Unlucky at Mix in Vegas
Vegas days are like dog years. We all just want to go home, but our itinerary won’t let us leave until late tomorrow night.
My roommates agree Mandalay Bay is a cash grab. I had to pay another $15 US to reconnect to the internet tonight to post this, and this time noticed the fine print – $15 per day, per room, PER LAPTOP. (So if A and I both wanted to connect, that would be $30 US. FOR AN INTERNET CONNECTION THEY HAVE ANYWAY.) And here I thought I’d be losing my money on the slots.
(I think I may have already mentioned that the TravelLodge offers free coffee, free airport shuttle, free breakfast AND free internet access, all for the low low price of $40. None of these come with our $189-$319/night price tag – only a cot on the first night when your room isn’t ready yet.)
Sorry to be so complainy. I know I’m lucky to be here. And we are having a lot of fun. But I’m not independantly wealthy, and I miss M and W.
Everyone but the three of us (A, S and I, who came together) left this afternoon, having arrived on Thursday morning. The three of us found a Walgreen’s and bought bags of prunes, dried fruit, trail mix and nuts. (That’s right, we ate prunes and had naps in Vegas. Now that stays in Vegas.)
We don’t leave until tomorrow night, so got tickets to a show (Cirque du Soliel’s Zumanity, which was great, as Cirque always is, but very exotic). I can’t believe how many shows are going on here at a given night – Donnie and Marie, Rita Rudner, Cher, Bette Midler, Carrot Top. We booked a late show so while we were cleaned up we could make a night of it and go to dinner first. A & S let me choose the restaurant. We stopped in at Bouchon this afternoon, but it closes in the afternoons and we were too sweaty to stick around – so that’s the plan for tomorrow’s breakfast.
Oh Chelsey. Thanks for the recommendation (you too Lisa), but you must have been luckier on your visit than we were. It certainly was memorable – just not in a good way.
I chose Mix - easy access, as it was on the 64th (!!) floor of our hotel, and it is really fabulous inside with incredible views (we peeked the night we got here). However. It will go down as one of the most expensive AND most disappointing meals of my life. (Sorry. But it was.)
The menu they have posted on their website is not the same as the one they had tonight, which was about half the size and not as interesting. but it does give you a sense of the prices. Of course, if we had an internet connection earlier we could have perused the menus and would have noticed how spendy it was before we pulled up a chair and ordered a Moscato.
A had a small, cold consomme that was pretty but plain, and an appetizer potato gnocchi that was, as she put it, “just OK”. (For $26, a small appetizer-sized bowl of potato gnocchi with mushrooms ought to blow your mind, or come with a steak, or something.) We got a kick out of the “fork-crushed potatoes” – FORK crushed? Wow!)
S had John Dory (fish, with zucchini ratatouille) and I ordered the duck – might as well get something I don’t normally have at home.
There were two slabs of breast meat, and the only thing that distinguished them from pork was the fatty skin – otherwise it had next to no flavour and was so sinewy it was difficult to cut through. The sauce, which was described as an olive sauce, tasted like no more than slightly thickened soy sauce (A and S agreed) and was slopped over the edge of the plate. There was a line of teeny olive halves down the middle that tasted as if they had been soaked in wine. (Not sure if they actually were.) The vegetable was a small rectangle of white daikon, topped with three peeled radish halves that, as A pointed out, looked like baby mice.
I gave up about a third of the way into one of the pieces of duck, and pushed my plate aside, the piece of meat I had been knawing at not so delicately mangled.
Our server walked by twice and looked at the plate, looked at me, and said nothing. Then he sent a busboy over to clear our plates (mine still hardly touched) without a word. He came and offered dessert and coffee in an overly smiley and insencere salesman-ish sort of way and when we said no, thanks, he brought the bill, without ever asking how our dinner was.
I’m not particularly picky but I’m of the school of thought that when you’re spending that kind of money the service should be a little better than what we get at Swiss Chalet. It was a sharp contrast to the genuine and superb service we had at Aureole last night.
When our bill arrived, A was charged $10 for her sparkling water (understandable), and S and I $10 for our still water. I really really hate when a restaurant does that – comes at the beginning and asks if you want sparkling or still and you just ask for plain old water and they then charge you $10 for bottled water that could have just come from the tap. Our bill, for three bubbly drinks, an entree for S and I and soup and an appetizer for A, and water – no nibbles or dessert or coffee – was $200. I spent $70 US on about four bites of very untasty food and a champagne flute of Moscato. And a glass of water.
We headed over to New York New York for our show and (finally!) found a great little pizza place that sold big, bendy slices for $3.50, and ate them in the theatre lineup. They were great – what we should have had to begin with!
We have to check out by 11, so I’m going to sign off so that I can shower and pack. If I can find a connection later today, watch for an update! Otherwise it’s back home by 1am, then off to Red Deer to teach another allergy class tomorrow.
September 14 2009 | leftovers | 40 Comments »
