. "5"^^ . . "2013-06-20T00:00:00"^^ . "15"^^ . . "5"^^ . "19"^^ . "When it comes to fine dining restaurants Las Vegas can compete with any city. But, what the city lacks (with the exception of Chinatown/Spring Mountain Rd.) is casual, moderately-priced dining spots with excellent food. Hops and Harvest fills that void with Bradley and Bryan Ogden's farm to table concept. \n\nThe James Beard award winning chef and his son have created a menu full of comfort food with inspired and creative touches like the goat cheese stuffed crepe in the bibb lettuce salad and brought back items from their former restaurant in Caesars Palace like the blue corn muffins and the Maytag bleu cheese souffle.\n\nThe short rib nachos are one of my favorite dishes with its great salty and savory flavors. The potato chips do tend to get a little soggy with the sauce covering them, but the combo of ingredients are so good that the dish won't last long. The pork belly bites are another hit with its sweet and spicy BBQ sauce and cheddar ale sauce. I've tried both the tuna sliders and the crispy chicken sliders and wasn't disappointed either time. The heirloom tomatoes may be a small dish but the combo of tomatoes and bleu cheese was excellent.\n\nThe bone-in prime rib eye was slightly overcooked but the seasoning and the zinfandel shallot sauce made up for it. I rarely order meatloaf, but the bacon wrapped version here was good enough to make me want to order it again. I've also tried the crab cake dish, which was pretty good, but the star of that dish was the carrot-fennel slaw. It was so good they should offer that up as one of their sides on the menu.\n\nThe butterscotch pudding and the cinnamon sugar donut holes were both good. Each one is large enough for two people to share.\n\nThere were only a couple things I wasn't crazy about. The blue corn muffins could have used more salt or something and the polenta bites were bland.\n\nOur server, Jessica, was amazing. Each time I've been back I made a point to request a table in her section.\n\nI was sad to see Bradley Ogden's place in Caesars Palace close a while back, but now I'm glad he's back and serving up some Strip-quality food in a local's setting.\n\n4.5 Stars"^^ .