Where to go in Sin City - Turning Japanese

I decided to seperate this from my previous post because it really does deserve it's own section.

Inaka Sushi: This is a local's place through and through and is one of the two sushi places I eat at somewhat regularly. The staff is very friendly and they know most of the people that walk through their doors. The food is good, and they have a wide variety of sushi to choose from. I highly recommend getting the all you can eat sushi. This place is by no means spectacular, but I have yet to eat at an Asian restaurant here that is.

Sushi Hana: Another good sushi place with a good selection of sushi and a highly recommendable all you can eat sushi set-up. Another great example of friendly staff, although the service is not quite as good as Inaka. They do have a frequet flyers type card where you get 10 all you can eats, and the 11th is free. Try the 215. It's a hands down favourite.

Shuseki: Although they have sushi, I recommend this place for it's dishes. I love Katsu Don and they have a very good version, although I have yet to try anything there that wasn't good. I would also recommend the Sukiyaki Don. The lunch chef is much better than the dinner chef.

Hyakumi @ Caesar's Palace: If you absolutely need to stay on the strip to eat Japanese food, I would recommend Hyakumi. But, keep in mind you will pay tourist prices. It has been here forever and is very beautiful with good service. The food is good, but pretty standard selection wise.

Ra @ Fashion Show Mall: This is one of those places that I would recommend going if you just want to snack while you drink and hang with friends. The food is good and I highly recommend the tootsie roll, be careful though, one of the sushi chefs messes it up. The menu is limited and not very authentic, but the food is good regardless. This is definitely for a younger crowd.

Where to go in Sin City - Eat Your Heart Out

In hindsight I realized that my bars listing was also a listing of some of my favourite food spots so this will be coming from a slightly different tack and have more of a touristy flair.

Bellagio Buffet: I go for the dinner buffet. I've eaten at this buffet since the first year Bellagio opened. It's pricey, so I don't go very often and usually only when someone else is paying, but it's my choice for best buffet here in the land of buffets. The dinner is good, don't get me wrong, it's one of the better ones in town, but I go to the dinner buffet for dessert. The dessert selection is large, even for a buffet, and every last thing is worth having again and again. If you like dessert, this is the buffet to go to.

Stage Deli @ Ceasar's Palace Forum Shops: I ate at Stage Deli my first trip to Vegas as a teenaged tourist over a decade ago, and I made sure that every other trip here as a tourist included a stop at Stage Deli. Now that I live here, every trip to the Strip includes a stop at Stage Deli for corned beef and matzo ball soup. I have never been to New York and so can't speak as to comparison and accuracy, but in my dreams of corned beef, the delis of New York are clones of Stage Deli. Lots of food, good selection, good prices, and friendly staff just make this place even better.

Lucille's @ The District, Green Valley: I was born in the South and I eat BBQ just about every meal when I go back to visit. I lived in California's BBQ area for a few years(and yes, it does have one, did you think all those cows were just for making cheese?). I love me good BBQ. Lucille's is good BBQ. Everything I've had at Lucille's has been superb. The tri-tip is excellent, the pulled pork is divine, and the sides are spectacular. I usually get a two meat, two sides combo, and have one meat and one side packed to go since the servings are really two meals masquerading as one. I've had BBQ from quite a few places in town and I was sorely disappointed each time, but Lucille's redeems Vegas.

Where to Go In Sin City - Drink Drink Drink

I am not a true local, but I have been living in Sin City for the past three years and have a lot of social circles here. As the New Year is approaching and many, many, many people come out here to party, I thought I'd mention some of my favourite places to hang out, eat, and drink.

I'll start with the bars.

Crown And Anchor: A British pub that appeals both to displaced Britons and college kids. It is located near the UNLV campus and at night gets a mostly college crowd. However, go early in the day and you'll find older couples taking their afternoon tea there or families getting together over yorkshire pudding and trifles. The C&A offers a good collection of alcohol, both from the UK and elsewhere, and a good selection of food. Every night of the week has some special going on. Sunday has a special roast meat meal, Monday is all you can eat fish and chips, Wednesday has a special pork dinner, Thursday has a trivia contest, and Saturday has a band in the evening. I know there's something offered Tuesdays and Fridays, I just can't recall them.

