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| - On my last visit to Las Vegas, I had breakfast at the Henry on two separate occasions. The Henry has been a regular breakfast stop every time I'd stayed at the Cosmopolitan. It had been, up until now, a model of consistency given its high-end 24-hour casino diner status. However, both visits on this trip provided wildly different experiences, which also offered two distinct data points indicating that things are amiss at the Henry.
First, good, consistent service has noticeably slipped. On Saturday morning around 11am with a party of six, our service was fast, friendly and attentive. On Tuesday morning around 10am, service was largely AWOL as it took over 25 minutes for our breakfasts to come out after placing our orders with no interim stops at our table by our server to check up on us or to explain/apologize for the excessive wait for our food. Second, the food quality, execution, and portion sizes have nosedived. I had the Short Rib Benedict ($19) on Saturday. While it was still a tender, flavorful, and savory hunk of meat, it was noticeably a much smaller portion than I'd received on previous trips to the Henry. The short rib isn't served atop an English muffin, but instead a potato hash. However, this time the hash was desiccated, crispy, flavorless, and not very appetizing. It wasn't a good result for this previously awesome dish. On Tuesday, I had the Breakfast Burrito ($16). It, too, was noticeably smaller than I remembered. More damning was that after the excessive wait to get it, the burrito was only warm, not hot, and seemingly soggy and limp. It had likely sat around for a while before being brought out to me. However, the ultimate failure was that I bit into a foreign object, an inch-long sliver of clear plastic, found in the center of my burrito. While the server did the right (and only) thing and took my burrito of our bill, it was really too late to recover from an awful experience. At least the Illy coffee that they serve was good and hot on both visits.
Everyone has an off day. That said, the slippage at the Henry is painfully apparent. While I will stay at the Cosmopolitan again, the same can't be said about a return visit to the Henry.
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