Sry Augie, when I saw your first post it was midnight EST so I figured it was too late :P

Glad you enjoyed your experience, Serrano is def. worth repeat visits in order to try out the entire menu.

I enjoyed my visit to Grand Lux when I was out there during the SB. A nice selection of appetizers, and a very solid place for sandwiches, burgers, salads, all with very good quantity for you hungry young poker studs. But leave it there. This is a great place for value.

Don't get your hopes up and try to push it too far; this isn't the place to splurge. The chef's ability doesn't quite live up to his imagination, or the promise of the wonderfully-written menu.

By all means, visit the Grand Lux, you'll get great value here.

Went to Carnevino. I have to say, I had the best steak in my life so far. Cant say the same for the pasta tho. The flavoring was pretty good but there was a hint of something boxed or canned. And yeah, the pastrami with duck egg was awesome. Just be sure to pop the yolk and eat together with the pastrami otherwise the pastrami will be way too salty. I couldnt believe how different it was between the two.

sorry, I had to LOL, because my experience is 100% opposite. When we do this place Steak is literally an afterthought. Do the north end of the menu (appetizers and pastas) as the main part of the meal, try everything and it will blow your mind. By the time you get to the steaks you will only need to make a small order because you will have no more room in your belly - and you will be incredibly satisfied with some of the best dry aged cuts of meat available.

I felt the same as you did except I think Delmonico is above Craft.Really good list none the less, only thing I really disagree with is StripSteak which was a big miss for me.

Neros is very good... its not world class like Cut, Del or Carne, but it's placement is well deserved.

Did Sage this week again, we ordered all the same dishes you did, only thing I didnt like was the Waygu - but thats my own fault, I don't like the taste of onions. We also addded the oysters, the torro, and the scallaps in oxtail soup, an absinthe tasting (I am still not a fan, anice and I dont get along), some averna and tons of bubbles. The biggest surprise of the night though was the egg yolk appetiser, it reminded me a lot of the Carnevino duck egg with pastrami - but it might be even better! The Somalier brought out an essoteric Dogfishs Head IPA which he paired with the egg and the foie gras and it was a totally left field outstanding choice!

I'm with you, Sage might be my new fav in Vegas.

doubt it very much, so much that I'd lay odds. The policy here is to start with the freshest, and 'F with it the least.
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are teh apps and pasta dishes big enough to share? i'm trying to plan my attack when i eat here in a couple weeks in a group of 5.

I will pay $$ to anyone who catches a pic. of my son eating one of those egg yolk dishes.

the apps definitely are. the pastas come in appetizer and entree portions. one appetizer portion per person is not a ton of food, about right if you want to order a couple appetizers, a pasta, and a piece of meat. if you want to share, 2 or 3 entree sized portions divided amongst the table of 5 will probably work out well.

Went to Alex, was good but not great for the price of the tasting menu. I thought the wine pairings were stellar though, and the restaurant was beautiful.

Kicking myself for not making time to eat at Sage while I was in town-- place sounds amazing and foie gras "creme brulee" is one of my favorite foods ever.

Wife and I both thought something was canned or boxed. We had the bucatini which looked like it would be hard to make considering it is like hollowed spaghetti.

We'll definitely come back since the overall experience was much better than Craft for the same amount of money.

I had a wet aged Filet Mignon @ Carnevino and had a 35 dry aged NY strip @ Cut two days later. I personally prefer the wet age treatment because I love the juice that oozes out of it.

Honestly, I wish I could have praised Carnevino's pasta dishes but I can't. My eating partner could barely finish her main course sized pasta dish. Maybe I ordered the wrong stuff? I probably won't give it another try because the next time I'm in vegas I'll give Batali's B&B resto and Sirio a try.

1/2 the pasta menu at Carne is also at B&B, its the same executive chef.

Just found out that Craft's name will change to Tom Cochellio's Craft effective today - see what a little fame can do?

It can't get you to spell his name right

BOOM.

odds that those rankings are proportional to monies received by the reviewer/publication: very high

thank god for places like Chowhound and Yelp which are mostly shill free. you have to cut through some bad reviews and know how to read those sites, but 100 reviews from people >>>> some guy in a magazine who was probably paid off, explicitly or implicitly. you might as well be reading poker site reviews from pokernews.com. I've learned to stop trusting any single reviewer of any restaurant, particularly in Vegas. I don't want to trust anything from anyone who has a personal relationship with the owners/managers/servers/whatever

of course Yelp can be guilty of preferential treatment as well. so like I said, you gotta learn how to use those sites

Appreciate the sentiment but John Curtas ain't that guy.

I seriously can't make up my mind whether it'd be really cool or really awkward for one's mom to be on 2+2.

But it's really entertaining for the rest of us.

that post I made was meant as a joke to Jimmy btw. He doesn't mind me on here unless I get too out of hand. But he did let me know he ate steak tartare w/ egg yolk.

all I know about him is that he has been on the LV food scene for a while. this just makes him all the more likely to have lots of relationships with people that matter.

to be clear, I'm not nec. talking about someone greasing him w/ an envelope during dessert...it could just be that his relationships affect his judgment. Nero over SW? Charlie Palmer not on the list at all?

This is true. your experience when the restaurant knows you are a known food critic is going to be very different than the experience of an average patron.

Its not like Curtis is going in disguise to these places.

Totally a case by case basis, some reviewers you trust, some you do not.

Yelp and Chowhound have a very high noise to signal ratio for me, with way too many people fixated on price (either can't believe they charge > $50 for a steak when you can get the "same thing" elsewhere for $15, or because they spent so much it must be the best thing evvar), many of the knowlegable sounding reviews coming from friends and family of the owners, and places like Olive Garden regularly being highly rated. Like the proffessional reviewers, there are some you can trust on these sites, but the ratio of good ones to bad is even worse than the commercial publications.

well, yeah you need to outright ignore some. but for apples to apples comparison of places (say,'expensive LV steak houses') where largish sample sizes exist, I'll use Yelp over anything else. the larger point is that I've learned there aren't many people I can actually trust

Ate at RM for the first time last night. Sat at the bar.

Overall good, not great. Chowder was totally average and forgettable. Steak tartare over-truffled. However, the Walu and Garlic Tuna sashimi were tremendous cuts of fish. The sauces that came with were good but not great pairings, but at least they didn't try to overwhelm the fish. Apple salad was outstanding, as was the bibb lettuce salad. Special app of tuna two ways (seared and tartare with cucumber, avacado and some tempura sprinkles) was incredible. Service was out of the park good (typically better at the bar than regular service, though I have no benchmark to compare here having never been before. Wouldn't hesitate to go again, but not going to make a point of it.

The lobster roll we got at RM was quite good if overpriced.

I'm really cheap..... rephrase poor, but a big foodie and I don't drink wine.

Do any of these restaurants have a chef's tasting menu / three course a la carte for <$100? (I'd like the <$100 to include tax, 15% service tip, and a bottle of water)

And are their any Vegas newspapers/blogs/websites that do reviews (and have a large archive of restaurant reviews) that also have detailed information about the total cost of the dinner they review.

Most restaurants include the prices on their online menus, just search that way. And yes, plenty of restaurants will get you out the door for under $100 (without alcohol).