Merely walking into Zuma doesn’t provide much of a hint at the sort of food served there.
Heidi Knapp Rinella
RJ food critic Heidi Rinella takes you inside your favorite Vegas eateries and let's you know what's worth the bite. Hungry for more? Head to bestoflasvegas.com for all of your foodie needs
The restaurant is old-Vegas elegant, with circular booths interspersed with table lamps throwing a soft glow. The menu is mostly old Vegas, too, with a big selection of steaks with topping and sauce options and two sizes of chilled shellfish platters.
Overall, chef Beni Velazquez and Essence & Herbs have lots to offer, including the potential for better days for Montelago Village.
Over the years, I’ve watched as a lot of local restaurants have met with some success and opened a second, third or even fourth location — and, in a whole lot of cases, ended up scaling back or disappearing altogether. I wondered what would be the case with Lola’s, a downtown spot that specializes in New Orleans cuisine and has more than five years under its sequined belt. And, after visiting the new(ish) Summerlin location, I have high hopes.
Despite what you may have heard, locals do go to the Strip, and they do go downtown. I know because they email me all the time to tell me about their dining experiences in both places, good and bad (though mostly good). And one of the places I hear about most often is Cafe Cortez at the El Cortez.
OK, we get it: Taste of the Town readers love Village Meat & Wine. We already knew that; over the years, the independently owned shop at 5025 S. Eastern Ave. has frequently been recommended by readers to their cohorts searching for fairly obscure items.
Help is on the way for Lana and Len Lacombe, who are almost out of anchovy-stuffed olives for their martinis.
Regular readers of this column know I never repeat the lead item; requests that come in after the first batch usually end up in the “More on …” section toward the end. But this liver and onions thing is just nuts.
As a critic and as a writer in general, I’ve always thought that proclaiming anything “America’s best” or “Nevada’s best” or “Las Vegas’ best” is just wrong.
Mama Mia! Steve Epstein is looking for Mama Mancini’s Meatballs. Fellow readers Ken Wolt and Stephen Salchenberger reported finding them in the frozen section of separate outlets of Whole Foods Market, which has four stores in the valley.
The St. Patrick’s Day celebration at J.C. Wooloughan’s at the J.W. Marriott, 221 N. Rampart Blvd., starts early — on Thursday, with live music daily through March 17. Festivities include a happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday through March 16, with $5 Irish appetizers and 50 percent off Irish draft beer, and continue March 17 when the party starts at noon ($20 cover after 3 p.m.) …
I should have known that something as ostensibly simple as garlic knots wouldn’t be so simple if it came out of Giovanni Mauro’s kitchen.
A Lenten fish fry will be offered from 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 15 and every Friday throughout Lent at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Newman Center, 4765 Brussels St. It’s $7, and all proceeds will go to the St. Therese Center, which serves people affected by HIV/AIDS. Call 736-0887. …
Among the things you really don’t want to hear after putting your name on a restaurant waiting list and killing time for 45 minutes: “I can’t find it. Go ahead and seat them.”
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