Las Vegas Restaurants - Part II - Updated Jan. 2013

January, 2013 Update:  Here's Part II of the updated Las Vegas restaurant reviews.

Enjoy, and comments are always welcome!

Yesterday's post covered Japanese restaurants and concluded with some casual dining picks.  Today's second and final installment is a bit more ambitious, covering fine dining, Italian, steakhouses, and a couple of others that don't fit these categories.  I'll start with my recommended fine dining establishments.

By the early 2000’s the fine dining restaurant scene in Las Vegas was well into in the process of becoming dominated by celebrity chefs.  Steve Wynn started this trend a few years earlier in 1998 with the opening of the Bellagio, which featured Spanish chef Julian Serrano’s elegant restaurant, Picasso.  The Bellagio certainly was not the first property in Vegas to have celebrity chef restaurants; indeed, there was Emeril’s Fish House, a staple at the MGM Grand, and a whole host of Wolfgang Puck joints.  The difference at the Bellaggio was that Wynn insisted the chef move to Las Vegas and actually cook at the restaurant.  All of the others were replicas staffed by mostly local talent and featuring the celebrity chef’s signature dishes and name only.

So when the Maloof brothers, the owners of the Sacramento Kings NBA team, were ready to open their new Vegas property, the Palms Resort, in 2001, they were faced with the choice of having another “me too” high-end restaurant named after some famous out-of-town chef, or of doing something different.  They decided to check the local food scene and see if there existed an iconic Vegas chef, a local that would be in the same league as the famous imports.  It was a big decision, as they had designed the main tower of their new hotel/casino with a huge space on the top floor, one floor above the soon-to-be-famous Ghostbar, dedicated to their fine dining restaurant. The room had and has one of the finest views of the Las Vegas strip and downtown.

Andre Rochat

They found their man, Andre Rochat, at his eponymous traditional French restaurant located in a converted residence near the downtown.  A true Vegas original as well as an award-winning chef, Rochat had been wowing Vegas diners since 1980.  He was persuaded to open a second restaurant at the Palms by the promise of complete autonomy over design, staff, and cuisine, as well as the sheer magnificence of the location.  He smartly chose to make this a complimentary restaurant to Andre’s, rather than a carbon copy or a complete departure.  It would still have some of the traditional French fare for which he was well-known and the daily fois gras preparation that had become his signature, but this cuisine would be lighter, a bit more nouvelle, and more varied and experimental with its ingredients and flavor combinations.

The view from Alize

The result stunned the Vegas dining community.  Alize opened for business on November 15^th, 2001, and began earning accolades and awards almost immediately.  For our money, Alize at the top of the Palms is hands-down the best fine dining restaurant in town.  Prices are quite reasonable for Vegas, the room is gorgeous, and the view is spectacular.  But the food is the star.  I have eaten here tens of times and can honestly say I have never had a dish that was not a “wow.”  Andre’s treatment of duck and veal dishes in his new style are revelations, and his old standards like Dover sole and his signature fois gras preparations have never been better.  He closed the original Andre’s downtown on New Years Eve 2008, and the staff was moved en mass to the newly remodeled Andre’s in the Monte Carlo, which continues the tradition of purist classic French dishes.  It’s a fantastic restaurant in its own right, and is highly recommended.  Andre himself cooks regularly at both Andre’s and Alize.

2013 Update:  We were fortunate enough to dine at Alize four times in 2012, and every bite of every course of every meal was still a "wow." All the meals were outstanding, but the capper had to be the invitation-only dinner celebrating what would have been Julia Child's 100th birthday.  For this special occasion, Andre himself created a seven-course tasting menu consisting of Julia Child's self-identified favorite dishes.  I was fortunate enough to attend with two great friends, one old and one new, and the entire evening was one of those once-in-a-lifetime dining experiences.

There are many, many fine dining restaurants that are worth mentioning.  Mega-hotels like the Wynn/Encore and the Venetian/Palazzo have dozens between them.  Here are just a few of our favorites, in a sentence or two.

Bouchon is located far from the restaurant row of the Venetian, actually up the back elevators just off the lobby and past the VIP check-in.  It’s famous chef Thomas Keller’s take on a classic French Bistro, complete with oyster bar, multiple pate choices, charcuterie’s, and cheeses.  An expansive French wine selection and a warm, friendly atmosphere complete the picture.  Drink the Sancerre.

