Hats off to Giada for getting paid, but that menu is cringeworthy.

Lol agree. Vegetable bolognese?!? Seriously wtf. If there isn't meat, it's not bolognese.

I would call it semi white trash fine dining. People that don't really know what good Italian food tastes like probably think it's great. I envision people from a rural town in Kansas/Arkansas/Nebraska, etc. loving it. People that have actually been to Italy? Lol they will know its swill.

Gordon Ramsey Steak @ Paris

The wife was set on going there, and that's where we ended up. It was a very good meal, great service, decent enough atmosphere, priced fairly. With a couple drinks, apps, the big royal chop and sides it ran under $300 with tip. Got to use some comp dollars, so that was nice.

The Pork Belly app was quite tasty, and is usually the highlight of a meal for me
The Royal chop was a mistake. Meat was good. Bone was better, but it's almost always the best part. IF there is another trip, we'll get the ribeye lip cut.
Sauteed Spinach and mushrooms were very well prepared.

Just had dinner at Echo and Rig at Tivoli village and have to say it was top notch. Service was excellent and food was portioned well for the price. Overall experience rivaled the Napa dining I'm accustomed to.

Not a huge surprise, but another stellar dinner at LoS tonight. 4 of us out the door for 160: a bottle of gruner veltliner, crispy duck panang, garlic prawns, northern larb, som thum, nam kao tod, and a hot pot of tom krong.

I love that place more every time I go.

4 of us went to Mesa grill for dinner last night.

Sommelier was soft spoken and had a little too pretentious an air for a friggin BFlay restaurant. Then she brought the bottle, poured, topped everyone off unnecessarily early (right after we ordered, and everyone had half glass+ remaining), and asked if we wanted "another round." This is after really pushing a $90 bottle of wine (the most expensive bottle in that section) on someone who clearly was shy and a bit uncomfortable with the task of ordering the wine to begin with. Just left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Blue corn pancake w duck was unremarkable. Expected more "pancake" and less "taco". But the duck tasted good. The lobster tacos were the most expensive app iirc and pimped pretty hard by the waitress. They were tasty w good spice, but I would be sad if that were the best app. Bread basket was decent, although the muffins were pretty dry and crumbly. I know cornbread is tough to get right, but...

I had the rabbit with an Israeli Couscous. It was decently executed but not super exciting.

The spice rubbed pork tenderloin was cooked near perfectly, so I was pretty happy about that, and it comes with a sweet potato tamal with pecan butter -- delicious but sweet for my tastes. But that was Mrs W's dinner anyway.

Sides: spicy sweet potato gratin was good though not super spicy. The corn was awesome. There's cotija and lime zest in there -- zest made it pop and the cotija was like a binder and made it a little creamier.

Dining companion ordered the churros which come w chocolate and dulce de leche dipping sauces. Didn't try them.

All in all, food was good. Service was adequate. Value was nonexistent.

Which is the perfect description of Vegas restaurants that fit any of the following criteria:

1. They sell cookbooks

2. "Celeb" chef who may or may not have been inside the restaurant since the grand opening

3. Sliders on the menu, no matter what the cuisine

3. Is in Caesars Palace

Pretty fun review of the place here: http://www.vegastripping.com/news/bl...-the-cromwell/

People that have actually been to Kansas would know that you're a moron

Care to elaborate or just name call?

I live in Kansas. Why would you assume we would not know good Italian food or are any less likely than you to have visited italy?

You know who would go to giada? People from the Italian neighborhood I grew up in in Boston.

Probably because people in the middle of the country and south are less likely to travel abroad in general. Both anecdotally as a function of stereotypical culture and logically since they are less likely to have passports.

http://www.theexpeditioner.com/2010/...-a-passport-2/

It doesn't apply to Italy specifically, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume.

Sorry if you took offense. I was trying to paint the picture of people from anywhere that consider Olive Garden and macaroni grill as good. It's not limited to Kansas. All states have those folks and I didn't mean to imply that all the people in Kansas haven't been to Italy.

