Q: positive

A: Came here last night to have dinner with family in the area. We started with drinks and they a hot plate of garlic bread while we all caught up. For an appetizer we had the Frito Misto which was calamari and shrimp delicately fried and served with marinara. I asked a family member for a recommendation for dinner. His response to coin a phrase from a certain movie was " Try the Veal, it is the best in the city". So I had the Veal Francese, I was not disappointed. The wife had the Chicken Fiorintina which was chicken sauteed in a white wine lemon sauce topped with cheese and spinach served over pasta. We actually had this for lunch today and was still delicious. The service was excellent. They did not try to rush us so we were all able to enjoy our meals and be with family. # 250 & counting. Of course it is about an Italian Restaurant. :)

Q: negative

A: Seriously? Three pesos is about what I would actually pay for a meal here. This is not Mexican Food. This is not even American food categorized as Mexican food. This is pure crap. The salsa came in 2 flavors: water and chunky water. Shame on you. If you poured Food Lion brand salsa straight out of a jar it would taste better. Sorry guys, V8 is not technically salsa. OK I'm done..not even worth writing about my burrito which looked like a turd and tasted close to one.

Q: negative

A: A triumph of style over substance. Walking in the place had a positive vibe, much better than it's strip mall (albeit upscalish strip mall) location. We'd perused the menu before going and it looked good. My wife ordered crab stuffed shrimp and the house chopped salad. I ordered the Italian cold cut sandwich. A basket of bread, very good bread, arrived quickly. The waiter ordered the wrong chopped salad so I won't comment on that (hey mistakes are human). The crap stuffed shrip was tasty but small. This is the menu description: "Crab Stuffed Shrimp baked with a seasoned king crab stuffing & served scampi style." It's kind of hard to stuff a rather small shrimp and although there was a fair bit of stuffing I didn't see much crab. My Italian sandwich was a little thin on the cold cuts. This is the description: "Italian Cold Cut cappiccola, genoa salami, ham, imported provolone, topped with hot peppers, marinated onions & tomatoes." I'm pretty sure I saw three slices of meat but maybe there was more. The biggest problem was the over abundance of balsamic vinegar that overpowered everything else. Frankly I've had a better Italian cold cut sandwich at Capriotti's. Too bad because it looked like a place one could linger over a meal with your partner and some decent wine.

Q: negative

A:
I have never had an experience with a hotel as bad as the one I had this past weekend at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. This week is my 36th birthday; so to celebrate, I decided, on the spur of the moment, to make a trip to Vegas to go to one of my favorite clubs last weekend. I mean, why not? This past year, I received a kidney transplant. No more dialysis, so now I could travel freely. I had the money. No reason not to, right? I originally wanted to just go and book whatever hotel room I could find while I was in Vegas itself, but at the urging of a close friend, I chose to go online and see if I could find a deal. I used a third party website, and found a room at the Statosphere for $67 per night. Since I was traveling late, and would not get there until after midnight, I booked it for Saturday, figuring I would stay overnight and come back to LA on Sunday. No problem, right? Apparently, in Las Vegas, days do not begin at midnight like they do everywhere else in the U.S. They begin at 3pm, which was naturally not indicated on my confirmation. So when I got to the Statosphere, and tried to check in at midnight itself, I was told that I would have to buy two days, because this was still considered Friday. No attempt to make good, just to charge me more money, a pattern I would later learn was typical for the Stratosphere. Across the street was a sleazy motel, so I figured I could just crash there for the night, and check into my room the next day. Since I did not have the much vaunted Statosphere for internet access, I searched for a wireless connection. As luck would have it, the city provides $5 wireless per day through Las Vegas.net. I bought two days, figured I would check in to the Statosphere the next day and all would be well. When I got to there, I learned why my room had been such a "bargain": it came with a glorious view of some storage area where apparently the hotel keeps scrap metal. Two windows worth, no less. But that wasn't as bad as learning that the Stratosphere BLOCKS wireless providers so you have to buy theirs... at $11 a day. Flabbergasted that a ritzy (cough!) hotel would be this cheap, I realized that I would have to use the phone to make my plans for the night. Not a big deal, I have a phone card, and their phone's display said local calls were free, except that, well, they're not. When I just got a rapid dialtone whenever I dialed nine, I tried calling the front desk for a solution. They put me on hold FOREVER. I tried other numbers - the concierge, the operator, SOMETHING - to find out what was wrong with my phone so I didn;t have to sit on hold, but to no avail. The Statosphere wanted me to hold on for five minutes, no matter what. So I did, only to learn that local calls are A DOLLAR each. What's on the phone, I guess, was put there by the manufacturer, because no one in their right mind would believe a luxury hotel would charge a buck each for LOCAL calls. But the Statosphere is not like other hotels. It's far worse. So I used the cell, got to where I needed to go, and got the Hell out of there, discovering my favorite thing about the Statosphere - check out is easy and fast. I'm sure they had to do that because they get so many. Bottom line, unless you're part of the 1%, stay at Circus Circus if you're going to Las Vegas on a budget. And stay as far from the Statosphere as you can. The tower, I now believe, was put in to distract you from how horrible this place is. Never again.