Never been to Cleaver.

While I haven't been to Herbs in years, at the time it was kind of a discount place and the quality reflected that. It was a fun place and ok for the price, but it's not a high end steakhouse.

I guess I'm the only one who likes morimoto for Japanese on the strip?

I'm not a big sushi guy, but the sushi seemed good to me. The other food was good, as were cocktails. They are big on presentation and it has a fun vibe, which would be cool for a party. I think it's also significantly cheaper than Nobu. It's the same guy who did Nobu.

Menu

I've been to Vetri Cucina twice. Fabulous. Food, Service, views. Boar and Goat, all on the tasting menu.
I also think Bazaar Meat is perfect for a bachelor party.

Yeah Cleaver and Herbs and Rye are the same owner and very similar. Definitely not high end steakhouses but a potential option to mix it up for a large group of guys.

Is there a somewhat high end steak place not in a casino and where you don’t have to drive Uber to Summerlin or Henderson.

Sparrow and Wolf isn't a steakhouse, but it is a damn good restaurant that'll sell you a steak.

Going to Vegas for my B-day in March and want to have a nice early dinner one of the days before heading to the poker tables at Aria. I'm thinking tapas. Which do you recommend:

Julien Serrano
Jaleo
Edo

We have been to Edo and it's very good, but we'd have to Uber, so that adds to the time (we live at the poker tables) and the cost.

Is there a great tapas restaurant that I'm missing?

Thanks.

Has anyone had a great experience at any of the fountainbleus restaurants? Sample size is starting to grow of people I know who weren’t fully satisfied with their meals or experiences. Contrast this with resorts world when it opened and you couldn’t find anyone that wasn’t pumped about the restaurants.

I posted a very nice experience above.

If you're lucky enough to eat in these places, it's better to just enjoy it than to be a petty fault finder so as to puff up your ego about how refined and sophisticated you are.

Sure, at crazy prices, you can note imperfections and the fact that this place is better than that one.

Ultimately, it's just food and most high end strip places serve really good food that only a small % of people get to try. What a waste to be one of those people and constantly complain.

I’m a fat guy who has been going to nice restaurants since I’m born. Has nothing to do with ego but to quote you at these prices it’s correct to point out imperfections. If you are at a family owned place you try to give them the benefit of the doubt and tell people all about their good qualities.

I could see wanting to mix it up and try something different. That being said the cost of an Uber is likely under $20 with tip. You’re bound to make that up in food cost savings. I went early on a Friday for dinner and it wasn’t busy. Uber is likely 15-20 minutes each way. You might make up a good chunk of that time with quicker service than a strip restaurant.

Thanks. I take it you are recommending Edo? If it's as good/better than the others (i.e., the others aren't worth the paying strip prices), we'll Uber.

I'm generally a fairly pessimistic person, but am good at finding the good in experiences and things like food, movies, shows, etc., and agree it's got to be so defeating for almost every experience to be some shade of meh or worse. So much more enjoyable finding pleasure basically every time. My buddies and I did a bourbon tasting trail lately and I had a wonderful time at each and one of my buddies is pretty bourbon spoiled and so every stop was bad to mid.

I’m weirdly biased against the strip so can’t say how it compares but I did really enjoy Edo.

i've found chinatown to be better value even after adding uber plus tip

how did you order last time at Edo, tasting or a la carte?

We did the tasting menu. The regular menu looks pretty small -- I was surprised. It doesn't have as many choices, which is tough for my husband who's a little picky (he despises mustard (one of my favorite things) and mayo and won't eat liver or raw beef (two other favorites of mine)). He did OK with the tasting menu, though -- only a few things he wouldn't try.

Just revisited Randall Stevens' review of Partage, and we might go that route and just spend an evening dining out for my b-day. (We go to Paris every year for one of my conferences and love French food and wine.)

difficult to disagree with rational though
hope you two are able to live in the moment with whatever you select
and have fun

I love this idea. I’d say this or Wolf and Sparrow. Both are similar maybe check the current menus and go for the one you prefer.

Wow, looking at the Sparrow and Wolf menu I'm thinking of changing my mind again and just ordering multiple items from their menu. I love monkfish and never see it anymore, so that's a big draw!

