Not in my experience. We asked many times and were always told it would depend on availability when we arrived.

What do you think the process was?

The process (as originally described to us by the host at Olive's) was to make a reservation for relatively early... E.g. 7pm.

Show up at about 645, and check in for your reservation. Tell them you want to sit on the patio. They then put you on the patio list and give you an estimate for how much longer it will be.

Come back 20 minutes before the estimated time, check in with the host, and be seated soon thereafter.

We've done this many times w/o failure. We've eaten at Olive's many times, and I literally never sat inside, except for at the bar waiting to be seated outside.

And they never told me that despite asking whenever we reserved.

Same process Ive used at at Yellowtail

I want to try a French restaurant among: Mina, Le cirque, aureole or anything in that range of price.

What would you recommend?

I have already been to l’atelier and Twist


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Mina ain't French

Picasso almost is, and is likely the best choice in that price range

As far as I know Aureole and Le Cirque haven't been worthwhile in a long time

Between Mina and Picasso where would you go (leaving apart the French cuisine choice)?



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Picasso if you're looking for tasting menu (especially with wine pairing), Mina if ordering off the menu.

I've always enjoyed both a lot, but Picasso is definitely the better option imo.

Yep

But I've only been to Mina twice (pre-renovation) and have not been overwhelmed. Just whelmed.

In the end we decided to go to l’Atelier de Joel Robuchon as it’s my favourite, amazing experience as usual.

I had Jimmy Kimmel sitting next to me.


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Heading to Bazaar Meats in a few weeks with a group of 8-12 friends. I went a couple years ago and tried one of the tasting menus, paired with wine, and loved it. One of those dinners you remember long after you pay the bill.

Looking at the menu, it appears that the tasting menu is nearly identical to what I remember from before. Should I go back to that? It was a great value. But I'm also curious about the rest of the menu. Thoughts?

IIRC, they have two different tasting menus, a ‘classic’ one and one that’s called ‘Jose something’.

Have reservations this weekend at Bavette's.

Not too many specific reviews I have seen. Wondering if anyone can point to any "must try's"

Bolt,

If you’ve already been and are familiar with the menu, it’s easy to construct your own tasting menu with the stuff you really liked plus other stuff you want to try. Servers are really good at helping customize the meal however you like.

I don't have a "must try" that I can offer but further up in the thread I did post about my one (very positive) experience there.

Also, in case you're interested, they have a pretty unique corkage policy- there is no corkage fee if you share a glass with another table.

Wow, that's a super generous policy, makes me want to try it out.

I know a couple restaurants where you don't have to pay corkage fee if you share a glass with the owner or sommelier, but I've never heard of a place where you can share your bottle with another table.

That sounds like a very expensive corkage fee!

Lol no kidding

Went to MB steak again before a concert on saturday. Really enjoyed it last time, but was pretty let down this time. Just went for a lot of apps, everything was just a little above average, and given all of the choices for steakhouses in town, I will probably just go to del friscos next time I am over there. Fwiw, no one was raving about the steaks at the bar.

How is that?

I think most fine dining restaurants on the Strip charge $35-50 corkage fee per bottle?

So if you bring a bottle that would cost $100 if it was on their wine list, that bottle costs you $30-$40 if you buy bulk, $50 if you go to the liquor store next door. Even if you have to share half your bottle, that's still significantly cheaper than paying corkage fee.

Compared to giving away half your bottle, paying $50 corkage fee only saves you on bottles that are >$100 wholesale which means most fine`dining restaurants would charge around $300 on their menu. If you give up only 1 glass of wine, which usually is 150ml (20% of a bottle) avoiding the corkage fee saves you money on bottles that are less than ~$750 on the menu. That's a pretty expensive bottle of wine, even for a high-end restaurant.

I think you just mansplained arithmetic to a mathematician.

Maybe you could explain to a stupid person (me) why you prefer to pay $50 corkage fee over sharing a glass?

FWIW, the only kind of wine I would bring to a restaurant is the one I buy directly from the vintner where you usually pay less than $100/case for the good stuff.

Basically I don't go out for steak unless we're celebrating, in which case the wine we break out is often pretty ridiculous, and there are usually many of us. And fortunately we have some pretty impressive wine collections in the social circle. So (a) the value of a glass at today's retail price for that bottle is typically upwards of that $35-50, and (b) perhaps more importantly, we want to drink that wine, and those bottles often would have to be sourced if we wanted to find more of it.

I'm not even saying we wouldn't do it - pretty nitty not to, though it could depend on the table. I'm just saying that it wouldn't necessarily be the economical way to do it.

Wyman,

Obv play is to go with a group of friends and get two tables!

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