CAESARS PALACE SWEEPSTAKES WINNER ADVENTURE #1: FIRST COMPED DINNER
As a recipient of the Caesars Palace 50th Anniversary "Indulgence" Sweepstakes winner one of the perks I received was $600 dining credit, which I can use at any Caesars Entertainment restaurants. Since I was staying 3 nights at Caesars Palace with $600 dining credit I was going to have dinner 3 times during my stay. Each dinner I would use no more than $200 dining credit per night. About a couple of months ago before I booked my trip I looked at other restaurants that I might be interested for dinner. One of those place was Rao's at Caesars Palace. The other was Giada at The Cromwell, which is across the street from Caesars Palace. Since they were both Italian restaurants I decided to eat at Rao's as I wanted to fully experience the dining scene at Caesars Palace.
Last week on Monday was my first day at Vegas. I ate here that night. Several months before I searched through the online menu and YouTube videos. The two meat dishes that customers seem to crave about are the Rao's Traditional Meatballs and Uncle Vincent's Lemon Chicken. I knew I couldn't order two meat dishes. I had to choose one. During my research the pasta I was interested was the linguini with Manila clams and mint. As a Filipino I hated Filipino spaghetti due to the bright red hot dog, sweet Jufran banana sauce, and soggy spaghetti. However I felt the linguini with Manila clams pasta dish could influence me to cook my own version of Filipino spaghetti. So for about several months before I entered Rao's I knew what dishes to order.
When I went to Rao's I asked my server what meat dish he would recommend Rao's Traditional Meatballs or Uncle Vincent's Lemon Chicken. He recommended the Uncle Vincent's Lemon Chicken. However I decided to order the meatballs. Growing up I hated meatballs because of my experience of eating them in a cafeteria in elementary school, middle school, and high school. Since I wasn't paying for dinner I felt that I might as well order them to give meatballs another chance. The pasta on the other hand had a slightly different change than the one I saw on the online menu. Instead of mint there was parsley. Besides those two dishes there was Caesar salad, shrimp scampi, and a glass of sangiovese.
The meatballs arrived. The verdict? I liked the meatballs at Rao's a lot as they're not heavy or dense as other meatballs I've had in the past. The meatballs at Rao's have a combination of beef, veal, and pork that give different texture of flavors. The marinara sauce cuts the richness of the meatballs. Even though they meatballs were delicious they didn't stand out as a "wow" factor. The linguini with Manila clams were ok. I have nothing against parsley but I think mint would have added a little more bite to this dish. Overall I think I was too passive in using my $200 dining credit as the bill was well under $200. Also I thought Rao's would be much more better than I expected. Even though I liked the Rao's Meatballs I did regret not ordering Uncle Vincent's Lemon Chicken. I think my dining experience that first night was a good experience of how to maximize your dining credit. There is a gambling saying "Never leave money on the table". That first night I did.