Road trip food: the good, the Meh and the RUN LIKE HELL

We are back from a few weeks of being on and off the road.  I know you are just dying to hear about MY favorite topic- FOOD.  So here is a rundown of the food that was part of our trip to Oregon and later to Las Vegas ( two trips in a short period of time)

The good

Aside from Taqueria Eduardo, which is a MUST DO in Hayward ( at least for Chris who makes a sacred pilgrimage to have his favorite burrito whenever we go there), we ate at some good places.  The BIG standout was Georgie's in Newport Oregon.  In a hotel, right on the beach the restaurant overlooks the beach and in the distance a lighthouse can bee seen.  Chris' Uncle suggested the clam chowder; not once but MULTIPLE times.  We had to and we were GLAD we did.  Yummy, with big pieces of clam, not too clammy tasting and not salty as New England Chowder can be.

We went to several casinos on the way, some had decent food, some, well....

The Mill had a nice, if small, salad bar LOADED with shrimp of different sizes and the waitress brought me some of the New England Clam chowder, which was very good. I am not a big Fan of Manhattan style chowder.  There was a lot of seafood on this trip.  I love seafood, Chris could live without it!

Seven Feathers Casino had a nice "coffee shop type" restaurant  Good breakfast, decent dinner GREAT hot fudge sundaes ( well I didn't have one, but they LOOKED good!)

Twin Palm Casino had a lovely breakfast, the steel cut oatmeal was wonderful!

We went to the Bellagio, post wedding.  The food there was up to it's usual standard of excellence, but the breakfast I had consumed and the heat made me not want to eat anything.  

The meh....

We went to Lumberjack's Restaurant in Willits,  The food was good; a nice if small salad bar and the "senior menu" was plenty ( which they let me have despite the menu INSISTING that you be 55 and I was a few days shy of that magic mark at this point)  They give you a half a "loaf" of tasty bread.  They said the cobbler was homemade and I love berry cobbler, so I got it.  Now, as I have stated before, I DON'T like my dessert nuked, so I asked the waitress not to.  She complied but when I took a bite of the thing, it tasted BAD, it had a moldy taste to it.  I wondered if it were just the crust, so I took a bite of the berry mixture bellow it.  It was extremely nasty ( to borrow a phrase from Monty Python)  Both Anna and Chris tasted it and agreed with me.  I called the waitress over and told her.  To their credit, they pulled the remaining cobblers in the case.  The food was good and the service was good, so go there but beware the cobbler.

When we got back "home" we went to "Val's" which is a classic hamburger joint.  The food was NOT so good and they served the "Hot fudge" sundae in a regular drinking glass  The "hot fudge" was Hershey's syrup.  I have been to Val's for breakfast and frankly was disappointed in the lunch we got.  I got a sacrificial ( read BURNED) grilled cheese.  The burgers were pricy, as all you GOT was a burger, nothing else.  Fries are extra.  I won't go out of my way to go there.

We got a two for one buffet deal, which is a pretty good deal- two buffets, one price.  This was the Luxor and the Excalibur.   The Luxor was pretty good as far as buffet goes.  The Excalibur...

The RUN LIKE HELL


The breakfast at Excalibur was terrible!   I wanted a waffle.  WHAT IS IT ABOUT MICROWAVES.  They nuked the waffles.  I wanted a nice CRISPY waffle.  Not to be at the breakfast buffet.  Something I ate ther did not agree with me and I had an 'Icky " stomach the rest of the day, which was NOT good.

Sherwood Valley Rancheria. The casino is small and so  smoky I thought I must have taken up smoking .  The "Diner" was a glorified lunch counter with food that looked worse than the warming table at the AM/PM.  YIKES!

Three Rivers Casino, Florence Oregon.  The meatloaf was super salty and the potatoes tasted like the box they surely came from.   I have a rule against eating anything really salty, as it usually masks food that has spoiled.  Chris and Anna both enjoyed their meal, so it's probably just the meatloaf you need to avoid.

I am copying the review I wrote on Yelp for the Cafe in the Paris.  This is the one that looks out over the casino and we had gone there for lunch before and I remembered it as being good.  I was tired of buffet food and wanted just a nice meal.

" I would give them NEGATIVE stars, were that possible.  We stopped in for breakfast, as I was sick of buffet- style eggs and bacon and wanted a real meal for a change.  I ordered quiche.  It was microwaved into insensibility.  The "Fried" potatoes had never seen the inside of a pan- again the microwave did the work.  The WORST part was my husband's omelet, which I am sad to report was also prepared in the microwave.  I complained to the waiter, who I presume was French as he had a French name and an accent, but you never know who is real and who is fake in Sin City, do you?  I told him the cook should be ashamed of the food, wondering all the time if the WAITER shouldn't be a bit ashamed to place plates as awful as this on the table and wish unsuspecting diners "Bon Apetite"  Yuck.  Overpriced at almost $15 a plate.  I want to issue a global warning about this.  Stick with the buffet, you can see it before you pay for it."

Maybe I am getting picky in my old age.  Life is too short to eat truly bad food.