Las Vegas Restaurants

[hsvaughan]

I'm going to Las Vegas on business tomorrow and just found out I am to pick the place to eat tomorrow night. I have never been there before and am not picky. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Gail]

Our somewhat-wonky search mechanism tends not to like words less than three letters, thus if you tried to run a search on" Las Vegas," you probably came up empty. Searching "Vegas." however, yielded the following threads, several of which may be of help to you:

http://www.cookinglight.com/vbb/search.php?action=showresults&searchid=66254&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

Good luck!

[hsvaughan]

Thank you so much!

[Saralee]

There's a lot of threads on this, but I thought i'd add something. We were only in Las Vegas for a couple of nights, and stayed at Mandalay Bay. We ate at Rock Lobster and thought it was great! Lobster was the main focus, but they had all kind of sushi, steak, and other dishes. The lobster bisque was fantastic. I can't remember most of the other restaurants we ate at, they were all tasty. We did catch a good buffet in the basement of the Luxor.

Have a good time!

[Gina O]

I returned from 4 days in Vegas last week and did pretty good eating while there. I have posted in previous thread,s but will add my most recent reviews.

Lawry's Prime Rib - This would not have been my first choice, but my friend wanted to give it a try. While I am a big fan of filet, I had never ordered prime rib. As the only items on the menu were prime rib, salmon and lobster, I figured the prime rib was the obvious choice. While the restaurant was a bit gimicky (a rolling cart of beef, the waitresses in cheesy outfits, the spinning bowl of salad) the food was quite good. That said, I still have no desire to go back. If I want beef, I will head to Ruth's Chris any day - about the same $.

Lotus of Siam - Wow, wow, wow, and wow. I read prior to traveling to Vegas that this was possibly one of the best Thai restaurants in the US. I have little to compare it to only recently having discovered Thai food, but was thoroughly impressed. It was, start to finish, one of the best "ethnic" meals I have had in my life. The three of us had 2 different appetizers, soup, 3 entrees (salmon, pork stew and beef with cabbage) and dessert. Everthing was exceptional. The restaurant is off the strip and a bit hard to find, but well worth the trip. Email me or check www.chowhound.com for more information.

Chinois - Wolfgang Puck's "Asian Fusion" style restaurant at Ceasar's Palace Forum shops. Also delicious. I went with 3 collegues, only one adventuresome in eating (other than me). The restaurant has a varied menu from sushi to duck to pad thai. We had 3 appetizers (a delicious crab rangoon style dish, steamed dumplings and spring rolls). For entrees we had tuna with a sesame crust (very good, and I had never liked tuna prior to trying this), two different shrimp entrees, great but very different, and pad thai.

I had tried the breakfast buffet at the Luxor. It was quite good for a buffet, but the eggs benedict were a tiny bit over cooked (my standard for judging breakfast buffets).

Of all the Vegas restaurants I have tried, my first choice for a return trip will be Lotus of Siam.

If you need any site-seeing or hotel recommendations, let me know. Gina

[basilbabe]

I just returned from Vegas a week ago and spent two weeks there. They have many great restraunts! Look in the Mandalay Bay, they have a very eclectic group of restraunts and you should find something great there.

We ate at the Pink Taco, at the Hard Rock, which had good Mexican, but was pretty noisey, so if it's for a meeting, you probably want to skip that. Also, they have an awesome selection of margartias!

Off the strip, across from the Palace Station, is Landry's, which is a seafood place. I always enjoy going there with my family. And it's a nice atmosphere. You can talk at a normal tone!!

PF Changs, for Chinese, have them on and off the strip. Great menu, large entrees, and good prices.

And I agree with Gina O, if you are interested in steak, Ruth Chris...you can never go wrong there!!!

Have a great time and make sure you tell us what you decided on! :) Also, your hotel room will probably have a showtime guide, they all have them, and it will have a listing of the different restraunts and price range.

[Liz K]

I'm going to Vegas on the 16th. So glad to see this thread.

[JennieL]

Personally... I had a bad experience at Rock Lobser in Mandalay Bay, but I have had several incredible meals in the Chineese restaurant in Mandalay (sorry I can't remember the name). If money is not an issue, try Aqua in the Bellagio Hotel. If you'd like Italian, Olives at Caesars is great.

If you are going to be there during a big convention, make reservations now! Otherwise it can be very difficult to get into the good restaurants.

[CrystalC]

I live in Las Vegas and most of the restaurants mentioned are good. One of our favorites, however, is Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris. It's a French cafe with thin steaks and pomme frites! Outdoor patio dining where you can watch the Bellagio fountains across the street or eat indoors. Very very good food - not "out of sight" prices and nice atmosphere!

[AmyBeth73]

If it's on business (and you get to expense it) NOTHING beats Todd English's Olives restaurant in the Bellagio. It's fabulous, and the perfect place to impress, if that's your goal.

[Beth H]

Tremezzo at the Aladdin is really good Italian -- expensive but not outrageous. Good service and good atmosphere.

Any of the Wolfgang Puck restaurants are good -- I've had enjoyable meals at both Spago (at Ceaser's Palace) and Lupo (Mandalay Bay).

I thought that the House of Blues actually had really good food, and I've heard that the ESPN zone has good food too.

For a huge splurge and wonderful food -- Delmonicos in the Venetian is awesome.

