Vegas Dining News: AGO, Pink Taco, Buffet Price Increases

Time for our roundup of news you can use if you like to eat your way around Vegas:

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AGO Opens at the Hard Rock Hotel

The spot left empty by chef Kerry Simon’s move to the Luxor didn’t last long at the Hard Rock Hotel. LA’s popular AGO restaurant, backed by actor Robert DeNiro, quietly opened in that space just before New Year’s Eve last month.

AGO Opens at the Hard Rock Hotel Chef Agostino Sciandri has created a Tuscan-inspired Northern Italian menu that will please meat and seafood lovers, as well as offering up several vegetarian options.

The restaurant itself looks very different as the designers have knocked down the wall that separated Simon’s restaurant into two rooms, opening up the seating area into one large room decorated with dark hard woods and beige linens to make it a more formal space. A plush lounge and bar area completes the new decor.

AGO is currently open for dinner only, from 5:30pm until 11:30pm Monday through Thursday, and from 5:30pm until midnight Friday through Sunday. To make a reservation, call 702.693.4440. A full menu, sans prices, is available at the Hard Rock Hotel website.

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Pink Taco Celebrates Bar Re-Opening

Also worth checking out at the Hard Rock is the mexican eatery Pink Taco, which is celebrating their newly expanded bar area with a grand re-opening party on February 1st. DJ D-Wrek from MTV’s “Wild ‘N Out” will be spinning and the bar will offer pink margaritas for $5, starting at 10pm.

The eatery also has a new “Cinco de Taco” promotion that gets underway starting February 5th. On this and the 5th of every month during the promotion, the Pink Taco will offer $2 Coronas, $3 shots, $3.75 house margaritas and half off appetizers from 4pm until closing.

Of course, if you can’t make it on the 1st or the 5th, the restaurant still offers a sweet weekday happy hour in the bar with half-off appetizers and 2-4-1 on select margaritas and beer offerings from 4pm to 7pm.

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Buffet Price Increases Around Town

Several buffets have had price increases lately. Here’s a quick rundown of the ones we’ve spotted:

Bally’s award-winning Sunday Sterling Champagne Brunch has increased from $65 to $75 per person. Personally, I think paying $75 for a breakfast is crazy, but plenty raved about it when it was still at $65. I guess we’ll have to see if they think it’s worth another $10.

The Circus Buffet at Circus Circus has upped their breakfast buffet prices from $9.99 to $10.45, lunch from $10.99 to $12.45 and dinner from $11.99 to $13.45. Not sure what’s up with the 45 cents thing - maybe with tax it makes a nice round number?

Excalibur’s Round Table Buffet has increased all seatings, including the Sunday champagne brunch by $1. Breakfast is now $11.99, lunch is $12.99, dinner is $13.99 and the brunch is now $15.99.

Flavors at Harrah’s has raised their dinner price $1 to $23.99

The Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood has also added $1 to the price of all seatings. Breakfast is now $14.99, lunch is now $17.99, dinner is now $25.99 and the weekend Champagne Brunch on Saturday and Sunday is now $21.99 without the champagne and $24.99 with.

Wynn’s weekend Champagne Brunch has increased from $28.95 to $29.95 without the bubbly and from $34.95 to $36.95 with it. It still runs both Saturday and Sunday from 8am until 3:30pm.