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Water / Water Fee / Border Grill / Mandalay Bay / Eating / Dining / Vegas Controversies / → All Tags

Debate Continues to Flow About Border Grill's Water Fee

Some people drink it at restaurants exclusively. Some ask for it as a backup for when their original beverage of choice runs dry. Some restaurants offer it as soon as you sit down, others only if you ask.

When it comes to water at restaurants, everyone -- and every business -- does something different. But, the one thing we've known for sure is that we'll either have to pay for a bottle or go the free route with tap. At least until we found out about Border Grill's water fee for not quite bottled water, not quite tap.

After discovering and writing about the .50 cent water fee earlier this week, the story (penned by East Coast Gambler) is now causing a groundswell of comments on the Internets. It caught the eye of Eater.com and Delish.com dished on it, too, with that piece alone garnering 96 comments and counting.

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Mandalay Bay / Border Grill / WTF / Water Fee / → All Tags

Want Tap Water? There's A Fee For That

We've grown accustom to fees being attached to almost everything in Vegas. Resort fees are now the norm when booking a room (sans Caesars properties). We've even come across "Additional Person Fees" but last week our jaw hit the ground when we saw that Border Grill at Mandalay Bay was charging a "Water Fee" of .50 per glass when a friend was brunching.

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Top Chef Masters / Vegas On TV / Reality TV / Twitter / Border Grill / Mandalay Bay / Mary Sue Milliken / → All Tags

Border Grill To Dish On Top Chef Masters, In 140 Characters Or Less

Could Mandalay Bay be home to the next Top Chef Master? Border Grill Chef Mary Sue Milliken is still in it to win it, one of the last three cheftestants standing cooking after winning last week's Elimination Challenge. (Her fourth in your face of the season.)

The season finale airs tomorrow night on Bravo but if you're in Vegas, instead of watching it on the tube, head down to Border Grill where a big viewing party will take place. Just show up at the upstairs bar at 7 p.m. and knock back $3 Corona's and $5 margaritas as you cheer Chef Milliken to victory. (Round for the house if she wins??) The resto will also pass out complimentary bites of some of Mary Sue's winning dishes, too.

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Classes / Border Grill / Whole Foods / Summerlin / Town Square / → All Tags

Dos Opps To Cook Like A Vegas Chef

Maybe we've been watching too much Food Network but every once in awhile we start to dream we have the kitchen skillz to compete (we don't). We're willing to try and learn though and this month Whole Foods serves up two opportunities to learn how to cook like a big time Vegas chef.

Our stomachs are still rumbling over the new brunch at Border Grill and this Thursday June 9, BG's executive chef Mike Minor will share the secrets behind some of those dishes. Mary Sue can't make it since she's still in it to win it. At least in TV time; she could be hiding out in an LA backlot polishing her Top Chef Masters trophy for all we know. Not our week to stalk her, ya know?

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Eating / Brunch / Border Grill / Mandalay Bay / Top Chef Masters / → All Tags

Feeling Hungry? You Will After This: Inside Border Grill's Brunch

Eating is a slight passion of ours in Las Vegas and brunch is no exception. So when Mandalay Bay's Border Grill announced an all-you-can-eat challenge for $24.99 we took notice. When we saw free flowing mimosas for $5 more, we sat up and took notice. And then ran down to check it out. Ok, we drove. We're not that passionate.

First up, a little education is apparently in order. BG Chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken have now both appeared on Top Chef Masters. If you're a well to do southern California housewife throwing a dinner party, there's a hot chance you want a celebrity chef to turn your oven on cook for you. Do yourself a favor and do some research before meeting with and insulting your chef. Spoiler alert: Border Grill specializes in Mexican!!!

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Vegas On TV / MGM Grand / Mandalay Bay / Border Grill / Wynn / Alex / Alex Stratta / Holly's World / Holly Madison / → All Tags

Vegas On TV: An Undercover Boss, Some Top Chefs, A Few Gigolos And More

Whenever you're missing Vegas, just turn on the tube. Over the next few weeks, it will be hard to miss as Vegas execs, celebs, gigolos and more get much more than their 15 minutes of fame.

First up, the guy at top with the bad rug who just happens to be MGM Grand's President and COO. From the looks of it, Scott Sibella will apparently make us very thankful that he doesn't normally man any of the tables on the hotel's casino floor:

Wince some more when the entire episode of "Undercover Boss" airs Sunday night on CBS.

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Deals / Mandalay Bay / Border Grill / → All Tags

Border Grill Throws Down An All-You-Can-Eat Challenge

This weekend, you can make a run for the Border and not have to wonder if that's really meat or not.

Border Grill at Mandalay Bay is launching an all-you-can-eat weekend brunch buffet starting tomorrow. You can eat your fill of 17 different dishes for $24.99 a person.

Nom on green corn tamales, plantain empanadas, breakfast enchiladas, carne asada tacos, cinnamon apple pancakes, biscuits, gravy, fresh fruit, and more. Add "free-flowing" mimosas for an additional $5 bucks.

