Vegas: Biwon Korean BBQ and Sushi

If you're offended or upset by food porn, or it's getting close to lunch but you've got some time left yet before you can fill the aching void in your digestive tract, turn back now. This post is full, absolutely stuffed to the gills, with photography of a culinarily salacious and seductive manner. At least, it is if you're into things like smoky, hot grilled meat and cool, sweet and supple sushi. Not only can you get your Korean-barbecue fix at this awesome restaurant but sushi too! I'm not kidding. It really is the best of both worlds. It's like some sort of drama where a sassy Korean girl who loves meat won a stoic Japanese sushi chef's heart and their kids got sick of them bickering over what to have for dinner and opened this place, happy ending. At least, that's how I can imagine this place being brought into existence, but I'm absolutely not the expert on this one. Whatever fantastic fortune of fate collided to make this place happen is one I'm grateful for. 

It really is genius. Korean barbecue is made at the table, requiring a hot grill and a measure of patience as you watch your food sizzle and cook before your eyes. Your nostrils (and clothes) will fill with the scents of seared meats, and a bounty of banchan will likely proliferate. One thing I found interesting was that things like lettuce and rice were ordered ala cart, but it makes sense given that their business model is all you can eat. That's right, my friends- not only are you able to satisfy your need for piping hot bulgogi and samgyeupsal steaming off the grill, but gobble up salmon and sushi rolls, too, and as much as you can stuff inside your face! There's an upcharge for going the combined route- you could absolutely dine in the sushi dining room, or opt for just Korean barbeque, and that's totally okay. We, however, we hungry and wanted to treat ourselves, so we went all out.  While you wait (hungry, impatient, drooling) for your meat to cook, sushi orders can pop up and fill that void in your life. Isn't that sort of like heaven?

And overall, it was good. Damn good. We left absolutely stuffed, and I don't think we ate anything else for the rest of the day. We could barely move...and we had barely even scratched the surface of their extensive menu. There's all sorts of ways to upgrade your meal, from opting to do both sushi and barbeque to paying an extra charge to have the high-end cuts in your barbeque or getting boozy with some soju or cocktails. Some items are limited, like at most all you can eat places, so we don't resent that. Again, the business is here to make money, and they can't give away all their food at low prices or they'd have to shut their doors and that would be a crying shame. I've been wanting to go back, though it was a bit expensive since we had to #treatourselves ... soon, though, we'll be back. I'm definitely curious to try other parts of their menu and to share this find with friends who'd enjoy it as much as we did. Definitely a place to have a celebratory meal, and I feel like there's more to celebrate coming our way this year. 

More photos below!

Vegas: Cici's pizza buffet

On a random weekday, several weeks ago, we happened to be out and about running errands in an area a bit away from where we normally go out to play. By the time our grumbling tummies grew loud enough to bring our attention to our appetites, we'd been out for hours without having eaten and had started to grow a bit hangry. This is never a good situation to be in, as people are never their best selves when ravenous with the need to feed. Upon reaching the destination of our last most critical of missions for the day (which was running on extremely limited time), we spotted a pizza buffet across the street and made it our destination post-errand. Not the most glamorous of food stations, perhaps- and the interior was certainly suffering from an overabundance of messy customers to staff, but it was certainly an amusing meal. We love pizza, like most reasonable human beings alive, and while this place is far from gourmet it's definitely a cheesy, carb-loaded feast that can fill your gullet for not a lot of cash. This is a big part of why it's got such a disproportionate ratio of customers to staff during the busy hours, I suppose. Who doesn't love a good deal? 

The food itself is alright. Like mentioned above, certainly not gourmet food here, but there's enough of the classics (pepperoni and cheese pizzas), salad, and dessert, plus you can get hot wings (for additional cost) to satisfy the whole family. There were birthday parties and kids a'plenty, confirming the family-friendly aspect of the place. There's even a macaroni and cheese pizza (yes, I got a slice) if you're in the mood for carbs and cheese on your carbs and cheese. Why not be extra? 

I didn't take a photo of it, but the table we ended up sitting at had a massive pile of detritus underneath. We weren't eating under the table (thankfully), so we just tried to avoid it with our feet and ignore its existence. There was already a lady shouting at some poor teenaged employee because her kid slipped in a puddle someone else's kid left by the arcade. Most of the tables were in varying stages of bussing so it was hard to find any that didn't have something going on, be it a pile of pizza crusts shoved in a corner or a pile of soggy napkins, but these things. We found one that was clearly unoccupied and focused ourselves on eating instead of judging the decor. I've worked in restaurants before and know how stressful and perpetually understaffed a lot of fast-casual joints can be, so I felt especially sympathetic to the poor employees who were trying to make it through. We knew going into this adventure that we weren't entering a fine-dining establishment, all we wanted out of this was to stuff ourselves with a satisfying pile of pizza and pickled beets (Schrute approved) on our salads. Mission accomplished.

So, I mean... We're obviously not going here every day, let alone week, especially since it's out of the way for us a bit, but I'm not hating on it. Maybe it'll be cleaner, albeit maybe less entertaining as a result, next time we visit, if we find ourselves out that way and hangry again.

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Solid 3 out of 5. 

Does what it needs to do, cheaply, but for the love of pizza please hire some more f**king staff. 

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XOXO,

NAU