Food courts are a dime a dozen in Vegas, but the one in New York-New York, 3790 Las Vegas Blvd. S. (tel. 702/740-6969), deserves a mention for two reasons: It's the nicest setting for this sort of thing on the Strip, sitting in the Greenwich Village section of New York-New York, which means scaled replica tenement buildings, steam rising from the manhole covers, and more than a little (faux, naturally) greenery, a nice change from unrelentingly shrill plastic mall decor. The selections are the usual, with one exception listed below (Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom), but it's a better-than-average food court, with Chinese food and pizza (as befitting an ode to NYC), and excellent if expensive (for this situation) double-decker burgers, plus Schraft's ice cream.
The Monte Carlo, 3770 Las Vegas Blvd. S., between Flamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue (tel. 702/730-7777), has some surprisingly good options, too. There's the always-reliable McDonald's, and for sweets there is Häagen-Dazs. Sbarro offers enticing pizza slices. If you want a good, cheap meal on the Strip and want to avoid some of those dubious night-owl specials, come here. It's open daily from 6am to 3am.
And if you head farther down the Strip, to the Grande Canal Shoppes at The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S. (tel. 702/414-1000), you can find another decent food court, with a Panda Express, a good pizza place (despite the confusing name of LA Italian Kitchen), a burrito stand, and a juice joint. Plus, it's right by the canals of this faux Venice, one of our favorite places in Vegas.
Deli Delights
It's East Coast vs. West Coast in the battle of the famous delis, here in sister properties The Mirage and TI-Treasure Island. The former has brought in New York's beloved Carnegie Deli (tel. 702/791-7310; daily 7am-2am), home of the towering sandwich, so large that no mere mortal can clamp his or her jaws around it. It's hardly the same joint you New Yorkers are used to, given that this sleek and modern interpretation is crammed into a small corner of a casino. Bad puns still run amok on the menu ("Tongues for the Memory," "Nova on a Sunday," and "The Egg and Oy!"). We aren't happy that the famously huge sandwiches come with huge prices to match, along with a miserly $3 sharing fee. TI-Treasure Island is home to the first offshoot of Los Angeles's Canter's Deli (tel. 702/894-7111; Mon-Fri 11am-midnight, Sat-Sun 9am-midnight), where many a musician has whiled away many an hour, staring moodily into a bowl of matzo-ball soup. Whole families have been rend apart by stating preferences for one style over the other, so we will just say this: As much as we admit that NYC is right to claim it has superior bagels -- there, we said it -- and the Carnegie definitely has better hours, the Canter's smells just like the one we spent much pleasurable time in during our formative years. Ah, just go do some pastrami taste-testing yourselves, youse.