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March Madness / Mandalay Bay / Luxor / Forum Shops / Excalibur / ARIA / Planet Hollywood / Rockhouse / Border Grill / Strip House / PBR Rock Bar / Cabo Wabo / New York-New York / Hard Rock Cafe / → All Tags

March Madness: Where To Eat, Drink, Watch, And How To Bet, Too

The first round of March Madness won't start until March 15, but that's not stopping Vegas restaurants and bars from promoting their specials now. And, they know the best way to hit a slam dunk with fans is to discount that booze. Ohhh, yeah.

At New York-New York, ESPN Zone The Sporting House will reward one lucky customer for boozing it up within its walls.

Every bucket of Bud or Bud Light you purchase at the resto will earn you a shot at winning four recliners during the Final Four Championship games. Having some place comfy to plant our tush is cool, but New York-New York is going a few steps further by throwing in food and beverage, too, kicking in $1,000 bucks and making sure the lucky winner has not one, but two rooms for two nights to rest our bleary heads.

The contest starts today so start ordering soon. The winner will be announced March 27. There's a catch, tho, that will be tricky. In order to win the cash, you'll need to be present for the announcement. If not, you'll get everything but. Still a pretty good haul, even without the benjamins.

Here's a look at what other "madness" you'll find on The Strip this March:

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Dining / Eating / Border Grill / Mon Ami Gabi / Four Seasons / Yard House / Mandalay Bay / → All Tags

5 Places To Eat Gluten-Free In Vegas

For some, eating out on The Strip can be scary and downright sickening. Not because of the final bill or bad service, but because of what's on the plate itself. Or, rather, what can't be on it.

While Oprah and Steve Wynn are doing their part to propel vegan noms into the spotlight, there are also folks that visit Vegas that chose to be - or medically need to be - gluten-free. If you're not sure what that means, its basically stripping all the wheat and wheat by-products out of your diet. And, if you've never thought about what that might mean to your eating habits, it's an eye-opener. Throw out the bread, pastries, chips, ice cream, beer, pasta, cold cuts, chicken nuggets, cakes, pies, cereal, and more that you normally eat. It'll all make you sick.

As you can imagine, that pretty much wipes out most menu items at just about any restaurant. And, what's left could be at-risk for cross-contamination in a kitchen that's not cooking with this diet in mind. So, when gluten-free visitors need to nosh in Vegas, where can they go? Here are five restos to consider:

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VegasChatter Questions / Celeb Chefs / Restaurants / Mandalay Bay / Top Chef / rm seafood / Fleur / Trattoria del Lupo / Border Grill / → All Tags

Six Guys Walk Into A Casino: Now, Where To Eat?

Time for another VegasChatter Question! Got a question about Vegas? Send it to us and if we deem it clean enough, we'll post it here on VegasChatter. Now, we'll spit out our own suggestions but we want you to help your fellow Vegas visitors too. So drop your answers in comments below!

Reader DG is swinging into Vegas on a guy’s trip with a handful of friends and looking for a good, nice but not too nice, non-steakhouse offering from a celebrity chef. Wait, can six single guys swing in(to) Vegas? Perhaps we should have used flying instead of swinging. Oops.

Without knowing where the guys are staying or if that’s even a factor, we suggest eating at Mandalay Bay which has semi-quietly become an epicenter of celebrity chef restaurants. Multiple celebrity chefs call Mandalay home so there is variety to satisfy every dude’s palate and if the guys change their mind last minute, they don’t have to travel far for other choices.

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Vegas Uncork'd / Restaurants / Craftsteak / Nobu / Sirio / Fleur de Lys / Border Grill / → All Tags

What to Take From The Grand Tasting (Heartburn Optional)

The Grand Tasting scene at the Garden of the Gods

Apologies if our roundup yesterday of our favorite bits of Vegas Uncork’d made you a) hungry or b) jealous. We understand that if you missed it, planning a trip to make it next year won’t cut it when all you’ve got in the larder for your lunch is a poptart and your local equivalent of a sexy Vegas chef is Mr D Donuts.

But although you’ll have to wait till next year to experience the Grand Tasting, you’re more than welcome to come on down here and eat the sexy chef wares in their proper restaurants. In fact, where we only had a mouthful of everything, you can take a whole plateful. That makes you feel better, right?

To help you choose which to go for (and which to avoid), and as a gesture of reconciliation, we’re giving you our top tips from the Grand Tasting. Don’t take them as gospel – food cooked on a grill outside is never going to match what’s brewed in the restaurants, after all, and the foodie fiends of Tasting Las Vegas told us that “few of the stalls were representative” of the restaurants.

What it does mean, though, is that we have even higher hopes for the ones that did it well. And of what we ate (probably just under half of what was on offer), those were:

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Special Events / Concerts / Mandalay Bay / Alejandro Fernandez / Border Grill / → All Tags

Mandalay Bay Hearts Mexican Independence Day

As anyone who’s up on their Mexican history knows, Mexican Independence Day is not Cinco de Mayo (May 5), but September 16, and Las Vegas entertainment honchos have planned their calendars to mark the occasion for years.

Several high-octane Latin performers were in town over the weekend (the bulk of the festivities are usually concentrated on whichever weekend is closer to the actual date), but there are still concerts happening tonight and tomorrow night, with the hotbed thereof concentrated at Mandalay Bay:

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