Hi All,

I have read many of the posts for LV and steak and had some good advise also. I am coming on 1/21/13 in for business and will be dining alone. As I love steak but don't normally go out for it very often I wanted to get your experienced opinion on the following question.

I think that with so many confusing answers as to which steak house is best for a solo diner the sides and apps need to rule my decision.

Which establishment serves a really well prepared steak and yet has the better/more inventive sides and apps in your opinion? Price is not an issue. I called Carnevino today and was told to order steak for two and take the left over home, so I won't be going there as good as it may be, they seem not to cater to the solo diner short of a NY Strip.

Thank you in advance for your replies.

Thank you so much. The more I thought about it the more I decided to keep my reservation at e and cancel Sage.

I wish you and yours a healthy and happy holiday and new year.

Thank you Larry,

Is Steakhouse in Circus Circus as good as everyone says or are Carnevino and Cut significantly better. I am looking for a straight forward dry aged bone in ribeye. Wagyu, 240 day dry-age, etc., is out of my budget given the other meals I am planning to have.

One more question, if food quality is more important than the show of the presentation, would you recommend I make the move to Guy Savoy instead of e. I did not really book e for the wow factor but only due to the fact that I have an opportunity to partake in a very high level gastronomic experience which I have not had in a while. I have no issue spending $250-$300 on my own for this meal.

our response is greatly appreciated.

Hi,

I am heading to LV on 1/21-1/25 alone. I will be staying at Aria but have no issue with taking cabs to the right destination. So far I am booking dinners, as I will be too busy for lunches at a trade show, and I have the following in mind - Raku, Kabuto.

I would like to have one great meal where money is not a primary focus, and I have booked both Sage and E but I am not sure which one would give me the better culinary experience. Please help me to decide.

Also, I have read many of the CH discussion about the better Steakhouses. I would like to have one great steak dinner. Its a very confusing choice, as I don't eat steak very often and want to make sure I am not making the wrong choice. The preparation should be simple and the focus needs to be on the quality of meat itself and not any accompanying sauces. Money is not an issue, but I am not looking to spend over $60-70 on the steak itself. Also, some interesting appetizers and extremely well prepared sides would be welcomed for this experience. A seat at a bar would be preferable in this case since I am dining along.

Please help here too. Thank you in advance for your input.

Hi,

I am coming to Vegas in March for a convention and would greatly appreciate a few suggestions for a great meal. I will be alone and would like to eat at a bar of a great place. Food is essential as I want a very well prepared and cooked meal. It does not need to be expensive or it could be, either way.

Please suggest if you would be so kind.

If you haven't take your trip yet, here are some honest assessment of the area by a fellow foodie. To find something good, local and authentic near Seaseme Place and the surrounds takes some mining. Most of the places around here lack character in food and atmosphere.

Blue Sage really worth a visit. I am not a vegatetian but my meal there was very well prepard and tasty.

Miriam- good local Korean place worth a try.

Steve's Prince of Steaks - great place near Seaseme to have authentic Philly cheesesteaks. One of the best cheesesteaks in the area and Philly.

Charming Garden - don't waste your time. Really slipped over the past few years and not worth the visit

Dominics - hit or miss. Again, not really Chowhound worthy.

Fritz Bakery - Good Sticky buns. Maybe for breakfast before Seasame.

Slacks - local chain good for hogies (subs) very close to Seasame place.

Yardley pizza - good local pizza pie, especially when you order it fresh for you. Much better than Dominics.

If you want real authenticity Trenton tomato pie, you will have to travel to Delorenzos, recently moved from Trenton to Robbinsville. Great pizza. .

La Stella in Newtown - really good local Italian place. Great atmosphere good food.

China dragon - very average Chinese food. Not sure you should be making the drive from your hotel for this place. There are plenty of average Chinese places all over the region.

JB Dawson's - Very average like a local Fridays. Not worth the excursion.

From Warminster I would consider the above. Plus if you like a nice Jewish Deli check out Ben and Irvs. Great for breakfast!

Those are local suggestions. If you have the time, from sesame you can hop onto 95 South and be in Philadelphia Chinatown within 30 minutes. Now that is a place for very good food that is worth the visit. Lots of great local treasures there.

Good luck and enjoy both Seasame Place and the local fair.

Hi,

Thank you to all of you who have been helping my put my trip ideas in motion as they relate to food, drink and restaurants. My wife and I are very excited to head to Spain in three weeks.

I have one more question. We are going to be in Toledo for our last night before taking a flight home the next morning.

