Vegas Fine Dining

 

Highest rated restaurants

 

• Joel Robuchon
• Alex
• Picasso
• Guy Savoy

 

Michelin has a 3 star highest rating system but skipped Vegas (and LA) for 2010, so 2009’s ratings are shown. Forbes (formerly Mobil) uses a 5 star system, AAA’s highest rating is 5 Diamonds. The Forbes and AAA 2010 ratings were released in the fall of 2009. The Gault-Millot 20 point scale is used by website Gayot.com with all 16 point or higher listed. Some Gayot ratings seem a few years old.

 

We think Guy Savoy is very close to Robuchon and Picasso is not as strong as the other 3 but most ratings are accurate. At the Palazzo, Charlie Trotter is somewhat underrated. Here are our top restaurants.

Robuchon (MGM) is our top choice for fine dining due to a consistently strong and varied menu. Robuchon is a blend of modern French with more Asian influences than you would expect. The wine list is very strong but not quite up to Guy Savoy’s. There are 6 tasting menus available topping out at 14 courses for the Degustation.

Service starts out and ends very strongly with the best bread offerings and finishing mignardises. Dishes tends to have 3-4 major flavors. Sometimes he has interesting combinations such as La Fraise (popcorn) or Les Crustaces (uni on mashed potatoes and coffee beans) but he is more focused on flavor than experimentation in contrast to someone like Pierre Gagnair (Twist at Mandarin Oriental).

Prices are very high. With wine, tabs can reach 4 figures per person. Our meal timed out at 3 hours and 21 minutes with reports of 5 hours or more including wines. The least expensive way to dine here is with their 2 course that includes the mignardises which some might consider an extra dessert course on top of the regular dessert. See comparisons below.

To sample his cuisine for less money, L’Atelier is his separate casual bar/restaurant with a $39 L’Unique menu with appetizer, entrée and dessert. It is quite good although not the same as the full blown restaurant experience. It is served up to 6:45 pm everyday. L’Atelier is open every day from 5:30 to 10 pm and stays open an extra half hour on Saturday and Sunday.

Robuchon is closed on Wednesday and Thursday. It is open 5:30 to 10:30 pm Friday and Saturday and closes half an hour earlier on Sundays to Tuesdays.

Guy Savoy (Caesars) is a close second to Robuchon with an even stronger wine list (although 4-7X markup is a bit higher than most). His cuisine is not as varied and tends more to signature dishes that include artichoke truffle soup and crispy sea bass. Turbot is usually not offered, but if available, is well executed.

The approach is purer modern French, fewer surprises and very flavor focused. Service is equal if not a tiny bit better than Robuchon. The 10 course Menu Prestige is the top tasting menu and includes signature dishes. A TGV (high speed rail in France) menu has 4 courses for $140 and you can finish it in 1 1/2 hours. The pre-Theatre is 3 courses for $98 from 5:30 to 6:15 pm.

Guy Savoy’s Bubble Bar serves Small Bites (1/4 size or roughly an Amuse Bouche) as well as 1/2 to 3/4 portions called Big Bites. You can get 2, 3 and 4 Small Bites for $25, $30 and $40 respectively or get Big Bites for lower price points than in the restaurant.

Ala carte, the artichoke soup is $68 in Guy Savoy. The smaller Big Bite version is $28. Veal sweetbreads are $75 in the restaurant but can be sampled for $35 as a Big Bite in the Bubble Bar.

Guy Savoy is open Wednesday to Sunday from 5:30 to 9:30 pm. The Bubble Bar opens a half hour earlier than the restaurant. The bar also serves wine and champagne by the glass from $16-$65.

 

 

 

Here are some of the less expensive tasting menus.

 

 

It takes a few months for a new restaurant to peak so CityCenter could add several to the list. American Fish (Michael Mina) has come out of the gate quickly but Sage (Shawn McClain), Twist at the Mandarin Oriental (Pierre Gagnaire) and Bar Masa (Shaboo) might make more an impact over time. Here are the CityCenter restaurants.

 

Shawn McClain is a well-regarded Chicago transplant who is living in Vegas for a half year to make sure Sage gets off to a good start. Pierre Gagnaire (3 Michelin stars in France) brought over Pascal Sanchez (his chef at Gagnaire’s London Sketch) to run Twist. Sketch has a Michelin star.

Masa in NYC is a Michelin 3 star but the early reviews for the Bar Masa and Bar Masa Shaboo (part of Bar Masa) in Vegas are not as strong as one would expect. When the dust settles about 3-6 months from now, Sage and Twist are likely to be well regarded with Bar Masa Shaboo a possibility perhaps further down the road.

Vegas is very strong for French and Seafood (much flown in daily and Bar Masa from Japan's Tsukiji) with Steak also quite strong. Here are the top rated restaurants arranged by cuisine.

 

 

The top restaurants by hotel are:

 

 

The James Beard Organization awards journalists, cookbook, etc. but we only show the restaurant and chef awards. So far over 40 James Beard nominees and or winners have Vegas locales or are opening one.

 

Here are restaurants with some notoriety.