Mark’s Las Vegas Blog - Your Source for Vegas Info

One of the places I’ve been meaning to check out forever is the Burger Bar over in the Mandalay Place. I finally had the chance to head over there the other day. Let me tell ya it was worth the wait!

Their whole thing is about gourmet hamburgers.  For a restaurant that’s mostly about burgers the choices are quite impressive. They have regular beef, turkey, veggie and even Kobe beef if you so choose.

Also they have one of the biggest list of options I’ve ever seen. Any kind of topping, bun, and side you could imagine. You want sweet potato fries? No problem. 8 kinds of cheese? Sure thing. Pesto sauce? Absolutely. Even truffles if you so desire.

Even the most pickiest eater (like myself) should have no problem customizing the burger of your dreams. Add a huge selection of bottle & draft beer  you have the makings of a meal!

“But do they make good burgers?” I’m glad you asked! They make FANTASTIC burgers! I had the Angus beef burger with Swiss, peppered bacon & Blue cheese cooked medium-well (I call it the Mark ) with some fat fries. It was quite tasty thank you very much.

Even though I do love In & Out it was a treat to have a gourmet burger made to my taste. One thing though is it’s always busy at dinnertime (hey no one wants to eat at an empty restaurant!) so either plan for a wait or try to go off-peak. We went in the afternoon & easily found seats at the bar.

If you love a good burger I highly recommend the Burger Bar. They’re located in the Mandalay Place between the Mandalay Bay and the Luxor. Check it out & let me know what you think!

Finally! We’re over the cold weather and it’s into the 80’s. It’s that short time where it’s between wearing jackets and being 100 degrees!

Being that it was such a nice day my business partner and I hot the strip to check out some of the newer attractions.

One thing that the Strip has been strangely lacking is outdoor patios looking over the Blvd. Coming from South Florida it’s practically a national pasttime to sit at an outdoor cafe along A1A and have a meal or a cocktail & enjoy the view.

Finally someone’s decided to take the plunge and have some outdoor eateries. The new Trader Vic’s at Planet Hollywood opened a while ago but it’s been a bit on the chilly side to really enjoy. So being the warmest day we’ve had in quite a few weeks we decided to check it out.

They’ve done a great job integrating the Trader Vic theme into Las Vegas. It has a nice inside restaurant if you so chose and also an outside bar and tables to have dinner or just have some drinks.

It was a good choice! Local musician Tommy Rocker was set up playing some appropriate tunes and as you can see from the pics the view from inside and outside was quite nice!

After we walked past the massive City Center project. It looks like a huge Erector set! Even with all the construction going on it’s still 2 years from bgeing finished. It’s quite an undertaking and the property will redefine the strip for years to come.

We then checked out another new outside restaurant and bar Diablo’s Cantina at the Monte Carlo. It was briefly closed after the fire at the MC but is back open with it’s regular hours.

It’s a two story place. You can either sit downstairs or head upstairs and enjoy the view, which we did. They have a decent menu of Mexican food and some specialty drinks incliding some unique margaritas.

The food was pretty decent and provided a nice view of the strip. It was late afternoon when we were there and wasn’t too busy. I’ve been by there late at night and the place really gets hopping! They also have a live band playing most night and really adds to the festive atmosphere.

There’s a couple of other restaurants that offer outdoor seating on the strip. Morels Steakhouse and Bistro at the new Palazzo and Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris are nice places to enjoy the strip experience as well.

It’s nice to see that the strip hotels are wising up and giving us some places to enjoy the outdoors and also have some fun watching the people that come visit our fine city from all over the world.

We really had a great time out & about seeing some of the newer sites on the strip & we’ll be seeing more now that the weather is so nice!