The Freaking Frog: The Freaking Frog offers the biggest beer selection in Las Vegas and a pretty decent wine list as well. A recent addition is a whiskey club upstairs, but I believe it's membership only. The food selection is limited but everything is good. The one drawback is the price of beer, although if you get one of the 2 for 1 options during happy hour, it's acceptable. It's become something of a bohemian hangout and you'll see the same people everytime you go in. It's located across from the UNLV campus and, as such, caters to the college crowd.

The Dispensary Lounge: Laid-back, casual, and friendly sum this place up. It doesn't have a great drink selection, the food is good but limited, and there's not much to entertain you, but this is the kind of place you like to hang with your friends and just chill.

McMullans: An Irish pub that looks like you think an Irish pub should look. The food is good and they give you a lot of it, which makes the prices more palatable. The staff is friendly and good at what they do, although I did have problems with my order the last time. There's a ton of little private booth type spaces in addition to the bar and restaurant sections. Whether you're there with one person or a big group of friends, you get a sense of privacy.

The Peppermill: If you've ever seen those "local's favourites" shows about Vegas, you've probably heard of the Peppermill. I was actually introduced to it via a sister restaurant in California. The Vegas Peppermill is actually two different places, the lounge and the restuarant. The restuarant specialty is burgers. Big, wonderful burgers. There's other things on the menu, but I go for the burgers. The lounge is the kind of place you want to take your make-out partner. There's low, heavily padded booths. There's a fire pit. There's plants between the booths to add some privacy. If you want to hang with friends, this is a great place. Even if this sounds like it's not your kind of place, it's one of those places you should still go to at least once. I'm sure you'll be won over.

Big Dogs Draft House: The only problem with the Big Dogs Draft House is that it's so far away from me. And they're Packers fans. But hey, no bar is perfect. The Draft House as it's generally referred to makes some great beer and a lot of really great food. And we're talking ribs-sticking, you leave happy kind of food. My favourite menu item is the steak and brats sandwich. With your order you get a selection of condiments beyond the basic mustard and ketchup and steak sauce They bring out a little serving thing holding sauerkraut, horseradish, onions, and something else I can't recall because I don't ever get past the first three. Love this place. And if you like dogs, particually Labradors, you'll love the decor. There are a couple other Big Dogs locations, but this is the one to go to.

Rum Runner: This is a chain of, I believe, 5 locations and it should not be confused with that snooty casino trap called Rum Jungle(which actually has a good Argentinian steak that almost makes up for the rest of the place). I go to the Rum Runner at Spencer and Tropicana. There's a restaurant section for the underaged, but there's never anybody in that part of the place. This is a place for pool players to play them some pool. The staff are friendly and the patrons are equally so. You need pointers on your game? Just ask and they'll help. Good, greasy, bar food, real cheap. The burgers are good as are the wings, and they have a dozen different wing flavours to choose from. Only drawback is it's cash only. And it's also a Packers bar. Oh well.

Note: It's not that I don't like the Packers, but where I grew up Joe Montana is God.

Olympus and the M:Robe

I will disclaim this review by saying that I have only owned, to the best of my recollection, one Olympus product, the one I am reviewing here: the M:Robe.

I will speak first to the M:Robe. It has two things going for it. It's cheap(if you can still find it) and it's color scheme is black and red. Supposedly it also displays pictures downloaded to it, but I have yet to push my luck in that regard. The M:Robe supposedly has a 5GB hard drive, but I have been unable to get more than about 3.12GB on it at any given time. Attemps to put more than 3.12GB of mp3s on the device always results in errors. The thing is buggy. When it works, it works quite well and is easy to pick up and use(provided there's already music on it, I'll get to that later). Unfortunately, it appears to be a 50/50 chance of whether the thing will work the first time you turn it on after recharging it. Hard resetting it via the little hole in the bottom specified gets it to work, but you need the tip of a mechanical pencil or a small paperclip. I, for one, don't make a habit of carrying around a small paperclip to bend out of shape to reset my mp3 player everytime I plan on listening to it. The software you have to use with the M:Robe is the worst aspect of the player. You HAVE TO USE the software. No two ways about it, no bypassing it, no choice. The software is hideously slow. I have a 2.81Ghz processor. It takes about 10 seconds to process even the slightest thing I try to do. Even when I have absolutely nothing else running and I just started the computer. The software is completely counter to any logic and is very clunky to use. Most of the time you think you've told it to do something and it decides you haven't done anything at all. To add music to the M:Robe you have to not only add it to the playlist, you then have to manually check the box next to it. To remove music from the M:Robe you have to LEAVE IT ON THE PLAYLIST, UNCHECK THE BOX NEXT TO IT, and then do a COMPLETE SYNCHRONIZATION. Synchronization usually takes at least half an hour if you go over 1.5GB. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the inherent fact that 3.12GB worth of mp3 files is a lot of files to sort through. Did I mention that most of the time the software doesn't recognize that the M:Robe is hooked up? The best part of the software is the fact that if I'm listening to anything on my computer when I'm running the M:Robe software, when I ask the software to do anything, the music/movie/animation I'm listening to pauses until the command finishes processing. That's right, something designed to assist in the enjoyment of music disrupts the enjoyment of music.

