There was some speculation that the 10 year lease had expired, that was likely a factor if true. As Jon Curtas pointed out, the staff will kill a restaurant (or business) before the customers do; when an owner announces there are problems then the staff tends to jump ship early, leaving the owner in the kitchen all by himself. Sad but true..

Ive done Rosemary's 3 times, its very good for off-strip, but I have found other options which interest me more in this town - hence I rarely went. I agree with you that the menu was stale and the room felt like it was lost in a time warp, I assume they were operating on very thin margins for a long time...

On another note, who is going to attend the World Series of Bacon? https://www.baconhalloffame.com/prod...l-star-cochon/

here piggy piggy piggy....

So it's too late to call Chef Robert Irvine?

Speaking of dress codes, the fiancee and I were a little mad at taking the dress code at a restaurant to heart, but having others not do the same. I think our anger came from the pains we went to in making sure she had the proper footwear.

One of the sickest traps ever:
she: does that dress look good?
you: sure
she: OK, we need to go buy some shoes for that! (and maybe a purse? please!)

FWIW, went to Buzio's at Rio Wensday night and was pleasantly surprised. The jumbo crab cakes were excellent. NE clam chowder very tasty, sushi was average though. The service was also great. I had two sushi rolls, crab cakes, and chowder with two bluemoons, bill was only $48

I enjoyed this a lot more than the seafood buffet at Rio.

I'll be posting a full trip report complete with pictures, but I thought I'd post a brief review here of Shaboo at Aria.

Upon making the reservations we were told it was $300 per person, and this is without seeing the menu. Fine. I don't have money to light on fire, but I enjoy spending money on things I love.

When we arrive we are not presenting with anything other than to ask us what allergies we have. Our seating was at 9pm on a Friday and by the time we finished (around 10:30) we were the only ones there.

I'm going to use 'letter grades' to review because everyone knows what they mean.

Ambiance: C+
It's virtually a part of Bar Masa so you can hear all the noise coming from the place, yet has an almost 'sad' feel to it because you're all alone. Like being a kid sitting in the corner in class. Moreover, restaurants like Prime, Le Cirque, Picasso and Joel Robuchon make you feel like you are transported to a world of pure luxury when you arrive. The decor and atmosphere of this place was typical of very mid-level, ordinary restaurants.

I wouldn't recommend this place for a romantic dinner.

Food: B+
The courses:
-Some kind of cabbage course with sesame dressing
- Caviar on top of Toro tartare (I guess this is how they justify the price). What bugged me about this is how they said it was chef masa's specialty, and while they worked VERY well together (caviar added a saltiness, almost like a soy sauce), how can someone's 'specialty' be just combining two delicious ultra expensive ingredients.
- A sashimi snapper-like fish, with a citrus sauce

Next we had the hot pot courses:
- First courses was an eel. Pretty good.
- Second course was lobster and fois gras. You dunk each piece in the broth for about 20 seconds before dipping in a lobster-bisque sauce
- Third course was kobe beef with some veggies, along with a red-wine vinegrette sauce and a sesame sauce.

Finally, dessert was Yuzu ice cream and miso creme-brulee.

Service: B+

The problem with a B+ is that I'm paying $300 per person + drinks + taxes + tips, so really anything other other than A+ is unacceptable here. We ordered a $200 bottle of sake and twice had to refill this thing ourselves, which mean lifting it from the ice bucket while ice and water drips on the table. For about 5 minutes near the end while we were the only diners we could not find our waiter.

Overall, if it was $75 per person I would be back and would recommend it, but as it stands it is over-priced and while all the ingredients (toro, caviar, fois gras, lobster, eel, kobe beef) are certainly expensive, their preparation is too simple to justify the cost. Pictures of each course will show up in my trip report, but I could only recommend this place to someone on a full RFB comp from the casino.

Mind if I ask what your fab fine dining experiences has been? That would help me (us?) to get into your head while reading your trip report. Thnx!

Normally, I would agree with you. However, these two sauces were unbelievable. It's not like it was A1 or anything, they brought out each of these sauces in a elegant container, and you pour a small amount on your plate. But yeah, most of the time I don't put steak sauce on my steak at a nice restaurant.

Yeah, at a place like that with a bill like that, this service experience would almost guarantee I don't return unless I happened to have some friends who were in town and specifically wanted to go there. Food is so good everywhere that for me service is the primary differentiator when making decisions.

Did Shaboo lower their prices? I had thought I heard it was $500 a head when the place opened. Either I way though I know I'll never be eating there.

I think that's a fair question. I've hit up most of the michelin starred restaurants in Vegas in the past and consider myself to be 'reasonably' well travelled and on this particular trip I enjoyed:

- Michael Mina's
- Le Cirque
- StripSteak
- Blossom
- Sage
- Joel Robuchon
- Shaboo
- Shibuya

I had made a long list of my favorites along with new places and really hit the fine dining scene hard this trip.

Literally the only really fine dining restaurants in Vegas I have yet to try are Guy Savoy and one at Mandarin Oriental.

Edit: Just to compare in terms of service, I ate at Joel Robuchon the very next day. Service at that place is simply out of this world, from allowing me to arrange a gift to be brought to my wife and stored at the restaurant a few days ahead, to having a waiter pull the table back the *instant* one of us makes a motion to use the restroom. Even my glass of sparkling water was never more than half full. Truly outstanding.

