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| - This may well seem an unlikely stop for someone who just did Fogo de Chão the night before. I suppose I could call it an effort at dollar-cost-averaging.
Really my motivation was that I noticed earlier in the day that Las Vegas guru Anthony Curtis (of Las Vegas Advisor) had recommended their diner deals in a blog, and with quite some detail about his visit on the property. Curtis is huge in the Vegas-insider business; constantly touting unfound bargains (& happenings) in this town ... and so I figured he's wasn't going to high-risk his rep on a joint too easily. So I made sure I passed by it on the way home from errands.
This diner/coffee-shop is inside the budget & locals-minded Longhorn Casino & Hotel, on Boulder Highway, just across the street from Eastside Cannery. I certainly wasn't expecting much in terms of ambiance or upscale clientele ... and I wasn't disappointed in that respect. As example, there was a line of gamers waiting to cash (and likely lose) their paychecks - for which they were entered into a drawing at a chance to double-their-paycheck back. Not exactly the kind of gaming action you see at the Wynn.
This is a very small casino, so it was a few steps to/from my car to inside the casino, then just a few more to the coffee shop. Good thing, as I don't think I'd want to be dallying too awful long in the parking lot ... or around the casino. The casino smelled very smoky, as in "old-school" Vegas smoky, but anything 'old-school' Vegas is AOK with me!
This was on a Friday evening about 7ish, so there was also quite a line for the coffee-shop as well. As you might expect there was a good bit of "wagon-wheel" motif scattered about, but most of it was just straight-up ordinary booths, tables, chairs & wallpaper. Service was just barely AOK, though my server mentioned they were running two hands short that shift. (Does that mean they are missing one person or two, I wonder.)
I went with the 10oz hamburger steak plate at $11, that included a small side salad up front, a potato choice, a generous helping of steamed veggies (broc, cali, carrots, squash, et. al.) and a huge dinner roll w/ butter. The salad turned up very quickly, but the entree took a while. I'd say the burger-steak actually came in at 12oz. Nothing exciting here, but the ground chuck was juicy and close-enough to my medium-rare. I'd say the score is that it was much-better-than-average coffee-shop grub than what you'd typically find in this sort of venue and/or price range, for sure. Out-the-door, water, tax, and tip ... right under $15.
Most of the menu choices here fall into the category of diner comfort-food. There's apparently a bunch of deals running 24/7. A $5 ham-steak and eggs plate, with the ham slab the size of the sole on a clown's shoe. (That's quite reminiscent of the deal I used to snag at 4am in Binion's downstairs diner many years ago.) A $13 20oz porterhouse dinner, though it showed as $18 on the menu. And a one-pound hamburger plate at $11. And there was a $6 soup-and-sandwich-de-jour deal. Today's sandwich was 'meatball sub.' I saw the meatball sub ... and it was huge enough to torpedo TWO Subway meatball subs straight into the bottom of the ocean.
I didn't partake, but Curtis said that, for the asking when paying your diner tab, you can get a "your first card is an ace" coupon for a $5 wager at the BJ table. (Vintage/old-school BJ at this joint: they still pay 3-2 here & it's a "Tom" ($2) table minimum.) This is the kind of proposition that Curtis is always eyeballing for & broadcasting. He makes the odds on this offer as actually in your favor, so that you should take a shot at trying to win back your dinner. (Of course if you win, you have to know 'win to quit.')
This first round visit went well enough, for what it is. So I guess it is now on the list for a repeat evaluation "if I am driving by that way" ... as either a quick lunch or as graveyard grub. But never again during prime-time hours, I suppose. Just too much traffic and too much wait.
UPDATE: I've hit this joint three times since the original review, each time taking-on the 8oz. $13 prime-rib deal. Entirely consistent. Each time, the cut looks to be more like 12-14oz. And it's all good. And I am still seeing a lot of other good-looking food moving around the floor. The menu is bursting with great prices. I can't promise you a single drop of ambiance -- it's a solidly blue-collar venue -- but the quality of the food here is five-star as compared to the price.
PROTIP: Park in back and you don't even have to walk through the (little) casino, just up a short hallway, then turn to the left, 15 yards from your car to your booth.
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