I have been in Miami the past 3 days for the WOMM-U conference. I had a little talk to do and I needed to reconnect with some old Womma peeps. This time the conference was moved from Downtown Miami to the Ritz South Beach. Needless to say the hotel, pool, restaurant and service held up to the swanky, sexy South Beach standard i expected. I also had my bosses along for the trip. Brian and Sean were making the trek from San Fran to Miami for their first Womma event. Because of this, I wanted to make sure they had an educational and fun experience. Naturally, I turned to my beautiful, foul-mouthed, food loving friend May for a recommendation. Why May? Because, she had been raving about a certain restaurant down there for months. May doesn’t live in South Beach but is there enough to know what’s what. So I took her advice.

We had a 9pm reservation at Michael’s Food and Drink in Downtown Miami. Along the way, our trio turned into cinque with the addition of Daniel and Johanna, two other Womma attendees. Michael’s didn’t disappoint. Good banter with the waitress started things off nicely. Sean picked a fantastic bottle of red wine and by the time we got through the apps and into the entrees I wanted to do it all again. I started with a crispy pig ear salad on baby arugula with red onion and pickled radish. I followed that with wood roasted local black grouper served with roasted brussel sprouts and pancetta. On the side was a fresh made lemon aioli. As we came into dessert the waitress used all that banter to convince me to try something. The special of the night sounded awesome and my normal non-dessert attitude was swayed. Moments later a bread pudding with rhubarb compote and fro-yo was on my spoon heading for the cake hole. Sorry for the lack of pictures here. I was a little unprepared and decided to skip the grainy bb pictures i could have taken and enjoy the meal.

The next day the conference started and we got our Womma on from 8am to about 6pm. A long day that always ends with some cocktails. The spirits were flowing at Hotel Victor on Ocean Ave. After a few hours of poring alcohol into our empty stomachs we made the wise decision to get some grub. Catching up with Johnny Sizzle and Alan Levy we walked a few blocks to this “little” italian restaurant. This “little” Italian restaurant was on Ocean Ave, it was playing Italian music at volume 9 and had a tagline that said “where Italian’s go to eat Italian. I knew in 30 seconds this was going to be one of those terrible South Beach meals that costs more that you could imagine for far less quality, substance and taste than you could imagine.

Sizzle immediately ordered about 4 bottles of vino and we gave our orders soon after. I ordered a caesar salad and Chicken Saltambocca. I figured that wouldn’t be that hard to mess up. By the pictures below you can see that corn does not come in a caesar salad and I don’t think I have ever had steak fries with my chicken saltambocca let alone any other southern Italian dish.

The salad was barely dressed but the chicken wasn’t that bad in taste. If it wasn’t for John’s wine I might have gone a bit more hungrey. All and all it was a great conversaation over a sub par meal with some mediocre wine. Exactly what I expect from an Italian restaurant on A1A beach front avenue. Plus, as you know the experience can make the meal and the people I was with definately made the meal this time. The night continued to a few more drinking establishments and ended later than it should have considering we all had another full day of conference just hours away.
In the end we made it through. The conference was great. The conversations amazing. Having two bosses that are so supportive and also so much your friends can be tricky for some people but for me I wouldn’t want it any other way.

from left: Sean, J., Mulls

With 5 hours left in Vegas I made one more restaurant stop. This time at the Venetian to Enoteca San Marco one of three Mario Batali restaurants. This one was great. It had virtually the same menu as OTTO in NY. Although, it sits in the fake St. Marks square, so it feels like you are sitting in a wine bar outside in Venice, Italy (in a cartoon way sort of)

First up is some Salumi. As with OTTO the cheeses are served with truffle honey, chili apricots and these delicious black cherries in syrup.

Eggplant Caponata, brussel sprouts and cauliflower.

3 cheeses: Asiago, Parmagiano Reggiano and a delicious sweet ricotta. Finished with Pistachio, apple basil and quince gelato. And now, off to the airport.

Enoteca San Marco
3355 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 266-9969

To this weapon in action click here. To see it in slow mo, click here.

Although it sounds like it could be part of the former Soviet block, the New World Buffet, could not be farther from a cold war remnant. Billed as the largest buffet in Las Vegas, The World Buffet sits inside the Rio Hotel and Casino. I just happened to be staying at the hotel for the annual WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing) Conference. On my first evening there, as everyone was still arriving and settling in, I took the opportunity to put this to the test. The first weird bit was that there is no “live” person who sells you the ticket for the buffet. It is an automated ATM like machine that prints a ticket and then you are corralled into a space where a woman eventually comes and seats you. Weird. Let’s start with a tour. Shall we?

Now that we got the size factor out of the way. Let’s get into the food.

Plate 1:
Crab legs
Steamed shrimp
BBQ Pork bun
Pork Shu Mai
Chinese chicken wing
Asian duck

Plate 2:
BBQ short ribs
Prime rib
Cooked ham
Roast beef

Plate 3:
bean salad
corn salad
marinated mushrooms
fried wonton
egg roll

Plate 4:
Carne Asada soft taco
Ground beef hard taco
Empanada
Chicken mole

Plate 5:
Watermelon
Cantalope
Honeydew

Plate 6:
Strawberry ice cream
Vanilla yogurt ice cream
Chocolate canoli like thing
biscotti
Almond cookie
Pound cake muffin

Plate 7:
Cheesecake
Coffee

So we hit it and we hit it hard! All and all Bellagio is Waaaaaaay better. All I have to say is, Bellagio has 3 kinds of lamb chops.

Rio Carnival World Buffet
(inside the Rio Hotel)
3700 W Flamingo Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89103-4043
Phone: (702) 777-7923