Vegas Links Q&A With Vegas Guru Mike E

Name or Alias

MikeE/Mike_E

Website URL to link back to

www.twitter.com/Mike_E and contributor to TwoWayHardThree.com

Best Hangover Food/Restaurant

Terrace Point Cafe Lobster Benedict AND pancakes.

Best Romantic Spot For Dinner

Picasso

Best Vegas Burger -Money No Object
The Country Club: A New American Steakhouse (lunch menu)

Best Vegas Gourmet Burger

Anything off BLT's menu

Restaurant In Vegas To Eat Your Last Living Meal

Joel Robuchon at the Mansion

Best Value Hotel Room

THEhotel during slow seasons

Best Upscale Standard Hotel Room

Encore

Best Off Strip Day Excursion Or Adventure
ATVing outside Valley of Fire

Best On Strip Adventure

Surfing Imperial Palace's parking garage when it's raining.

Best Place To Drink And Hold A Conversation

Eastside Bar at Encore

Best Place To Get Your Groove On

MIX Lounge

Must Visit Vegas Website Not Including Your Own

Tough one. Will have to go with VegasTripping.com

Best Vegas Strip Joint

Sapphire... oh, you mean on the strip? Wynn/Encore hands down.

Best Vegas Show
Don't know yet. Have yet to see a show that I've been eager to go back to.

Best Vegas Upscale Shopping
Forum Shops at Caesars. They've got a John Varvatos there. I'm a sucker for his menswear.

Best Vegas Value Shopping

Forum Shops in June or November when the new arrivals are coming in and all the previous season's stuff is on sale.

Most Overrated Restaurant

Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab at Caesars

Biggest Vegas Rip Off

Don't mean to keep bashing Caesars, but their room rates are almost always way more than anything else comparable in town. Suites are highway robbery.

Best Way For A Tourist To Get To Mandalay Bay From The Airport

Town Car/Limo

Best Way For A Tourist To Get To Wynn From The Airport

In one of their ten Rolls Royce Phantoms

Best Vegas Secret That Everyone Should Know About

Get friendly with people working in higher end hotels. They get free or significantly discounted bottle service at nightclubs on industry nights.

Thanks for your responses- Joey

VegasLinks Q&A with PS Love

From PS Love

"The stats say people keep clicking on this page looking for something, so here ya go.
I live in Las Vegas and write. And write and write. Well, sometimes I do something around this fabulous town and then I come home and write."

Name or Alias
PS Love

Website URL to link back to
PSLoveBlog.com

Best Hangover Food/Restaurant
You'd think a old drunk like me would be the expert on that, but given I haven't had a drink in 17 years, I'm a bit out of touch.But I'd bet it would be anything Mexican and oozing with cheese and beans. Do we have a Roberto's or Alberto's here? I think I just saw one somewhere when I was driving around in the bloggermobile.

Best Romantic Spot For Dinner
I would have to Charley Palmer's. But having not had a date since shortly after I quit drinking.... I may not be qualified to answer that one.

Best Vegas Burger -Money No Object
I finally found one! AWESOME burgers at the Yard House! They are the best I've had since those olive burgers on Long Lake in Portage, Michigan.

Best Vegas Gourmet Burger
Wouldn't the gourmet part of that equation really mess up the burger part of the equation?

Restaurant In Vegas To Eat Your Last Living Meal
There used to be a place called Mircado or something like that. It was fabulous Japanese. I loved that place. It is gone now. I guess I can't die.

Best Value Hotel Room
The Orleans. Very comfortable, adequate rooms, GREAT DEALS, and friendly, helpful staff. Definitely the best over all value.

Best Upscale Standard Hotel Room
I'm not sure, but I really enjoyed staying at the Wynn once. Big fluffy bed with even fluffier pillows. Concierge was so friendly and went well beyond the call of duty to help me. The bathroom was to die for. They actually have BIG tubs. With jets!

Best Off Strip Day Excursion Or Adventure
Can I say Fremont Street Experience here? It is so much fun down there... or is it up there? I guess it is up there.

Best On Strip Adventure
Any time Karen from Denver is in town. The strip turns in to quit an adventure for anyone near by!

Best Place To Drink And Hold A Conversation
Now that is really hard to find!Probably the best kept secret for that is that lounge at the top of the Stratosphere. It is like walking in to the 1960s, complete with jazz bad and cozy tables. Some of them even have veils around the table! It is small, quiet, quaint and really pretty romantic actually with the view and all.

Best Place To Get Your Groove On
My groove died with the turn of the century. Pity.

Must Visit Vegas Website Not Including Your Own
http://www.lvol.com/lvlc/events.html if you're looking for what's going on. Other than that, I dunno. Everyone is in to something different, you know?

Best Vegas Strip Joint
LOLI haven't a clue.

Best Vegas Show
I'm partial to Blueman. I love the blue guys! I laughed so hard I cried.

Best Vegas Upscale Shopping
Probably any of those casino malls would do the trick in an upscale shopping emergency.

Best Vegas Value Shopping
Fashion Show Mall. I hate malls, but I love that one! It is SO cool and I got a lot of great deals in there.I wish they would ban those overly aggressive Israeli kiosk salespeople though. Man, I can't stand them. There should be a law.

Most Overrated Restaurant
That BLT Burger at the Mirage comes to mind. But the hype is probably done by now.I don't know. Does anyone rave about any of them really?

Biggest Vegas Rip Off
Voodoo Lounge at the Rio. What a rip. The food is really good, don't get me wrong, but the prices are absolutely ridiculous for what you are served and speaking of serve... the service sucks big time.