I would like to go to a special place for our final dinner in Spain. Two restaurants have been brought to my attention and I need to make a reservation for one of them.

Locum
Le Ermita

In your opinions which one would be a better food experience from a gastronomical perspective. Although different, I like the atmosphere at both, so that is not an issue.

Thank you in advance,

monchique,

I found La Guita, drank it, and now I will be going out to get some more. It was absolutely wonderful, thank you for the suggestion.

Butterfly,

Is this still your recommendation for authentic paella in Madrid?

Also where would you recommend suckling pig in Madrid? Is casa Botin the top place? I cannot seem to find alternative suggestions within Madrid.

Finally, my wife and I will be arriving into Madrid at around 3:30pm, by the time we book into the hotel Preciados on Calle Preciados and Gran Via. We have booked a tapas tour starting at 8pm till 11pm. Where would you suggest we grab bit near the hotel at around 4pm and then we will probably rest up for a few hours before tapas?

This will be our very first meal in Madrid and I would like it to be authentic and good but not too huge so that we can enjoy out tapas tour.

Thank you in advance

azahar,

I attempted to reach out to you last week via your blog. I wanted to get more information on the tapeo (pricing availability, etc.) you offer in Seville. Would you please let me know the best way to reach out to you?

I will be in Seville, on May 17 and 18th.

Thank you in advance,

JaunDoe,

A Load of Bull was a great book to read and certainly laugh with. I myself came to the US from a different country and can identify with Tim.

I think eating may be a little more challenging then I expect in Madrid :))

Thanks azahar.sevilla,

I have been on your blog and its very resourceful.

What are some of your favorite blogs about Andalusia, besides your own.

erica,

I wanted to thank you again for recommending Discovering Spain. Penelope is a great writer and I am very glad I am reading this book before my trip. It is very insightful.

I would recommend it to anyone traveling to any region.

Thank you butterfly.

How does this party scene work for the duration? Do people get together at bodegas and feast? I will read up on the celebration (obviously I do not know much about it) and will try to take full advantage of it while I am there.

How in your opinoion are some of the way folks celebrate? Should I reserve lunch at Casa Bigote? I thought it was more of a casual location, but if I need to reserve, I rather do that sooner then later.

I have a travel agent who had planned a tour for me in Ronda as well as Flamenco in Tablao El Arnal in Seville (no dinner just performance), but the rest we are on our own, as I like to be.

Have you heard of Pancio in Seville, and what are your thoughts about it?

Thank you and monchinque for helping me enrich my experience at this region.

That is odd, I was just thinking about asking how long the bottles can remain open. I bought three bottles, two dry and one sweet, I believe they are by Pedro Romero. I am glad you told me not to keep them open for too long.

With Port wine I know I keep the bottle open for a while, never having tried this wine, I thought it was the same concept.

I will now open the bottles when I know I can finish them with my wife.

I was thinking that too monchinque. In fact, I went out to the wine ship today and purchased a manzanilla from sanlucar just to see what its like.

That is the way I am going to go since I really want to have the seafood by the beach, probably at Case Bigote.

Thanks again.

Thank you butterfly and monchique both for your suggestions. I meant to reply earlier with the corrected location, but Chowhound for some reason would not let me do this via phone this morning.

I appreciate your advice and will look these places up as soon as I have a chance.

I will be driving to Seville after Casares and plan to stop by in Jerez to sample some of the local wines at one of the bodegas (I will have to research which one my wife and I should go to as well). I was thinking that after that I can head over to Sanlucar de Barrameda for their well known Langostinos de Sanlucar. Do you think that is a good idea, since I do not believe that I will have any other time during my trip to get to Sanlucar.

Thanks again.

Best regards,
girdev

Hi VinoEd,

We are also going to be in Seville in May and we booked a evening performance for us at Tablao El Arenal for Flamenco at the suggestion of my travel agent who travels to the region quite a bit.

They have two showings per night 8 and 10pm. We are not planning to have dinner here, so I am not sure how the food is.

Have fun and good luck.

Hi,

I will be driving down from Madrid to Casares (Andalusia) on Monday 5/14 and would love to stop by a special unpretentious place for lunch with my wife. We will be leaving Madrid around 10am, so we will be about half way through at lunch time. I would gladly take a 20-30 minute detour for such a place.

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cost is not an issue, but a good food is certainly what I am after.

Thank you so much for your input.

