Vegan in Vegas

This past weekend was my first trip to Las Vegas as a vegan. I already knew the Wynn and the Encore are very vegan friendly due to the fact that Steve Wynn is a vegan, but I didn't do much research beforehand into other hotels. This was a budget trip for us so we took the cheapest room we could find at the LVH.

We arrived Friday evening and after getting settled and cleaned up we went to meet our friends where they were staying at the MGM. I did a quick search on my phone for vegan options there and found a blog that stated the Italian restaurant Faminna had some vegan options. Sadly upon double checking we were told that all pastas contained eggs (BOO!) I definitely needed something more than a salad at this point so we moved on. Right across the way was the Japanese restaurant, Shibuya. They had a prix fix vegetarian menu that was $55, and most of it wasn't actually vegan but the waiter was nice enough to point out a couple things we could eat like the edamame, fried tofu and a veggie roll. Unfortunately their miso soup is made with fish broth, so boo to that too. I wish we were able to eat more, but it was better than continuing to search for another hour or two. Plus we had great company and conversation so it was all good. The presentation of the tofu was gorgeous and it was pretty tasty, plus we got a huge bowl of edamame.

The next day we got up pretty late so we went straight for lunch at the Wynn's Terrace Pointe Cafe. They had a vegan menu with a load of good choices, but they were all pretty pricey except for the burger, fries and chocolate milkshake combo for $9, so we both got that. In all honesty I was a bit disappointed when the food came out. It all tasted fine, but the proportions were tiny. My vegan milkshake was pretty awesome though :)

That night we decided to take our friends to a nice dinner at Top of the World at the Stratosphere. When my husband made the reservation the host told him that they did have a vegan option so we weren't worried about finding something to eat. The view there is GORGEOUS. You can see all of Vegas lit up and the restaurant rotates!! There was one vegetarian option on the menu with a bunch of vegetables and some quinoa. I figured I would play it safe and ask the waiter if they used butter in the preparation. Good thing I did because he said that they did. When I told him that I was vegan and didn't eat butter he told me that it's ok because it tasted really good. WTF?! When I said again that I was vegan and asked if it would be possible to do it without butter he told me no. So my husband and I were looking at a plate of lettuce and tomatoes for dinner basically. My crusader friend was not satisfied that the chef would not be able to make something vegan for my husband and I so she asked the waiter again if it would be possible and he gave us total attitude, saying it was Saturday night and the chef can't just make new dishes for everyone. I was pretty annoyed at this point but we finally got him to go talk to chef and when he came back the chef said it wouldn't be a problem to prepare the vegetarian meal without dairy. The food was ok, but it was basically $40 for a plate of carrots, asparagus and mushrooms. I was disappointed. I don't care how great the view is, I will not go back to that restaurant again. I didn't even want to take a picture of my food.

Sunday morning was the saving grace of the entire weekend. I had been reading about Ronald's Donuts on vegan websites for the past month and we decided to take a cab out to Chinatown to get some. After a $20 cab ride we walked into this typical little donut shop and I asked the very sweet owner which options were vegan and he pointed out the entire top two rows! I was ecstatic! Maple bars, chocolate bars, sugar twists, donut holes, apple fritters, etc....I had a hard time only choosing a couple to eat. We ended up with a fritter, 5 donuts, 12 donut holes and a large bottle of water all for $8. They were the best damn vegan donuts I had ever had. Heaven. The owner was so nice, I will definitely make this place a staple for future Vegas trips.

For lunch on Sunday we ate at the lounge in MGM Signature Lounge and had a great bowl of vegan chili (just ask for it without the cheese). After the donuts I was happy to have some hearty food in my belly. I didn't get a picture of this either because at this point I was just too darn tired and I may have had a couple margaritas in my already ;)

Overall I was a little disappointed in the vegan options in Vegas. You would think for a city with so many tourists that it would be more accommodating to different dietary needs. I think before we head out again I will do a lot more research as I'm sure there are places we just didn't know about where we could have found a decent meal.