Sin City Demands Sin… | Spring Break 2016

Last time on Spring Break 2016, the bachelorette party crew enjoyed a lot of good food, some poolside chillin’, and an amazing concert at the new T-Mobile Arena by The Killers, with Wayne Newton, Shamir, and special appearances by the Blue Man Group and Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons. After all that excitement, it was time to get ready to leave Las Vegas…

Thursday was our last day in Vegas, and I woke up with the sun yet again despite how dead-tired I was the day before. But it was going to be our last time seeing the desert and the craziness that is Las Vegas, so we just enjoyed it while packing our things. At this point, Kristine had already flown to LA (which I momentarily forgot when I woke up and thought I had kicked her off the bed whoops) so Megan, Jennifer, and I just chilled and finished the champagne and orange juice we had while waiting for the boys to pick us up in the rental cars and watching HGTV. (I think I understand why people get so into HGTV now; we watched two full episodes of Flip or Flop because we just felt too invested.)

I was so willing to wait through anything, though, because the bachelor and bachelorette party crews were finally uniting over a magical thing: gluttony at Wicked Spoon. I am a big fan of buffets and was pretty excited to try out the caliber of buffet that Vegas offered, seeing so many trips by so many friends that checked off this Deadly Sin off their list.

Considering that we had been waiting in our hotel for this epic food-stuffing for over an hour, we were completely famished. Walking in was a little bit overwhelming for me, because I knew that I wanted to pace myself but also that I wanted to eat a lot of food and fast. These, as you can imagine, are conflicting goals. So, I took a stroll around the buffet to get an idea of what I definitely wanted to eat and what could be passed over in case I got too full.

A view of the buffet — A view of a portion of the buffet (the salad part, because goodness knows I needed this section)

Wicked Spoon is nice in that they do small, individual portions of food instead of having you scoop out too much of every dish and realizing that you got too excited too soon. (This happens to you too, right? … right??) So they call it “small plates”-style but it’s perfect because you just get a little dish of food and you don’t have to share anything muahahahah! This also aids in pacing because you can only fit so many little dishes onto your plate.

Let’s just share some photos of my food now, shall we?

Sriracha-glazed chicken wings, prawn chips, some sushi rolls, garlicky Chinese broccoli, clams, and some noodles PLUS a little bowl of oxtail pho (hoisin + Sriracha and wasabi + soy in the little shot glasses)

Fresh strawberry-banana-orange? juice that I almost missed!

CUTE basket of fried chicken, Waldorf salad, shrimp cocktail, a broccoli salad, pork belly, mashed potatoes, and bone marrow yum

MOAR prawn chips, more broccoli salad, more bone marrow, more pork belly, and seafood risotto

DESSERT! Chocolate covered strawberry, raspberry Rice Krispie treat, Thai iced tea gelato, mango + passionfruit and raspberry gelato, lemon mousse cake, panna cotta, and a little almond cream cone

Wicked Spoon is most known for their beautiful desserts, but nothing was particularly WOWZA to me here. Still, the food was all pretty dang good (I was actually expecting to be let down a little bit) and I was the last person to finish eating because you know. (Sorry to the people who had to wait for me to finish stuffing my face with food at the end!)

This was a pretty good time, although I definitely know the experience of food looking better than it tastes. It still tastes pretty good here, however, and I’d be happy to come back after trying the other spots that I have been hearing so much about.

Finally, it was time for us to leave Las Vegas and drive to LA for a little bit of sightseeing and for the actual wedding that we flew over for, of course! We drove another member of the bachelor party with us, and by we I mean that I was fast asleep in the car while Ben drove and our guest was actually a useful passenger and navigated. But I was awake long enough to take in some of the desert on our 200-mile drive west.

No photos of the desert but I did get some video that I'll maybe share once I edit all my footage! — No photos of the desert but I did get some video that I’ll maybe share once I edit all my footage! In the meantime, here’s the view above our table!

It was dark by the time we arrived in the Arts District, where our AirBnB was located. At night, with tents lining the streets and barbed wire topping nearly every fence we drove past, I was starting to wonder what the reviews meant when previous guests said they felt totally safe running in this neighborhood at night. I won’t lie to you; we were really nervous! (Barbed wire elicits that kind of response, ya know.)

I was really feeling that buffet so I nibbled on octopus while Ben had a late dinner

One of the murals we drove past that we later revisited when it was less scary out

The view of downtown from the roof of our building; behind us, a stranger was chilling in the hot tub. It was maybe 1AM.

Our unit was lovely, the neighborhood wasn’t as bad as it used to be (and there’s no reason to take down perfectly good barbed wire… I guess…), and we were able to get some food before hitting the hay to prepare for a full weekend of sightseeing in the City of Angels.

Did I miss anything super delicious at Wicked Spoon?
What are your favorite buffets? Do you have a buffet strategy?