During a Spaswinefood May visit to Las Vegas we decided to check out the best places on "The Strip" for breakfast. Las Vegas draws visitors from around the world. While most come to try their luck at the tables, some visitors come to Las Vegas just to dine. Las Vegas offers some of the best dining in the U.S. To sort out the best breakfast places in Vegas can be a challenge. In fact, there are a number of books written on dining in Las Vegas. Fortunately for those preferring to take advantage of the social media age there are some great online sources. Still this requires some research time to check the lists.
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| View of the canal at the Venetian, Las Vegas © Spaswinefood |
What I have discovered is that there are a few general patterns in online Las Vegas dining information. The most useful information is contained in two types of lists. The two types are lists provided by culinary and/or other experts and lists compiled based on diners' rankings. Here is a brief overview of the lists that I found helpful to decide on where to dine in Las Vegas.
The culinary and other experts' lists
Here are the culinary expert lists that I used:
Epicurious lists the top five Las Vegas restaurant picks in the categories of high end, budget, local favorites and hot spots.
First Time Las Vegas a resource for visitors, offers breakfast suggestions under High Class and Best Buffet. Under High Class the list included the Bouchon at the Venetian, Payard Bistro at Caesars Palace. The best buffet list included Le Village, Paris, Baley's Kitchen at Baleys and theSterling Brunch at Baleys.
First Time Las Vegas a resource for visitors, offers breakfast suggestions under High Class and Best Buffet. Under High Class the list included the Bouchon at the Venetian, Payard Bistro at Caesars Palace. The best buffet list included Le Village, Paris, Baley's Kitchen at Baleys and theSterling Brunch at Baleys.
Gayot is a comprehensive online dining resource. Included in the resource are the professional review and diners views as well.
New York Post article lists the top 10 tables on the strip.
Travel and Leisure describes its top Las Vegas picks.
USA Today lists the top 10 Las Vegas restaurants.
The diners' lists
In the case of the diners list there are the common ones you see but then there are a few unique to Las Vegas. Here are the lists that I consulted:
Las Vegas Restaurants maintains a list where diners have been rating Las Vegas restaurants since 2005. Here you will find the top 10 according to the following criteria: Overall dining experience, best service, best food, best ambiance, best wine list and best value for money.
Tripadvisor needs little introduction because everyone has used it to find out what others have said about hotels, restaurants and so on. On Tripadvisor's restaurant list diners have rated the restaurants.
OpenTable provides restaurant reviews based on diners opinions, plus it is also a restaurant reservation service.
Urbanspoon posts a list of restaurants with ranking by diners.
Yelp also posts a list of restaurants with ranking by diners.
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| Gondola ride at the Venetian, Las Vegas © Spaswinefood |
Improving your odds of having a great dining experience
Now that you have some online sources to check out, you can improve your odds of finding that perfect dining experience by considering certain factors. While figuring out how much you want to spend will influence you choice there are other factors. Other factors like type of cuisine, location (on or off The Strip), etc. are important. I also found that it is important to decide on the meal, whether it is breakfast, brunch, lunch or diner. Or in the case of Las Vegas late night dining (yes, there are some specific recommendations). Las Vegas is after all a city that never sleeps.
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| View from our table at the Bouchon © Spaswinefood |
For this review Spaswinefood consulted the above sites and decided on the Bouchon for breakfast. While for prior decisions we used the diners' lists, this time we used the expert online sources to help us make a decision on breakfast. We decided we were not interested in a buffet. If you are interested in buffet there are actually online discussions on some lists about the best breakfast buffets in Las Vegas. In the end, we decided on the Bouchon Bistro at the Venetian for breakfast. The Bouchon lived up to the reviews. We had excellent food and service. During our visit initially the service was slow. The waitress however, made us aware of the reason why. We were served extra pastries and coffee while we waited and the manager checked to make sure everything was o.k.
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| Breakfast at the Bouchon © Spaswinefood |
From the above lists there are a few general patterns. My conclusion is to know what you are looking for in a breakfast. It will help to narrow your list and improve your odds of having a great dining experience. I invite you to join me in my travels in Las Vegas and elsewhere in search of the best in Spaswinefood.
Sharon
August 2012
Las Vegas, Nevada
© Spaswinefood
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