The wine tower at Aureole

I’m including Aureole at the Mandalay Bay because just about everyone I’ve ever dined with there has loved it.  It’s been on every best-of list since it opened in 1999.  Famous for its 42-foot glassed-in wine tower (as shown above) with “wine angels” going up and down in harnesses retrieving bottles, it is a Vegas-flash version of it’s far more conservative and warm original location in NYC.  For me, Aureole's Vegas incarnation has always been just a touch short of great, which is to say that although I have never had a bad dish there, the “wow’s” have been few and far between.  Maybe it’s just that I get pissed off every time I’m forced to navigate the “wine list,” which is a ridiculously obsolete old clunker of a tablet computer with software so obtuse and unusable that Steve Jobs is chuckling in his grave.

Picasso!

Picasso at the Bellagio, mentioned above, is another restaurant I was on the fence about including here.  For years I considered it to be on a par with Alize as the best of the best.  I had many terrific meals here, and the service and atmosphere were always absolutely top shelf.  After all, how bad can it be eating dinner in a cozy dining room under a bezillion dollars worth of original Picasso’s and surrounded by celebrities?  The real star was the food, which, though expensive, was well worth the price.  The service was impeccable as well, friendly without being pushy, and never overly formal or stuffy.  The problem was the menu.  It never changed.  I mean never.  Good as they were, year in and year out, the same dishes were there.  Picasso jumped the shark for me when they started adding some vaguely Asian-inspired specials, which I found substandard and overpriced.  I’m including Picasso because I had so many memorable meals here and also because the last time I walked by they were displaying a completely new menu!  It’s on my list for this year, and I will diligently report my findings.

2013 Update:  As promised, I revisited Picasso for a solo dinner just after CES in January.  I am very happy to report that the shark has finally been un-jumped.  Their new menu is a perfect mix of a handful of their old standby's like butter-poached oysters and warm quail salad plus delicious new additions such as the sautéed black bass and New Zealand Tai snapper.  Service was perfect, as usual, and you can't write about this place without mentioning yet again the incredible presentation of original Picasso paintings.  I had forgotten how visually stunning the are and how much they add to the whole experience.  We already have a reservation for the Saturday night after this year's show!

Eiffel Tower restaurant overlooking the Bellagio fountains

Perhaps an unlikely addition to the recommended list is the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris.  Because of it’s location on the mezzanine level of the ultra-tacky Eiffel Tower attraction, it is seldom taken seriously as a restaurant.  In fact, it serves some of the best French cuisine this side of Andre Rochat.  Make sure to ask for a table next to the floor-to-ceiling windows that face the Bellagio fountains directly across the street.  It’s a fantastic view to go with your fantastic meal, and along with the white table cloths, silver and crystal place settings, and formal service it makes Eiffel Tower a perfect place for a romantic meal.  You do have those at CES, right?   The cold fois gras torchon and the warm Maine lobster salad are nice starters, and every entree we've tried has been excellent.  The bar here is a winner as well, and we often stop here after a dinner elsewhere for desert, a drink, and a couple of revs of the famous fountains.  The bartenders are friendly and the drinks are generous.  Please note: you will pay dearly for all this!

2013 Update:  Laura and I ate here again in November, 2012, just before Thanksgiving, and it was every bit as good as described last year. I tried the crispy Loup du Mer entree and was blown away. We were awarded one of the prized tables for against the floor-to-ceiling windows facing the Bellagio's fountains.  Try this place and you will not be disappointed.

Bradley Ogden at Caesar’s Palace (mentioned in Part I for it’s lounge menu) was rumored to be closing at the end of November but appears to still be alive and well if you can believe that "Internet" thing.  A smallish, pricey menu for sure, but this place delivers when it comes to tasty, imaginative dishes served in a great looking venue.  Many dishes are cooked “sous vide” and are remarkably juicy and flavorful.

2013 Update: As mentioned in the Part I update, Bradley Ogden closed in August, 2012.

I’m not sure Emeril’s Fish House qualifies as fine dining, but it sure is fun to eat here.  New Orleans staples cooked simply and effectively, with the focus on fresh seafood dishes, are the rule of the day.  Just past Shibuya at the MGM Grand.  The Louisiana Style Shrimp Etouffee is almost worth the ridiculous $32 price tag.

Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill just across from Bradley Ogden at Caesar’s is the place in Vegas for a Southwestern-inspired meal.  The Rough Cut Tuna “Nachos” are worth the trip by themselves, and the Chili Crusted Rabbit is also highly recommended.

2013 Update:  We dined at the Mesa Grill once in 2012, and it was as fine a meal as I have ever had there.  Roasted corn soup and blue corn lobster taco's were the highlights this year.

