced with star anise, bay leaves, ginger, garlic, cumin, Szechwan Peppercorns. It has flat chewy noodles, potatoes, bell peppers. One restaurant I went to put chestnuts in it. It’s always a very special dish. I was surprised when I got here because I didn’t know about the 7am-3pm menu and Big Plate Chicken was not on that menu. We did ask for the Big Plate Chicken and they were nice enough to make it for us.
This is not a stew here……
This has a sort of Chinese Take Out Type Taste to it.
It can pass as Orange Chicken.
It’s not bad but it doesn’t taste like Big Plate Chicken.
We shared Pumpkin Cake for dessert.
They were made fresh to order and came out straight out of the fryer. They are sweet with a tapioca type of chew.
There is always something New, Weird, Different, Limited, and Special Edition in The Wonderful World of Food. We Just never know WTFork we will find when we shop for food.
Up Above is
DIFFERENT – General Mills CinaGram Toast Crunch…….Lets toast to something better.
SPECIAL EDITION – Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Blue & Green special spring mix….How thoughtful to make kids poop blue and green?
DIFFERENT – Duncan Hines – Peeps Yellow Cake Mix…….Something you prepare for your Peeps
DIFFERENT – Duncan Hines – Peeps Sunny Yellow pee OPPS I mean Vanilla Frosting
DIFFERENT – Kettle Brand Potato Chips with avocado oil, sea salt and a hint of pink peppercorn….Spud-Tacular?
DIFFERENT – Kettle Brand Potato Chips – made with avocado oil and apple cider vinegar….A grape loss to some.
DIFFERENT – Kettle Brand Potato Chips – made with avocado oil and Special Sauce Flavored….????????
WEIRD – GIANTS Bacon Ranch Cashews – Why would anyone want a cashew to taste like bacon ranch?
WEIRD – Vlasic Dill Pickle Sunflower Seeds….No big dill
Even WEIRDER – Taco Bell Supreme Sunflower Seeds….Taco about WEIRD
DIFFERENT – Dr Pepper in Blackberry & Strawberries and Cream Flavors……Odd I thought Dr Pepper was Dr Pepper Flavored?
WEIRD – Hershey’s Cream Cheese Flavored Chips. Cream Cheese isn’t candy…..Would you want Hershey’s Cream Cheese Chips on your everything bagel?
NEW – Reese’s PB&J Big Cups – Sometime Soon!……
DIFFERENT – Rice Krispies Treats Ice Cream.
DIFFERENT – Kellogg’s – Froot Loops Ice Cream
DIFFERENT – Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Ice Cream
PREDITIBLE – Nestle – Toll House Cookie Dough Ice Cream
DIFFERENT – Peeps Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats (ICK)
SEASONAL & DIFFERENT Edible Green Apple Grass…Someone was on grass to think this up.
SEASONAL & DIFFERENT – KitKat Bunnies
CRAZY & DIFFERENT – TNT Exploding Bunny Poop – I don’t know WTFork this is.
And they is always something Oreo.
DIFFERENT Oreo Thins with ARTIFICIALLY Flavored Tiramisu Cream….Oh Boy Oh Boy!
Well that was the New, Weird, Different, Limited, and Special Edition Foods for April 2025. Who knows WTFORK we’ll come across next month.
Dining Out With DOGS is just a “Fluff” Story about taking my dogs out to eat. It all sort of started with my late dog Louie. He was elderly and came down with aggressive cancer. We were told he probably only had up to three months to live but could possibly make it six months. Since Louie couldn’t do much and always enjoyed going out to eat I took him out as often as possible. Instead of the 3-6 months Louie made it another seventeen months. Today I take my current dogs out when the weather is right and when I can.
We went to Rivas Mexican Grill on North Aliante because this location has a community patio. I forgot to photo my husbands burrito and his taco but I did get a photo of my chicken salad. It’s quite large and there is plenty of (dry) chicken to share.
“Her chicken is dry” “Is yours better?”
“The chicken is dry today”
“Give me your chicken so you don’t have to eat it” “That’s my job”
“I could use some water”
“Guess we are going someplace else next time”
Rivas Mexican Grill
6885 N Aliante Pkwy Las Vegas NV
702-586-2251
www.RivasMexicanGrill.com
Only 2 doors down from Rivas I noticed a NEW restaurant called China Kitchen so we tried it the following week on the same community patio.
The dogs and I tried some of the Hot Garlic Szechuan Chicken.
It’s not hot or garlicky. It is very flat tasting and very sweet. It’s so sweet that you could pour it on pancakes.
“This is awfully sweet”
“This smells like sweet orange chicken”
The Kung Pao Beef is hard to chew.
“I can break my teeth on the Kung Pao Beef”
“I like Sweets”
China Kitchen
6885 N Aliante Pkwy North Las Vegas NV
702-644-5858
www.ChinaKitchenorthNV.com
It was perfect weather and we went to Mezzo Bistro & Wine. The Dogs and I shared my Steak Salad.
They also got some of my husband’s chicken parm and sausage.
Chicken Parm
Side order of sausage
“Ummmm this steak is tender and delicious”
“More steak please!”