[Nancy171]

I was in Las Vegas in January and was really disappointed to find how expensive all of the restaurants are. I live in a big city, and am used to paying city prices, but LV was just absurd considering the food was good, but not amazing. We ate at Circo at the Bellagio -- had a fine meal, but the lettuce leaves weren't as fresh and crisp as we get at home and the entrees weren't phenomenal or anything (and the service was far from elegant). However, we paid as much as we would to eat at one of SF's best restaurants (and don't get me started on the 4x wine mark-ups).

We did find Mon Ami Gabi to be a bright spot in the LV restaurant scene (as Crystal pointed out), although we got stuck next a party of drunks that waitstaff refused to ask to keep it down.

[luckylori]

Our favorite is the Grand Lux Cafe at the Venetian. It's owned by the Cheesecake Factory people. The menu is big and full of variety. Food is very good quality and portions are huge. There's also a Mexican place along the canal shops in the Venetian that is quite good, and you can watch & hear the gondoliers go by.

[KellyD]

I second Beth H's recommendation - Delmonico's was one of our top 3 best meals EVER!!

[Beth H]

Nancy171, I think you might have hit one of the most expensive restaurants in Vegas. I've never eaten at any of the Bellagio's restaurants, simply because I've heard they're all outrageously expensive and not necessarily worth the cost. Delmonicos, for example, was not a cheap meal, but I thought it definitely was worth the cost. Tremezzo at Aladdin is more of a "normal" expensive -- with entrees in the high teens and low twenties -- when we ate there a couple of months ago, the bill was $225, including 2 bottles of wine, a generous tip, appetizers, etc.

So -- yes, some restaurants in Vegas are probably overpriced. But, I think Vegas really has one of the best dining scenes in the country right now -- a real diversity of restaurants at all price levels.

[clarksmom]

Nobu - in the lobby of the Hard Rock cafe. very pricey and very hip but always good in a pinch.

[albus87]

My husand and I were married in Las Vegas last April (cliche, I know but I'd recommend it to anyone who is feeling stressed out by planning a wedding!)

After we got married in the evening, the limo driver took us to Bellagio. We wandered the hotel in our wedding duds, took some GREAT pictures in the garden (you'd be surprised at what you can stuff in one of those little decorative purses!) and then had dinner at Picasso. After the free champagne, we had a delicous (and expensive!) meal and a front row view of the fountain show. After dinner, we wandered the restaurant, taking in the numerous works by Picasso that decorate the place.

It was pretty much a perfect evening. I'd highly recommend Picasso to someone who wants a special meal in Las Vegas.

[Barrie]

I'm taking DF to LV for the weekend for his birthday in 2 weeks. Thanks to everyone's recommendations on this and the other LV restaurant threads, I've made dinner reservations at both Battista's and Delmonico's. I can't wait! Emeril's banana cream pie has my name written all over it. :p

[Lchiles]

We're leaving for Vegas in a couple weeks, would love any more feedback regarding restaurants. We've been to Delmonico's the last 2 times we were there. Also been to Olives twice. Would like to try something new. Where is Battista's?? Anyone try Emeril's Fish House at MGM?? Thanks for any input, LaurieC

[Liz K]

I'm going to Las Vegas on business tomorrow and just found out I am to pick the place to eat tomorrow night.

So where did you end up eating?

[heatherfeather]

We went last summer and ate at family oriented places, for the most part. We loved The Rainforest Cafe in MGM Grand and the buffet at Paris was outstanding (I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was the only breakfast buffet in Paris.) - a truly superior buffet with elegant food and served in an elegant fashion for a buffet.

We detested the restaurant in Excalibur that we ate at - ugh - we may as well have gone to Denny's - that was the atmosphere. And the food was terribly ordinary and nothing I would ever want to eat again. We ate there the last night we were there because we were staying at Excalibur (which we didn't like at all in comparison to the other great hotels in Vegas).

[TIGBOO]

Living in Vegas for 5 years, the hands down value for the money best steak place, (you won't believe this) is in Circus Circus and called The Steak House. 10 year steakhouse of the year in the LV Review Journal (or something like that..) $20-25 for near a pound strip steak, excellent salad, potato... the works. The steak is soooo tender, it's incredible!... A little hunting lodge - clubby decor... but the food... sigh...

[kimmypickles]

Battista's Hole in the Wall is a GREAT place in Vegas. For one thing they place a caraf of white and red wine on your table and it is included in the dinner price. My DH took me to Vegas as a surprise anniversary present. Make sure you have the accordian player that looks as if he is 100 years old play for you. I can't remeber what the name of the dish I had but it was fabulous. It was chicken with pasta in a wine sauce. Yum!

[hsvaughan]

Wow! What great responses.

Unfortunately, I didn't get as much input in the decision process as I would have liked...but we ate well just the same.

Wednesday night we ate ate the seafood buffet at the Rio. It was very good and had a large selection of food. Great dessert bar too! (If only I hadn't given up chocolate for Lent!)
Thursday night we ate at Nyeros (Spelling is wrong I'm sure!) in Ceasars Palace. Slightly upscale. I had a wonderful fillet!

Olives at the Bellagio looked wonderful, I really wanted to eat there and Spago at Ceasars looked great too. Actually there were so many wonderful restaurants to choose from I don't think we could have eaten bad anywhere!

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'll keep some of these in mind for a return visit!