Now, onto my experience with the department masquerading as Customer Service. When I got the (first) M:Robe, it didn't work, right out of the box. OK, I sent it in since it was new and the warranty was supposed to be in effect. Two weeks later I finally get a letter saying that they determined my warranty was void. All I had done was charge the thing and then try to turn it on(it froze during boot up). I tried all hours of the day all different days of the weeks for another week and a half to get someone from "customer service" to PICK UP THE PHONE! I'd like to mention that I was calling the phone number that answered with a recording saying you had reached the customer service line for Olympus and is the number that was listed on the warranty as the customer service line. I had to call the marketing department to find out that the number I had been calling WAS WRONG. Not just a little wrong, completely wrong. So, finally, I've got the right number and I call and they tell me the warranty was voided by a dent. There was no dent. The thing was NEW and hadn't impacted anything with any force of any kind. They refused to do anything and two weeks later finally sent the M:Robe back. When I got it, I checked the entire thing over. THERE WAS NO DENT! And it still didn't work. I sent it back to where I got it and got a replacement within the week.

In short, Olympus "Customer Service" is SO BAD, and the M:Robe SO BUGGY, and the software SO UNWEILDY that I will never spend another dime on an Olympus product.

Crown And Anchor - British Pub

I decided to try everything I'd eat on the menu of my favourite British Pub in Sin City, but unfortunately was not able to complete the task. However I will post a summary of the items I did manage to get to.

To start, I'll give a general description/review of Crown and Anchor. The atmosphere is very laid back, and very comfortable. It's half standard pub and half college bar, given it's proximity to UNLV. For obvious reason's, it's more college bar on weekday evenings. They have a great selection of beers from around the world and have all the UK standards on tap including Black Thorn, Guiness, and Newcastle. Crown and Anchor is split into two sections. There's the bar area, which includes the bar, a darts area, and a upstairs section that has a pool table. Then, there's the restaurant area which includes not only the main dining area, but a smaller one in another upstairs section and a patio in the front. The entire place is covered in TVs and various UK product ads from back in the day. Soccer and Rugby are the standard sports on, but during the various American sport's seasons they play the big games as well. At night there's a Trivia game, with prize, but I've never been very sober by the time it rolls around and couldn't tell you what the prizes are. On occasion they'll have a band in to play, but they're usually barely tolerable and not worth the $5 door fee it entails. Overall, as I said, my favourite British Pub in town, and one of my favourite places in general.

Now, to some menu items.

Clam Chowder: I'm going to preface this by saying I'm a clam chowder lover. I'm picky about my chowder. To be good it has to have a certain thickness, a certain chunkiness, and I have to be able to taste the clams in every spoonful. The clam chowder of Splash Cafe in Central Coast California is the best and the basis for all my comparisons. At C&A clam chowder isn't always available, it's just what they seem to have as the soup of the day most weekends. The first time I had it, the chowder was quite good, and definitely worth having again. The second time, it was pretty bad, and it was obvious it had been left on the heat for far too long. It was discoloured, thick in a bad way, and had a rather odd taste to it. The third time, it was good again. I will order it again, since usually C&A is very consistent and I'm sure the time it was bad was a fluke.

