The Yelpmazing Race at MGM Grand

Super brilliant, super imaginative elite event set up by Deb N and Misti! Excellent job by both!
This event cosisted of teams WALKing to various MGM restaurants, completeing challeges and collect puzzle pieces. The participating restaurants ran the spectrum from traditional sit down (Fiamma, Seablue) to the MGM Buffet and ‘Whichcraft. All the MGM employees were extremely kind and gracious welcoming us and playing along. It was great fun. To top off the evening, Unilocalers were served appetizers and free SKYY vodka cocktails for «dessert and after dinner drinks».
I was a little sad to see the evening end everyone was having such great fun! Without a doubt one of the most fun elite events so far. Thanks again to MGM, Deb, and Misti for setting this one up!

This is what I love about Unilocal Elite Las Vegas — it’s not a singles party. I actually have fun at the events rather than feel as if I’m at a meat market, so props to Misti for making some awesome events.
I really enjoy the «group» type activites, such as this one. Facing a challenge as a team is so much more fun than simply sipping cocktails for a few hours. I was on team six — the cunning linguists — *shakes head* Ha!
We were booking it on our challenges because, well, the guys on the team SAVED us ladies from the insane amount of food we were up against. Sadly, we went from first to fifth place rather quickly *tears.* I’m going to have to say that the buffet food we tried was delicious! I want some more of those pecan pie tartlets!
Note to self: don’t eat tortilla chips too fast because sooner or later, they’re going to make a fighting comeback and they’ll win — with you bent over the toilet. (Yep, that was me!) Sorry to my teammates for adding a whole lime to the guacamole during our Diego challenge. What can I say? I really like limes!

Great fun! And my first Unilocal event to boot. I’ve been a long-​time fan of MGM Grand’s restaurants I thought we’d have an advantage, but even with team 4’s mad skills and super-​duper power-​walking we placed 7^th. Had we known we were so far behind we would’ve slowed down to enjoy the food we were shoving down our gullet.
Skyy drinks at Rouge, Guac and Chips at Diego, Pasta at Fiamma, and a slew of treats at MGM’s Grand Buffet, trivia and games at Seablue and ‘Wichcraft, plus a great group of Unilocalers made for one fantastic Unilocalmazing Race. Thanks to everyone it took to make it happen and everyone who came out!

For me, this was a race in more ways than one.
But before I start my tale, I must say that once again, Misti once again made for an excellent safari guide through the jungles of awesome (I’m sprucing up my compliments. I need diversity).
I didn’t think I was going to make it to this one in time. I literally had 15 minutes to get here after a gig ended, and my in-​car language was most unkind at the lack of time.
So through the Luxor, down the Strip and through the MGM until I made my entrance at Rouge… just in time.
The event was fun, as it was basically a giant run all through the resort. I must admit to feeling a little «oogy» (yes, it’s a real word now) after the event because eating before the event + speed-​eating mass amounts of gourmet food + skipping/​speedwalking/​whatever from place to place + and just not feeling 100% after a long day just got to me.
But darn it all if I didn’t have a good time regardless.
My challenge was the sandwich tasting at ‘wichcraft, which proved challenging for me. There I am, blindfolded, munching this tasty sandwich, and trying to describe it. Honestly, it was so good, I just wanted to declare «It is made of AWESOME» to my teammates, and just keep eating the thing, but alas, that’s what return trips for later are for.
The other food was good. No one told me I would have to dance while the guacamole was being made, or that the whole spectacle was to be filmed.
…
Well, so ends my career as a serious actor with that video. I may as well get booked for the «Star Wars Holiday Special II», cause I’m now going to be resigned to do bad sketch comedy alongside Harvey Korman and Jefferson Starship as acting peers now.
Where was I? Oh, yes. We came in 4^th. Not bad. We had some serious power-​eaters on our team, so good job all around to the gang. I saw some of my favorite Unilocalers making their rounds, so it was good to say «Hi» and catch up. Debbie from the MGM was very nice and a charming hostess.
The only thing I would change is I wish we could have known it was an eating contest beforehand, because I would have much rather devoted time to that food experience than that sorry hamburger that I had earlier.
Ah, well. Until that next event, same Unilocal time, same Unilocal channel.

Cunning Linguist (Team 6) are pretty awesome Scavenghoes .
My team made it to 5^th place, but we’re winners because our goal was to just beat the ANDY T! by a long shot. Give me your gigolo tips, banana slut.
Thanks Debbie and Misti for this event. It was fun and creative way to get groups together, get us thinking, having fun. I think Debbie did her job well since I did hear discussions about the food afterwards. I was impressed by the buffet being pretty good that I think I ought to try it. Fiamma was lovely even though it was up my nose. maybe I should plan for fire side dining next time. WichCraft makes a good sandwich that even my team mate Chris M who hates half the toppings was liking that sandwich and I had to steal a bite. Those black and white cookies were good… Especially the white on white one– I want a dozen or three.
One thing though is that it seems some people had a better path than others which I think made a difference in placement. We went from seablue to fiamma to witch craft to the buffet to diego and back to rouge.
I unfortunately paid for the race. I went running to the MGM bathrooms to plant my face on the porcelain. Hey, kudos that the bathrooms are cleeaaannnn. I couldnt partake in the open bar since I was «food fucked» the moment I got back. I did sign that waiver… damn, I coulda taken you the cleaners and claimed all the prizes as compensation. (kidding!) I made a recovery with a little Teavana love and it was all in good fun.
Also next time I will come with a starving stomach instead of one that had dinner.
That is, I hope there is a next time. :-)

Thanks Misti for another fun event! It was exciting to go to each restaurant and find out what are mission was going to be. I’ve never eaten pasta without any hands before now I can say I have! Marinara in the hair and everything! I loved the buffet challenge too because there was so many yummy offerings. Every event was fun it was just a challenge trying to get to each place so fast.
I was on team five we were in last place but we had a great team and everyone worked together well! I enjoyed meeting everyone. Thanks to Misti, Rouge, Fiamma, Whichcraft, MGM Buffet, Diego, and Diego for holding such a great event!

