Local Food Review

Earlier this week I was picking up a few items from a local convenience store on BayMeadows Rd and asked the clerk if she had a recommendation for dinner. She said that Sam’s Pizza & Italian Cafe was great. It was next door to the convenience store I decided to give it a try. The restaurant was small and not very modern but do not let that fool you.  The owner was waiting tables very friendly and accommodating.  I asked him what was good and he walked me through the menu.

His biggest recommendation was the pizza. I ordered one slice of Pizza and the Spaghetti and meatballs. Pizza was .99 cents a slice and the Spaghetti and meatballs was $7.00. It came with 4 piece of garlic bread and man oh man was it good. The pizza was very good as well, I could tell they made the dough fresh in house, I really like the sauce they put on the Pizza which was different in texture than the spaghetti sauce. Overall Excellent meal at a excellent price.

This place is now on my list of little hole in the wall restaurants to go to.  Economic times has  hit all of the restaurants on this particular strip but you have to check them out.  Sam’s Pizza and Italian Cafe is located at 9551 Baymeadows Rd #24 Jacksonville Florida across from Bailey’s Powerhouse Gym.

On our last day at CES 2010 we took the team to dinner at d.vino at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. I want to share with you our dining experience.  d.vino does there best to set a romantic atmosphere in keeping the restaurant very dark. Many of us had to use our iPods to light up the menu’s. One of the guys actually had a flashlight and used that much to the dismay of the staff. But if you can’t read the damn menu whats the use.

Not being a wine expert I let someone else order that knew what they were doing. We ordered a 2007 Chappellet Cab priced at $75.00 which has a street price of $43.00 the wine was excellent and for what little I know I would buy a bottle for the misses. Cocktails from the bar were pricey. Jack and Coke was $9.00. Apertizers run $12.00 with entrees running $20.00 to $30.00 at least on our bill. Desert ran around $7.00

Food overall was average, I am not sure what I was expecting, but for a primary restaurant in a hotel you would expect the quality to be quite high. I think we could have found just as good or better Italian restaurants at a lower price off the strip.

Overall the total bill for 7 people was $378.50 with a 20% gratuity which they added after adding the tax! Gratuity was $75.70. Since when do restaurants get off on putting a automatic 20% gratuity. I understand a standard 15% for a group of people. If the food and service is excellent then I will tip more. But the server and food was not worth 20% So after tax + tip the total bill was $484.60

Honestly I don’t think we will be going back. They are gonna have to kick it up. I do not mind paying $500.00 for a meal for 7 people but I do expect to get a much better meal than what d.vino provided.  Our visit was on 1-9-2010.