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!