Continuing the Las Vegas adventure. . . .
We stayed at the Mirage, and ate at several of the less-expensive restaurants there. The Paradise Café is the poolside restaurant, open for breakfast through about 4 p.m. The early closing relates to the practice of local hotels closing their pools early to encourage patronage of the casinos and showrooms. Admittance to the pool area requires showing a room card, another usual practice. Most people wear swim suits, with or without coverups. The area is shady, and there are misters, so it was amazingly tolerable despite the summer heat. Sandwiches and salads are the primary offerings; we had a fine BLT, a chopped salad with shrimp that was the perfect thing in the heat, and a hot dog that weighed a full pound and whose rather bawdy appearance caused a stir at adjoining tables. A surprisingly civilized place, almost elegant, with superior service.
The Carnegie in New York has lent its name to a place in the Mirage. Our first meal involved a couple of sandwiches and was quite good, superior, delicate meat in a basic tongue on rye for Joe and unusual, tasty salami and eggs for Ann. A real New York delicatessen – take notes, Lester – offers salami and eggs in two styles, omelet and pancake, the former rather fluffy, the latter wearing extremely thin
slices of salami, then flattened and cooked to be completely done, with some brown on the edges. The Carnegie made it extra-flat, then rolled it and stuffed it into the sandwich; lots of both ingredients and absolutely delicious. The cheesecake topped with rugelach and chocolate was gilding the lily but we couldn’t resist. Portions are almost as big as in New York.
However, a return for breakfast was nothing short of a disaster. After a chatty, friendly waitress added an extra portion of pleasant on the first visit, a surly waiter compounded the difficulty on the return. And while we could have survived surly, we were offended by ignorance.
He knew nothing about the herring except to tell us it was herring. A portion, right out of a supermarket jar, was garnished with onions and tomatoes and a mound of small, almost unidentifiable white cubes. The waiter had no idea what was on the plate he carried. "Onions?" he guessed. It turned out to be what we suspected, hard and barely cooked potatoes, because they also turned up to ruin the pastrami hash, which was crisp and spicy, except for the barely cooked (and barely warm) potatoes. The blintzes were adequate.
The Carnegie offshoot was not.
And then there was the buffet. Las Vegas buffets are legendary. Huge amounts of food. In the old days, they were heart-stoppingly cheap, and the food generally ranged from awful to mundane. Things have changed in most hotels, rising in terms of both cost and quality. Cravings at the Mirage resembles a modern cafeteria in a forward-looking business. It’s very large, of course, and the serving stations are well spaced. Ann did brunch while Joe kept the world safe for theater-goers for another year.
Champagne was Domaine Michelle, better than one often finds at such places, and refills were available on request. The basic breakfast stuff, bacon, sausage, pancakes, Belgian waffles, and so on, is available, of course; a stainless steel faux shack is the omelet station. Of that ilk, the eggs benedict stand out, because the turnover is fast enough that the muffin remains tender and the egg yolk doesn’t overcook.. At the carving station, a ham and prime rib were available . But beyond the usual is where exploration begins.
Asian? Sushi doesn’t belong on a buffet line; this was uninspired and slightly dry. The seaweed salad was standard, and tasty. A few Chinese dishes like General Tso’s chicken were around, and so was congee, the rice porridge that’s a breakfast standard in Asia. Serious comfort food, if you haven’t tried it,. (One can get a wee china spoon of it quite easily.) Hot and sour soup was adequate but nothing more.
Salads disappointed compared to what one sees in St. Louis on Sunday mornings. Some greens, a few tubs of slaw and potato salad, but nothing remarkable. Strangely, this was also the area where one picked up sliced-to-order gyros, toast and croissants, as well as fresh fruit–which in June was limited to oranges, apples and bananas.
On the other hand, seafood excelled. Plenty of shrimp and crab legs, a large pot of mussels in a glowing green pesto sauce and coconut rice to go with the mussel juice. Sure, baked fish, but also a ceviche that was more finely chopped than one normally sees but delicious and not rubbery from having been left in its marinade too long. Even the "bouillabaisse," which wasn’t really, was rich and full of saffron.
In this part of the country, the Mexican food should have been worthwhile, and the chilaquiles certainly were. A dish of baked eggs, tortillas, tomatoes, onions, chiles and, in this case, beef, was deeply savory, a fine buffet choice. Another smart selection was something marked "spicy fruit," chunks of melon and pineapple seasoned with cilantro and chile, not fiery but seductive, and the sort of thing it’d be easy to reproduce in the home kitchen. A selection of pizza and quiche included a yeast-crusted "fruit pizza" that was almost a calzone, filled with raspberries and a bit of cinnamon, surprisingly good, an interesting variation for those of us who love cobbler.
And that brings us to desserts. Not quite all the desserts are in the designated areas. Several are sugar-free, a considerate thought. Some are on a steam table; croissants, as is their habit, made for a particularly fine and surprisingly delicate bread pudding. On the other hand, I cannot believe it’s not illegal to keep donuts in a refrigerated case. Hidden among the more savory dishes were an ethereal beignet and a sopapilla that was good but not airy enough. The churros, however, could be used as lethal weapons.
For a $40 brunch, it would have been a flop. For less than $25, however, including some very good coffee, it was worth it.
Mirage Hotel
3400 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas
1-702-791-7111