Yard House Happy Hour

When you can combine Happy Hour pricing with real dishes, you've got a win-win situation. I'm not saying that chicken fingers and wings aren't real dishes, but having a variety of items to choose from beyond the typical fried items is always a welcomed sight.

Enter: Yard House. With over 180 drafts on hand, it will satisfy the most serious of beer drinkers while dishing up great complements to the beverages. Just the sight of the kegs is quite impressive. There are two locations in Las Vegas. One is at Town Square on South Las Vegas Boulevard (just down the street from Mandalay Bay Casino). The other one is situated inside the Red Rock Casino in Summerlin (westside Las Vegas).

Yard House's Happy Hour is Mon-Fri 3-6:00 PM and Sun-Wed 10 PM-Close. Their late night Happy Hour especially appeases me because the 10-11 PM hour is an oddball time slot where most places haven't yet started their Happy Hour which makes Yard House right on with their timing!

Most of their appetizers are half-off and here's a run down of the choices:

Chicken Lettuce Wraps: Stir fried chicken with pine nuts, green onions, tofu with three dipping sauces (one of them being peanut sauce).

I order this dish about 90% of the time because it's tasty, interactive (you have to make your own wraps of course) and it's not an item that is typically on other Happy Hour menus. They give you a generous portion of  lettuce and it's not iceberg, I believe it's butter or bibb lettuce. Or - are they kind of the same lettuce?!?!? Who knows. Anyways, it's a flexible leaf that doesn't break in half on you so it works well. As an obvious Asian (Chinese to be exact), I give this one two thumbs up!

Seared Ahi Sashimi: Seared rare, lightly blackened served with soy vinaigrette.

So you have to be a sushi or rare fish eater to appreciate this one, but it's very very good. It's a light appetizer so if you order this one, you'll most likely need to order or share one more dish with someone. It has a very refreshing taste and I've always had it come out just right. I recommend this one for sure.

Spinach Cheese Dip: Just like you know and served with flatbread crisps for dipping. 

This is also a good dish but as in any restaurant that I order a spinach cheese dip, I request that it comes out extra bubbly hot because it always tastes better that way. Their dip has a good taste to it.

Chicken Nachos: This is what you would expect. It's the typical nachos layered with beans, cheeses, guacamole and sour cream. 

It's hard to mess this one up. If you are in the mood for nachos, it's quite a large size so you won't be disappointed with that. It's a consistent dish that will satisfy your taste buds.

Garlic Noodles: Tossed with butter and topped with Parmesan cheese.

This is a smaller dish and it's great as a side to complement the other appetizers. It's got a really nice unique flavor with the garlic and cheeses on it. This isn't a saucy noodle dish. It's more of a dry noodle dish but has a nice burst of flavor.

Onion Ring Tower: Beer battered dusted with Parmesan and served with chipotle and ranch dipping sauces. 

I've had this either once or twice and it's not because it wasn't good. It's just so darn big. It really is stacked like a tower and it's definitely meant to be shared with a few people. You really only want to eat one or two and to try other dishes, otherwise you can get onion-ed out and really full from it.

Pizzas: BBQ Chicken, Spicy Thai Chicken, Margherita, Four Cheese, Pepperoni and Mushroom, Ham and Pineapple round pizzas. 

It's a decent sized pizza that you can either share or eat as your entree. Of all the pizzas, my favorite is the Spicy Thai Chicken one because it's a unique item and it's got the peanut sauce on it. It's definitely not a traditional item but it's not one that you'll find in other places.

More appetizers that are half-price are: Wings, Moo Shu Egg Rolls, Fried Calamari, Fried Chicken Strips, Blue Crab Cakes, Tuna Roll and California Roll.

They also have sliders on the menu for $6.95 and they all come with fries. They offer the Classic, Bearnaise, Pastrami, Turkey or Gardein (TM). You really can't go wrong with their sliders. They are all good. I especially like the Classic, Pastrami or Turkey sliders. Another option for $9.95 is their Ahi sliders. I haven't tried these yet.

There are drink specials, of course. They start at $2.25 and up. Domestics are $3.50 and Well Drinks are $4.25-4.75. Specialty Drinks and Wine by the Glass are $2.00 off.

What's also great about their Happy Hour is that it extends throughout the entire restaurant. Every seat is a Happy Hour seat so you don't have to cram yourself into the bar area. Sit comfortably at a table or a booth and still enjoy the specials.



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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!

Maggiano's Little Italy on the Strip Happy Hour

I have been known to frequent Maggiano's quite frequently especially when conventions come to town and I'm starving around the 5pm time slot. So, yes, I am typically recognized by the bar staff. They've always had some kind of a Happy Hour, but it seems as though they've just switched it up again with new offerings. This is the latest info I have on this matter.

Happy Hour is from 3-6pm and is available in the Dining Room, Bar and Lounge. This is great because now you aren't fighting for position at the bar and you can comfortably waltz into the restaurant to enjoy some food and drinks. 

Here is their Happy Hour Menu:

$3 Premium Draft Beer: 

Peroni, Stella Artois, Newcastle, Bud Light

$4 Flat Bread Pizzas: 

Margherita, Pepperoni & Arugula, Italian Sausage, Chicken & Roasted Pepper

$5 Wines by the Glass: 

Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon

$6 Specialty Cocktails: 

Featuring fresh juices and premium spirits...

When it's not Happy Hour, Maggiano's has family sized dishes that are great for sharing. They used to have monstrous portions, but they've scaled it back a little but the items/entrees are still great for sharing. When I go there, I always make some "sharing" agreement with my party because I've seen a lot of first timers order an entree for each person and end up feeling like they want to roll out of there because they are so stuffed. 

What I also like about Maggiano's is that it's attached to the Fashion Show Mall. You can shop before or after your meal, either way, it's good exercise! I also like this restaurant because you have a beautiful view of the Las Vegas Strip from its second floor location. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to find an affordable meal that isn't at tourist prices yet still have that view and ambiance in Vegas, but at Maggiano's you get that!