Heart Attack Grill: Las Vegas At Its Most Vegas-y

The essence of Heart Attack Grill, Las Vegas

There’s been all kinds of media attention focused on Heart Attack Grill, most of it discussing the relatively dodgy aspects of the place:  people dying of heart attacks, obese patrons lured in with the offer of free eats.  What I love about this place is that it makes no attempt to hide what it is or mislead anyone – they are loud and proud about serving food that is really, really bad for you.  High in fat, high in sugar, high in cholesterol.  In fact, they revel in the naughtiness even playing a rolling news reel all about their sordid news items.  As an unapologetic hedonist myself, I’m totally down with any establishment displaying a poster that proclaims:  ”ALCOHOL:  It’s Good For You!”.

So much for the marketing and promotion.  What about the food and the experience?  Truth be told, this place is probably more about experience than food.  When a patron enters he or she must check in with a “nurse” at the front of the house who cards then, issues them a hospital-style wrist band and outfits them in a hospital gown.  Once seated, another “nurse” comes by to discuss the menu and get a drink order (spoiler alert:  the entire – mostly female – wait staff are dressed as nurses.  The creative concept is seems to be “naughty hospital.”).  Husband and I started things off with jello shots, served in syringes which were immediately “injected” into our mouths by the nurse-servers.  There is photographic evidence of this happening but….well…..we don’t know each other that well.   And, as billed in the promotional posters, we did witness one or two patrons being spanked by the nurses for not finishing their whole meals.

Double Bypass Burger (with bacon!), Heart Attack Grill, Las Vegas (photo by MJ Byers)

Chocolate Milkshake at Heart Attack Grill, Las Vegas (photo by MJ Byers)

As is de rigeur at HAG, we ordered ridiculously fatty foods – mine was the Double Bypass Burger (with bacon!) and a chocolate milkshake.  The food is good, which genuinely surprised me since experience-oriented eateries often forget about food quality amidst all their merrymaking.  The burgers were juicy and tasty and the milkshake was as advertised – a cornucopia of fat and flavor (please, please note the dab of butter atop the shake in the photo above).  My one gripe was the fries, which were pretty bland considering their billing as being “deep fried in pure lard!”

Would I recommend HAG?  Yes, as much for the cholesterol-pimping hospital atmosphere as for the food.

Price:  Double Bypass Burger with bacon and fries, $13.86; chocolate shake, $4.63 jello shot, $4.63 (I have no idea why these price points are so weird)

Destination Meal:  Yes.  Your Vegas tour de force is incomplete without a visit.

Fat/Calorie Worthy:  Yes, but mostly so that you can tell folks you ingested this much bad stuff.

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