While at the Cherry Hill Chamber of Commerce Expo a few weeks ago, I visited the booth for Caffe Aldo Lamberti, a high-end Italian restauarant in Cherry Hill NJ. They had a wheel you could spin, and you win whatever it stops at.

Lucky me, I spun and it landed on a $50 gift certificate! Called the wife and told her where we were headed for dinner.

The parking lot at this place is just nuts, with every luxury automobile you can imagine.. SL55s, Bentleys, BMWs as far as the eye can see. My Porsche was in good company! I have always heard good things about this place, but I never make it down this way for some reason..

The menu is pretty impressive.. After a lot of back-and-forth, I finally decided on the Filetto Gorgonzola. It’s wrapped with bacon, has jumbo lump crab meat on top, and it’s filled with gorgonzola cheese. It’s served with spinach and roasted potatoes.

Hands-down, one of the best meals I’ve ever had! At $33, it’s one of the pricier options on the menu, but it’s worth every dollar! (I would have taken a picture John Chow style, but it just wasn’t appropriate..)

If you’re in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area, you definitely should check out Caffe Also Lamberti’s!

Don’t worry, I’m not going all redneck John Chow on you guys..

A friend of mine is a higher-up at Lone Star Steakhouse, and he told me about their new “All You Can Eat Steak Bites”. I saw the picture, and I thought it looked gross. Still, he wanted our opinion on them, and said he’d comp the meal. ‘Nuff said!

The description for this dish reads, “A never-ending serving of our tender steak medallions, cut into bite-size pieces, hand-breaded, golden fried then tossed into your choice of sauce. Served with choice of ranch or bleu cheese dipping sauce, and bottomless steak fries.”

The concept sounds wierd. But after our server reassured us that it’s really good, we decided to give it a shot. Turns out, they’re REALLY GOOD! Who would have thought that deep frying steak, and then dousing it in BBQ sauce would be a good combo?

Their spicy Sidewinder BBQ sauce is CRAZY SPICY. Our server told us it had a “little kick”. I wanted to kick him in the balls, as my throat was on fire! It’s a shame, because their sauce has some great flavor to it, and I’d love it without the spice. The Buffalo sauce was watery, and I didn’t particularly care for it. However, my wife loved it, and said it was like eating wings. I didn’t have a chance to try their Texas Traditional, but I think that’s probably the way to go if you don’t like things hot.

All in all, it’s a fantastic dish at a very reasonable price. You don’t get a salad or side with it, but the bites and fries definitely do the trick. Try them out - I think you’ll be impressed!

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar is a fantastic steakhouse that I discovered last year.. It’s on par with Ruth Chris, Mortons, and other top-tier steakhouses. In addition, they have a wine bar that is second to none!

Fleming’s is doing a Memorable Meals special right now where you get a Filet Mignon & Lobster Tail dinner for two for $99! This beats the heck out of the $99 Steak & Shrimp deal at Morton’s that we were planning on doing..

Your meal includes:
(2) 6oz. Filets
(2) Australian Lobster Tails
(2) Chopped Wedge Salads
(1) Fleming’s Potatoe
(1) Sugar Snap Peas
(2) Chocolate Mousse

The filet was perfectly cooked, and it had great flavor. The Austrailian lobster tails were absolutely insane, the biggest tails I’ve ever eaten! The chopped wedge salad was pretty decent. I wasn’t a big fan of the Fleming’s potatoes (it’s like scalloped potatoes with cheese) - I would have much preferred a loaded baked potato. I’m not into vegetables, so I can’t speak about the snap peas.. As for dessert, it was the BEST chocolate mousse I’ve ever had. And that’s saying a lot!

This really is a fantastic deal.. It runs until July 31st at select locations, so be sure to check it out!

We visited some friends in Cleveland for Memorial Day weekend.. While there, we ate at a placed called “Steak On A Stone”. They’ve been raving about this place for months, so we had to check it out.

“It’s not just a meal. It’s an experience” Their motto is dead-on. This is the most unique dining experience I’ve had.. You order your cut of steak, and they bring it out to you on a volcanic stone that’s been heated to 750 degrees for 6-8 hours. You then simply slice a piece off, and by placing it upon the stone, cook each individual bite to the wellness you enjoy.

The food is good, and the restaurant boasts the health benefits of this style of cooking - No oils, no butter, no fats. But it’s a lot of work - Our table of 6 barely uttered a word throughout dinner, as all of us were deep in concentration, making sure that we cooked our meat properly!

If you ever make it out to Cleveland, and you like a good piece of steak, be sure to check Steak on a Stone out!

I’m sure most people on the East Coast are familiar with the Borgata.. It’s a high-end casino in Atlantic City that brought that Las Vegas vibe to the beach. A beautiful casino, absolutely flawless in it’s execution, it quickly became the hot-spot for the young and wealthy. The Tropicana fired back with their French Quarters, with a number of great restaurants and bars, and catering to a much younger crowd.

The French Quarters is definitely cool, but I’ve stayed true to the Borgata.. Tonight, we went down to the Borgata to burn through about $5000 in comps that were due to expire soon. So 9 of us decided to have a nice dinner at Ombra, an Italian restaurant located in a wine cellar at the Borgata. I expected the best, but we were VERY disappointed with the food there.

