Alright, time for my Fine Dining review: I stayed in Vegas from Dec 22-29, 2009. I ate a lot of amazing food which included the best steak, pasta, and desserts of my life. Let me break it down for you on a 1-10 scale:
Serrano
Ate there twice, both for lunch.
Menu can be found here:
http://www.function1.com/images/7746...Menu%20v03.pdf (Thanks foobar)
Service: 9/10
We came to eat lunch before the rush so the servers had taken the time to really give us exceptional service. The coffee was flowing (I had around 7 cups), and everyone was very cordial. (During our second visit we had walked into a packed restaurant so the service wasn't as attentive, but it was still decent).
Dishes:
Brava Potatoes: 9/10
Amazing dish. Perfectly cooked potatoes, nice creamy sauce. Not spicy at all.
Wrinkled potatoes with mojo picon sauce: 8.5/10
Very surprising dish! You get these small round potatoes no bigger than an inch and you dip it into this lovely orange sauce. The sauce is not spicy, but it's very flavorful. Highly recommended.
Gambas: 3/10
The brandi overwhelmed the dish completely, the shrimp was a bit undercooked. I told the staff about it, hopefully your experience with it will be a little better.
Calamari friti: 9/10
Another simple dish, perfectly fried calamari without a thick dough like some other eateries. The sauce is basically mayo with a little aioli. Squirting lemon on the calamari is a must.
Imported spanish serrano ham: 9/10
I think this dish is a must. It's extremely simple with the ham, evoo, and some bread. But the ham is so flavorful, just the way the spanish like it.
mix paella: 8/10
I really enjoyed this dish but by the time I ate it I was pretty full (bad idea!). The rice was perfectly cooked and I really enjoyed the vegetables and the chicken in the dish. Imo I think the lobster is a bit over the top but I'm sure many of you guys will enjoy it.
Overall this is an amazing restaurant that offers unique food for the strip. Julian Serrano will be in his kitchen on a regular basis so expect to see him walking around and greeting guests. (I saw him during the 2nd lunch experience). I'll be back for sure.
Overall: 9/10
Carnevino
http://www.carnevino.com/dinner.cfm
Ate there for dinner. This was the most lopsided dinner I ever had in my life, unfortunately.
Service: 7.5/10
Service was solid and friendly. They did not bother asking if I wanted a refill for my coffee which was left empty for close to 15 mins. Other than that it was what I expected for a high end restaurant.
Dishes:
Black Fettucine: 2/10
My dinner buddy ordered this has her main course and she could barely finish it, it was that bad. I had to taste it for myself and I had to agree. The jalapenos totally overtook the dish, it was just hot, no flavor, nada. Way too many shallots. The only cool thing about it was the black fettucine itself. It wasn't a good pasta dish. Meh.
Farfalle: 5/10
It was a very simple dish...It was so simple that I felt I could have made it myself and I'm not a chef. The pasta was not al dente, the taste was okay, the shrimp was alright as well. Just nothing special about the dish.
Ricotta and Egg Raviolo: 5/10
Now here was some interesting complications with the egg being inside of the ravioli...Unfortunately I didn't really like it. It was very rich with truffle butter, I wanted to like it but I couldn't.
8 oz Filet Mignon: 11/10
Now here was the realy star of the show. The filet mignon 'wet aged' and I ordered it medium well. It was so juicy that when I cut into it there was juice spread everywhere on my plate. Every bite instantly disintegrated into my mouth. It was the best meat experience of my life.
Very tough to rate this restaurant because it was such a love/hate type of deal. One weird thing at Carnevino was that they were playing Radiohead's OK Computer as ambiance music during my entire dining experience there. I'm a big radiohead fan but it was def strange to have it being played in such a conservative setting. I will be back but next time I'm skipping the pastas and heading directly to the steaks.
Overall: 7/10
CUT
http://www.palazzolasvegas.com/assets/pdf/CUTmenu.pdf
Service: 10/10
Very attentive staff. Once I was served my steak I was asked literally 5 times from different people to find out whether the steak was cooked to my preference. The attendants take the time to do the small things like mix in the basil in with the yukon gold potato puree infront of you. A table next to mine had a large group of 7 where they ordered a couple porterhouses'..One attendant took the time to spoon some of the steak jus on their steak for 3-4 minutes without the guests even knowing about it. That's what I call service.
