After getting back to Las Vegas, we went to Todd English P.U.B. at the Crystals right next door to our home base. We ordered a corned beef sandwich without the bread or sauce for the picky-eating son ‘o mine. We also ordered the famous fish and chips (YUM!) and the ribeye with truffle mashed potatoes. I had the Wild Turkey Russell’s Reserve bourbon that was smooth and tasty.     

Our lunch stop the next day was to Bobby’s Burger Palace, also next door to our hotel. I ordered the crunchified Bobby’s Blue Burger with potato chips, bacon, and blue cheese. This was one of the tastiest burgers I’ve had in a long time. The humongous light, crispy onion rings deep fried in a buttermilk batter is also something you should have. 

The meal highlight of the day was our dinner at Harvest at Bellagio. On the evening we went, the restaurant had only been open for three days. The service was smooth and flawless and all the front-of-the-house people were friendly and accommodating. In fact, at our request, the hostess even took us to the kitchen to introduce us to the chef. Chef Roy Ellamar grew up in Hilo, is a Hawaii Community College culinary program graduate, and is a Food Network Chopped champion. Despite his celebrity status, Chef Ellamar was patient with us and agreed to take a photo with us. I am so proud of the successes of this former Hiloan.  For dinner, we ordered several tapas-style dishes (called social plates at the restaurant) and a few things off the dim sum style carts that come around.  We had the scallops ceviche, the Kona ahi poke, and the steelhead trout tataki off one of the carts. My son loved the steelhead trout tataki so much, we ended up ordering three of these plates!  On that same note, my son and daughter loved the raw Kushi oysters so much, we had three orders of the half-dozen oyster platters.  We also enjoyed the roasted beet salad, crisp-roasted brussel sprouts, and the braised beef brisket. The duck confit bun with foie gras was a party of flavors in my mouth. And those caramelized onions served with the buns?  Amazing. I’d like to order that as a side dish. We ended the meal by ordering an assortment of things from the dessert cart. The lemon bar and the brownies with chocolate ganache were our favorite things from our selection. Can’t wait until my next visit to Vegas to eat at Harvest again.