Three Days, Three Lousy Lunches – Day Two: RED 8
Day Two – Red 8
About all you need to know about Red 8…
…is that they get $23 for phad Thai that’s no better than the pad Thai available all over town for half the price. The dim sum also is twice what you’d pay at Ping Pang Pong or Cathay House, for identical goods. We knew this going in, but went there anyway.There’s no denying the place is attractive:
and there are nice, semi-private booths overlooking the casino floor: that provide great people-watching-potential — on the off-chance there’s anyone in a casino these days. (Last Saturday, the Wynn was deader than Julius Caesar.)So, everything was looking great until (just like ELV’s first marriage) we had to face what we were there for in the first place.
First, came the aforementioned dim sum:
….that was pricey, mundane, and greasy. (The deep fried egg rolls may have crackled and crunched, but were clearly fried in oil that wasn’t hot enough.)Even worse were the bland-to-the-point-of-insipidness “Signature Dishes” of beef slices with tomato and egg:
and a Malaysian inspired noodle dish: that would be perfect, pre-chewed food for invalids and shut-ins averse to anything too exotic or seasoned. So bland was the beef dish, that it had us longing for Bill Fong’s Beef Tomato With Vinegar (that was $5.95 if memory serves) at the gone-but-not-forgotten Huntridge Drug Store Lunch Counter.The point of places like Red 8 is to provide Asian food to a captive audience that hasn’t the time or the gumption to actually seek out the good stuff. There may be a level of cooking here we haven’t experienced…but after a $110 lunch for two, we’re not coming back to find out.
p.s. If you awake in the wee hours this Friday morning, you’ll hear us extolling the virtues of Red 8 and Wing Lei on Channel 8’s Dishing and Dining. In a moment of youthful exuberance for which we are known, ELV actually refers to them as two of our favorite Asian restaurants. That statement is only half true.
RED 8
In the Wynn Resort and Casino
3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.770.3380
Restaurant reviews, quips, picks and pans-with some seriously salivating history-from the man who eats his way through Sin City every day.
December 24th, 2008 at 7:49 am
I found Red 8 to be decent the first time I stayed at the Wynn. I didn’t get there this last time. Now I’m glad that I didn’t.
December 24th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I’ve always had pretty decent lunches there…albeit none that provided food that was terribly memorable or worth the price. But mostly tasty all the same. Just head West a few miles, everyone, and you’ll find the best Asian food around.