Fries/Chips: C&A has good fries. Real fries. They're thick and perfect and have just the right amount of salt. I love them. I also love the curry sauce you can get as a dipping sauce. It's obviously not truly Indian, but it's still true to the origins. If I get fries, with anything or by themselves, I get the curry sauce.

Roast Beef Sandwich: This was very...British. Basic roast beef, real roast beef, on a roll, a side of au jus, and some fries. Bland, but not bad. The biggest thing this sandwich had going for it was the fact that they used real roast beef.

Sunday Special: The Sunday special is available, obviously, only on Sunday. It consists of potatoes, peas, cooked carrots, yorkshire pudding, and your choice of roast lamb or roast beef smothered in gravy. Now, I don't eat peas or cooked carrots and won't speak to those, but I do like meat and potatoes, and yorkshire pudding. I chose the lamb, since I'd had the roast beef in sandwich form. The yorkshire pudding was big, and good. Nothing spectacular, but a definite solid showing. The potatoes were perfect, and the gravy just made them better. The gravy was good and it was thick enough to stick. The lamb was a little dry, and even the gravy couldn't cover that up completely. There was a mint type sauce for the lamb but I hate mint on my lamb and when I tried a little, to me it was vile. If you like that sort of thing, you might like it, but I really don't.

Fish and Chips: I've already spoken to the chips, so I won't mention them here. The fish is very good, not the best in town, I prefer Village Pub's although only just. The batter is very thick and if you're not into that it can be a little off-putting. But, it's still a very tasty batter and the fish is always succulent. I suggest going on Tuesdays because that's all you can eat Fish and Chips day.

British Burger: This is a very average burger. When I say average I mean average for a proper restaurant or diner, I don't include fast food burgers in the comparison. It's pretty sizeable and they usually cook it to the level you want, which is often a hit or miss at most places. But really, as I said, an average burger, you've had better and you've had worse.

Breakfast Sandwich: This is basically the Brit version of an egg and bacon Mcmuffin. It uses the UK bacon that I adore so it gets points for that, but really it's egg and bacon on a biscuit. Nothing really spectacular, but it definitely hits the spot if you're craving something breakfasty.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich: This was very disappointing. The chicken breast was dry and slightly rubbery and they forgot to put the ham on the sandwich. A definite miss.

Pub Sirloin Steak: Not a bad steak, not necessarily on par with a fancy steak house, but you shouldn't expect it to be. Afterall C&A is a British pub. The steak is tasty and they cook it just right, but it's not exactly a top cut of beef and that's what brings it down a bit. If you're in the mood for steak, it's definitely a better choice than running down to your local Applebees or a few other national chains.

Chicken Fingers: Good, but pretty average. The concessions to American bar food needs seem to all fit this description. They're not as good as Chile's, but they're definitely better than a number of the national chains. Again, average.

Onion Rings: These are quite good as beer battered rings tend to be and you get quite a bit when you order them. Nothing about them really stands out but they are worth ordering.

Gammon and Eggs: Basically ham steak and eggs with a side of fries and toast these are good, but really there's only so much one can do with a ham steak and eggs. You'll definitely walk away full but again, it's ham steak and eggs, pretty hard to make spectacular and pretty hard to ruin.

English Trifle: I only had this once as usually I don't have room after a meal at C&A to get dessert. This, like the Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich, was very disappointing. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and think maybe I had it on an off day, but it was pretty bad. It tasted alright except for one overpowering taste that really killed it. It was as if a fruity liquer had gone rancid and vinegary and accidently been spilled in. I may give it a try again when I'm just there for a quick bite, but I'm a little leery.

And that's the menu I got through. I was intending to try a few different items and I will definitely be back there when I visit Vegas again. Cheers.

Horror Fest 2006

As some of you may know, this past weekend was Horror Fest. 3 days of "8 Films to Die For." Horror movies supposedly too horror-ish for general release.

I did not, money and time would not allow, see all 8 movies. I did watch 3. I would give a general recommendation about Horror Fest. Even if you like horror movies in the theater, I would suggest waiting for DVD or VHS. Apparently (and no matter what theater I went to) these films are not rated, or at least, no one told theater staff they have a rating. As a result, they let anyone in. Including kids. During the first movie this group of 6 teenaged girls wouldn't stop giggling and other members of the audience wouldn't stop cursing at them. The next movie some kid kept bugging someone about what was this and what was that. The third movie another group of gigglers was present. Basically, the worst of the theater going kinds decided to attend Horror Fest. No matter how good the movies were, the viewing was unenjoyable due to people in the audience.

