Late Nite at Southpoint Casino

The beauty about Las Vegas is if you live on a schedule that is more unorthodox than orthodox, you run into specials that are often a steal - that is - if you are into eating late night. It's a 24-hour city and shifts are always getting off while shifts are just about to begin. I've eaten breakfast at 3 AM before and have sat next to someone who had just gotten up and was having breakfast before they headed into work. Plus, at this time, you see the club goers who have consumed too much alcohol and need some grub! This is beautiful! Late night specials can satisfy a variety of people!

On the very very south end of Las Vegas Boulevard...Mandalay Bay's direction and keep keep keep going, you'll find Southpoint Casino. It's gold/yellow in color and it has a world class equestrian arena. OK, so what does this have to do with specials? Nothing...but just saying.

From midnight to 6 AM Southpoint's Coronado Cafe (their 24-hour restaurant) serves specials. You must be 21 years and older to order these dishes.

Buttermilk Biscuits and Gravy - $2.25
Two Eggs, Hash Browns, Toast & Jelly - $2.95
Pancake Sandwich: Buttermilk Pancake, a Fried Egg & Sliced Ham - $3.45
Ham Steak & Two Eggs, Hash Browns, Toast & Jelly - $3.75
Cheeseburger: 1/2 lb Burger with French Fries - $3.75
7 oz N.Y. Steak, Two Eggs, Hash Browns, Toast & Jelly - $3.95

I rarely get to dine at Southpoint late night, but on the few occasions that I have, I remember that their dishes are good. While I'm very specific in my posts about the dishes on special, I don't have anything terribly specific to recall about these items, other than I don't have a negative impression. So, it must have been fine.

Overall, the cafe has good food. They have a Chinese menu that is separate from the main cafe menu and sometimes you need to request it because it isn't always handed to you. If you order off of the Chinese menu,  they typically give you the Chinese Hot Tea for free as it comes with most of their entrees. There aren't specials on the Chinese per se, but if Chicken Fried Rice is $5.95, their prices are definitely within reason on most fronts.

They also have a $12.95 Prime Rib or Porterhouse specials. It comes with your salad or soup as well.

Einstein Bagels Offers Late Day Discounts

If you are like me and just eat bagels as they are, then this latest Einstein Bagels special is right up your alley. Monday-Friday, from 3-5 PM, they offer 25% off of their bagels. Sure, it makes sense. It's late in the day and they are about to close and what better way to unload their bagels to customers than a discount?

While I typically like to enjoy the freshest bagels that come out in the morning, a 25% discount could definitely entice me in there for a late afternoon snack.

I used to always get the Asiago Cheese Bagel, but lately I've been having the Everything Bagel and the Cinnamon Sugar Bagel toasted with a side of butter. I'm not a big cream cheese person so I can't really attest to the new cream cheeses. Either way, all of their bagels are good and it's really up to what your tastebuds are looking for, something sweet or salty?

Bagels typically run anywhere from $1.10-$1.70 - depending on if you pick a Classic, Signature or Gourmet bagel. You really can't go wrong with any flavor.

A Deal Near the Strip: Terrible's Casino Cafe

It's not often these days that outrageously "I can't believe it" deals are found on the Strip, but traveling a few blocks from the Strip (a walk if you are ambitious!) can yield some great deals that appeal to both tourists and locals. One such place is Terrible's Casino which is on the corner of Flamingo and Paradise. Flamingo is the street houses Bally's, Bellagio, Caesars and the Flamingo Casino. Terrible's is down a few blocks from the Strip on the Bally's side of the road.

While I don't frequent Terrible's Hotel & Casino very often, I have eaten at both their buffet and cafe before when there were specials. My Las Vegas Entertainment book used to house a few 2-for-1 buffet coupons and that usually led me to the establishment.Unfortunately, Terrible's hasn't been in the book for the past few years.

The deal that I'm going to talk about is a simple one: breakfast. It's $2.99 every day and you just need to sign up (for FREE, of course) for their Player's Card. The Deuces Wild breakfast, as it's called, comes with 2 eggs, 2 pancakes and 2 strips of bacon. Next to its newspaper ad it has stamped "Best of Las Vegas" as voted by locals at one time or another.

When it's breakfast, it's really hard to screw up....really, so while I haven't had this one lately, I can't imagine it being anything further than what it should be. I've also had their other breakfasts including a Hawaiian Loco Moco and that was also pretty good. That is a normal priced menu item.

The casino is a smaller one. It's in a location that is supposed to attract both tourists and locals so it must balance its prices. For just a penny under three bucks...I don't think there's much room for any complaints here.

Mimi's Cafe $5 Happy Hour

Ever since Mimi's Cafe came to Las Vegas, it's consistently been a restaurant that dishes up great food. From breakfast to dinner, they have generous portions and they have some unbelievable breads - carrot raisin nut loaf, blueberry muffin, honey bran etc. The list goes on and on...

They now have Happy Hour and it's a great addition to their menu - which by the way - does feature select All-Day Breakfast items. If you are like me, you can eat breakfast for any meal and it's awesome! 

Mimi's features both food and drinks specials at $5 per item. Happy Hour is Monday-Sunday 4pm-6pm. I snapped a picture of the Happy Hour Menu so I can give you the specifics:

$5 Wine Flights

Red, White & Sparkling

$5 Bistro Bites 

(Add fries to any Bistro Bite for $1)

Crispy Zucchini Parmesan
Chicken Tenders
BBQ Pork Sliders
Signature Cheese & Fruit Plate

$5 White Wines by the Glass
Sparkling (Freixenet)

Riesling (Chateau Ste Michelle)

Pinot Grigio (Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi)
Chardonnay (La Terre)

$5 Red Wines by the Glass
Pinot Noir (Mirassou)
Merlot (Columbia Crest Two Vines)
Cabernet (La Terre)

Cabernet Sauvignon (Robert Mondavi Private Selection)

I haven't tried any of the Bistro Bites, but from the fact that anything I've ordered from Mimi's has been great, I think their track record speaks for itself. I've been a regular diner at Mimi's for the better part of the past ten years and they have been consistent. The serving staff and management are also very friendly. 

