Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Kona Grill Dishes Up Happy Hour Specials

Kona Grill has been one of my favorite Happy Hour spots for many years. Located in Summerlin at the Boca Park center (Rampart and Charleston), they dish up awesome Happy Hour specials every day of the week and on most days, it's both afternoon and night. While the offerings have slightly changed throughout the years, it has stayed more or less the same in selection while the theme of "Half-Off Pricing" has consistently made it a winner for me.

The Kona Grill Happy Hour schedule is as follows:
Monday-Friday: 3-7 PM
Monday-Thursday: 9-11 PM
Friday-Saturday: 10-12 AM
Saturday: 1-5 PM
Sunday: ALL DAY!

Double check that their winter hours haven't taken effect yet - that would only affect the late night Happy Hour ending times. 

Happy Hour offers half price food and $6 "essentials". Each table in the bar or outdoor patio will have a mini-stand that has the menu inserted on one of the sides.

Menu:

Sushi
Philly Roll, Atlantic Roll, Fiery Shrimp Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, California Roll, Vegetarian Roll, Crab Special Roll, Crab Crunch Roll.

The sushi is good here. I primarily eat tuna and salmon based rolls so I have tried the Philly Roll (spicy tuna with cream cheese, the Atlantic Roll (cooked salmon with eel sauce on top), and the Spicy Tuna Roll (like the traditional...spicy tuna inside). They are all good and I see plenty of tables and parties ordering plates upon plates full of sushi.

Appetizer Items

Potstickers: These aren't your traditional potstickers with the traditional lump of meat filling. In fact, when you bite into it, the meat is more of a loose minced style and will come spilling out. So if you dare to dip the potsticker into the very tasty sauce they give you and to re-dip, beware, most of your filling may end up in the sauce. To prevent this kind of incident, I like to pour the sauce on my potsticker instead of attempting the task of dipping.

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp: I haven't tried this one yet although I spotted another table with it and I am definitely going to try it next time!

Chicken Satay: This is a really nice simple dish with grilled chicken breast on skewers. The peanut dipping sauce or the hoisin sauce they give you makes the dish yummy. Hoisin is a Chinese sauce that is often served with Chicken Lettuce Wraps in other restaurants so give it a try. It's tasty. The chicken is laid on coleslaw although I opt to ask for their "island rice" instead which is a fried rice with some shrimp.

Avocado Egg Rolls: Hands down this is one of my absolute favorite items on their Happy Hour menu. It's an avocado mixture in an egg roll wrapper deep fried and served with this out-of-this-world sauce. I can't even describe it but it's so darn good!!!!! If you like avocado, I 1000% (yes, one thousand) recommend this!

Flatbreads: They serve three different kinds - Margherita, BBQ Chicken and Pepperoni. Like it sounds, it's a  oblong flat dough that is served on a wood board. They used to serve traditional round pizzas and I must say that their transition to the flatbread is a definite plus! My favorite is the BBQ Chicken because of the integration of red onions, BBQ sauce, diced chicken and fresh herbs. It's just a nice gourmet tasting flatbread.

$6 Essentials

While the other items above are half-off their regular price, the following items are straight up six dollars.

Specialty Sushi: Bama Roll, Voodoo Roll, Wave Roll (I haven't tried any of these so I can't describe them.)

Kona Calamari: It's a nice lightly breaded calamari with a mayo-like dipping sauce. I prefer asking for some red marinara sauce with it and extra lemons as well. This is a good dish to share so you can eat other items without getting too full on just calamari.

Twin Mini Cheeseburgers: These are surprisingly good - why I say surprisingly isn't because I don't expect Kona to have great food, but I normally think that a mini cheeseburger is going to taste like the typical one but these are very delicious and would make you want to order them again.

Chicken and Shrimp Lettuce Wraps: This dish has a tangy sweet type of sauce on it. With all versions of lettuce wraps, they have their own flavor. This one is quite good and the last time I ordered it, it came out piping hot temperature wise and they gave me tons of lettuce for wrapping so I was a happy camper.

Tacos: These are fish tacos in a tortilla wrap over coleslaw if I remember correctly.

Drinks

Happy Hour wouldn't be complete without drink specials - so here they are:

Margarita - $3-4.50
Cosmo - $5
Sake Bomber - $7.50
Gekkeikan Draft Sake Bottle - $6
Bud Light Draft - $3.50
Sam Adams Selection - $4
Featured Wines - $5

PLUS! Wednesdays is Wine Down Wednesdays featuring half price bottles of wine all day on all bottles!




Sunday, October 7, 2012

On the Border Part II: Happy Hour

This is On the Border Part II (OTB) as promised in the last post. As a restaurant in the suburbs of Vegas, specials are a must and having an affordable Happy Hour is definitely a must employ strategy. While I do wish that OTB stayed open at least an hour later, perhaps their numbers don't warrant it.

