Chapter 8: Burgers... East Coast vs. West Coast

Don't let the title fool you. I'm pretty sure that there really isn't much difference between burgers on the east coast vs. the west coast. But it's more fun to title things that way.

Rather, I do think that there is a difference between what people consider good on either side of this country.

I've heard so many good things about In-N-Out Burger. It seems to have a cult-like following on the west side. I had to figure out what the big deal was. So going to In-N-Out Burger at least once was a goal of my trip out west.

I did fulfill that goal twice. Once in Vegas, and once in San Francisco.

My official verdict on In-N-Out Burger... pretty darn good.

First thing I figured out is that you really have to order a double from them in order to get a significant amount of meat on the burger. In Vegas, I ordered a single burger. While it tasted pretty good, I figured out it didn't have as much meat on it that I thought it would. In the San Francisco In-N-Out near Fisherman's Wharf, I went for the double and was more satisfied.

I do give it up to them. They do make everything fresh. It's important to do that at a burger joint. They do take some pride in what they do. It's definitely 2 or 3 steps above any McDonalds out there. And toasting the bun helps the taste, even if there is less meat.

I can see why people would love it.

But there's a reason I only said "pretty darn good" instead of awesome, or incredible.

No, it wasn't the best burger I ever had.

This is a burger chain, and anytime there's a chain restaurant involved, I will always judge them more harshly than an individually owned joint.

Let's just say that if you put an In-N-Out Burger in front of me for free, and told me I could have that, or pay 5 bucks for a Bartley's burger from Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, let's just say I'm going to shell out the 5 bucks for the better burger.

OK, who am I fooling? I'll find a way to eat both burgers.

Actually, if you want to compare chains, I'll walk away from an In-N-Out burger to get to a Five Guys burger. The Five Guys chain started in the DC area from what I am told, but they are taking the Northeast by storm. They might be the best burger joint in Philadelphia right now, which is saying a lot for a chain.

I might say that again, I'll find a way to eat both burgers, but in this case, a Five Guys burger is so satisfying, I don't need a second burger. They're that good.

Hell, my wife even loves Five Guys burgers... and she doesn't even eat a lot of red meat. She won't eat a steak. But put a Five Guys burger in front of her and she'll go nuts.

So don't get me wrong. Kudos to In-N-Out. It is a tasty burger.

But let's just say that if I get back to the west side of the U.S. and A. anytime soon, In-N-Out burger won't be a must-have this time. Though I wouldn't say no to one, I just won't go out of my way to get one.

Chapter 7: Vegas buffets

You were waiting for Vegas reviews, well I got a bunch of them.

Might as well start with the buffets I hit. Being a fat guy, of course I like a good buffet. And I managed to get to three buffets in my time in Vegas.

The first buffet I hit was for dinner at the Flamingo Hotel. It is called the Paradise Garden Buffet. It was $21.99 a person for dinner.

My first reaction to the buffet was, holy crap that's a lot of seafood. It is the picture I posted on my other blog. I mean, there was a mountain of shrimp, mussels, and crab legs with another mound of lemon slices just for the seafood. When the mound of lemon slices available is impressive, that's saying something.

I did partake of the shrimp, as well as a good hunk of the prime rib. The opportunity to get the end cut of the prime rib is always appealing to me, which I did get. It was definitely good prime rib. I also tried what they called the garden paella, which had a good mix of rice and peppers in it. I was a fan. I didn't try a huge variety of the food here as I was filling up on shrimp and beef.

The dessert impressed me. I don't often get to eat a freshly made crepe. But they had a crepe station with a chef on duty to make it however you choose. Tasted like a freshly made thin pancake with fresh fruit in it, which doesn't suck at all.

Definite thumbs up for the Flamingo buffet.

The buffet at the hotel I stayed at, The Stratosphere, is a little less exciting. They call it the Courtyard Buffet. I went there for a late breakfast, but wound up getting there at 11am, just in time for lunch. If I remember correctly, it was $12.25 a person for lunch.

