In the land of the dinosaurs, or at least those of us who eat like one, Hash House would probably reign supreme. This city is overflowing with buffets designed to make your waist, well, overflow, and Hash House can easily provide that feeling with a single item. The fact that very few things on their menu even exceed the $15 mark is pretty impressive, but maybe that's why everything presented looks ostentatious but winds up just rather banal... an embodiment of Las Vegas as a whole, perhaps.
Style over substance certainly seems to be the modus operandi for Hash House, delivering mammoth sized meals you can't help but go "wow!" over, and yet very few people leave with empty plates, more likely because they simply got tired of eating surprisingly bland food, rather than being simply outmatched in the stomach capacity department. I watched multiple diners get up from the bar stools next to me leaving half or even three-quarters of a plate full of food behind. I guess when the prices are this low, in Vegas, you figure that the minimal investment isn't really worth the excessive calories.
That's all in retrospect though... I came to Hash House because I had heard tales of monolithic food combinations so loaded with flavor that they had attracted multiple food related television shows to their establishments, including a chicken and waffle dish stacked so high that it approached eye level. Without going on too much of a rant about how these shows often lead so many people astray, I'll just say that the size (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/f4x1YBxkLrZg652xt2KR5g?select=vdzuQYUETEvJLxak4rwB2w#vdzuQYUETEvJLxak4rwB2w) is definitely impressive, but we all know it's what you do with it that counts. Somewhat ironically I had actually used their sage fried chicken and bacon loaded waffles as inspiration for a recent brunch party I hosted, and I can honestly say that I put Hash House to shame. What absolutely makes fried chicken is the skin, and if you've got limp, soggy skin, then your size doesn't much matter. This chicken could have been baked for all I know, as there was zero crispness to it. Add to that waffles that, aside from the bacon slices inside, are generally bland, and one tiny ramekin of syrup to assist, and I can see why people literally just got tired of eating this.
I also gave their BLT Bloody Mary a try, thinking the ingredients would be well infused into the drink, considering that it was by far the most expensive on the menu, but instead I wound up with what essentially amounts to a sandwich shoved into a drink (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/f4x1YBxkLrZg652xt2KR5g?select=vdzuQYUETEvJLxak4rwB2w#SBNu2x4ogGJkvRJ5spQLRA), with no clear way on the best way to either eat or drink it. I wound up having to sip and nibble like a freaking rabbit on what has to be the clumsiest cocktail idea I've ever seen executed. After having the variations prepared by Brian, Nicole, and Gregg at my Bloody Mary Battle, this seemed outright amateurish. I should have stuck with my original intuition, passed on the alcohol, and gave the S'Mores latte a go... although if this was any indication it would have been the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man shoved into a teacup with a box of Graham Crackers on the side and someone who comes along and projectile vomits Hershey's chocolate syrup in my face.