Also, I can keep my husband happy by knowing what we are getting

Thanks, Da-Nit

Every time I've been to Partage I've seen errors in technique and preferential differences. Would rec Sparrow and Wolf over it by quite a ways, especially considering difference in price. Edo is the best restaurant in Vegas bar none

Also don't know if Aroma is ever mentioned here, but it's absolutely fine dining in a horrible location and unreal price. They'll close at some point because they have no idea how to get people in the door despite the James Beard nod and Yelp awards, so get in while they last. Don't have a full liquor license unfortunately (have wine and beer), but their corkage is $25 I think? Haven't paid for it in awhile

I had such a mediocre experience there I’ve never been back. Been saying for years I need to give it another try. Can you provide a dish or two I can use to convince my wife we have to give it a shot? Date nights are too infrequent and I think we both are reluctant to potentially burn a meal when we have so many tried and true favs

don't know enough to claim Edo is best in vegas, but imo the tasting menu is great value for around $80.

In my limited experience, I'd take Partage over Edo and wouldn't give it a second thought. I agree on the price, though. It's hard to go wrong with Edo for tasting menu value.

Glad to hear pushback on my opinion of Partage. It has a lot of common with why I like EDO as much as I do. I've not been back in a couple years so I'll revisit next week or the week after

Gonna explain my opinion on Partage and EDO in longer post but share some recs on EDO. You are able to order items from EDO's tasting a la carte as well btw.

HOKKAIDO SCALLOPS SASHIMI*
Abalone Salpicon Sauce, Lemon, Espelette ..........................27

Raw, body temp. Abalone liver in sauce is powerful and maybe too much shellfish for some, but scallops are sweet enough to hold imo. Very out of left field prep of a scallop crudo where salt, oil citrus will not be at forefront. Replaced their peruvian baby scallops which hit all of the aforementioned notes with something that shows cooking, creativity and a direct upgrade in quality of ingredients. You will not find a scallop dish like this in rest of Vegas


KUROBUTA PORK CHORIZO*
Cured Egg Yolk, Piparra Peppers, Txacolina..........................23

Comforting and rich. Piparra Peppers border on too acidic, maybe too many. One with stem attached, not intentional Accompanying bean stew flavored with Iberico is insane. Enough texture left on beans. Great example of classic, ugly food in kitchen that is leaning more and more heavily away from this as time goes on. RIP to the morcilla that it replaced though. Not sure if anywhere is serving morcilla in Vegas currently

GREEN TARTARE
Zucchini, Avocado, Pistachio Vinaigrette..............................18

Complex and refreshing 'salad'. Pistachio forward with raw pistachios throughout in addition to vinaigrette. Good to have throughout the meal as quality of ingredients won't noticeably deteriorate over time

PLUMA IBÃERICA*
Campari Tomato Confit, Garlic Chips, Layered Potatoes ..........39

Not many direct comparison points you can make at this point between EDO / Jaleo / Bazaar as there are stylistic differences in Pan con tomate / croquetta / bravas, but medium rare Iberica that's cut thick enough

TARTE FLAMBÃEE
Wagyu Pastrami, Jalapeno Oil, Manchego Cheese

From tasting menu. Need to order more things from it after looking at latest. Very nutty, high quality Manchego. Effort in treating the wagyu is appreciated as so much of Vegas food rests on having it on its menu, dish likely addition for the sake of addition without added complexity

I'll revisit Partage before sharing a dated opinion actually, but happy to shill EDO. Spain is my most traveled to country for food and I've been to every three 3 star in Paris with the exceptions of Kei and Plentitude (please accept my opinion I've eaten a lot of food.)

Having plowed through many tapas and pinxtos places in Spain and America, I can say that I don't need to go to Spain to feel like I can get a 1:1 in quality of food (though the experience will obviously be not the same.) This is I think the only restaurant I can say this about in Vegas.

The kitchen has gotten more ambitious and skillful over time while still being able to deliver on familiar notes when leaning into classic preparations. It doesn't suffer from the menu constraints that it's contemporaries do. Jaleo, Bazaar, even E is largely the same as it was five years ago. Food evolves and these places don't, so they become dated over time. It's very grating to go to E where the idea is to lean into being creativite, playful and fresh and to see many dated techniques and food sold me to with a now obnoxious markup. Very much of Bazaar's menu is to show you something familiar and do something very novel with it, but it doesn't hit the same once you've seen it dozens of times.

You might go to EDO and not like some of the flavors, but they're done with intent and the actual cooking is consistently of high quality from my time there, which is very impressive considering the scale and how ambitious the dishes actually are. I would argue that the amount of cooking and prep that happens is as if not more complex than the strip tapas places with a fraction of the team

I still go to Bazaar frequently for steaks. They always have bar seating and the vaca vieja is something that I crave. I was put off after going to Jaleo last month and think I'd pick many places in Cosmo over it at this point

Should add that I'm too big a nerd to please completely and the food at all the places I mentioned as lesser meals tends to be pretty good!