BANANA SLUTS = EPIC FAIL
Maybe we shouldn’t have stopped at Monta Noodle House on the way to the event… LoL
These events just keep getting better and better! We started off the night by meeting up with the team, drinking and coming up with a team name… BANANA SLUTS! We danced, we ate, we ate without using our hands, we ate some more, and we did some trivia somewhere in between. Even though our team came in 8^th, we all had a blast!!!

Ditto what everyone else said. Amazing event, amazing people. Misti and Debbie did a fabulous job putting this together and all the MGM employees we encountered seemed genuinely happy to see us. Our team (team 9) rocked and I was happy to partner with so many great people (Elnino, Tien, Cory, Leslie, Tiana, Alton). Second place isn’t bad. The buffet food was a lot better than I thought it would be… definitely worth a return visit. My favorite challenge was eating the pasta (sans hands), although I needed help finishing my plate. I’m bummed I didn’t get to try the gnocchi.
I didn’t realize how much speed walking we’d be doing… I had a blister on my foot tear open during the race. So, I guess that’s my first Unilocal-​related injury. I’m hoping this race will be an annual thing so I can train for the next one. BEST FOOD CRAWL EVER!

Mahalo Misti and Debbie for putting on Unilocal’s Inaugural Unilocalmazing Race! To the staff at MGM Grand as well for going above and beyond our expectations (Rouge, MGM Grand Buffet, Diego, Seablue, Fiamma, and Wichcraft)
9 teams, (7 – 8 people per team) 5 missions to complete… We were truly the dark horse team. The Terrible 2’s were: Alison, Darcy, Sangeetha, Rimi, Raven, Danielle, Sylvia, and Me, as the team captain.
Not having met anyone on my team before (except my wifey) and also never being in this area of MGM Grand before didn’t have any disadvantages. We clicked as a team so quickly, and the chemistry flowed smoothly. Here was the breakdown of each mission:
1) Grand Buffet @MGM– Finish all 40 mini buffet items
There was everything from sushi, potstickers, mousses, tarts, rice krispy treats, ribs, and even osso bucco… special shout out to my teamate Raven as she chipped a tooth from one of the ribs… YOU“RE A TROOPER GIRL!!! Got our puzzle piece and off we went to the next mission.
2)Diego Mexican Restaurant-​One person (Me) duplicate Diego’s Guacamole after the demonstration while the rest of the team dances to salsa music, then we eat all the chips and guacamole
Cruise control was what the demo was, as he took at least 3 LOOOONG minutes, my demo was done in under 1 minute and we inhaled the chips and guacamole, got another puzzle piece, and we were of to our third mission.
3)Seablue Restaurant-​Team splits into 3…2 duplicating a salad, 2 figuring out wines, and the rest doing a pop-​quiz on Seablue restaurant
Salads and wine were a breeze, got kinda stuck on the pop quiz
but we pulled through, got our puzzle piece and seeked out mission 4
4)Fiamma Trattoria-​6 small plates of different kinds of pasta (Gnocchi, Linguine, and Penne???) Finish all plates WITH NO HANDS
we suffered a 30-​second delay from a teamate who touched the plate, Pasta needed a little more love…
5) Wichcraft– one person blind tastes a sandwich while describing tastes and ingredients to another teamate duplicating the same sandwich Only BY LISTENING, the rest of the team do a Wichcraft crossword puzzle.
We blazed through the sandwich and crossword puzzle, then hustled back to Rouge to assemble the puzzle.
We were the third team done, and 3^rd out of 9 teams ain’t bad at all!
As if we needed more food, Black and White cookies and carrot cake cupcakes complete with Unilocal décor added a sweet ending… Hopefully more teams and Elite members come out for next year… ALOHA!!!

WHOOP WHOOP!!!

Winning team 7!!! Awesome event. Thanks so much to Misti and the MGM staff for doing everything they did to make this such an excellent event.
Was really fortunate to have the team we had. I think the most difficult thing would’ve been picking the ingredients at ‘witchcraft for the sandwich. Nice work by Suki to get it done so quickly! We were all certainly down to eat and eat some more!!!
Seriously…if there’s ONE REASON to stay elite, it would be in hopes to be a part of this event next year!

I’ve never had so much fun coming in fourth before. My goal for the night was to have fun and not finish last. Out of nine teams, we finished in the top half. Works for me!
For the first ever Unilocalmazing Race, this event was a resounding success. Sure there were hiccups along the way at some of the venues. Do I care? Hell no! From start to finish, I had an absolute blast!
Thanks to Fiamma, ‘Wichcraft, MGM Grand Buffet, Diego, and Seablue for providing the fun challenges. Thanks to Rouge for housing our base camp of operations for the race. Thanks to the MGM Grand staff for allowing this craziness to happen. Thanks to Debbie from the MGM for setting this all up for us. And of course, extra special with croutons thanks to you-​know-​who… the fantabulous Misti Y.
Phew. I’m out of breath just writing this review.