I started off with the Truffled Grissini (bread sticks slathered with white truffle butter & parmigiano reggiano, wrapped in prosciutto), which was probably the best food I ate all night. Followed up with an average Caesar Salad. For my entre, I had the Beef Short Rib “Alla Napolitana” (16 ounce braised short rib, red wine-tomato ragu, stone ground polenta).. This wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t worth the $44 they charge. For dessert, I opted for the Chocolate Dieci (chocolate cake with creme fraiche chantilly, summer berry composta, frangelico syrup). The cake had great presentation, but it was average at best - The Great Wall of Chocolate at PF Changs is 1000x better.

Total bill for the 9 of us was close to $2000. Yikes!

Afterwards, we headed over to the B Bar to get some drinks and enjoy the eye candy.. Sadly, the only eye candy was a sexy waitress from Poland. The rest of the staff was average, and the clientele was pretty bad as well. It was a real eye opener, as Saturday nights at the Borgata used to be great! I wandered over to the Gypsy Bar to see if there was any talent in there, but it wasn’t much better.. The Gypsy Bar also had a live band playing, making it impossible to even hold a conversation.

We spent about 3 hours at the B Bar before settling up our tab (another $500 or so) and calling it a night. Next time, I’m going to the French Quarters to see if the nightlife there is any better. Here’s hoping!

So the perpetual bachelor finally decided to get married.. Crazy, isn’t it?! But my wife has been my biggest supporter throughout this crazy jouryney. When I decided to quit my steady 9-5 job so I could “make a living online”, she didn’t question it. If money was ever tight, she’d offer to help without a second thought. And she doesn’t mind my wandering eye, as long as all it does is wander.

We decided to go to Vegas, as we didn’t want a big production.. We flew out on Wednesday night.. Combine the incompetence of USAir with the miserable air traffic controllers at the Philadelphia Airport, and you get a 3-hour delay leaving Philly.. Thanks to that delay, we didn’t land in Vegas until 2am (5am EST)! Then, we head over to the Luxor to check in, and there is a line a mile long. I guess they weren’t expecting 30+ people checking in at 2am, as they only had 2-3 people working the front desk. 55 minutes later, we finally get checked in, and they even upgraded to a suite!

I’ve never stayed at the Luxor before, and I was pleasantly surprised. I stayed at TheHotel at Mandalay Bay during my last visit, and my room there was unbelievable. But so was the price! The Luxor offers 8/10ths of the room for 1/4th of the price. My only complaint is that the East Tower is so far from the rest of the casino that it literally takes 10-15 minutes to get from your room to the parking garage. At The Palms, they have a seperate parking garage for their new tower, which was smart.

Food

I’m not John Chow, but Vegas is known for their food and buffets, so I might as well post about it.. Thursday morning started with the Breakfast Buffet at the Luxor. I’ve actually eaten at this buffet in the past, so I knew going in that it was going to be good, and it didn’t disappoint. I would wholeheartedly recommend this buffet if you’re looking to load up on breakfast before hitting the strip.

We skipped lunch, and instead got some much-needed sleep before our wedding. Afterwards, we decided to hit up the Seafood Buffet at the Rio for dinner. This one’s pretty pricey at almost $40/person, but it’s the only buffet on the strip that serves lobster! I loaded up on the lobster, while the wife went crazy with the crab legs. The buffet has something for everyone, but I stuck with the lobster and shrimp, and then pigged out on the desserts (of which there was no shortage)..

We were pretty full from the day before, so we started off Friday with just coffee and donuts for breakfast. Still not that hungry by lunchtime, we just hit up the McDonalds in the Luxor. But for dinner, we headed over to The Palms and ate at the N9NE. The wife had wanted to go there ever since seeing it on some reality TV show. One look at the menu, and I knew I was in for an expensive night! Sadly, I was completely underwhelmed with the food there. I had the $25 Kobe Burger, and it tasted worse than a burger you’d get at TGI Fridays. Absolutely overrated. The wife got a $19 crab appetizer that she LOVED, along with a salad that was REALLY good.. With drinks, the total bill for the night came out to about $80. For that price, I would have gone back to the Seafood Buffet at the Rio.

Saturday was our last day in Vegas.. We got a quick breakfast at McDonalds before checking out. Later in the day, we made our way to the Monte Carlo lunch buffet, since every other casino was only offering overpriced “champagne brunch buffets”. The food here was fantastic. But what really wowed me was their Philly Cheesesteak station - The sandwiches were AWESOME, on par (if not better) than most of the cheesesteaks back here in Philly! And keeping it real, they even topped it with Wiz!! Kudos to the Monte Carlo for getting it right. If you’ve never experienced a real Philly Cheesesteak, this is as close as you can get without coming here.

Entertainment

FANTASY reveals seductive secrets & sensual desires. It’s the ultimate adult revue created to excite couples! Finally a topless adult show featuring stunning women, spectacular live singing, comedy and great choreography (by Chris Judd) FANTASY engages its audience of men & women, conveying wild fantasies and secret seductions. See why AOL CityGuide rates it the “Sexiest Show in Las Vegas Entertainment!” Don’t miss this hot Las Vegas action!

Besides that, we hit up a couple of nightclubs.. Our trip happened to fall during spring break, so the place was FULL of scantily-clad women! It definitely made for a memorable trip, that’s for sure..

That’s it for now.. Later!