addendum: the taster's menu at julian serrano with nothing added will get you in around 80 iirc. not the best reviews but generally positive. especially for that price.

bourdain said they weren't staying at venetian/palazzo.

.

For a $70 pp budget, I would just go get a steak frites at a nice bistro like Comme Ca or Bouchon for around $35 and still have enough for an app or dessert.

It makes much more sense to me than shelling out $50 to $55 a steak at a mid tier place like Palm or Delmonico or N9NE or whatever...

So yeah, either I go balls to the walls (Riserva at Carnevino, Wagyu at CUT) or I go for bistro steaks with some of the best fries around.

$46 steak + $9 side + $10-14 soup/salad = $65-69. Is someone eating a $70 dinner really going to complain about tax/tip? Those always have to be paid so I don't count them in the cost of the meal when figuring where to eat. If it needs to be under $70 including tax/tip then skip the side or salad/soup...pretty simple.

Also, steak frites at Bouchon is a good suggestion from poster above me...I think that is around $37 and was damn good.

When people say $70 per person, I can understand that they might mean pre tax/tip, but since he stated it as $250-$300 for 4 people, I tend to think that is inclusive of Tax/Tip.

But anyways the gist of things is that we all agree if you go to a strip steakhouse and get steak, you're looking at starting around $90 per person all inclusive and thats if you are somewhat careful with your ordering.

Reading this 5 year-old-esque twitter war was a true waste of time.

Cliffs: Mrs. Bourdain says mystery celebrity steakhouse served a terrible steak (this was one paragraph in a larger blog)

John Curtas got his panties in a bunch claiming that by not naming the mystery steakhouse, she was sullying the good name of the rest of the Vegas steakhouses. He researched to find out she ate at CarneVino and didn't have the palate for their excellent Riserva.

To which the Bourdains replied essentially saying, "You're an idiot. We weren't staying at the hotel you think we were. We love CarneVino."

Recently ate at Cut @ Palazzo and thought the food + service was excellent. Pretty expensive but has to be one of the best places for steak in Vegas

I wonder about the brill who read this dribble. Are they as plentiful as the bottom-feeders that watch "Sports Center?"

Brief TR - last night wife and I went to Cut - as usual we split an entree (getting older means if you don't eat less you blow up like a goddam balloon) - we split a ribeye medium rare, added a side of white corn and onion rings.

Everything was really really good. Onion rings were done in a thin tempura batter, just a light coating on each ring - stack about 6-7 inches high. Corn was also just about perfect. Steak was great - charred pepper-crust on outside, perfect on the inside.Wife had two glasses of wine at $14 a glass, I was a little hung over, so just had a soda.

Service attentive, but not intrusive. Because of my job, we tend to eat early, so we were there at 5:30, but the place filled up pretty quickly and by 6p or so was about 2/3 full. Really liked the table arrangement, which gave enough space between groups that I didn't have to listen to other people's war stories over dinner.

Total before tip $140, which I was fine with. We both thought it was well worth it.

MM MD

Ok been trying to read as many pages as I can, so much information.

Best place to take gf on a nice dinner? (both under 21)

picasso

but don't do it for her. do it for you. she probably won't appreciate it unless she's some sort of culinary student/fine dining expert. i made this mistake before...

Picasso is pretty approachable though for non foodies, not like you are taking her to Twist.

I'd suggest Sage (see earlier posters) - Picasso is of course VERY nice, but Sage was a little less "serious" for lack of a better term - I'm assuming you want a casual, fancy evening - but if you want to go really top end, Picasso is probably the way to go.

I'll also throw in a vote for Sinatra - been there three times, staff has been very nice, kind of an old-Vegas type of ambiance, if that would be what you were looking for

MM MD

were u the guy in the maroon shirt right next to me? I believe we played one hand qq vs AJ on j hi board and u had mentioned u had gotten a micros t shirt.
if so was a pleasure playing/talking with you, what's ur name?
best of luck.
jonas.

Hi Jonas,

Yes me in the maroon shirt, Matt Flynn from the old HSNL forums. Do you remember the hand? There was another AJ vs. opp to my left QQ on J high board that is the only AJ vs. QQ hand I remember for that day.


Everyone, I've ordered four cases of the tonic water Jaleo uses and bought Hendrick's gin, looking to recreate the Jaleo gin and tonic. Will post a drink report from our lake vacation in highland California once an adequate sample size has been achieved.

Matt

How will you make the iceball????!!!!!!

So many responses here...

In the same boat here, but always think the waiter/waitress gives you the "roll of the eyes" when you split an entree, meaning "my tip just got cut in half." We normally order a bottle of wine, or a few glasses for her and drinks for me, but still get the feeling we are being cheapskates and being a bother.

In fact, we just don't eat as much as we used to and don't want a doggie bag when we are in Vegas. Anybody else get this feeling or am I just being paranoid? How do you think the restaurants view this practice?

To make up for my insecurity, I normally tip 25% plus.

I have a related question. I've read many posts here and it seems like Picasso and L'Atelier are safe bets as far as fine dining goes.

What I am wondering is would it be OK if my gf and I go to L'Atelier and order the fix menu which comes with an appetizer, a soup, a fish entree, a meat entree and a dessert to share (the $105 one)? That sounds like a lot of food for one.

Easy http://www.amazon.com/Final-Touch-Ju...=ice+ball+mold

it's not a lot of food. it's not olive garden portions. you would likely leave hungry. if you want to avoid huge costs just order a la carte between the two of you and you can get in under 150 and have plenty to share without looking... out of place.

i don't know if they'd refuse you service per se but it's definitely not good form imo.

Oh wow I had no idea I was sitting next to a legend... Ur posts def played a part in my formative years.
As for the hand we played it was early in the day and you opened aj utg and i flatted qq from bb and c/c 3 streets on a jack high board.

Anyways was a real pleasure chatting with you we'll def need to grab some food next summer.
Cheers.

Maybe sounds a bit strange, but is there a certain age you need to reach so restaurants are truly OK with it? I'm 31, my GF is 21 so we are prolly too young, but 3 courses in most US restaurants is just way too much food for me (plates in Europe are smaller) and my GF eats super slow, so a big plate is already cold when she reaches the halfway point. I'm not a huge fan of doggy bags and never ask for one in a fine dining place, but I don't want my GF to try to finish her plate only because I paid $$$ for it. Besides the point of that being not healthy, I get somewhat annoyed by having to wait 30mins for her to finish eating.

That's it. I misremembered it as against an earlier seat. 1300 pre, flop J93r, turn 6, river 4, lost 7K to you and was very glad it wasn't more. So happy to bet that river against a then-random 30-ish white guy with a short stack day 1 of Main who didn't look excited. Thought you might even show up with 88, TT, A9, T9, 98, or worse. Good playing with you. Now back to fine dining.