Dishes:
U.S.D.A PRIME, Nebraska Corn Fed, Dry Aged 35 days New York Sirloi, 14 Oz: 9/10
I had ordered it medium well but it came in as a medium. No worries though, I always wanted to try my meat with a little more red in it. The steak was very good, it is everything you expect from a high end steakhouse. One thing about it was that it was too damn big! I had a lot of trouble finishing the entire thing and was extremely full afterwards.
Kobe Beef Short Ribs "Indian Spiced", Slowly Cooked for Eight Hours, Curred Corn Puree, Garam Masala: 8/10
It's basically served as three gobs of meat on the platter. The meat was deeply marinated with a slightly spicy curry and it tasted very nice.
On the side:
Yukon Gold Potato Puree: 10/10
You must try this side.
Chanterelle Mushrooms: 8/10
Very nice mushrooms but its a little rich when you eat it with your steak. I'm going to order something lighter as a contrast next time.
I came away very impressed with CUT and I would highly recommend it. On a personal note I left the restaurant extremely full and was uncomfortably full for the rest of the night and part of the morning. Next time I'm going to order some 8 Oz Wagyu Beef, I heard from Kevin Eats that it changes lives.
Overall: 9/10
Bouchon @ Venetian
http://www.venetian.com/uploadedFile...chonBrunch.pdf
Ate there once for Brunch.
Service: 6.5/10
Other reviews had prepared me for the apparently famous high brow attitude from the wait staff and I wasn't disappointed. First of all they made us wait in the lobby even though the restaurant wasn't even 40% filled. Then they made fun of my dining buddy for being the 'slowest eater he had ever seen!'. Besides that they were friendly and details oriented.
Dishes:
Bouchon Pastry Basket: 7/10
The croissants were delicious..flakey, buttery, puffy. The cheese danish was less than ideal, I found it way too sugar laden. Def. skip it.
Bouchon French Toast: 5.5/10
Looked beautiful, tasted like a sugary dessert disaster. It was just way too sweet for my taste.
Sourdough Waffles: 8/10
This dish saved the entire experience for me. You really tasted the sourdough in the waffles which I found to be really cool. Tee bananas were all over-carmalized with maple syrup.
I was so excited to eat at this Thomas Keller establishment that I had planned to eat there twice prior to the trip but I came away disappointed. I skipped my 2nd planned visit to try other establishments.
Overall: 6.5/10
Spago, Caesars Palace
http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaura...ne-dining/9044
Ate there twice, first time by chance but came back after how blown away we were by the quality of the food.
Service: 8/10
Attentive staff. The 2nd time was better because we came there late and there were less people.
Dishes:
Hearts of baby romaine lettuce 'caesar': 9/10
Just a very nice caesars salad. Tasted amazing.
Roasted Chicken Soup: 5/10
By far the worst thing I had eaten at Spago. Just nothing special about it. Skip it.
Margherita classic wood fire pizza: 8/10
Just a nice simple pizza, made perfectly. The tomato and basil was very fresh and was the star of the show.
Spiced Butternut squash soup: 10/10
I had a foodie orgasm eating this dish. All of the elements of the soup was mixed perfectly together. Every bite was perfect.
Parppardelle Pasta a la Bolognaise: 8.5/10
Awesome pasta. Be ready to eat when you try it though, it's a heavy dish.
Spaghettini T.B.G: 10/10
This is the WOW dish. It's so simple but tastes so amazing. Every element of this dish is perfect and it's very light to eat.
Desserts:
'Bananas': House made neutella, crepes, candied hazelnuts - 10/10
So delicious. Every part of this dish was a winner but the house made neutella was the star.
Cheesecake: House made graham cracker, citrus cheesecake, honey glazed figs - 9/10
Delish! They also added a pomegranate sorbee along with pomegranate seeds to the dish. I would eat again in a heart beat.
Spago came away as one of my favorite dining experiences in Vegas. Almost every dish was perfectly made, and Wolfgang Puck and the executive chef put their own mark on classic italian dishes. Spago might turn into my go to spot in Vegas.
Overall: 9.5/10
I ate at other places like Beijing Noodle No. 9 (highly recommended), and other places like Payards (Crepe place in Caesars, best berry crepe of my life) but I'll post my review in another thread because I don't think they belong with the other fine dining restaurants.