2013 Update:  There are tons of new restaurants, as always, in Las Vegas, and a huge cluster of them are in the City Center complex and the adjacent Cosmopolitan.  Right now the locations at the Cosmopolitan get our nod.  We have walked "Restaurant Row" on the second floor of the Aria at City Center several times (we can walk to City Center from our place now, thanks to the new Harman Road lighted pedestrian walkway.)  We have been put off by the uninspired menu choices and the absurdly high prices, even for Vegas.  There are many new dining spots in the Cosmopolitan, and the menus at places like Comme Ca, Scarpetta, and D.O.C.G. look very interesting and quite reasonably priced for a top-end Vegas property.  We have not dined at any of these, but with the benefit of a son and daughter-in-law who live there year-round and are adventurous diners, we feel comfortable recommending the Cosmopolitan. There is one recommended new restaurant in Crystals, the shopping mall at City Center.  It's called Mastro's Ocean Club, and it's visually unique, to say the least, comprising a gigantic "treehouse" that looms over the main rotunda.  It boasts a huge menu of seafood and steaks, at typical Vegas (high) prices.

Italian dining has also gotten pretty good in Vegas.  We like Rao’s in Caesar’s Palace.  Members of the same family that runs the famous Rao’s in New York run it like a small family restaurant.  But even though the atmosphere is casual, Rao’s is a big, noisy place that is always packed.  It’s pricey, and pretty basic Italian food, but it’s consistently great.   The meatballs are outstanding, and I’ve often made a late-night meal out of just an order of meatballs (two, baseball-sized, with marinara) and a salad.  Pastas are all house made, and portions are enormous.  Check and see if they have the cold seafood salad as an appetizer special, but only if you’re really hungry; it’s a big oval plate heaped with calamari, shrimp, scallops, and lobster meat tossed with veggies and vinaigrette.  They also have a very respectable Italian wine selection, with several relatively inexpensive wines, a rarity for a casino hotel restaurant in Vegas.

2013 Update:  I had the pleasure of eating at Rao's quite a few times in 2012, and it did not disappoint.  One of the highlights was when my son Keith and I were seated in the "front room" which is a table-by-table exact replica of the tiny original Rao's restaurant in NewYork.

A local hole-in-the-wall Italian place also bears mentioning, Nora’s Cuisine at 6020 West Flamingo Road.  It’s several long blocks off the strip, but here you will find home-style Italian food at ridiculously cheap prices.  You will also find a line outside, a packed bar, and not a single out-of-towner.  Salad’s come small and large, with a small feeding 2-3 diners easily and large double that.   There is a nice variety of home-style Italian dishes, the service is warm and personal, and it’s been very much a neighborhood, checkered-table-cloth joint since 1991.  In a word, it’s about as un-Vegas as it gets.  We love this place.

Steak is a primary food group at CES, as at all trade shows, so a few random notes on the topic seem in order.  Our favorite steak house in Las Vegas is probably Emeril Lagasse’s Delmonico in the Venetian.  Don’t mess with the vaguely Cajun specials; go straight for the steaks, and don’t forget one of the last truly made-from-scratch tableside Caesar salads remaining anywhere.

2013 Update:  Revisited Delmonico's for the first time in a couple of years the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and had a typically fabulous steak dinner, with impeccable, friendly service, including being recognized by the sommelier after such a long absence.

We visited an old standby the last time we were in town and were very pleasantly surprised.  The Palm is located in the Forum Shops just off the main casino floor at Caesar’s.  Nothing unusual about the menu, but on our last few visits the food has been outstanding, the service and atmosphere warm and friendly, and even the wine list didn’t seem too crazy expensive.  But maybe we've just been dining in Vegas too long.

Prime at the Bellagio

Two others come to mind for the sheer quality of the steaks, although both are really more fine dining spots than real steakhouses like Delmonico and the Palm.  The first is Prime Steakhouse (above), located right across from Picasso down the escalator at Bellagio.  It’s a supremely elegant room with stuffy service, really high prices (everything a la carte), and simply superb beef.  The second is the unusually monikered N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms.  Incredibly popular with local and national celebrities and athletes, it is more of a see-and-be-seen scene than a traditional steakhouse, but once again the beef is to die for.  Rob a bank before you go here without an expense account, or if you do have one be prepared to discreetly inflate the number of diners.

I’ve gone on long enough here, but let me close with some places we avoid.  I won’t go into details on each one, but these non-recommendations are all based on our own multiple dining experiences.  Most are mediocre food-wise, stupidly expensive even for Vegas, or in most cases both: Fiammo Trattoria, Nove Italiano, Maggiano’s, Il Mulino, Michael Mina, Olives, Sushi Roku, Mizuya, Smith & Wollensky, Fleur, and Mix.