Hit e', B&B, Guy, Twist, and some off strip joints that all the chefs tend to eat at such as Sen, Raku, and Monta on your next trip. Sounds like you have done a fair job so far!

To be honest, I am not that experienced with Japanese food, but I am fairly knowledgeable about personalized fine dining experiences such as Shabu (at least that is how they market it - I have not been yet so I do not know first hand). Often (not always of course) the goal of the chef is to present a dining experience that is fairly "normal" while using the most exotic product sources and cooking techniques, the fine details may be lost of the customer if they are not curious about the sourcing of the product or the cooking methods used. I will use e' as the example because this year I have frequented e' and Jaleo more than any other great restaurant and on more than one occasion there have been customers sharing the table with us for whom the experience was lost. These customers were expecting a huge memorable meal that was rich with substance, not the very delicate meal which is filled with irony and hidden experience for those who are inquisitive about what is on their plate. That is the kind of experience I would expect from Shabu, and it is the reason why I haven't gone yet - the finer details of the preparation would be lost on me because I do not yet have enough experience with Japanese food to know how to detect the subtleties of the dish. Do you think that my assumption about Shabu may be correct, or do you think it was just not a great meal reguardless? I'm very interested to learn your opinion because one of my goals this year was to eat more Japanese food in preparation for diving into a serious Shabu experience, and your opinion may change my agenda. A shame the service was poor, but I can live with that as long as the food experience is stellar.

PS: true fact - I can't use chopsticks. I have tried so many times, its so embarrassing! Lucky for me the men in Japan use their fingers when eating sushi so its not that odd watching me pick up sushi with my hands, but I use a fork for everything else :-(

Joel Robuchon is hands down the best meal I've ever eaten. Better than Alinea, Laundry, Per Se, Cyrus, and anything in Vegas.

I suppose I'm supposed to try Le Bernadin next time I'm in NYC, but your experience was on par with mine in terms of service presentation and exceptional food.

"PS: true fact - I can't use chopsticks. I have tried so many times, its so embarrassing! Lucky for me the men in Japan use their fingers when eating sushi so its not that odd watching me pick up sushi with my hands, but I use a fork for everything else :-("

oh TT, this is why I've grown to love you. Keep regaling us with your stories, and never stop please.

This is some elite pretentious ass stuff right here.

Here we really differ - service is so easily fixable. Especially at elite places, it's just unacceptable - even moreso in Vegas with so dang many options. I'd have a different opinion in say St. Louis.

I'm sure you've been told a million times but: The key to chopsticks is to use the bottom as an immovable post and the top as the variable. Once I had it explained to me scientifically it made sense. I wasn't making a mistake in the way I was holding them but rather the cognitive application where I should be scooping onto a post instead of "pinching" with two sticks.

I just let go of my pride and get the kiddie set.

I've just got to call BS on TT's whole thing there. To walk into a fine dining restaurant and appreciate the food more than enjoy it and think that's the appropriate experience just means you've been taken for a ride. It's dinner, not a science experiment or a history lesson. Just like a movie, a song, or a book, you can appreciate the craft and technique that went into it but ultimately it has to also deliver. And it better deliver whether or not you know the intricacies of the chef's technique. Otherwise, you're just making excuses for a meal not being as good as it should be.

Agree.

I really don't care if my salmon was fished by hand out of a frozen stream in Saskatchewen by a 13 year old blind virgin eskimo. It had better taste good.

No backstory is going to make up for bad service, bland food, and exorbitant prices.

If the 13 year old blind fishermen are NOT virgins I will find another restaurant.

Has anyone here tried the Sterling Brunch at Bally's? And how is it?

Dinner at Simon at Palms Place, very excited about the quality of the food.

Too late to get a reservation but is told they serve full menu in the bar. Are seated nicely on the pool (indoor), great views of the outdoor including the Red Rocks etc. and nice ambience from indoor/outdoor fireplaces.

Well, we're eating in the bar and the decor is edgy, casual, and a bit shopworn, and the service is even more casual ... again, service might be perfectly up to par in the dining room(s). Staff is not at all nasty, just ... very busy.

Sharing a beef carpaccio pizza for starter, comes with arugula and blue cheese ... crust is soft with a flavor of charcoal, the meat is fork-cutting tender and tasty, great seasoning, crisp lettuce, the right amount of blue cheese. The course is stunningly well executed.

Entrees "Angry Lobster", prefectly grilled lobster tail on rice noodles with dried tomatoes, curry and veggies ... rich, juicy, and plentyful, a recommended side of wok charred vegetables is really not necessary. Fun and imaginative, sooo good, and a bargain for $32. Apparently one of Simon Kerry's signature dishes.

Looking forward to a meal in the dining room - the hit & miss service detracted unnecesarily from a unexpectly exciting dinner.

Kerry Simon, not Simon Kerry. Nbd.

Used to be the absolute best brunch in Vegas by a long shot.

All you can eat lobster, caviar, stone crab, filet mignon.

I was last there about 2 years ago and it had gone down hill a bit. No caviar - instead it was 'okay quality' sushi, and they had replaced the stone crab with regular crab.

... I'm not 100% sure it's still there though, you may want to confirm.

Wait wait wait...you're saying something at a Harrah's property went DOWN in quality? I refuse to believe that.