Golden Nugget Restaurant Bargains - 2019 Edition

The Nugget has some decent fooderies and you can use a few tricks to sample them while paying less then full freight.

Lunch Special at Grotto Italian Ristorante

Grotto serves up classic southern Italian fare. It's beautifully decorated and features poolside tables, if you want to gaze upon slow-roasted thighs while enjoying your 'zuppa'. Maybe it would be better to focus on the shark tank.

Slow-roasted thighs, calves and backs. And wings. Try to find the bikini instead.

Typical entrees and pizzas are in the $15 to $20 range, you can enjoy a two course lunch at Grotto for just $15. The first course gives you a choice of salads or their amazing tomato basil soup, which I highly recommend. For the second course, you can choose from chicken scaloppine, spaghetti, lasagne, or a half marinated rotisserie chicken. That's half a chicken, not a half-marinated chicken. Caesars salad and half a chicken for $15? Not too shabby, and the location of Grotto for people watching can't be beat.

Ten Dollar Happy Hour Pizza at Grotto

If you are willing to jump through a few happy hoops, you can get a great deal on a pizza at Grotto.


Just sit at the bar, Monday through Friday, between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM, wearing a red carnation and a wetsuit whilst reciting Chaucer, and you - yes you! - qualify for a pizza pie for just ten bucks. That, my friends, is one hell of a deal on a two-dimensional circular cheese-covered feel-good disk.

And it's always good advice to sit at a bar for four hours every weekday.

Add to that the $4 Peach Bellini special, and you've got the beginnings of a very happy hour or four indeed.

You can copy these happy hour menu deals between 10:30 PM and midnight, Sunday through Thursday, too.

Update - I recently did a stint at the bar of the Grotto and did indeed eat a happy hour priced pizza. It was definitely worth it!

You can read all about it in The Gymnastic Pyro-Magic of The Flying Family Pucker on Royal Flusher Vegas.

Grotto Happy Hour Pizza. Nice thin crunchy/chewy crust, great sauce, good looking neighbors.

Cadillac Mexican Kitchen

A few years back, the take-out menu represented a steep cut in pricing from the sit-down menu - there were definitely good deals to be had if you didn't mind eating in the hallway just outside the restaurant, within earshot of the over-paying patrons inside.

No longer.

The best I can offer is the happy hour menu, where you can save about 30% on the Cadillac Chips and Dip or the Chicken or Pork Quesadillas.

There's a deep discount on Cantina Beef Nachos - happy hour is $6.99 compared to $13.99 on the full menu. I don't know if it's the same size portion, and if I was a betting man (and I am) I'd guess that it isn't.

But heck, hunt around the menu and see what cheaper mouth-stuffers you can find at happy hour (Monday to Friday, 4:00 PM till 7:00 PM).

Vic & Anthony's $50 $52 Distinctive Dining Deal

November 2019 Update:

"Unfortunately, at this time we are not offering the Distinctive Dining Menu. However, we do have some amazing chef features of great value nightly!"

So that's that on the triple D.

Feeling like something a little more classy after sending your take-out taco-time friends home in a beat-up cab on a dark rainy street at three in the morning?

Here's a deal you will love. The Golden Nugget's high-end steakhouse experience and meat emporium, Vic & Anthony's, has a prix fixe offering that might just hit the spot without crashing the wallet.

It's called the Distinctive Dining deal.

It's linked from the aptly named  Distinctive Dining page on their website. You're supposed to print it out and take it to the restaurant with you.

I have no idea why they want you to jump through the flaming printing hoops in today's "I never look at anything but screens" society, but that's what the rules say. Perhaps they would let you show an image of the menu on your piPhone 3.14 but that remains to be determined. So to be safe, take in a printout.

The D.D.D. has changed over the years, with tweaks to the menu as well as pricing, from $49, to $52, and now $59 as of 2019.

You start with a choice of a Garden salad with Caesar dressing or Lobster Bisque. I've never seen a lobster bisque, they always turned the lights off before we got to that point.

For the entre, you would expect a steak offering and a seafood offering and maybe a chicken offering. In this case, you can go for an 8 ounce filet, or a fish thing or a shrimpy thing. All offerings.

Dessert in the desert is an easy choice between 'extra runny tonight' bread pudding. They used to brag about it being Steve Wynn's mom's recipe. No longer.

Or... chocolate mousse & cheesecake duo. Are you kidding me? I'll take that choice all prix fixe long.

The menu has gotten simpler and not quite as interesting. We're missing the fromage potatoes au gratin with cheese as a side choice, for example.

But still, this is a good deal. A distinctive good dining deal, in fact.

On the main dinner menu an 8oz filet is $41 $44 $49 and the lobster bisque $13. Basically, you're saving a couple of bucks and having a dessert duo thrown in. Or if you want to be weird, the bread pudding.

A picture of a t-bone steak courtesy of vicandanthonys.com. This isn't part of the D.D.D. but damn, is it a nice meat photo.

The Distinctive Dining Deal is still a pretty good deal in 2019, but if they keep shaving things off and raising the price every couple of years like they have been, it may soon be an Extinct Dining Deal.

Image from goldennugget.com. Which distinctive empty table will  YOU be dealing to dine at tonight for $59?!

Chart House Happy Hour - Red Sushi Happy Hour

The Golden Nugget must be the hap-hap-happiest place on Fremont with all the happy hour deals to be found.

Let's start with the Chart House, with it's absolutely stunning aquarium. The 'House has a great little bar for people watching and some nice deals Monday to Friday, 4pm to 6pm.

There's a wide selection of fish-delish appetizers and small plates, priced from $5 to $8 including Lettuce Wraps ($7), Prime Rib Sliders ($8), and a (Dynah-Moe) Hummus Tasting Plate ($5). Bring a $40 bill and get two orders of each.

Of course, libations are on sale during Happy Hour. Drinks, Wine and Cocktails are too.

Cheapest buzz? "Well Spirits" at $5 a pop. Or if you're feelin' high falutin', opt for an $8 glass of 'Premium' wine, such as a J. Lohr 'Seven Oaks' cab, an Oyster Bay pinot, or an Oak Island 'Money Pit' blend.

Check out Chart House, Golden Nugget, Las Vegas - Royal Flusher Restaurant Review.

Now, on to the 'pretty much right in the casino' Red Sushi's Happy Hour. It's available daily, 4pm to 6pm.

If I was there, I'd go for the Fried Shishito Peppers or the Garlic Chicken Kara Age.

There's some cocktails too, but look no further than the still-a-bargain $4 Sake Bomb. What are you waiting for? (It used to be $2, so if you wait, it might go up to $8.)

Keep Those Deals Coming!

There are more deals out there. You might get a coupon book when you check in. You might find a kindly stranger to treat you to seven or eight Sake Bombs.

Anyway, with these tips, even you can enjoy the upscale atmosphere of the Golden Nugget at a downscale price. What other Nugget bargain basement bargains can you find? Let me know, and enjoy your bisque!

This website not responsible for anything bar stool related that happened between 2pm and 6pm weekdays.

Looking for room discounts and other Golden Nugget bargains? Check out Golden Nugget Las Vegas Bargains - 2019 Edition.


Updated October 2019