2013 Update:  I'm happy to say we really don't have any new duds to report from our many 2012 dining experiences. I am removing Fleur from the "avoid" list above, out of simple fairness.  We haven't been back, but our Vegas sources tell us that it is really a completely different restaurant, having undergone a complete remodel and a drastic menu change from hyper-pricy fine dining to tapas-style small plates.

That's it for this year.  Feel free to comment or contact me for more highly opinionated, occasionally accurate information.

Happy dining!

Las Vegas Restaurants - Part I - Updated Jan. 2013

January, 2013 Update: My two posts last year on Vegas restaurants received some of the highest page views in the history of Frank-Incensed. Since not a great deal has changed on the restaurant scene, rather than write whole new reviews, I have updated these review based on our experiences over the past year, during which we spent almost five weeks total in Las Vegas.

Enjoy!

As some of you know, Laura and I have been living part time in Las Vegas for the last couple of years, going down four or five times a year for long weekends and occasional long weeks.  With CES right around the corner, I thought I’d pass along a few tidbits of restaurant information from a “local’s” perspective.  We have had quite a lot of opportunity to try different restaurants, some multiple times, and gotten lots of advice from real locals, including our son and daughter-in-law Keith and Katie, who live in Henderson full time.  A quick disclaimer: this is in no way anything like a comprehensive review of Vegas dining, as there are literally hundreds of restaurants in Vegas that we have never set foot in.  Additionally, the opinions expressed here are heavily biased toward our existing food preferences.  Rather than an objective critics-eye view, this is more of a personal diary of Vegas dining.  That having been said, I hope you will find this useful, and maybe even a little entertaining.

First, we love Japanese food.  We eat in one or more of Portland’s many fantastic and authentic Japanese places at least once a week, so we were very pleasantly surprised to find truly excellent Japanese fare in Las Vegas.  One certainly needn’t worry about the old “fish in the desert?” question these days, when everything from real Mediterranean Branzino to live Maryland crabs are available for restaurant dining and often even retail purchase thanks to the miracle of daily air deliveries.

There are two world-class Japanese restaurants on the Strip.  First on my list (by just a hair) would be Okada at the Wynn.  The sushi is fantastic and the traditional Japanese cooked dishes are also superb.  This is the only place in town with a traditional Robata bar, where fresh seafood, poultry, meat, and vegetable selections are cooked to order on a small charcoal hibachi.  Robatayaki is one of the most popular dining styles in Tokyo, with hundreds of places serving it up.  Unfortunately, it has not proven very popular in Vegas, and the Robata bar at Okada was only open a couple of nights a week at the time of our last visit.  This place is hugely popular, so reservations are a must, even at the sushi bar!  There is an amazing sake list here too, which can further damage your wallet (more on this below.) This is the best Japanese food I have had outside of Japan.

2013 Update: Okada has been renamed Mizumi after a dispute between Steve Wynn and the man who's name was previously on the restaurant.  The chef, staff, and food is said to be the same.  The decor is definitely not.  The place has been changed from its former subtle ( and quintessentially Japanese) bamboo and hemp decor to a garish red and gold color scheme that reminds one of nothing more that a chain Chinese restaurant. We ate there, and while the food was certainly good (and certainly just as expensive,) it didn't take our breath away like it had for us in the past.  Perhaps it was the subliminal influence of the horrible new decor, but something had slipped.

The second top-notch Japanese place is Shibuya at the MGM Grand.  It also features fantastic sushi and very fine specialty Japanese dishes as well.  You’d be well advised to have reservations here, too, especially on weekends.  The sushi here is also fantastic: really fresh and expertly cut by one of what seems like fifty Japanese sushi chefs working behind a huge sushi bar.  Shibuya specializes in creative sashimi-style appetizers that are perfect for sharing, with each having four or more pieces.  The marinated Hamachi and the Kobe beef are highly recommended, but everything here is top-notch.  The cooked dishes are terrific too, with Laura’s hands-down favorite being pineapple salmon and miso-marinated black cod; two generous chunks of fish that are simultaneously full-flavored and melt-in-your-mouth.  On a side note, Shibuya is one of the very few places I have visited that offers real fresh-grated Wasabi root.  The clump of spicy green paste you get in 99% of all Japanese restaurants is a reconstituted mix of dried wasabi root powder and water.  By contrast, Shibuya’s fresh Wasabi comes on a miniature cutting board with a sharkskin grater and a generous hunk of a real Wasabi root.  The resulting grated Wasabi is only vaguely similar to the usual paste, having good spiciness and a more pleasing texture that comes from the fibrous root and its natural moisture.  It costs an additional $15 per order (politely decline when they say your table may need two orders) and you have to ask for it.  Ask for it.

