My wife & I are going to be at the V in a couple of weeks and I was planning on going to Delmonico for our anniversary dinner. We went there 3 years ago and my bone-in rib eye was outstanding. Should I go back to Delmonico or give CUT or Carnevino a try? After reading through this thread I'm leaning towards CUT. I'm a steak guy, my wife prefers lamb. Wine isn't a factor since neither of us drink. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Even though it got mentioned in this thread, I'm not sure I would consider StripSteak to be fine dining as the fiancee and I went there all dressed up last Thursday and found other diners were in jeans and tennis shoes. To me, fine dining means the decor, the food, and the way a diner is expected to dress. I guess two out of three ain't bad.

We started the meal off with a trio of duck fat fries with complimenting sauces. The fiancee absolutely destroyed the truffle fries and truffle sauce while I took care of the Ole' Bay fries with it's corresponding sauce. The third fries and sauce got about half eaten. Not because they weren't good, it was just we were worried about not having room for our entrees.

I had the 10oz filet mignon cooked medium with a baked potato topped with bacon marmalade as an accompaniment. The filet was cooked exactly as I wanted and very delicious, but while I am a bacon lover, I was turned off by the bacon marmalade as I felt it had funny taste. I still ate it and totally decimated the baked potato. I didn't want to insult the chef but I wish I had butter to go with the baked potato and finally used some of my fiancee's drawn butter.

The fiancee had a 2lb lobster and chose a trio of potato purees (lobster, sour cream & onion, and horseradish) as her accompaniment. There was enough of each puree to share and I ate about half of the horseradish as well as having some of the lobster puree. The sour cream and onion ended up being untouched. Just not a taste combination I like.

We finished the meal off with some donuts and two sauces.

We surprised ourselves by eating as much as we did, but I guess when food is this good, it is easy to eat a lot.

I honestly don't remember what the final bill was but with drinks and tips, I think it came to about $250. Money well spent, though.

cancelled our Picasso resv to go to Raku instead. Am I really going to be missing out on something?

None of the fine dining steak houses enforce a strict dress code, jeans and tennis shoes are perfectly fine at Cut, Carnevino and SW.

Will keep that in mind for our next trip out. Do any of the places you mention have duck fat fries? The fiancee has become a little obsessed with them as SS's were so good.

In Vegas, that would mean that less than 5 places count as fine dining. It's simply a very lax dress code everywhere. I'd say standard attire for men at most restaurants is more or less an untucked dress shirt, jeans and nice shoes.

Both are outstanding, just depends on what kind of food/experience you're looking for.

That's not the impression you get when you visit a lot of "fine dining" websites. Also, I called one place before a trip to get clarification about dress code and was told one thing and when we got to this particular restaurant, it was a whole other matter.

I'm guessing Joel Robuchon in MGM is one you really do have to dress up for?

Dress shirt, nice jeans, dress shoes... I was fine

eta: I was actually wearing a blazer. still had jeans on tho

I've worn jeans to Picasso and L'Atelier and E. I don't know if I'd wear a suit to Robuchon but likely yes just for fun.

Even there I was fine in jeans, dress shirt, decent shoes.

Restaurants these days don't have the luxury of being able to enforce a dress code, no matter what their websites say. Sign of the times. I too am sick of seeing people in shorts and flip flops in nice restaurants. At least put some goddamn pants on.

Dressing up did make the night seem even more special for both of us.

It's funny how a good meal can expand your dining horizons. Before this meal, we really didn't think of Joel Robuchon as an option.

We all wore jeans, a button up and a jacket to e. Random other guy was wearing the same. Hard to imagine any restaurant in Cosmopolitan requiring much in the way of fancy dress.

I would say Vegas is a little different than other places in that you can get away with more as it pertains to dress code. Probably not anywhere on the strip you couldn't dine with jeans and a polo, assuming it's at least somewhat presentable.

Dressing up does make it a more unique affair though.

People who wear shorts to places that are nice are really obnoxious. Have a little class.

IMO the same goes for people dining in baseball caps and sports jerseys.

Lawry's "The Prime Rib" (admittedly offering a near-staged dining experience) does it right when they state on their website:
[/grump]

+1

Adults really don't need to be wearing a sports jersey to anything other than a sporting event, if anything.

Just wanted to say this thread is the nuts, finally turned 21 so can really enjoy these places.

I would say in general I think a lot of places are overpriced, not saying that they are not very good, though. Going to have to eat at more of the suggested places soon.

It's a bit of a long way to go to WSOP, but just checking - how long in advance do i need to book at 'e'?
same q for the 10/15 course kaieski menu at raku.

thanks

especially since any patron no matter how they are dressed could be a high limit player at that group of hotels..

You can book e up to 3 months in advance. I started emailing them the first day I was able to book the reservation. Not saying you have to, but I only get out there a few times a year, tops, so I didn't want to risk not getting a seat.

What is the cost per person for e?

From their email

"We accommodate a maximum of 8 guests per seating and the cost to dine is $195 per person (excluding beverage, tax and gratuity)."

I think the wine paring is an additional $105.

when you emailed, did you give them a range? for a trip 8/15-8/20 for example, did you start on 5/15 and ask if they had anything available for 8/15-8/19?

I paid $705 or so for two people, a bottle of wine, tax and tip. I want to say the dinner is around $200 per person. You have your choice of ordering from the wine list or picking from two drink pairing menus ($160 or $300 per person).

Send them your top 3 dates. They'll go down the list as they have availability. They're pretty easy to work with, aside from only being available via email. You do have to sign a rather intimidating form to lock in your reservation. Basically it says if you stand them up, you're still on the hook for dinner.

I would totally expect to them to charge for a no show

thanks for the info