Vegas Made Easy - Las Vegas Info

Las Vegas has more 5 star restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the U.S.

Combining AAA’s 5 Diamonds with Mobil’s 5 star awards, Nevada (with less than 1% of the population of the U.S.) has 8.3%-12.5% of the highest ranked restaurants.

The ratio of top rated eateries to population is 10-15X other states. The greater Clark County area which includes Las Vegas is about 71.4% of the population of Nevada.

State	AAA 5 Diamonds	%	% of Pop.	Ratio	State	Mobil 5 Stars	%	% of Pop.	Ratio
DC	1	2.08%	0.19%	10.73	NV	2	12.50%	0.83%	15.00
NV	4	8.33%	0.83%	10.00	ME	1	6.25%	0.44%	14.16
HI	1	2.08%	0.43%	4.85	SC	1	6.25%	1.44%	4.33
ME	1	2.08%	0.44%	4.72	GA	2	12.50%	3.13%	4.00
AZ	4	8.33%	2.06%	4.05	NY	4	25.00%	6.45%	3.88
IL	7	14.58%	4.29%	3.40	IL	2	12.50%	4.29%	2.92
MA	3	6.25%	2.15%	2.91	VA	1	6.25%	2.55%	2.45
FL	5	10.42%	6.04%	1.72	PA	1	6.25%	4.16%	1.50
VA	2	4.17%	2.55%	1.63	CA	2	12.50%	12.18%	1.03
KY	1	2.08%	1.40%	1.48
SC	1	2.08%	1.44%	1.44
GA	2	4.17%	3.13%	1.33
CA	6	12.50%	12.18%	1.03
PA	2	4.17%	4.16%	1.00
WA	1	2.08%	2.14%	0.98
NY	3	6.25%	6.45%	0.97
NC	1	2.08%	2.96%	0.70
MI	1	2.08%	3.37%	0.62
TX	2	4.17%	7.85%	0.53
Total	48	100.00%	64.06%			16	100.00%	35.46%

Other websites have Las Vegas highly rated with 3 restaurants ranked in the top 50 of the U.S. by Gourmet.com and 4 in the top 40 in the U.S. by Gayot.com (a review site). Mobil’s 4 and 5 and AAA’s 4 and 5 award winners are also shown below.

Robuchon’s other less formal restaurant L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon also picked up a 4 diamond rating from AAA. Guy Savoy was ranked #36 in the U.S. and a top 40 as well.

Name	Chef	Location	2007 AAA	2007 Mobil	Top 50 Gourmet	Top 40 Gayot
3950 (Now Closed)	Scott McCarter	Now StripSteak	4
8-0-8	Jean-Marie Josselin	Caesars
Alex	Alessandro Stratta	Wynn	5	5		Yes
Alize	Andre Rochat	Palms	4
Andre's	Andre Rochat	Downtown	4
Andre's	Andre Rochat	Monte Carlo	4
Aureole	Charlie Palmer	Mandalay Bay	4	4
Bartolotta	Paul Bartolotta	Wynn	4		# 21
Bradley Ogden	Bradley Ogden	Caesars		4
Commander's Palace	Carlos Guia	(Going to new locale)	4
Craftsteak	Tom Colicchio	MGM	4
Eiffel Tower	Richard Melman	Paris	4
Eiffel Tower	Jean Joho	Paris	4
Fiamma	Michael White	MGM	4
Fleur de Lys	Hubert Keller	Mandalay Bay	4
Guy Savoy	Guy Savoy	Caesars			# 36	Yes
Hank's Fine Steaks		Green Valley Ranch	4
Jasmine	Philip Lo	Bellagio	4
Le Cirque	Sirio Maccioni	Bellagio	5
Louis'	Louis Osteen/Carlo Guia	Will be South Strip
Lutece (Closed)	David Feau	Venetian	4
Medici Café & Terrace	Stephen Marshall	Henderson	4
Michael Mina	Michael Mina	Bellagio		4
Michael's	Fred Bielek	Bill's (then South Point)	4
Mix	Alain Ducasse	Mandalay Bay		4
Nobhill	Michael Mina	MGM	4
Okada	Masa Ishizawa	Wynn	4
Pearl	Kai-Wa Yau	MGM	4
Picasso	Julian Serrano	Bellagio	5	4		Yes
Prime	Jean-Georges Vongerichten	Bellagio	4
Robuchon (L'Atelier)	Joel Robuchon	MGM	4
Robuchon	Joel Robuchon	MGM	5	5	# 5	Yes
Seablue	Michael Mina	MGM	4
Sensi	Martin Heierling	Bellagio	4
Shibuya	Stephane Chevet	MGM	4
Shintaro	Joel Versola	Bellagio	4
SW Steakhouse	David Walzog	Wynn	4
Wing Lei	Richard Chen	Wynn	4
TOTALS			32	7	3	4

