Las Vegas - Society Cafe

This breakfast was so filling. I mean so filling to the point where I couldn't really eat dinner. I don't know if it's because I haven't had beef for so long or because it was beef for breakfast. We walked all the way down to Society Cafe inside Encore from our hotel at the Aria on Friday morning and it took a good 45 minutes or so. My mom is still recovering from a foot injury and adjusting to her orthotics, so it took a while. The only other restaurant I've tried at the Wynn resorts was the buffet and Terrace Point Cafe for breakfast and I fell in love with it, so decided on another Wynn restaurant for breakfast.

We did not have reservations and were seated promptly at around 10:30 am. The restaurant is really cute and chic and you'll feel like you're dining in someone's home. I ordered the Ultimate Steak and Egg Sliders for my mom with a side of potatoes.

The slider consists of a bacon cheddar muffin for the buns, a layer of scrambled eggs, filet mignon, and creamed spinach. Man oh man, this was a rich and decadent breakfast. I think it could've used a little more salt, but it was still delicious. The filet was tender and fresh and the eggs were fluffy. The creamed spinach was a little muted with the bacon in the muffin taking over and rounding out the flavor of the slider overall. One was a lot to finish; it looks small, but is actually very filling. I didn't try the potatoes but my mom never finishes her potatoes and she ate all of it. She said it was crispy and had a great aroma of fresh herbs. She had her breakfast with a cappuccino while I ordered mine with black coffee.

The cappuccino had a lot more air in the foam than I would've preferred. I only had a taste and their espresso has notes of caramel and was robust and dark. My coffee was delicious with smoky notes of caramel as well. It had low acidity and was lightly bitter, but in a good way.

I ordered short rib hash. It came with chunks of braised beef shortribs, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers, two poached eggs, and oiled toast. I think a buttered toast would've made it too decadent.

I shared half with my mom as she shared her sliders with me, this way we got a taste of everything. I really enjoyed soaking my bread in the juices. It reminds me a little of vietnamese bo kho, which is a type of beef stew. My mom loved this dish since it is reminiscent of bo kho. The beef was tender and perfectly seasoned. I really liked the chunks of potatoes in this dish, it was like eating stew. The fun part was breaking the poached eggs.

All the yolk that oozed out made it so much richer. It made a nice slurry with the juices of the hash to soak my bread in.

The chunks of beef did a have a bit more fat than I would've preferred. It was good, but I wish it was a little less oily. I couldn't tell exactly how much oil was in the pan since it was an uncoated cast iron pan. But I could taste it and I think the amount of fat in this dish had me full all the way past dinner. It was a shame I was so full because I went to a Vegas Uncork'd event later that afternoon and really could not eat much. I'll have an exciting post on that later.

You can find Society Cafe inside Encore in their main casino room (which is pretty small). If you're further down the strip, you'll definitely feel glad you walked a long ways to get here and enjoy some breakfast decadence.

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Las Vegas - Sambalatte

Isn't that cute? I'm a Starbucks junkie so when I go to an actual non-chained coffee shop, it's always a treat. I had looked up Sambalatte before and noticed two specialty espresso items on the menu that is not offered at many places - the cortado and the flat white. I did a search for cortado on Yelp and found some places do offer it where I live, so I opted for the flat white. The flat white is in between a cappuccino and a latte, the foam is distributed evenly throughout the milk so it makes an extra creamy drink. They advised me to stick with whole milk and seeing that the drink is probably six ounces overall, I went with it since it wouldn't make me feel too bloated being that little.

The prices are what you would expect on the Vegas strip. They have a nutella latte I didn't get a chance to try but will next time I go. I just got stuck on their flat white and that's what I kept ordering. When we came back there, we opted to drink at the cafe and got mugs and saucers instead.

The drink itself doesn't come out piping hot, it's a nice hotter than warm, but don't have to let it cool down to drink hot. I don't like my milk to have a scalded taste and sometimes, chain coffee shops produce milk-based coffee drinks with milk hotter than it should be, yielding a scalded flavor. I like how they make art on the foam so every drink feels so special. I believe they roast their own beans since I saw a whole coffee bean work area sectioned off in the store. The roast was not bitter or burnt, it was smooth and ever so slightly smoky. I would say acidity was very light or nonexistent. But of course, I wouldn't be able to tell that much with the whole milk in there to smooth everything out. *sigh* I wish we had a Sambalatte here in Houston.

They have plenty of seating, including a lounge-type seating area and a community table, which my mom and I sat at to enjoy our flat whites. It's a cute big coffee shop that offers pastries, desserts, and savory breakfast items as well. Next time you're in Vegas, make sure to visit one of their locations. They have a couple and this one is on the strip right in front of Monte Carlo. Keep in mind they do close early by Vegas standards.

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