Tableside food

When playing at the Venetian on Monday, I noticed a young woman strolling around the tables inviting players to order food. Her shirt indicated that she worked for a place called "Pizzeria da Enzo."

It appears that the Venetian poker room now has a little competition in the tableside food service. Maybe it has been going on for a long time, but I never noticed it before. You can still order things from the "in-suite dining" menu, but now there's this other completely independent outfit.

So I checked their menu, and I was impressed:




Just $10 for a chicken parmigiana meal? Sounded like a pretty good deal. I had been planning on taking a break and having lunch at the Grand Lux, but decided to try this new option. I ordered, it came quickly, and the young woman took my player's club card and did all the processing to get it comped for me. The food was actually really good.

In fact, it was so good that I went back today, intending on getting the exact same thing again. And I did. This time I even took a picture for you. (If you think it feels strange taking cell phone pictures of one's chip stacks at the poker table, it's even weirder taking pictures of food there.)




My experience with tableside food is extremely limited. For the most part, I think it's much better to take a break from the game and go eat somewhere else than to try to do two nearly incompatible things at once. But I guess I don't mind making an occasional exception. I think my only previous experiences eating at the table were at the Hilton, where I would sometimes get a personal pan pizza from the Pizza Hut there, or buy a couple of $1 hot dogs on football Sundays.

So you've got a decent portion of chicken parm, pasta, good bread and butter, and a generous helping of fresh fruit (strawberries, grapes, melons). Makes for an excellent repast--especially when it's completely covered by one's ridiculous stock of accumulated-but-rarely-used food comps (except for the tip, of course). I recommend it.