Bodog Beat

WSOP dining gets a taste of sadism at the Miranda Noodle House and Sushi Kitchen. (Bodog Beat Image).

Let us preface our review of the Miranda Noodle House and Sushi Kitchen by saying that the people at Harrah’s are running an amazingly smooth WSOP this year. There have been no disasters, no sign of distraught dealers preparing to walk off the job and significantly smaller line-ups. The WSOP food situation is also better thanks in part to the option provided us at the Miranda Noodle House and Sushi Kitchen, an improvised sushi and soup joint setup a short walk from the WSOP tournament floor.

Keep in mind, however, that last year’s WSOP food options could’ve been improved upon by serving offal and warm dog turds.

As the name indicates Miranda offers two things: sushi and noodle soup. The quality of fish was decent and failed to make us wretch. This pleased us. But of all the things you can screw up with sushi somehow they managed to fuck up the rice. It tasted like it had been sitting in the cooker overnight. The soup is decent though and at $8 one of the better values in the Rio.

The main problem with the Miranda, besides the fact that it’s set in some backroom catering kitchen with rickety décor slapped up along with a few bamboo plants, is that they decided to only provide a wait staff of two.

These poor bastards are the servers, bussers and hosts. When a tournament goes on break they get absolutely murdered and beaten down with endless complaints from WSOP players with nothing on their mind but getting back to the poker tables.

You can see the pain in the server’s eyes like they just came back from Iraq where they watched their buddy’s face get blown off. That salty flavor in your soup at the Miranda, yeah that’s the waiter’s tears.

Considering that during the break all Rio restaurants become hopeless zoos on iniquity it’s probably the best option that the Rio has to offer.

Sounds fun doesn’t it? Well you’ve got one last chance to qualify for the WSOP if you haven’t already. Bodog’s is running their final 2008 WSOP online satellite this Saturday at 3:15 p.m. ET. Check it out and hopefully we'll see you at the Miranda.