We ate at Flamingo's newish "Voga" restaurant (an Italian bistro), and
found it to be really really excellent. The food it moderately priced
Italian, but they have a 3-course "summer special" for $19.95 that definitely is
worth a look.
The meal started off with a bang as freshly baked rolls of four varieties
were served. I haven't had such delicious bread in a long time. One roll
was pinstripped with a bit of tomato and perhaps a touch of bacon -
excellent; another was a normal round roll topped with a little tomato and a slight
cheesy flavor; a third had rosemary and herbs; a fourth was a "normal"
round roll. All were warm and fresh, not reheated when we sat down at 5 p.m.
And they were served with an interesting and delicious herb butter that
enhanced the flavor of the rolls but did not overpower it.
We ate from the regular menu, which has soups and salads, small shared
plates (appetizers), patas, main plates, and side orders. We started with a
truly delicious avocado and pear carpaccio salad ($10), large enough to be
shared. The salad also contained delicious tomatoes, and an excellent
orange vinaigrette that enhanced the flavors. My husband had the roasted salmon
with baby artichokes and ratatouille ($24) as his main entree (main plate
item). Other entrees included things like cioppino (seafood in a spicy
broth) ($29), chicken peperonata ($21), sea bass with rock shrimp risotto
($32), chicken parmasean ($22) , filet mignon with reyes blue cheese ($38),
and lobster with crispy polenta and black truffle scents ($35). Side orders
such as sauted spinach with garlic or mashed potatoes are $8 each.
I ordered three of the "small shared plates" and found them delightful.
One was fried lime calamari and bay scallops ($13) served with lemon and
two different dips. The second was colossal shrimp scallops ($15) - this was
perhaps the best shrimp scampi I've ever had -- 3 BIG shrimps set in a
delicious sauce with pear tomatoes, basil, butter, olive oil, garlic, a bit of
jalapeno pepper, to give a slight edge but not overly spicy. The third
was something called "Voga Rocks" ($16) - veal scaloppini you actually cooked
yourself - about 5 very thin slices of veal came with an extremely hot
rock, and you put the veal on it and cooked it, then put it into the sauce,
served with potato chips. The veal was tasty, but not that large a portion,
and probably not worth getting compared to some of the other items on the
menu, except for its novelty.
Voga also has pizza, nad pastas such as meatball voga ($15 for spahetti in
a light pink sauce), risotto Jardino ($16), etc.
The $19.95 summer special consists of choice of Caesar salad or house
salad, choice of entree (chicken breast parmigiana, linguine carbonara,
fettuccini alfredo, spaghetti with meatballs, homemade lasagna) and desert
(tiramisu).
The decor of this restaurant was pleasant, as were the servers, and the
manager came around to introduce herself to everyone and ask how the meal
was. The service was fast to start with but did slow down as the place got
busier, but not enough that it was a problem. The only glitch we noticed was
they never offered the wine list (we had to ask). Soda was refilled
without charge.
We were extremely happy with every course and really enjoyed the food.
Voga is situated next to the Harrah's Diamond lounge in the Flamingo, making
it convenient if you want to use that, get a drink, and then have dinner.
This is in the long hall that goes to Flamingo's buffet.
We ate on a weekend and saw a huge line for the buffet. Obviously the
$19.95 special here would have been the smart bet for some of the people
waiting for the buffet -- no wait, servers, and delicious food.
We will be heading back to Voga soon.
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