Mezzo Bistro & Wine
4275 N Rancho Dr Las Vegas NV
702-944-8880
www.MezzoBistro.com
This next week it was abnormally HOT 90 and 95 degrees so the dogs got a car ride to pick up salads from our local Salad & Go.
They got to eat chicken from my salad and steak from my husband’s salad.
We did alright from Salad & Go.
www.SaladandGo.com
That was dining with DOGS for April 2025. We hope that you’ve enjoyed and we hope to see you next month.
The Forking TruthIn Memory of Louie 5-5-2001 – 3-3-2017
La Mojarra Loca is a Mexican Restaurant with at least three locations in Las Vegas. The North/West Location is highly decorated inside with loud Mexican Music filling the air.
This location has bar seating, traditional tables, and booths. The menu here is seafood heavy. They offer Mexican Sushi, Ceviche, Mexican Specialties, and Fish Dinners.
Whatever you order they start you off with complimentary chips and spicy salsa.
We tried margaritas. They seemed sweet and fruity. They didn’t taste strong but built up tp have a good kick to them.
I tried the Filete al mojo de Ajo.
They gave a very generous portion of mild white fish that is in a citrusy, garlicky, buttery sauce with rice, salad garnish, and I substituted vegetables for beans. This was all reasonably good and was LESS than $20. (subject to change). For some people this is two meals.
My husband tried the Molcajete Triol (shrimp, chicken, beef, cactus, avocado, jalapeños, spicy sauce). With rice, beans, tortillas.
It’s an enormous amount of food for any mortal.
The chicken was tender like butter and infused with good flavors. Shrimp were slightly over done. Beef was tasty but a little chewy.
Maybe not perfection but reasonably good, generous portions, and low pricing.
Worth a Try!
La Mojarra Loca Bar & Grill
3520 N Rancho Dr Las Vegas NV
1-800-555-5555 (this is the phone number that was printed on my receipt but is no where to be found on the web so I’m not too sure about it)
People went NUTS over this one. I usually just make pastry cream for the pastries (called Pate A Choux……like eclair or cream puff) and top with a cherry. Due to a series of events (you know like what’s on sale) I came up with topping the pastries I made with a thin coat of chocolate, a mound of chocolate marscapone, and a lightly macerated strawberry.
For the Pate A Choux (make about 3 inch circles and space well on parchment paper. Pre heat oven 375F
285 ML water
200g flour
4 oz sweet butter
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Directions
Boil butter and water and turn down to low. Slowly add flour. Cook on low heat a few minutes. Take off heat and slowly whip in eggs one at a time.
Pipe batter in 3 inch circles on parchment paper and put in preheated 375F oven until done about 30 minutes. To make harder leave in turned off oven about 10 minutes more.
Make macerated strawberries. For best results make the day before. Strawberries in a bowl with sugar and a splash of bitters. (leave this sit out for an hour and then refrigerate)
When cool enough to handle
Dip tops in melted chocolate or a combo of melted chocolate and butter.
Top THAT with some chocolate marscapone
Top with macerated strawberry
Strawberry Chocolate Mascarpone CHOCOLATE Pastry
A special THANKS!!!! to www.ItalianRecipeBook.com so I could do what I got here.
China Kitchen newly opened in North Las Vegas. It is an American/Chinese dine in or take out kind of restaurant. This restaurant shares a nice community patio with several other places and it was a nice day today so I wanted to try it. We did take out and sat on the patio.
Maybe the best of what we tried was the potstickers (chicken & scallion).
They are crispy all over but have little flavor.
We got free vegetable egg rolls with our purchase so we tried them.
To us they are more like spring rolls and are kinda gooey inside. (ick)
I tried the Hot Garlic Szechwaun Chicken.
The chicken is tender but doesn’t taste hot or garlicky. It taste very sweet. So sweet that you can pour it on pancakes. You can add on rice, fried rice, or noodles so I tried noodles.
It’s a very large portion. They have little flavor and are slightly over cooked and are a little gummy.
The Kung Pao Beef is hard to eat because the beef is very chewy.
My husband thought that the added on fried rice was ok.
My small dog thought that the Hot Garlic Szechwan Chicken was too sweet too!
“I can break my teeth on the Kung Pao Beef too”“I like sweets”
That was my trip to China Kitchen. – Not the best.
Scoundrels Tavern & Eatery is a 24/7 Bar, Gaming, and Restaurant with two locations in Vegas. The North Las Vegas Location has a covered patio and the usual games and big screen TVs inside.
We decided to try the macaroni and cheese bites.
They were fried nicely and seemed free of oil. They also came with ranch dressing. They taste similar to that blue box type macaroni and cheese. (kinda artificial)
Who knew that the Thai Salad would be really good!
The chicken is warm and moist. The salad is a very generous portion and is really embellished with lots of things. There’s peanuts, mandarine oranges, zucchini strings, carrots, bean sprouts, sweet tomatoes, greens, and a sorta spicy peanut-tee dressing.
The Smokehouse Bacon Burger didn’t come out medium-rare as requested.
I was told that the cheese, onion straws, and bacon were very good…….but….The burger was dry, dense, and cooked to medium-well instead of medium-rare. The fries were also kinda hard and dry.
Good Thai Style Salad but not so good burger or macaroni and cheese bites unless you love the blue box stuff.
