MGM Grand Hotel

Critic's Review

The MGM grand has changed a lot since it opened in the early 1990s. The lion head entrance is gone, as is the theme park. The theme park was pretty lame for adults, except for 1 thing. They had this lazy river ride, and for 25 cents you could dump water on people on the ride from the outside. So people would just be enjoying their ride; getting ready to disembark, and you could drench them with a water canon. It was so much fun.

The UndergroundThe CentralThe DistrictLevel Up

Today, the MGM is a marble palace; the lobby is a vastness of marble.

The massive lobby sets the stage for one of the most popular venues on the strip.

A bit of yesteryear is captured mid lobby with a boxing ring with a golden lion.

The Underground

Off the lobby is the "Underground", which is where you go to wait for a rideshare.

There's a full mall underground, with lower end venues for the kind of people who are addicted to Uber.

A very touristy sort of mall..

There's a Pieology location down here; strategically located next to Fat Tuesday.

With so much good pizza on the strip, why would you want to eat in this place? I tried they when them opened a location in South Florida and it was awful, even by South Florida standards. They closed in less than a year.

The Uber area is a disaster here, particularly after an event.

It's difficult to see the cars or license places, so if you have a black sedan of unremarkable make you may have trouble finding it. I always try to take a cab when I'm at this place.

Right off the lobby there's a Starbucks that's opened late on weekends. One of my peeves in this town is that Casino level Starbucks close early; I don't want to start drinking alcohol at 8pm. Even this location closes at 8pm Sun - Thu.

The front of the main floor is all casino.

The Lobby Bar isn't really in the lobby, but it's the first drinking establishment within the casino.

There's another corner bar with video gambling with some TVs.

Gaming tables are in the center.

More gambling as you approach the restaurants; the big video machines are back here.

Including Derby Deluxe, which it seems every casino now has.

There are 2 wings on the main floor; The Central and The District

The Central

To the rear of the casino is The Central, where you'll find the MGM Grand Buffet and the poker room.

Also the Whiskey Down lounge.

A nice lounge with not so loud live music.

And a Starbucks that closes early.

If you like bad music, the Centrifuge lounge may be for you.

You'll also find the Buffet in this area.

Tap sports bar is strategically located across for the sports book. Keep the sports fans all in one place.

The sports book is solid if not spectacular.

Somewhat out of place in this casual wing is Hakkasan, an expensive Chinese restaurant.

At the end of this wing is a club and a Pizza restaurant. Not a bad place to settle in with a slice.

You can read a review here.

Level Up

The club is a roped off section with a stage.

You're not supposed to bring in drinks and just hang out, although I've never seen anyone get called out for doing so.

It's not a beautiful crowd. People like to eat in Las Vegas.

One positive about his bar is that they have nice old Guinness on tap. Just $10 for a pint in a plastic cup.

Early in the evening there's no band and they have a DJ playing bad house music. Then the band comes on later to play for an empty room

One night they had a pretty good rock band, but anyone who had been hanging here while they were playing house music probably isn't into Creedence and Joan Jett.

Another time a bad cover band played to an empty room. I listened to 2 songs and had zero interest in coming in for a $10 beer.

There just doesn't seem to be any consistent theme to the place. Juvenile, uncomfortable furniture (who wants to sit on a metal stool?), random music. Bad music lead in. Don't they see that what they have isn't appealing?

Up the escalator gets you to the exit where there's a pedestrian bridge that takes you to NY, NY.

The District

The other wing is The District, where you'll find upscale restaurants and the food court.

One path gets you to Wolfgang Puck's Bar and Grill

And Joel Rubuchon's restaurants.

The other path takes you past Loser's Saloon.

Despite the name, it's one of the more popular venues.They have live music and no apparent cover charge.

Sometimes they have a full band on a stage; a real country western sort of experience.

The obligatory noodle bar is adorned with pandas.

A hidden Greek restaurant where you'll have to check in at Crush to get into.

A casual and somewhat uninteresting place is Crush.

To the right of the center casino is a section with Wolfgang Puck's, L'Atelier French Restaurant; you have to pass by the fancy, expensive restaurants to get to the food court and casual restaurants in The District.

There's a long hallway lined with shops to get to the hot dogs and tacos. You'll pass the expensive restaurants first.

The Celebrity restaurant row features Morimoto, Craftsteak and Emeril's..

The food court features $8 slices and $9 hot dogs.

This is where you'll find most people during the week when rooms are cheap.

Past the food court there seems to be a comedy club, although I've never seen a comedy act here. This is a new location for this venue.

Later in the evening this is a lounge with a live singer and keyboard player.

Tucked in this corner is Michael Mina's BBQ restaurant, International Smoke.

One thing that does bug me about the place is that there are a lot of kids; teenagers, parents with young kids. When there's a concert it can be much worse; you might be swarmed with what seems like a never ending stream of people when the show lets out.

Summary

The MGM Grand is a nice, large property that tries to provide something for everyone. The lounge caters to the younger crowd; there are multiple live music venues and lots of places to get "reasonably priced' food and also high end eateries. There's a lot of walk-through traffic; not as bad as the Bellagio, but when there's an event it could be more crowded than is comfortable.