The lunch food was out, but they did keep the omelette station active so that was a plus. The omlette was pretty good. Some of the other food I would put on par with Old Country Buffet, which is to say hit or miss. Probably more miss. I actually didn't finish a couple of things I got from the buffet, and for me that's saying a lot. I also decided to end the meal with a bowl of cereal. That should tell you something right there. When you're at a buffet, and you make a conscious choice to go to the cereal, there's issues. But it's not the worst buffet I ever ate.

Thumbs not quite up, and not quite down. Call it thumbs sideways for the Stratosphere buffet. Kind of like the whole hotel itself. It had some good things, and some not so good things.

Now, the piece de resistance, or something like that. We had heard great things about the buffet at the Bellagio. I'm told it was once featured on The Food Network. Good enough for me! We figured it was time to see what a high end buffet is like. So we go down there on Saturday night. They have a gourmet dinner buffet on Saturday nights. It is $35.95 a person. And when we got there, it was an hour long wait just to get into the thing.

I mean, when people are willing to wait an hour to pay $36 for a buffet dinner, it must be pretty damn good. But we were not willing to wait the hour. That's how we wound up across the street at the Flamingo buffet that night.

But we didn't give up on the Bellagio. We decided to try the buffet out for Sunday morning brunch. Best decision we made for the whole trip.

It was around $25 a person for the brunch without champagne. I could have gone the bubbly route for extra, but decided not to. I was more in the mood for straight OJ and coffee that day.

Let me tell you this much. The mark of a truly good buffet in my opinion is not that they make extra fancy food in abundance, it is when they make the simple stuff really good. When it comes to breakfast buffets, I tend to find that the eggs generally taste the same in every buffet. But believe me when I tell you that these eggs were a little better than normal. You could just taste a little extra freshness. The bacon was juicy and tender, not overdone. The sausage was thick and juicy, not dry and chewy. If you can get those things right, you're OK by me. Not every hotel buffet does.

You know, I could have partaken of some nice leg of lamb or some prime rib at 8:30 on a Sunday morning here. I didn't. I had a hankering for some breakfast food. Which reminds me... they make some pretty good breakfast pizza at this buffet too. I enjoyed a slice or two.

But let me tell you about what may have been one of the finest pieces of breakfast food I have ever had. I give you... the Bellagio french toast!


That's right... I took a picture of my french toast. You got a problem with that?

You see, I'm not normally a big french toast eater. I do enjoy it, but I tend to go more for the pancakes. It's just how I roll. And they had pancake options at the buffet for me to partake. But when I saw the chef laying these thick slices of beauty on the grill, I had to have some.

Now, the piece on the right is the regular french toast. They were using some thick pieces as you can tell. Thicker than the decks of cards they were using at the poker tables. But the one on the left is the killer. That is hazlenut banana chocolate french toast.

When you can fit three sinful flavors into french toast, you're doing something right. And I'm telling you, that was some damn fine french toast. Maybe the best I ever had. You don't even need the syrup, but of course I had some on it which only added to the goodness.

On top of all of that, we decided to have some fresh fruit to make us believe we were doing something healthy amongst all of this decadence. Even the fruit kicked ass. The friggin strawberries were staining our shirts they were so juicy. I'll give you a little visual taste...

That's the strawberry tart they were serving at the dessert station. Had a nice mound of vanilla creme in between the strawberry slices. Yeah, it didn't suck at all.

To top it off, the servers were highly attentive. They greeted you with smiles. I had full glasses of fresh OJ and cups of coffee at the ready. They cleared the dishes like champs. It's not often that a buffet server earns a 20% tip, but they did here.

Maybe this isn't the best buffet in the world. Maybe some people can find fault with this buffet somehow. In fact, I've seen a few web reviews out there that have complained about it. I've seen more who loved it, but a few who didn't. Maybe this buffet has some off days. Or maybe I'm just an idiot. But I'm never going to forget this experience. I loved it. Hell, the wife and I were leaving there talking about all of the stuff we didn't get to try.

Next time, I'll talk about my views on In-N-Out Burger. I did partake of them... twice.