Hi,

I will be traveling to Jerez from Caseres on the way (or out of the way a bit) to Seville in May in order to experience some of the Sherry bodegas. Have any of you had a wine tasting/lunch experience in Jerez that you really enjoyed. If so, please tell me where.

ideally I would love to visit an old bodega with history and great cooking.

Thank you in advance,

Thank you. That's kind of what i figured and the way we dress here.

JuanDoe, although we are not planning to wear shorts and t-shirts, what is expected as far as typical dress for the various restaurants and tapas establishments in Madrid and Andalusia. Obviously for very high end places, we will wear appropriate dress up cloths, but I was hoping that I did not have to pack a suite for this trip if one was not needed.

Thanks

Once as a young man I had the chance to learn on a friend's mother's car, but I caused it so much damage that I was always afraid to re-learn on other's cars.

I have budgeted for automatic as it is very important to me to be able to drive around some spots in a new country, especially in the mountains of Andalusia.

One of my food wishes is to drive into a remote village or outpost and have lunch at a small relatively unknown (by tourists) places, cooked by a very talented and caring cook, that will be really really good.

I did this in Tuscany in 2003 and it blew me away. I can still taste the perfectly roasted potatoes which I had with amazing veal in a woman's home who opens up her kitchen once in a while to guests. I had a guide with me who knew her, so that helped of course. But I did not have Chowhound at the time :)

Or, the time when my wife and I were in St. Martin Island and amongst all the great French restaurants (and we visited quiet a few) was a little hut with a man and a grill who was grilling chicken and fish on an open flame. What a meal that was!! I still remember how it tasted after 12 years. That was my introduction to curry and since then I have had a lot of various curries from different locations. The French restaurants were great, but I only remember one dish from them from 7 days of eating around.

Those types of experiences are one of the highest food joys to me. Don't get me wrong, restaurants, simple and high-end, are also amazing experiences and I will make sure I have my share of them. They are around and can be found with a little effort.

Its the people's cooking done by the people that I am most interested in and cannot wait to experience in Andalusia.

Now that I made myself hungry writing this I will go and take a break for lunch :)

Thanks JuanDoe,

Ordered A Load of Bull a few minutes ago, sounds like a good read about Madrid.

Thank you erica. What does OP mean?

I already orders the book this morning and very much look forward to reading about Spanish food culture.

I was wondering of you would weigh in on a new thread I started.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/834335

My original trip plans for my trip recently changed from northern Spain to Madrid and Andalusia.

Thanks for responding about the book and I look forward to your other insights.

Sorry for the misspelling again. On one of the maps it was spelled that way. Thank you so much for the link. I will read it immediately.

Hi, I will be staying in Casares- Andalusia-Malaga- with my wife on May 14-16 and would love to hear of some suggestions for places to have authentic unpretentious ( or pretentious is ok too) meals for lunch and dinner. We will have a car and can drive to the destination.

After Casares we will be heading to Seville and Jerez so I will try to read about those in other threads, but for now it would be great to concentrate on this region if someone out there is familiar.

I think believe Estepona is not too far away for Casares.

I am aware of some general food types for Andalusia ( fried fish and seafood, gazpacho, sherry, etc.) and I am looking for a few real special meals, fancy or not, expensive or not doesn't matter.

There is much written about Seville but small rural towns in the mountains do not have much information about them out there.

We are open to any and all types of food and are very excited about staying in such a beautiful location.

Thank you in advance for you feedback - JuanDoe especially has been great on another thread.

Erica - i just looked this book up and I was wondering if it's still relevant given its age? I am planning to travel to Madid and Andalusia and would love to get some more insight.

Thank you,
Mark

Erica- thank you for the suggestion. I am heading o Spain in May and was looking or a good recommendation to learn more about Spanish food culture.

Sorry for the misspelling and once again thank you so much. We were planning to go to Jerez for a sherry tour at a bodega or two to sample the various types of sherry so I'm right there with you on that one.

I will look into the Toledo to Casares plan as it may very well be too much in one day and I have never driven in Spain before. I really appreciate you pointing that out to me. One of the reasons I wanted to go to Toledo was to tour the old Jewish sites, but I can do that in Seville and Cordova as well. Also the suckling pig or lunch would have been great, but I will fit that in when I am in Madrid and I may be able to find a good version down south somewhere also.

Asador type meals are my favorite but,due to the change in plans I will have to find the food at my locations as opposed to traveling to the various food locations first. I guess that will need to be the second return o Spain.

As my wife and I are not very sophisticated when it comes to Spanish food and culture (sure we know the basic history) would recommend any books that we should read before our trip?

Again, I am very grateful for your time and effort!