As to the states I mentioned, I didn't have time to list them all, but when you think fine dining destinations, particularly Italian, you don think those states, or a host of others. You think east coast, vegas, Chicago, etc.

I live in rural Arkansas. Your comments are pretty idiotic.

My father was a vegetable bolognese. I'm deeply outraged and didn't bother to read the other post when you explained the obvious point you were illustrating in the one above (to the exact people you might think would require explaining).

I have been to Italy and enjoy Oscar Mayer Bologna as much as the next guy.

Searched through the thread but couldn't find much info: Whats the consensus on Sushi Samba @ Palazzo? Busy, Overpriced, small portions? Sounds like a servers dream.

My GF has a second interview for a serving position there tomorrow and we are trying to determine whether she should choose Samba>Italian restaurant @ Red Rock (old Terra Rossa).

Samba: Yelp puts it at 4stars with 1100+ reviews so it seems that volume is there, and going over the menu I can easily see the bill ending up @ $50-60/guest at dinner. Accurate summary?

Red Rock Italian: She starts training there next week and its right by our house in Summerlin so thats a plus. Yelp only had 100 reviews @ 3stars and says it was closed to be renovated. I would assume primarily locals and obviously substantially lower volume than at Samba, yes? The only plus I see here is that its close to our house, is this a no brainer or am I missing something?

Oh yea, she also got hired at RiRa pub and starts there on Friday but I think she is not feeling that place :/

lol your post explicitly stated people who live in those states and people who have been to italy as mutually exclusive. like i said, the people who would go to giada are probably jersey shore types who most of all don't understand fine dining, rather than italian.

I am a Jersey Shore type and am outraged and offended at your suggestion that I don't understand fine dining. How dare you sir.

Sushi Samba is fine. I eat there 2x a year.

Never been to the one at palazzo, but I've been to one of the NYC locations a couple of times and enjoyed myself.

Of NYC restaurants with Las Vegas outposts, if I was thinking about going to Rao's, is this the right choice or is there a better place to get red sauce italian?

Rao's is fine but it's honestly like 70% more expensive than is reasonable, even considering that it's quite good.

Better value for similar stuff (though not great value mind you) is Martorano's in Rio

You should probably chill out. The guy explicitly stated rural town before he listed states, thus not describing all citizens of those states.

YOU SHOULD PROBABLY CHILL OUT DOOD I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS SILLY IM FROM BOSTON LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL


seriously i just found it amusing considering that being from boston i know those people would loveeeee giadas way more than people from kansas would. his logic was backwards.

Went to Japanese Cuisine by Omae for lunch a couple weeks ago. 3 course lunch for like $20 was amazing value.

First course was a vegetable terrine: 10 kinds of vegetable sliced small and served in one slice held together by a gelatinous broth, served over a sesame paste. This was really stellar.

Second course was choice between a mixed tempura over rice (wife chose this) and a wok-charred chicken ramen (I chose this). The tempura was well-executed: batter was light, sauce was tasty. Even the rice tasted really good. At the end of the day, it was tempura over rice, though. The saving grace was a tempura scallop and corn fritter. The ramen was delicious. Broth was incredible, better than most things I've had at Monta. The wok-charred chicken was even great. And the egg -- oh man, the egg. Cooked perfectly, yolk was super soft.

Third course was a green tea tiramisu. I don't know why it never occurred to me to soak ladyfingers in something other than coffee, and green tea never would have occurred to me. But this just worked. Really, really delicious.

Chef with two Michelin stars. Three courses. Twenty dollars. Amazing value.

This is only during their soft opening. They open up a ~$100 prix fixe dinner menu sometime in early September.

Headed to Bazaar Meat tonight and Ku Noodles tomorrow at the new SLS. Will report back (Ku writeup will be in casual dining), hopefully w pictures.