Resurrection:

This was directed by the guy who did the Grudge. It was in Japanese, but quite well subtitled. This was a good movie, and a little easier to follow/understand than the typical Japanese horror movie. All in all the movie was quite good, although a bit formulaic. No real SHOCK! moments although a nice little surprise towards the end. Visually very well presented and not as over the top as American films tend to be. Some weak spots in the acting, mostly on the part of the child actors so it's acceptable. A few loose ends left dangling, but the ending is quite satisfactory.

Unrest:

Definitely the weakest of the three. The action was easy to predict and there were moments when it took a second to process and realize that stuff had happened you weren't privy to. None of the moments skipped really weakened the story telling but the information would have helped prevent momentary confusion. A romance was thrown in for no reason and was probably the fastest trip to home base that didn't involve copious amounts of alcohol and a complete stranger. This accelerated romance just supported the feeling that half the movie was moving at 3 times the speed of the rest of the movie. Acting by the supporting cast was weak, and the gore wasn't very gory. If you're going to watch this one, wait for it on TV. Although, given the ending, they might release a sequel before that happens.

The Gravedancers:

This would have been a really good movie except somewhere towards the end of the film it becomes obvious the writer had no idea what to do, got desperate, and smoked something. What started as an engaging, well-paced movie became a cheese-tastic cheesefest. The dialogue became on par with the writing of a pre-teen, they introduced poorly done CGI special effects, and it all fell apart. If you like watching movies as a group and commenting on them, I would recommend this movie for that sort of viewing.

It wasn't a part of Horror Fest but I feel the need to comment on The Descent. Was that not the worst ending ever?

Car Donating - What They Don't Tell You

Go to Google.com (or any other big search engine) try searching for places to review and/or rate a charity. You won't find one. There's places that rate charities (usually another non-profit organization) but nowhere that an individual who has had real, personal experience with a charity in any way can write and post a review.

So, I invite you to respond to this post and rate charities you have dealt with.

I will start with a review of 2 car donation programs I tried to donate my car to and a review of the 1 I finally ended up donating to. Keep in mind that the car was in decent shape and still ran perfectly.

Breast Cancer Fund: From the information on their website, they use a for-profit 3rd party company for the handling of car donations. The online form is easy to use and the company is quick to respond. However... after that initial confirmation it was like pulling teeth to actually get the car taken. Every time I spoke to them, and the towing company afterwards, I insisted they use my cel number to contact me. Instead, they kept calling my work number, despite the fact that my work number wasn't even the primary number I specified on the online form and despite the fact that I told them I wasn't going to be at work for the next 5 days, because I was going to be at home, where the car was. They initially scheduled the pick-up for sometime, who knows when, on a Thursday and never showed. Then they scheduled the pick-up for sometime, who knows when, on a Tuesday and never showed. So, after having been in contact with these people almost every day for over a week, I finally told them to cancel the donation, I'd donate the car somewhere else.

American Heart Association: Another online form to fill out, however, you have to print out the form and mail it, along with all title paperwork, to Maine. This information is only specified in a small sentance on one screen in the middle of the information gathering process and not stated any other time. I'm sorry, having had too many things stolen from my mail, I'm not mailing title to my car across the country. And, when I called up the donation help line, I got the most arrogant, condecending attitude from the lady that handled my call.

Opportunity Village: I filled out the online form, got a call the next day from a very friendly lady who answered all of my questions and scheduled the car pick-up at my convenience. The tow-truck operator was given my cel phone and called to let me know he'd be late, but still showed up within a reasonable amount of time after the appointment time. He was very friendly, explained all the paperwork, and took the car with a minumum of fuss. However, the tax receipt for deduction value was a third of the fair market value.

Beyond these specific reviews, I would like to point out that not a single one of the organizations, usually despite ads stating you would get deduction receipts for fair market value, would actually give you fair market value. What happens is they auction off the vehicles and whatever they get, after costs apparently, is what they send you a deduction receipt for.

Again, I invite people to respond with their charity experiences.