It’s been a few years since my last trip to Vegas, and I was super excited to go back for a few days this month for my birthday! Restaurants on the strip turn over so frequently, so there’s always lots of new places to check out. Here’s a recap of all the outstanding eats from this visit:

• Giada: Kristine and I are both longtime Food Network fans, so our relationship with Giada goes way back. We were interested in checking out her restaurant, which in in The Cromwell and overlooks the strip. I have to admit that my expectations for this meal were medium-low and I could NOT HAVE BEEN ANY MORE BLOWN AWAY. Where do I even begin? Maybe the complimentary bread platter that came with smoked butter, sea salt, fried capers and pesto? It was unexpected and amazing! We then had a fig and whipped goat cheese crostini to start, then bucatini with fresh ricotta for me, and risotto with crab and scallops for Kristine. We finished with a hot cocoa soufflé with toasted marshmallow gelato, and then rolled out of there and back to our hotel. Just incredible.

• Eggslut: Eggslut is a new addition to Vegas since I’d last been there, and was highly recommended by Danielle. It also just so happened to be in our hotel (The Cosmopolitan) and so we went there multiple times. Eggslut is serving up the most delicious, bougie breakfast sandwiches on soft, brioche buns. My order was the Fairfax, which had scrambled eggs, cheddar, caramelized onions and sriracha mayo, and Kristine tried both the Bacon, Egg & Cheese and Sausage, Egg & Cheese and we loved them all. Only note here is that the line will look crazy long when you go, but it moves very quickly, so don’t be deterred.

• Yardbird: This is another recommendation from Danielle that also turned out to be fantastic. Yardbird is a southern style barbecue restaurant in The Venetian, and we had a little bit of everything there, starting with skillet cornbread with honey maple butter. For our mains, I had the butter lettuce and grilled mango salad with shrimp, and Kristine had the crispy chicken biscuits, and we shared a side of mac & cheese. Too full for dessert, so took a pass on that one.

• Boulevard Pool: Okay, this isn’t actually a restaurant, but it’s too fun not to mention. On my birthday, I reserved a daybed at the Boulevard Pool at The Cosmopolitan, and it was legit one of my better life choices. We hung out there all day and had the most delicious Yes Way Frosé cocktails, poolside guac and chips, and chilled watermelon wedges with tequila lime syrup. If there’s a better way to spend your birthday, I’m not sure what it is.

• Beauty & Essex: This restaurant is also in The Cosmopolitan, and I knew when I booked the hotel that it’s where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner. To start we shared caesar toasts, which was basically the most delicious Caesar salad on top of focaccia, and was incredibly tasty (Kristine’s also had crispy chicken skin on top!). For dinner we shared the braised chicken meatballs with fresh ricotta, mushroom and truffle, which I think were the best thing I ate all week, plus a kale salad with pancetta, candied pecans and goat cheese. Once again, no room for dessert, and we were trying to remain spry since we were heading to a concert (Gwen Stefani!) right after dinner.

• Best Friend: Our last dinner was at the new Park MGM Hotel, in Roy Choi’s new restaurant, Best Friend. While our dinner here was tasty, the stand-out for me was dessert. Now, I’m not one for ever wanting dessert with fruit in it, but we had the mango budino and it rocked my world. It was a vanilla panna cotta type of situation on the bottom, then a layer of fresh mango, and was topped with coconut whipped cream, and little toasty coconut crunchies. I must somehow recreate this.

• Secret Pizza: Surely this place isn’t a secret anymore, but in case you don’t know, The Cosmopolitan has a secret pizza place in it. Seriously, it doesn’t even have a name, and you can’t find a website for it. It’s tucked away down a long hallway and every day there are new varieties of pizza to try. I can’t even count the number of slices we had, but they were all incredible.

• Best of the Rest: Sprinkles was under construction, so my dream of having a dozen cupcakes to snack on over the week died, but instead I got a box of treats from Bouchon Bakery that served the same purpose and made me very happy // After hearing about it all summer, we picked up a can of White Claw to try, and it’s worth the hype // Our hotel also had a Momofuku Milk Bar and I bought a slice of their exclusive Elvis Cake, which was vanilla chocolate chip cake, banana mousse, caramel ganache and peanut butter frosting.

I love you, Vegas! Can’t wait to go back again soon and try so many more places!