Vegas's Top Tables
By John Mariani
In the same casino is Craftsteak, which I consider Las Vegas's best steak house—this in a city with one on every corner, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten's fancy Prime and such major chains as Smith & Wollensky, Del Frisco's and the Palm. Craftsteak is a rendition of New York's Craft, whose chef-owner, Tom Colicchio, bases everything on the best possible ingredients, from prime beef to the freshest asparagus, which require little to elicit their essential flavors.
Craftsteak is very big, very loud, somewhat dim and clearly a manly man's kind of place, where the Opus One flows and guys drink their beer from long-necked bottles. But the food is unassailably delicious, from the steaks ($29 to a pricey $78) to candy-sweet short ribs and grilled quail to an array of vegetables too appealing to be just side orders, like creamy white corn, wild mushrooms and excellent salad greens. The truffled macaroni could make you forget that this place is all about steak. Three-course dinner $75; 702-891-7318.
My favorite recent meal in Vegas was at Commander's Palace, in the Aladdin Resorts & Casino—a branch of the New Orleans classic restaurant where more than three decades ago the Brennan family pioneered modern Creole cuisine (Emeril Lagasse got his start there). The Brennans, whose members own ten restaurants in New Orleans and one in Houston, insist that wherever they have a kitchen, there will be a Brennan running it. At the Vegas Commander's, that means Brad Brennan, a gentleman host in full, cordial control of this large, gregarious place, complete with dark woods, evocative New Orleans photos, tile floors and crisp linens. The sunny Garden Room, which faces the Strip, is done in soft colors, creating an ambiance that feels more feminine and romantic than the other five dining rooms.
The wine list is superb and goes well with chef Carlos Guia's impressive menu of classics, like Louisiana pecan-crusted fish with a meunière sauce and creamed corn; a cassoulet of duck confit, lamb sausage, smoked pork tenderloin and a white-bean ragout; and a special I will never forget, a Creole gumbo with morsels of fresh foie gras. Three-course dinner $50; 702-892-8272.
One problem with eating in Vegas is that there are few options for lunch besides the salad-sandwich-grill style of restaurant. On the Strip, Osteria del Circo, at the Bellagio, and Commander's Palace are your best bets. But I find nothing more enjoyable and relaxing than escaping from the frenzy of the Strip and indulging in an elegant lunch at the Verandah, in the Four Seasons Hotel. This is a marvelous, airy dining room, unfussy but extremely comfortable and, as usual at a Four Seasons property, impeccably staffed, which makes the hotel and restaurant a top destination for people in town on business. Lunch at the Verandah is a calm, tasteful affair, and the food, from chef Michael Goodman, is some of the best in the city, beginning with crab cakes with a crisp jicama and green-papaya slaw and mango salsa. His pastas include delectable orecchietti with rock shrimp, white beans and grilled Treviso radicchio. He even does a sublime take on the lowly Philly cheesesteak, and his herb-roasted free-range chicken with shallot potatoes and a garlic jus is exemplary. With a glass of California Chardonnay from a fine wine list, a meal like this fortifies you to go back to your room, take a nap and gird yourself for the swirling nightlife. Three-course lunch $38; 702-632-5000.
Now there's a new dynamic with the opening of Steve Wynn's $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Country Club. There, he contends, his name chefs—Paul Bartolotta (of Milwaukee-based Ristorante Bartolotta), Jimmy Sneed (of the acclaimed Richmond venue the Frog and the Redneck), Takashi Yagihashi (the award-winning chef of Tribute in Detroit) and others—will not just cook, but live. If that's the case, when it comes to fine dining in Las Vegas, all bets will be off.
Getting A Table
Visitors to Las Vegas should be aware that many restaurant reservations are handled by a hotel-casino's central phone system, whose reservationists book tables in impossible-to-figure-out time slots. You may ask for an 8:00 P.M. table and be told that you must come at 7:50. Or you may be told there is only a 6:30 P.M. opening, yet the dining room remains half empty for the rest of the night. In many cases, this is caused by the casinos, which book tables at several restaurants for the same night for their high rollers. But unless you have the owner's cell phone number or walk over to the restaurant's reservations desk yourself, you may be forced to take whatever time is doled out to you by the central booking line.
But here's a secret: Despite its reputation as a late-night town, Vegas is an early-dining city, which means that you can pretty much walk in off the street after 9:00 p.m.
As for dress codes, only Le Cirque requires gentlemen to wear jackets, and no place dares to ask for neckties anymore. So wear what you like; even in the finest places some people will show up in shorts or jogging pants.
Survival Tips
- For best service, request a room on a concierge floor, where rooms are more luxurious, with open bars.
- If your hotel offers airport check-in (as Caesars Palace does), you'll avoid lines at the front desk.
- Unless you don't mind walking, request a room or suite in the tower closest to check-in. At Caesars, for example, it's an eight-minute walk from the front desk to the Palace Tower (assuming you don't get lost on the way). Also, ask for a room near the elevator, since in many towers the floors themselves are very large.
- To foil the teams of thieves that operate in Las Vegas, keep a close eye on your purse and other belongings, and don't carry a lot of cash.
- Reasons to avoid footing it in Vegas: what appears to be close from your window may actually be some distance away, and with the crowds and street hawkers, the Strip is no place for jogging—use the gym.
- Breakfast eaters may want to skip the long lines at the hotel cafés and order room service instead. At most luxury hotels, the food arrives promptly and piping hot—and is very good.
LOG-IN TO POST A COMMENT
POST A COMMENT