winners have Vegas locales or are opening one. When Charlie Trotter finalizes a restaurant here again, it will raise the count to 40.

Below is a list of celebrity restaurants and general location. Only about a dozen of these are not in a strip casino and a few of them are at a Local’s casino.

Name	Chef	Location
3950 (Now Closed)	Scott McCarter	Now StripSteak
Alex	Alessandro Stratta	Wynn
Alize	Andre Rochat	Palms
Andre's	Andre Rochat	Downtown
Andre's	Andre Rochat	Monte Carlo
Aureole	Charlie Palmer	Mandalay Bay
Bartolotta	Paul Bartolotta	Wynn
Bradley Ogden	Bradley Ogden	Caesars
Commander's Palace	Carlos Guia	Going to Louis'
Craftsteak	Tom Colicchio	MGM
Eiffel Tower	Richard Melman	Paris
Eiffel Tower	Jean Joho	Paris
Fiamma	Michael White	MGM
Fleur de Lys	Hubert Keller	Mandalay Bay
Guy Savoy	Guy Savoy	Caesars
Hank's Fine Steaks		Green Valley Ranch
Jasmine	Philip Lo	Bellagio
Le Cirque	Sirio Maccioni	Bellagio
Lutece (Closed)	David Feau	Venetian
Medici Café & Terrace	Stephen Marshall	Henderson
Michael Mina	Michael Mina	Bellagio
Michael's	Fred Bielek	Bill's (now South Point)
Mix	Alain Ducasse	Mandalay Bay
Nobhill	Michael Mina	MGM
Okada	Masa Ishizawa	Wynn
Pearl	Kai-Wa Yau	MGM
Picasso	Julian Serrano	Bellagio
Prime	Jean-Georges Vongerichten	Bellagio
Robuchon (L'Atelier)	Joel Robuchon	MGM
Robuchon	Joel Robuchon	MGM
Seablue	Michael Mina	MGM
Sensi	Martin Heierling	Bellagio
Shibuya	Stephane Chevet	MGM
Shintaro	Joel Versola	Bellagio
SW Steakhouse	David Walzog	Wynn
Wing Lei	Richard Chen	Wynn

The most famous dining award is Michelin Guide’s 3 star ranking--highest they give out. We duly note that critics say Michelin is too French oriented, loves grand formality, and may favor big name chefs. It also has our best guesses for which Vegas restaurants will get into the 2008 Michelin Guide for Las Vegas.

Nevertheless, their trained inspectors are often very accurate and not popularity driven. Here is a link to the Michelin Guide or Zagat’s which uses the public opinion approach. Zagat’s does an especially good job on more midrange types of restaurants. Vegas Made Easy.com recommends both.

If there is a foodie cult around a restaurant such as Rosemary’s (which is actually mostly justified) or Lotus of Siam (which is not as much) then Zagat’s ratings can be skewed by votes that do not include more expensive and less publicly accessible restaurants.

Here are the chefs with Las Vegas restaurants who have won Michelin 3 stars for other cities:

There are celebrity chefs who either have restaurants that are famous in other cities or are TV personalities such as Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, etc. In addition, there are some outstanding pastry chefs who have won awards.
Of not yet opened, Payard, Cut and Koi are further along with Left Bank and Straits Café less finalized.