Monday-Friday, OTB has Happy Hour in the bar and patio from 3-7 PM and late night Happy Hour from 9 PM-Close which is a short time frame since last call for food is around 9:30. The restaurant actually closes at 10 so drinks are still available until that time.

Happy Hour consists of both food and drinks specials. It's half off select appetizers and I have tasted most of them. Now, OTB isn't for the dieter or for those that want a moderately healthy meal....on Happy Hour that's next to impossible. So, for half the cost, for a snack, take OTB for what it's worth.

I have always liked their Chips and Salsa which are served free to everyone. I like their salsa because it comes out cold and has a loose consistency with a little kick to it. They give you salsa in the small little blue dishes but I typically request a bowl because I use a lot of it. The chips - when done right - come out nice and hot. If they come out kind of cold and stale, don't hesitate to ask for a new batch. It's your money, get what you want and you deserve it.

Some of the items on the Happy Hour menu:

Empanadas:
Fried dough pastry shell (like a mini-pie) stuffed with meat (chicken or beef). You get five of these and they come with cheese (queso) dip. I think these are quite tasty, however, you definitely want to share this plate with two other people. If you eat five of these by yourself, you are going to feel like a greaseball mess and your stomach is going ask you why you just did that. Eat one or two at the most and consume some other items.

Firecracker Stuffed Jalapenos:
Again, this is a dish to share with others. Don't eat the whole thing by yourself or you will feel like a greaseball mess. Just have one or two and share with others. This is a typical stuffed Jalapeno where it's filled with cheese and then fried. It's hard to mess this one up.

Texas Wings:
These are kind of bready, but not bad. One bartender suggested that we dip them in some queso dip and it was a nice complement to the wings.

Fajita Nachos:
Now, these are not like the nachos that you are accustomed to because it's not a pile of tortilla chips with meat and cheeses and toppings sprinkled all over. Each chip actually is topped on its own and then baked so the cheese is melted on it. I personally wasn't a fan of these and maybe it's because I was expecting one thing and got another. Plus, the chip gets soggy the way it's made. Fair warning to you if you want to get them.

Queso Dip:
This is your typical cheese dip and it's always best when you request it "piping hot" so it's bubbling when you get it. Otherwise, it's just not the same.

Chicken Flautas:
These are like your typical flautas except I like them better without the sauce they drizzle on top of it because it gets the flauta shell soggy. This is a sharing dish, once again, because you don't feel good if you eat the whole thing by yourself.

Drinks specials are about $3-4 and include Dos Equis and Margaritas.

In a nutshell, OTB is good for a mini group gathering where you can sample a few items on the Happy Hour menu. I don't often go for their Happy Hour actually. I typically go for Taco Tuesdays where tacos are on a special price at 99 cents. I also like their Chips and Salsa. So, I go for a lighter meal and not for the all out Appetizer spree. Either way, with the apps being half-price, at least go check it out.




Wednesday, October 3, 2012

LIMITED TIME: Freebies at On the Border

While I talk a lot about ongoing economic eats deals in Las Vegas, I also run across a lot of deals that are great but are only available for a limited, and sometimes very limited, amount of time. This post is about On the Border, a neighborhood joint that serves Mexican food. To the best of my knowledge, there is only one of them in Las Vegas and it's in Centennial - just off of US-95 and Ann Road. It sits between Panda Express and Cane's Chicken. I searched in Henderson as well and the On the Border site yielded no results.

Through tomorrow, On the Border is offering a free bowl of Original Queso and a smaller order of Sopapillas with the purchase of one or more entrees at full price. I've tried both of these items before and they are good! This is a limited time offer and is good through Thursday, October 4.

I really like On the Border for several reasons. I haven't had any dish there that I didn't like. Their free chips and salsa is awesome because they are all made in-house. The chips come out warm (when served right) and the salsa is a really nice fresh loose mix with a little kick to it.

When I go to this restaurant, I've always preferred to sit at the bar counter seat only because a large flat screen occupies the space above the bar and it's nice to watch a nice sports game while enjoying my meal. There are other smaller flat screens around the bar area as well.

I often order their enchiladas, the chicken or pork ones with a request for green sauce on both. The green sauce (chile verde) typically comes on the pork enchilada but I really like it on everything. Otherwise, the chicken enchilada comes with a red sauce which is also very good but I simply can't resist the green sauce sometimes. Their plates are served with rice and beans and I like ordering the black beans with my entree.

I'll do an On the Border post part two where I talk about their regular specials which change every day but are consistent from week to week. Does that make sense? I just wanted to give a quick shout out about the freebies that are offered through tomorrow - Oct. 4.