Las Vegas Weekly

Ventano's has been our favorite southern Italian restaurant since it first opened. Although this was a Friday night, the restaurant was not as busy as usual. We took a pass on the bread and shared a delicious spinach salad with onions, hard boiled egg and mushrooms in a warm bacon dressing. As is customary, we shared our an eggplant rollatini, but the portion size had been reduced by 50% and the ricotta filling was a memory compared to prior visits. It was initially served in one dish, as opposed to 2 in the past, and the amount of marinara was barely covered the top of the eggplant. I had ordered a side of sauteed spinach in order to approximate the value of our Groupon, but the waiter substituted it for the usual sides of ziti so we were forced to order a creme brulee. LOL Unfortunately it was overcooked and very disappointing. I don't know whether we caught the restaurant on a bad night or not, but I am not inclined to rush back. (2 Forks)

After 8PM on Tue-Sat in October, all drinks plus the entire tapas menu were being discounted by 75%. Do I hear a Hallelujah? I ordered a mojito (3 Sips) while Ann wisely chose the Espresso martini (espresso vanilla vodka, coffee liquor, Irish liquor and a shot of espresso) (4.5 Sips). Each of these drinks cost a mere $2.50. Give me another Hallelujah and a 2nd round of drinks!

Our first order of tapas included stuffed mushrooms (chorizo, chicken and parmesan cheese) (3 Forks) and bacon wrapped dates (3.5 Forks). Service was extremely slow so our waitress, cum bartender, Michelle gave us a complimentary order of bacon wrapped shrimp with an adobo BBQ sauce as an apology. (3.5 Forks)

For the second round, Ann ordered a glass of Chardonnay while I went with a Zombie martini (light and dark rum, coconut rum, Bacardi 151, OJ and pineapple juice). (4.5 Sips) Our last tapas order included piquillo peppers stuffed with garlic cream cheese (4.5 Forks) and red potatoes in a spicy aioli sauce (3.5 Forks). Our bill was $61, reduced to $15.36 with the happy hour discount which was covered by Ann's points. ( 4 Forks out of 5)

This recently opened Indian restaurant was not very busy on the Monday evening of our visit. We recived complimentary papadum with a spicy mint sauce and the worst tamarind sauce I have ever encountered. Our entrees were boti kabob masala (lamb chunks in a rich yellow curry) and Murgh madras (boneless chicken in a tomato/cream curry). In addition, we ordered naan and zeera rice (lightly spiced basmati rice with cumin seeds). Neither entree scaled any culinary heights though the amount of animal protein in each would likely have caused Hannibal Lechter to rejoice. I felt menu prices, separate charge for plain rice, were on the high side. (2 Forks out of 5)

11 For entrees Ann ordered the 8-ounce filet while I went cowboy style by ordering the 16-ounce prime rib. Both entrees were perfectly cooked to medium rare as requested and included a baked potato with all the fixings. My prime rib, served with au jus and a horseradish sauce, turned out to be a mammoth slab of beef with most of the outer ring of fat and near fat removed. I only wish our dog Max had been with us because it took a Herculean effort for me to finish it alone. Dessert was out of the question. (3.5 Forks out of 5)

10/11 We made 3 visits to Ronald's for the world's best apple fritters over the course of 2 week vacation. (4 Forks out of 5)

05/11 Another trip, another apple fritter. We also ordered a buttermilk bar which neither of us cared for. (3 Forks)

03/11 Two more visits with a coffee for Ann and a shared apple fritter. (3.5 Forks)

A 3-course $10.95 lunch Tue-Thur at this student run restaurant located in Art Institute of Las Vegas in Henderson. The 2nd floor dining room is tastefully decorated and overseen by a pair of experienced chefs. In the past the menu changed weekly, but since our last visit the menu has been expanded and only changes at the beginning of each semester. We both chose the grilled polenta with black and green olives and pimento roasted vegetable coulis which was just plain delicious.

For an entree Ann chose moussaka; a combination of ground lamb, eggplant, marinara sauce, Parmesan cheese and bechamel sauce -- again, delicious. I somewhat hesitantly ordered the cioppino, a fisherman's seafood soup which turned out to be one of the best I have ever tasted. We closed out this feast by both ordering the creme brulee medley -- small servings of both traditional vanilla bean and espresso. The traditional was excellent, but the espresso raised the dessert bar by a full notch. Service was a little sketchy, but very friendly. ($30.86, 4.5 Forks out of 5)

ago. The restaurant is not even 1/3rd as busy as in the distant past and management has raised prices to what I regard as absurdity. For example, farm raised Atlantic salmon for $28.90. On Sunday, we were offered a 3-course menu that included two options -- one for $19.95 and another for $24.95. We opted for the former. We started off with a mixed salad of greens, blue cheese and candied walnuts with a white balsamic vinaigrette that was nothing special. Our entrees were sole stuffed with brie, crab, artichoke and sundried tomatoes with tomato Romesco sauce. I thought the sauce detracted, rather than complimented, the entree so it was largely ignored. A more serious issue was the fish was slightly overcooked and the stuffing was blah. Our creme brulees were, as usual, excellent. (2.5 Forks out of 5)

This used to be one of our favorite places for breakfast, but the original owners sent it on the skids before selling out last year. Our waitress took our orders and returned with a miniscule sample of a coffee cake "that just come out of the oven" though it was served at room temperature. We each ordered French toast stuffed with strawberry cream cheese and topped with strawberries. The cream cheese filling was little more than a smear and the French toast itself was pretty ordinary. Based on our experience on this trip and last, I feel the new owners needs to immediately address pricing (too expensive) and quality (disappointing) issues. (2 Forks out of 5)

This small, but popular Korean/Mexican restaurant, is located on Decatur Blvd. The staff was very friendly and offered to take our order while we waited for a table. Our fried wontons, 4 per serving and costing a mere $1, were good, but totally unnecessary since they were preceded by complimentary housemade chips, salsa and guacamole. Our order of 4 barbecue tacos (2 pork, 1 chicken and a beef) came with cilantro, lettuce, onions and kimchee, the latter being optional. Each was very good to excellent, though next time I would skip the beef in flavor (sic) of the pork or chicken. (4 Forks out of 5)

We timed our arrival to take advantage of the drink specials offered during happy hour at the bar. Ann ordered a glass of Chardonnay (3 Sips) while I chose a Zen-Tini (Chai liquor, green tea liquor and Stoli vanilla vodka) (3.5 Sips). We dined exclusively on the $8 and under section of the menu. We started off sharing a bowl of the spicy Kabocha coconut soup (4.5 Spoons) and nasu dengaku (broiled eggplant with sweet miso (4.5 Forks). Our next order included a large portion of veggie fried rice (3 Forks), a mixed greens salad with ginger dressing (2.5 Forks) and chicken kushiyaki with a Peruvian sauce (2 Forks). Overall the meal was very satisfying though the portion size of the chicken skewers was ridiculously small and the meat overdone. (3.5 Forks out of 5)