Las Vegas strip offers healthy options

LAS VEGAS — The Venetian is known on the Las Vegas strip for breathtaking architecture and of course, the ultra trendy night club Tao. But did you know it also has healthy gourmet cuisine?

The Venetian is home to the Canyon Ranch Cafe, which is a take off of the Tucson-based health spa. From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, the cafe serves healthy foods like fresh produce and even turkey meatloaf, all for a moderate price by strip standards.

At the Canyon Ranch Cafe, you can sip on some Tazo tea for $2 or on a strawberry-banana-apple smoothie for $5. For an entree, try buttermilk battered chicken with sweet corn sauce, which gives you 385 calories for $16. Top it off with homemade ice cream for $3.

B&B Ristorante, which is owned by Food Network celebrity chef Mario Batali, also offers healthier dining inside of the Venetian. The restaurants claims to use mostly organic items that are imported from Italy for its dishes, which includes goat cheese tortellon with with dried orange and wild fennel pollen for $24.

Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant offers a California-cuisine menu that "changes daily based on the freshest organic produce," according to lasvegasrestaurants.com. It offers a vegetarian tasting with artichoke cannelloni, basil cous cous, squash timbale and portabella carpaccio for $29 or surf and turf filet thermidor with crisp potato cakes, sauteed spinach, scampi shrimp and lobster sauce for $49.

Spago is located inside the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

At the Wynn, a swanky hotel that boosts a lot higher limit tables, there are also organic options often available at its nine up-scale restaurants.

Also on the strip near the Wynn, tryout the Captial Grille located inside the Fashion Show Mall. Or for organic sushi Hamada of Japan is open from 5-10 p.m. at the Flamingo.

Looking for something a little less sophisticated? If you can't make it to a local health food store like Rainbow's End, which is a half-mile from Las Vegas Boulevard, you can find some casual but organic dining off the strip like the Go Raw Cafe.

With two locations in Las Vegas, there are a number of interesting options like the gimmie the beet cheese burger with fries for $10.88. The menu says its a "veggie burger made with beets, carrots, sunflower seeds, and parsley, served on living bread with hand prepared catsup, mustard, mayo, onion, tomato, lettuce, sprouts, avocado and almond cheese."

Evos, a "feel good fast food option," is also open in Henderson, Nev., with two other locations coming soon. Also coming soon to Vegas is Pizza Fusion, which offers organic pizza as well as
"gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian and lactose-free items" including sandwiches and wraps.

Or if you're looking for something a little less healthy, try the numerous buffets across the city like millions of tourists do daily. Here's a historic look at the Vegas buffets:



Until next time, happy eating.