“Bargain hunting” |
| Posted: 20 Dec 2010 05:22 PM PST For many, much of December is spent roaming shopping malls -- first in search of the perfect gifts and later returning the holiday gestures of those who clearly have no clue about our taste. Navigating the malls of the valley can be hard work that requires sustenance. Yet, we usually find ourselves too rushed to make time for a relaxed meal in a nice restaurant. Instead, all too frequently, we condemn ourselves to shoveling some generic fast food down our throats at a hectic food court. In the spirit of the final shopping week before Christmas, however, I've decided to turn you on to one of the Fashion Show Mall's best kept dining secrets: Café Nordstrom. Tucked away on the third floor of the posh department store, the café is the antithesis of the typical mall dining experience. The food is good. The service is amazingly fast. And the prices for a great pasta, gourmet salad, pizza or panini are only a few bucks higher than what you'd pay for a value meal in the food court at the other end of the mall. Café Nordstrom is not a full-scale sit-down restaurant -- which is exactly why diners are able to get in and out so quickly. Customers order from a large counter where samples of all of the dishes are on display behind glass. The food is prepared to order and delivered to your table by a waitress. And the dining room is modest but clean, with the feel of a coffee shop in a nice Strip casino. The menu, while small, is remarkably varied, featuring a level of cuisine you wouldn't expect in such a casual setting. The eight salads include a mix of three berries, candied walnuts and chicken over mixed greens with blue cheese and blackberry walnut vinaigrette ($10.25), grilled shrimp, sweet corn and arugula with warm polenta croutons, crispy parmesan and creamy garlic vinaigrette ($10.75), and a blackened salmon Caesar with chili pepper aioli ($10.95). All of them are massive. Café Nordstrom offers six sandwiches, plus another three panini. Among them, you'll find grilled steak and portobello mushroom with melted provolone and garlic aioli ($9.95), imported tuna with olive oil, capers, marinated artichokes, red onion, arugula, oven-dried tomatoes and lemon-basil aioli ($10.25), and roasted turkey with cranberry chutney, havarti cheese, sprouts and mayo ($8.95). There are also three pizzas ($9.25), three more pastas ($8.95-$9.50) and three entrees such as Dijon roasted salmon with vegetables ($11.75) and Tuscan roasted chicken ($10.50). Finally, the chef offers various daily specials. My wife and I weren't actually shopping at the mall the night of our first visit. We were there exclusively to try the café, which has been generating a lot of buzz lately among my friends and friends of my editor. Knowing the restaurant closed at 8 p.m., and running late as usual, we pulled up to Nordstrom's convenient valet at roughly 7:25. By 7:30, we had placed our orders. My wife was served her tasty tomato basil soup ($3.50 a cup, $4.50 a bowl) immediately. And by 7:45, our waitress had arrived with our entrees. I was extremely impressed with the quality of the wild mushroom ravioli, particularly considering they were priced at a mere $9.50. While I didn't count them, I'd estimate I received about seven or eight medium, square ravioli, packed with a tasty mushroom filling. I'll admit the basil, parmesan cream sauce, packed with mushrooms and a handful of roasted peppers, was just a little salty for my taste. However, it was far better than anything I expected to get at this price point. My wife and I both felt the same way about her grilled skirt steak chimichurri with roasted vegetables. Sure, the cut of beef wasn't going to rival what you'll find at one of the Strip's pricey steakhouses, and the sauce went just a little light on the cilantro and lime and once again just a touch heavy on the salt. Yet, overall, it was one of the higher quality, more creative steak dinners you're likely to find for $12.75. Sure, Café Nordstrom isn't a gourmet restaurant. But with speed, variety, quality and affordable prices, it's not surprising it isn't just gaining popularity with mall shoppers. It's also becoming a hot spot for area workers on their lunch breaks. It's worth a visit by anyone in the area with a busy schedule who wants a good meal at a great price. Read more about the Las Vegas dining scene on Al Mancini's blog, The Second Deadly Sin: www.SecondDeadlySin.com This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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