Eating and drinking with Franny and Zo!

Here I am again, doing what I hate most... Telling people that a place in a Casino is good. Why do I hate doing this? First of all it is rare I like any food from any casino unless you are in one of their top tier restaurants. Secondly I hate supporting Casinos when their are great local places to eat. Finally I hate doing it because I have such a hard time convincing people that my taste-buds are not broken! But tucked away in the Silver Legacy is a restaurant that I really enjoyed.

Thai Lotus is one of my new favorite places to catch lunch in Reno. You get not only great tasting but beautifully presented food. Your meal comes out on a large ornate platter with a small salad, a rice paddie, your main course and an egg roll each on their own dish. The effect along with the friendly servers makes you think that you should be paying far more than the usual $8 bucks!

The Firkin' chain of British Pubs is owned and operated by a British Canadian company. Confusing? YES! Although we usually do not stop in huge corporate chain restaurants we were looking for something we had not had and had burgers and brews.

Tha Joint offers not only great sushi but also great service and a fun environment. Most sushi restaurants in Reno have one of two extreme feels to them. You have the cafeteria places and the intimate get together places. Tha Joint has an almost upbeat club feel to it that is still cozy due to all the employees being so friendly.

Polar Bear Frozen Treats in Reno is one of Zo and my favorite places to get frozen treats! Zo is a big fan of the Turtle Sundae (hot fudge, caramel, and salted pecans!) and I like trying the flavor of the day! My favorites have been peanut butter with chocolate peanut butter cups, s'mores, lemon pie and chocolate chocolate with fudge! I am sure there have been others I loved but going their most every Wednesday and Sunday makes it hard to remember what all we have had. That is how much we love it, we go almost every Wednesday and Sunday.

We do not usually frequent casinos but the Atlantis In Reno has Gelato! They also have brick oven pizzas. Those two things combined plus the fact the Atlantis is one of the casinos you do not walk out of smelling like a total ashtray makes this a fun place to stop by now and then.

If you get a pizza be picky. If it looks like something you can get anywhere it is going to taste like a pizza you can get anywhere. If it has an interesting name like; Island Delight, Fire-Roasted Chipotle Chicken, Chef Bob's Favorite, Spicy Meatball, Sonora, ect. It is going to be interesting and good.

When it comes to Gelato there is only really one flavor to avoid. Banana, it tastes like banana laughy taffy not bananas. Other wise they all taste great, some of our favorites are; Wine custard, Amaretto, Carmel, cookies and cream, truffle and vanilla. Everyday they have different flavors so you may have to drop in a few times in a row to get the flavor you are looking for.

We hope to see you there! http://www.atlantiscasino.com/dining/cafe-alfresco-menu.asp

Beef Fajitas, Tacos, Cheese Enchiladas, Salsa, beans, rice, Quesadilla, Carne Asada, Chile Relleno, Margaritas everything I have had here tastes authentic and great!

I have been telling Zo about this place for probably a year and a half and saying we have to go. Then we would end up going somewhere else for one reason or another. We finally popped in Monday night and the food was just as good as I remembered it and I got a, "Everything tastes SO good," from Zo!

We split an order of beef fajitas and a cheese enchilada and it was oh so good.

Being that it has been a while since I have been there, I noticed they have redone the decor and menu's. I remember there being mariachis as well but maybe they are off on Monday nights. Treat yourself to some yummy Mexican at El Sazon II on Oddie Blvd :)

No website so here are some reviews:
http://local.yahoo.com/info-14995488-el-sazon-mexicano-restaurant-alcoa
http://www.menupix.com/reno/restaurants/2800635/El-Sazon-Mexican-Restaurant-Sparks-NV

What Francis says: Love it when the mariachis are there, great place for some authentic Mexican cuisine.
What Zo says: Good place to take your family for Mexican food.

Being the pizza lovers we are we scour our local area for good pizzerias. We had seen the sign for Eclipse a few times and decided it was time to try it out.

The menu is full of pizza's with fun names and we settled on the Downieville, an Eclipse House salad and Two Orange blossom beers. You can sit outside on the patio, down stairs or in the loft. We chose the loft as you can look out the windows at the beautiful Reno Valley mountains.

When our order was ready they popped upstairs and dropped us off our food. Pizza is always good but man this pizza is as fun your mouth as they are named. It was flavorful with quality ingredients and best of all the crust was great tasting. Too many places have pizza crust that is as bland as cardboard. The crust could have been eaten on its own it was so good.

We highly recommend this place for its fun food and atmosphere!

http://www.eclipsepizza.net/

What Francis says: Darn good pizza, just eat it there the crust is not as good once it cools.
What Zo says: Tasty pizza and tasty crust, fun environment.

A very pleasant surprise! Zo mentioned seeing the commercial for this Fresh Mex on our way home from my parents. We thought it would be fun to stop in and get some quick food to eat as we lounged around at home.

Zo and I wanted to go out to a fancy shmancy dinner, somewhere we could dress up and not look completely out of place. In Reno your selection of this type of restaurant is pretty small.

Deciding to pop into Beaujolais Bistro reservationless we were seated right away. The restaurant has a very nice ambiance, quaint with a touch of regal. This is due to it being a converted cottage.

The first thing I noticed about the menu was the small dinner selection, this usually shows that you will be having a quality meal. This assumption was completely correct! I loved the roasted duck that was the special of the night. Zo's choice was exquisite! The wine selection was also adequate. What was not adequate was the service. Our waiter seemed to hover around the tables with more mature (older) couples and groups. We figured he must feel that due to our youth we would be bad tippers. The bad service continued through dessert. Speaking of dessert every spoonful of our creme brulee was mouthwateringly good.

When it came time to tip we were torn, do we tip poorly to show how upset we were with the service or would that just make the waiter believe he was right in assuming that we would tip poorly. I do not care if I am paying 10 dollars for a meal or over 100 dollars for a meal I expect good service. In the end we settled on 15 percent due to the food being so wonderful. If there was not a lack of service we would have gone with our usual 20-25 percent tip. That waiter really needs to learn that young couples do not equate to poor tipping.

What Francis says: Go for the great food but bear in mind you have the chance of having poor service.
What Zo says: Good food and environment, they must hate young couples because they think they don't tip well.

http://www.beaujolaisbistro.com/history04.html