An awful lot of good — and some not so good — restaurants have foundered during the recession, but still others have been floating along quite nicely. An example of the latter is Market Grille Cafe, which opened in Centennial Hills about five years ago as a counter-service spot tucked into a strip shopping center. After expanding to a West Lake Mead Boulevard location, the original moved to a full-service spot on North Durango Drive.

Heidi Knapp Rinella
Reader Lori Osmany is looking for scungilli, also commonly called conch. I decided to do a little research to determine the differences between the two, because some people insist that scungilli are strictly American, never eaten in Italy. Not true, it appears.
To celebrate its “new era,” Silver Sevens (formerly Terrible’s), 4100 Paradise Road, is offering a $7.77 steak and lobster dinner in The Sterling Spoon Cafe from 2 to 10 p.m. every day in July. The cafe also is offering seven entrees (such as Mandarin chicken salad, a pulled-pork sandwich and eggplant Parmesan) for less than $7, 24/7, throughout July. …
The woman in front of us who ordered six dozen malasadas at Island Sushi & Grill Express underscored a long-held belief: Hawaiians sure love their traditional foods, whether they’re on their eight islands or our ninth one.
Pets are definitely part of our families. I was reminded of that when Annie’s Gourmet Restaurant in Henderson, which has a menu for dogs and allows them on its patio, won Best Family Restaurant in Best of Las Vegas this spring.
When a restaurant has been in business in Las Vegas for 20 years, you might get the idea that they’re doing something right, and in the case of The Pasta Shop Ristorante & Art Gallery, you’d be correct.