If you enjoy Mimi's Cafe like I do, then also join their eClub. They send 2-for-1 coupons quite frequently!

Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Ranch Buffet 2-for-1

For the entire month of August (sidenote Mon-Thurs ONLY) Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Ranch's Feast Buffet are offering 2-for-1 deals. Typically there is a catch - and really - this time, there is no catch. This is what you do:

1. Go to either of these casinos and find the Rewards Kiosk. There are many of these throughout the casino floor.

2. Swipe your Players Card, enter your PIN, and the promotion of 2-for-1 Feast Buffet will appear on the screen.

3. Select the Feast Buffet Promotion and it will print right out of the kiosk.

4. Now, take this voucher with you to the buffet.

So, you see it's relatively easy and you don't have to accumulate any kind of points to receive the promotion. You can only receive one 2-for-1 voucher per day so strategically think about which meal you want to use it on. If you have a friend or a spouse - now - then you can actually take advantage of this twice each day. One swipe per card.

If there was a catch, I'd say it'd be this. THE DREADED WAIT. No doubt, Station Casinos was smart, once again. If you offer 2-for-1 to their two most premium properties with the most premium buffet, you are going to get people coming onto the property attempting to eat on a deal and ultimately throw dollars into machines or on tables. That's fine. That's the point of a casino.

However, I have now attempted to go to the Red Rock buffet twice now. The first time was on a Tuesday evening around 7pm. OK. Bad decision. Not only was the regular line long and wrapped around the post, but the handicap line was almost equally as long! Whoa! Now that was going to be a wait and as starving as I was, I couldn't stand to wait. I should have known that en route to the Feast Buffet that when I saw a long line even at the Cafe that there was some bad news for the buffet line. OK. It was time to hunt for another spot. Strategically, I thought, let's go during lunch. On Thursday, I once again landed at Red Rock and got my voucher. It was 12:30pm. I walked to the Feast Buffet and I saw the dreaded line again! Ugh. Did I just hit prime lunch hour now??? So as they say, third time's a charm. Perhaps I need to up my meal to breakfast next time and show up at 7am. I am determined to get at least one 2-for-1 before August 31st!

Station Casinos Brings Back Some Much Needed Specials

Just last week, Las Vegas local casino giant Station Casinos finally brought back some much needed graveyard food specials. From what the server told me, it's been a hit with the locals and it's brought some much needed bodies into the establishment.

My feeling has always been that if you are willing to eat at some off beat hours, you should be rewarded for it! Such as...past midnight. It's late, you are still bopping around and your dinner has unfortunately been long gone. You just want a snack for a few bucks, where can you go besides the Del Taco drive thru where you can get two egg muffin sandwiches for three bucks?

Enter: Station Casinos. You've got plenty to choose from. If you are on the Strip and visiting Las Vegas, go to Palace Station, it's just off the Sahara and I-15 exit. If you are a local, then I don't have to tell you, you already know where they are.

Here's the low down, the new graveyard specials menu. The price starts at $1.99. Really really awesome! You can choose from breakfast dishes and the only non-breakfast dish on the menu is the 1/4 lb burger and fries ($2.99). The $1.99 breakfast consists of eggs, potatoes, and one piece of toast. There's also biscuits and gravy for $1.99. You can also get a short stack of pancakes for $1.99. The next tier is the other breakfast I had written about before, the eggs, choice of meat, potatoes and toast for $3.99. There's the chicken fried steak and eggs and NY Strip steak and eggs. Those are $4.99-$5.99 if memory serves me correct. Either way, the server assured me that the portion size was equal to the regular size even with the lower cost.

You can't go wrong. Restaurant servers were excited about the promotions and I bet a lot of locals like myself are equally as excited.

Breakfast 24/7

Palace Station's Grand Cafe Breakfast Skillet

I remember being in LA once and wanting to eat some breakfast at night. I wandered around for 45 minutes to only end up at Denny's. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't late night diners there, but I'm just telling you what happened. 


What I love about Las Vegas is that breakfast offerings are abundant here. You can safely assume, though, that a simple two egg breakfast can be upwards of $10 plus on central Strip properties. However, just off the Strip, down Sahara Ave is Palace Station, a well known locals casino. Twenty-four-seven, the $3.99 two egg breakfast with meat skillet is available. Now if you want to travel farther off-strip to other locals casinos, you will find even cheaper breakfasts, but I'll save that for another post. 


No doubt, it's a good price, but it doesn't stop the fact that I'm reminded of a time when Palace Station's cafe offered the same breakfast for $1.99. I was a total regular there back then. In back then, I mean about five years ago. 


My absolute favorite server was a Korean lady named Kang and she was thick accented and to the point. The conversation went like this: 


Me: I'll have the breakfast special.
Kang: Eggs!?
Me: Over medium
Kang: Meat!?
Me: Bacon well done
Kang: Toast!?
Me: Wheat 
Kang: OK!


Notice that there's the exclamation point before the question tone. It was like you better know the answers! I loved her, she cracked me up. Fast forward to a few years later and I ran into Kang - but she was now serving at another locals casino. It brought back memories!