Hash House and Vegas

So, like I posted a few weeks ago, I turned 40.  I was planning to go to a sort of college reunion thing in Syracuse to celebrate, but due to an unfortunate series of events  it wasn’t going to work out.  So, on the relative spur of the moment, fellow iStockphoto contributor Andrew Johnson and I decided to meet up in Las Vegas to hang for a weekend.  Here’s a picture of us being cold in the “minus5” bar next door to our hotel.

Not coincidentally, there was an iStockAudio ‘lypse that week culminating in a little get together at the NewYorkNewYork hotel Friday night, which was part of the reason for going.  Anyways, as you may know, I like to visit food joints visited by my favorite Food Network and Travel Channel hosts, so while I was in Vegas, aside from losing money at the craps table …

I drove by the Nascar Cafe where Adam of Man v. Food, did his BA Burrito Challenge.  I don’t particularly care about crawfish, featured at another place he visited, but the Hash-House-A-Go-Go intrigued me.  As I recall, he had some huge, head sized pancakes there, but being on my low carb diet, I wasn’t interested in those.  Aw, to heck with the diet …

Travel Channel had visited the off Vegas strip location, but as of last month, a new location opened in the “Imperial Palace” hotel, and that’s the one we headed for.  The palace is a kind of cheesy old school-ish Vegas hotel.  It took a while to actually find how to get up to the second floor to the Hash House.  As I recall, the restaurant is pretty much the only thing at the top of the escalator.  In the lobby area, there are numerous, signed, framed pictures on the wall of all the stars who have visited, including Penn and Teller, and of course, Adam Richman.  After turning in our name, we stood around for our 20 minute wait for seats.

Once seated, we perused the extensive breakfast/brunch/lunch menu.  Remember, that everything here is huge.  So, I didn’t order the pancakes, but I did decide on the famous chicken and waffles.  Now, every show on the Travel Channel bestows the virtues of the dish “chicken and waffles”.  In my mind, it is a legendary combination of foods.  So I had to get it.  There are also plenty of other various breakfast combinations, including a variety of “Benedicts” and 7 or so types of pancakes.

The menu says to have patience, as everything is made to order, but it seemed like a half an hour before our food arrived.  Seriously, it was a really long time.  I had to get a fresh glass of iced tea, because all the ice kept melting.  And the tea was somewhat weak to start with.  Andrew got his food first.  He had the “Traditional Benedict” and it was, of course, huge.

Five minutes later, my Chicken and Waffles arrived.  Wow, what a platter, the stack held in place by a big knife.  There were two (!) breaded chicken breasts on top of a stack of waffles with a maple syrup reduction.  It was topped by fried leeks.  The big surprise was the bacon actually cooked into the waffles.  When our server stopped back by, and suggested more syrup, I took him up on it.  There wasn’t enough on the plate.

In the end, though, Chicken and Waffles didn’t live up to the TV Show hype.  Yep, the chicken was good, the waffles were good, but it ended up being too much bread and breading.  Maybe I’m just not “southern” enough.  It could be a regional thing.

The fried breasts weren’t particularly stand out flavorful, although they were plentiful.  I couldn’t finish them or the waffles.  The sweetness of the added syrup helped to cut the flavor of all the bread, as did the hidden bacon in the waffles.  The leeks, to me, were the standout addition to the dish.  I finished those off, no problem.

Well, all in all, it was a good experience.  Next time, I’ll try something else, I think.  Something with a bit more hit and flavor.  So, would I go back?  Definitely!

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