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This past weekend Thomas and I took a super quick trip to Las Vegas to see my parents who were there for work and to eat at the new(ish) location of Din Tai Fung (my favorite restaurant). Even though we were only there for a day and a half, we packed a lot in and had an amazing time! We chose to fly in Saturday morning and fly out Sunday night so we didn’t have to take PTO and it only cost us 1 hotel night. Here’s the recap:

Day 1

We took a 7:50AM direct flight from Chicago that got in around 10AM in Las Vegas and took a Lyft to the Aria, where we were staying.

Bardot Brasserie

Our room wasn’t ready yet so we left our bags with the bellman and headed upstairs for brunch at Bardot Brasserie. We didn’t have a reservation but the wait was only about 20 min for a table for 2.

What we ordered:

Pain de Provence – 9/10 amazing herb bread that almost had the consistency of a muffin. It came served in a cast iron skillet with some amazing fois-gras truffle butter on top. Only wish it had come with more of the butter!
Escargot de Bourgogne– 10/10. I LOVE escargot and always order it when it’s on the menu and am always happy with it. This one came with a mini baguette to dip into the excess butter.
Tarte Flambee – 6/10. Thomas liked this one more than I did. It was like a flatbread breakfast pizza with eggs on top. It was ok but I wouldn’t order it again. We also felt that just the Pain de Provence and the Escargot were enough food since we weren’t starving, so we wished we hadn’t bothered with this one.

Escargot de Bourgogne and Pain de Provence from Bardot Brasserie in Las Vegas — *The Escargot de Bourgogne and Pain de Provence*

Minus5 Ice Bar

Next stop was the Minus5 Ice Bar located in the Linq Promenade. We booked this ahead of time because Vegas is an absurd place so we wanted to lean into that by going here. We booked 1 ticket that came with 2 drinks and another that was just an entrance fee. All tickets come with the use of a parka and gloves, but you can upgrade to a faux fur lined parka (I’m glad we didn’t waste money on that upgrade). There was a mocktail named “Jackie Frost” so of course I had to order that. All the cocktails came in cups made of ice, which were yours to keep and reuse if you got more than 1 drink. I was surprised that I didn’t really feel very cold in the bar, even though the temperature is below freezing. We probably stayed for ~20 minutes and there were only a couple other groups there, but we did go at noon – I’m sure it’s busier later in the day.

I Love Sugar

On our way out of the Linq Promenade we stopped at I Love Sugar, one of several massive candy stores on the Strip. They have pretty much every candy you can think of along with novelty candy and a martini bar on the 2^nd floor with candy-inspired drinks. We got a little baggie and filled it with $5 worth of our favorite sour candies (you pay based on the weight of the bag) and ate it as we walked back towards our hotel.

Tipsy Robot

We had a lot of time to kill and no plans, so we stopped in at the Miracle Mile Shopping Center and walked all the way around it. The majority of the shops are basic stores you’d see in any mall, but the one place that stood out to me was Tipsy Robot. I had seen someone on Instagram talk about this place, so I really wanted to try it when I saw it. The novelty of it is that it’s a robot who makes your drinks. That part was cool but the drinks were way overpriced (even for Vegas) and they tasted horrible. I got a Diet Coke and Thomas ordered a Moscow Mule and somehow they completely botched both drinks. Leave the bartending to the humans.

Back at the hotel, we stopped by the Patisserie for some gelato. Lemon sorbet is my go-to and it didn’t disappoint. We also stopped as Starbucks for a little afternoon pick-me-up.

Din Tai Fung

After my parents got in on a later flight, we had dinner with them at Din Tai Fung. This is my favorite restaurant in the world, and between my family and I, we’ve been to just about every US location. They are best known for their Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) but everything we ordered was a hit. Everything is served family style.

Kurobuta Pork Xiao Long Bao – 10/10. They’re famous for a reason! We ordered 2 of these among the 4 of us.
Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Dumplings – 8/10. I love a good dumpling but after you’ve had the soup dumplings, nothing quite compares.
Vegetable & Kurobuta Pork Dumplings – 8/10. This was my first time having the vegetable dumpling because my dad is allergic to shrimp but it was equally as good at the shrimp one.
String Beans with Garlic– 10/10. We got 2 ordered of this and every last bean was gone
Shrimp Fried Noodles – 9/10. I’m a big fan of noodles. My go to dish at Chinese restaurants is Shrimp Lo Mein and this is basically that. I only knocked a point because it wasn’t as universally loved by my family members.
Pork Chop Fried Rice – 8/10. Good luck eating this one with chopsticks (don’t worry you can ask for a fork!). I like this dish and always order it when we have a group of 4 or more, but if just Thomas and I are eating at Din Tai Fung, I skip it.
Chicken Spicy Wontons – Ok so I can’t fairly rate this one because I don’t eat spicy food and didn’t try it. However, this is a popular menu item and Thomas’s favorite dish. The waiter even said some people just order the sauce and to dip all their other food into.

Chandelier Bar

Before the show, we stopped by the Chandelier Bar in the Cosmopolitan. It’s iconic, beautiful, and a great spot for a photo op. We didn’t have reservations but were able to stand at the bar. They had my favorite gin (Empress 1908) so I got a gin & tonic.

Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester

Vegas is known for its shows. There are literally hundreds to choose from, but my family and I are all fans of Hasan Minhaj and he just so happened to be doing a show (The King’s Jester) in Vegas the night we were there. It was at the Cosmopolitan, so getting there was easy. One thing I didn’t expect was that they had us put our phones and smart watches into locked pouches so we couldn’t access them until after the show. This was fine, although the show started late so we had a lot of time to twiddle our thumbs since we couldn’t scroll on social media. The show itself was amazing and I highly recommend seeing Hasan Minhaj if he tours near you.

Milk Bar

After the show, we stopped at Milk Bar in the Cosmopolitan. They were out of several of their most popular offerings, including cakes and shakes, but here’s what we ordered:

Compost Cookie – 9/10. My dad joked about buying 50 of these and storing them in his freezer, that’s how much he loved this cookie, and I don’t blame him.
Milk Bar Pie Slice– 10/10. This was my personal favorite. It somehow had a very similar flavor profile to the Compost Cookie but was a chewy, dense pie.
French Toast Soft Serve w/ Cornflake Topping – 5/10. I am shook by how they got the exact taste of French toast into a soft serve, but they hit the nail on the head with the flavor. However, I just wasn’t a fan as it was a little overpowering. I had wanted to try the cereal milk soft serve they’re better known for, but they were out.

Day 2

EggSlut

We woke up at ~6:30AM (thanks jetlag) and walked over to EggSlut (located in the Cosmopolitan) for breakfast. EggSlut is a chain and I do plan to visit again when I’m near one. The line can wrap around and get pretty long so be prepared to wait.

What we ordered:

The Slut – 9/10. This was a little jar of potato puree with an egg on top that comes with 3 slices of toasted baguette to dip into it. It was honestly amazing, but there wasn’t enough baguette so I had to finish the puree/egg combo with my spoon.
Sausage Egg & Cheese Sandwich– 7/10. The turkey sausage in this sandwich wasn’t great and its flavor overtook the flavor of everything else. I decided to take the sausage patty off and it was significantly better, although not a lot of food.
Buttermilk Biscuit – 8/10. This biscuit came with a small serving of honey butter and it was delicious. I did feel like I needed more butter, though! There’s a note on their menu that they only have limited quantities of this every day, so make sure to go early!

Red Rocks Canyon

I’m not usually one to go on hikes but my parents really wanted to go to Red Rocks. You should make sure to get reservations in advance. We chose to do the 13-mile loop drive and stopped twice along the way to get out and do a small hike. If I came back, I’d sign up for the electric scooter tour – we passed this tour and it looked like a great way to see the views!

In-N-Out

I love In-N-Out but there are none where I live, so I often try to eat there whenever I go out West. A Double-Double, fries, and vanilla shake totally hit the spot and will hold me over until my visit. We went to a location that was on the way between Red Rocks and Planet13, but there is also a location on the Strip in the Linq Promenade. Food for 2 people came out to just $12.63 so this is definitely a place to go to keep costs down.

Planet13 Dispensary

I don’t personally smoke weed or consume edibles, but my parents do so they took us to Planet13 which is the world’s largest dispensary. It was much more modern and higher end than I was expecting and it was fun just to walk around and look at all the different products. At one point there was a drone show that went on above us with colored balloon drones and smoke. You do have to be 21+ to enter.

Milk Bar (Round 2)

I was still drooling over the Milk Bar Pie and Compost Cookie, so we stopped by Milk Bar again for another round.

Top Tips:

You can try to get an upgrade on your hotel by 1) being nice and friendly with the front desk person, 2) saying you’re there for a special occasion, and 3) slipping them a $20 bill when you had over your credit card and ID. We tried this for the first time on this trip and the lady did her best to try to upgrade us, but unfortunately there were no street-view rooms available. We did however get a $25 food/beverage credit which we used at Bardot Brasserie, so it came out to be a net positive.
Ubers/Lyfts can sometimes cost up to $60 to get from the Strip to the airport during peak hours (despite it only being ~2 miles away). However, taxis can be significantly cheaper and a flat rate, so worth looking into if surge prices are in effect.
Stay at a hotel that is centrally located on the Strip. If you stay somewhere like Mandalay Bay at the south end, you’re going to be pretty far from everything you want to see. We loved the Aria’s location!
On the Strip, be prepared to walk everywhere. I recommend good shoes that you can comfortably walk and go up/down stairs in. We averaged 15K steps/day in Vegas.
Be prepared for temperature changes. The hotels are usually pretty cold but Vegas is in the desert, so it can get really hot, especially during the day. I recommend dressing in layers. Also wear sunscreen – we didn’t think we were outside very much but still got a little pink.
Look into what else is going on in Vegas whenever you’re planning to visit. Our Lyft driver told us that the following weekend they’d be hosting the NFL draft at the Bellagio, so the Strip was going to be a nightmare. Luckily, we dodged that!
There are approximately 234120938102 Starbucks locations on the Strip. We noticed that some had consistently longer lines than others. The one in the shopping center next to the Aria always had a short line!
A lot of things in Vegas are overpriced, but airport food prices may be the most obnoxious. We needed to grab dinner before out 7PM flight home left so we shared one entrée at Popeyes for $23. Be prepared for this or bring outside food with you.