2013 Update: With the slight decline of the former Okada and no less than four outstanding dinners in 2012, Shibuya tops our ranking of Japanese restaurants with ease.  Consistently great sushi and sashimi,  innovative cooked and raw Japanese dishes, and outstanding service and Sake selection.

One note on both of these places, which applies to most quality strip dining spots:  they are really expensive.  Expect to pay 50-75% more than at a regular top-shelf big-city Japanese restaurant.  Think New York City prices.  Perfect for your CES expense account meals!

There is an excellent “hole-in-the-wall” Japanese place that is very popular with locals as it is open really late.  It’s called Naked Fish, and it’s way out on the west side at 3945 South Durango Drive.  Sushi prices here are approximately half the cost of Okada and Shibuya, and I would rate the quality at around 90-95% of the two top shelf Japanese places.  You miss out on the super-fancy décor of Okada and Shibuya, and they typically do not have as large a menu, but this is a locals’ favorite and has become one of ours as well.  Especially as, ahem, there is no expense account involved when we dine in Vegas.

A real sleeper of a Japanese restaurant is Hyakumi at Caesar’s Palace.  If you’ve been going to Vegas a while you’ll know this place by sight – the sushi bar is right across from Cleopatra’s Barge night club.  This place has been here forever, and you’ve walked by it a million times.  There is actually whole restaurant behind the sushi bar area that serves various styles, including Teppanyaki, but we’ve never eaten there, preferring to sit at the sushi bar.  The sushi here is seriously good and perfectly prepared in traditional style, the sushi chefs are friendly, and the Japanese beer is ice cold.  Taking the secret back service roads that my son taught me to navigate I can make it from our place to the Caesar’s parking lot in four minutes, and that and the quality of the sushi have made it my lunch favorite, especially when I’m in town solo.

2013 Update:  The hottest new Sushi joint in Vegas is called Kabuto. It is a minimalist sushi bar with a few tables that is patterned after the hole-in-the-wall sushi bars in Tokyo's subway stations, like the one featured in the cult documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.  We have not been there yet, but it's on our list for this year. Reservations at least a week out are necessary, even for a seat at the sushi bar!

Apart from Japanese, there are many great choices for fine or casual dining, so I’ll finish today’s post with casual dining, and leave fine dining and specialty cuisines for Part II. 

The Burger Bar in the shops between the Mandalay Bay and the Luxor is a favorite casual dining spot.  You get to choose what kind of beef you want for the burger as well as many other choices of toppings and condiments.  They have Kobe beef burgers, fois gras burgers, excellent organic grass-fed American beef burgers, and many more choices. They also have a terrific draft beer selection.  There is frequently a wait for a table at the Burger Bar, so why not make like a local and eat at the bar?  For carnivores only.

A place you would likely never hear referred to as a casual dining destination is the lounge area at Bradley Ogden in Caesar’s Palace.  Bradley’s is a high-end fine dining place that will be discussed later, but they have a prix fixe lounge menu that offers three courses for $29.  Choice of salads, either fish and chips or a burger with fries, and a desert of butterscotch custard.  The burger has won best-in-Vegas awards, and deservedly so.  The hand cut fries are perfectly cooked and presented in a paper cone, and the fish and chips is pretty awesome too.  Only in Vegas is a thirty-dollar salad, burger, and fries a great bargain, but this little menu is really good.

2013 Update: Regrettably, Bradley Ogden closed in August, 2012.

There are tons of acceptable casual dining places (without even mentioning the In ‘N Out Burger on Tropicana and Dean Martin, a Mecca for those unfortunate enough not to live in one of the five states that have them) but I’ll go ahead and mention one more casino hotel place that I really like.  It’s the Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill, an open casual restaurant located right across from the ticket windows for Cirque’s Ka in the MGM Grand.  It features the Puck standard California-style wood oven pizzas as well as a great prime burger and fresh and tasty salad choices.  To my thinking, it’s a better choice for lunch than dinner, but I’ve been happy with both.

2013 Update:  As mentioned in Part II last year, a great new casual spot is Todd English P.U.B. located between the Aria casino and Crystals mall in the new City Center mega-development.  Great oyster bar, lots of unique sandwich and soup choices, and a billion beers on tap make this one of our favorites for a late lunch.

Coming up next:  Part II covers fine dining, Italian, steak, and couple of other personal favorites, plus a list of places we avoid.