Best Way For A Tourist To Get To Mandalay Bay From The Airport
Twitter vegascabbieHe'll get ya there, without a trip through the tunnel. ;)

Best Way For A Tourist To Get To Wynn From The Airport
Seriously, twitter vegascabbie. Don't waste your time trying to get places on your own. You're on vacation! Hire a driver! Behave like a spoiled Princess! Make memories, not traffic.

Best Vegas Secret That Everyone Should Know About
We know what you did here.You don't think we know, but, oh, we know.....And I will put it in virtual print if I ever find out about it!

Thanks for your responses- Joey

VegasLinks Q&A With Michelle Dressen From Five Hundy By Midnight

Next up on the VegasLinks hit parade is Michelle Dressen the fun loving partner of Tim on Five Hundy By Midnight. The Dressens won best Vegas podcast in the Trippie Awards once again for 2008. Five Hundy Rocks!

Name or Alias
Michele from Five Hundy (although I have to admit I'm neither a Vegas webmaster nor an insider)

Website URL to link back to

http://www.fivehundybymidnight.com/

Best Hangover Food/Restaurant
Bagels from the nearest coffee shop (usually Seattle's Best in Wild Bill's Saloon and Shootery). Not that I have any experience with this whatsoever.

Best Romantic Spot For Dinner
Anywhere Tim happens to be

Best Vegas Burger -Money No Object

Bradley Ogden (bar menu)

Best Vegas Gourmet Burger

Bradley Ogden (bar menu)

Restaurant In Vegas To Eat Your Last Living Meal
Michael's at South Point

Best Value Hotel Room
Any room that's free

Best Upscale Standard Hotel Room

Wynn

Best Off Strip Day Excursion Or Adventure
Double Down Saloon

Best On Strip Adventure
Attempting to have a drink in each hotel, starting at the Stratosphere and working your way south, or Mandalay Bay and working your way north. My advice? Don't rush it.

Best Place To Drink And Hold A Conversation
Peppermill (Fireside Lounge) or Trader Vic's (when the weather allows)

Best Place To Get Your Groove On
Karaoke in the lounge at Bill's Gambling Emporium

Must Visit Vegas Website Not Including Your Own
Vegastripping.com

Best Vegas Strip Joint
No idea

Best Vegas Show
With tickets? Love. For free? The array of costumes (or lack thereof) at Bill's when Drai's lets out

Best Vegas Upscale Shopping
The Esplanade at Wynn (host to one of two Manolo retail outlets in the U.S.)

Best Vegas Value Shopping
Las Vegas Premium Outlets

Most Overrated Restaurant
Hofbrauhaus

Biggest Vegas Rip Off
Most video poker pay tables on the Strip, and 6:5 blackjack

Best Way For A Tourist To Get To Mandalay Bay From The Airport
By taxi (not through the tunnel, unless you're in a huge hurry and price is no object)

Best Way For A Tourist To Get To Wynn From The Airport
By limo (you might as well splurge on transportation as well, right?)

Best Vegas Secret That Everyone Should Know About
Low rollers can have just as much fun as high rollers -- that's what makes this place so great.

VegasLinks Q&A With Hunter Hillegas From RateVegas (and a whole shitload of other projects)

The second installment of the Vegas Insider/Webmaster Q&A Series features Hunter Hillegas who operates the Trippie winning Best Vegas Blog TwoWayHardThree also known as the RateVegas Blog. Hunter also developed the iPhone app VegasMate and is part of the team that brought you EncoreOpening. To say that Hunter is a Vegas freak is putting it mildly.

So here we bring you another version of what someone that prides themselves and is a sponge of all things Vegas thinks are the best and worst of the town we love.


Name or Alias

Hunter

Website URL to link back to

RateVegas

Best Hangover Food/Restaurant

Tied: either the Caribe Cafe at The Mirage or The Peppermill

Best Romantic Spot For Dinner

Country Club at Wynn Las Vegas or Sinatra at Encore Las Vegas

Best Vegas Burger -Money No Object

Not sure that money makes the burgers better - I still think In N' Out is just as good as places like BLT or Burger Bar.

Best Vegas Gourmet Burger

BLT is my favorite of these kinds of places.

Restaurant In Vegas To Eat Your Last Living Meal

Delmonico Steakhouse at The Venetian

Best Value Hotel Room

These days, just about anywhere.

The Mirage is a good mix of modern amenities and decent value.

Best Upscale Standard Hotel Room

Encore Las Vegas

Best Off Strip Day Excursion Or Adventure

Red Rock

Best On Strip Adventure

Probably depends on how adventurous you are.

Best Place To Drink And Hold A Conversation

If you don't mind the prices, Parasol Up at Wynn Las Vegas

Best Place To Get Your Groove On

If you saw me groove, you'd agree it was a bad idea.

Must Visit Vegas Website Not Including Your Own

VegasTripping.com

Best Vegas Strip Joint

Haven't been to some of the newer ones, even though they're not new anymore...

Anything but Glitter Gulch I guess.

Best Vegas Show

So many different shows, hard to say... For Cirque, I say 'Mystere', 'O' or 'LOVE'.

Best Vegas Upscale Shopping

Via Bellagio

Best Vegas Value Shopping

Value in Vegas? Miracle Mile actually has a bunch of non super-trendy upscale shops.

Most Overrated Restaurant

Olives at Bellagio

Biggest Vegas Rip Off

Anything at a Wynn gift shop.

Best Way For A Tourist To Get To Mandalay Bay From The Airport

A big freaking limo.

Best Way For A Tourist To Get To Wynn From The Airport

A big freaking Rolls Royce Phantom.

Best Vegas Secret That Everyone Should Know About

Never wait in any line to eat - most places have a bar you can sit and eat at if you don't care about getting a table.

Thanks for your responses- Joey