Heh, review ITT from ~4 years ago.

That Mesa Grill employs a sommelier is a surprise to me. I have a feeling that the differing opinions on the place might be coming from different assessments of what class of restaurant it is. To me, it's walk-in, casual, probably lunch (and I too have never been there on my own dime). Maybe they think of themselves as something bigger than that, but I think I've got it in the right bucket.

Caesars files it under fine dining /upscale and they charge fine dining prices.

Regarding Mesa Grill, agree with everything Wyman said. I used my $100 diamond celebration dinner there last year. It's good food, not the best value. Spice rubbed pork tenderloin + the tiger shrimp tamales were delicious.

As far as restaurants in Caesars you can't go wrong with Joe's in the Forum Shops for a solid meal. The King Crab Legs and Chilean Sea Bass are both outstanding.

I’ve never heard a bad thing about Joe’s, but I also never hear it mentioned by anyone here.

It's a chain. It's fine. It's not fine dining.

Well where is the line? Where do we draw the line?

If Joe’s is a chain restaurant, Cut and L’Atelier are chain restaurants. I don’t think we really want to go that route.

Especially with steakhouses, it’s basically impossible to draw the line between casual and fine dining. I don’t think anyone would argue that Cut and SW are fine dining. Some people might say high-end chain steakhouses like The Capital Grille are not fine dining because they are chain restaurants even though there’s no real difference in atmosphere, service, presentation and food quality to non-chain restaurants that everyone would file under ‘fine dining’. I’m pretty sure the majority of ‘regular’ people would call Ruth Chris ‘fine dining’ even though most gourmets might disagree.

maybe dth was thinking of Joe's Crab shack which has a ton of location vs Joe's prime which google says has 3

does Joe's really have stone crab year round? How??

Yeah if we're calling Capital Grille/Ruth's/Mortons etc fine dining (and I would), then Joe's goes in the same category since it's exactly the same restaurant + crab legs. And it is good, I've been a few times.

Mesa Grill serves a nice noontime Bloody Mary. Have never been impressed with the food or (especially) value though.

Crab season is Oct 15 to May 15, but maybe they have frozen?

Hopefully you're kidding.

This might be a casual dining question (where’s the line???) by has anyone been to the foundation room? Seems worth it to me to eat there but as a rule of thumb the better a view is, the worse the food is.

I agree. I like Mesa Grill for lunch or brunch when you can get out of there for $30 per person or less. I'd rather spend my fine dining budget elsewhere.

Really agree with this. I have been dragged a few times from visitors that don't want to take my suggestions for places to eat, last time I just stuck to ordering a bunch of $16 margaritas because I just think the food is such a waste for the value.

What do you hope I am kidding about?

V is not across the street from Ceasar’s. It’s across from north end of Mirage and TI. And it is in fact a (very) short cab ride from Ceasar’s. It’s also easy walking distance for most reasonably fit people.

But OP is talking about a nice dinner which I am imagining may include someone in heels and or dress shirt/pants. And iirc he was talking about August. They would be miserable sweaty messes walking. It would be fine in shorts and comfortable shoes I think.

I've been there a couple times but not for dining, since it fits (in my mind) in the general category of strip club restaurant. People aren't there for the food.

The Palm is trash. Vegas, Houston, Dallas (now closed) and Atlanta for a sample size. Multiple times in Dallas. Ruth's Chris isn't anything particularly special, but I do think the food is better across the board than The Palm.

As someone who is in Vegas very infrequently these days, I can't justify wasting a meal at Mesa Grill. I run out of opportunities to eat in that town as it is and all (3, so YMMV) my experiences at Mesa were somewhere between forgettable and why-am-I-in-Caesar's.

If I'm going out for a nice dinner, I'm almost certainly not going to Caesars.

If I'm going to a show at Caesars and my companions want to eat somewhere close and they're ok with casual (which would be my preference), I'd go with Beijing Noodle #9, Searsucker, or Rao's, though Rao's prices are quite high. If they wanted to go somewhere more upscale, I'd say Mesa or Nobu. Nobu is far and away the better food and ambience. Also a lot more expensive. I guess Rao's should be in that tranche too. They are all good-not-great food, adequate-to-good service, places you'll pay an arm and a leg for what you get. Instead of the Palm, I'd just stay at Caesars and go to Old Homestead. I'm not excited about either. For the money, I'd probably prefer Carmine's in the Forum Shops to Rao's, but Rao's is at Caesars and is nicer, so I'd probably just suck it up. Joe's Stone Crab would be if I wanted fish that didn't come from Beijing Noodle #9. Obviously there's Guy Savoy, but then you'll never make it to Rod Stewart.

I'm with you guys that Caesar's doesn't have good value (I'll stop short of saying the food isn't good, but it's certainly not great), but the idea that someone on vacation just looking for a nice meal before the concert (a) has no options at all, and (b) should try and squeeze in a dinner at Cut or Picasso before a 7:30 show and scramble to get back -- I don't know, just seems crazy to me. I mean, to me, those places *are* the concert. I want to eat and drink for 3 hours there, rather than be constantly looking at my watch.

The more I think about it, the more I'm liking Searsucker for OP. It's casual, but the food's good and varied, and if you sit down at 6 you'll have no problem getting to your concert, and you'll be satisfied with the meal, the service, and the ambience. Fine dining it is not, but I would not be the least bit embarrassed to bring a date there.

wasn’t sure if i was allowed to advocate for Searsucker ITT but +1

Speaking of Caesars/Forum Shops, they're putting in a Water Grill where Spago was, so now they'll have a mediocre seafood place too.

Regarding Vic and Anthony's at the golden nugget:
I plan on eating here in my upcoming trip and will likely order 2 different steaks to share with my brother. If anyone has eaten there what was your experience and what 2 steaks would you recommend?

Whatever you decide get the bone marrow as an add-on. I get (2) orders of the bone marrow to go with my 12oz. Filet Rare+