High Dining For High Rollers Las Vegas Goes Definitely Upscale In Its Restaurants

I went to Vegas to gamble big at the tables.

Not with decks of cards and stacks of chips. But with oven-roasted foie gras and antelope osso buco.

When it comes to dining on the world-famous Strip, the culinary transformation that’s taken place in the past three years has been almost as blinding as the bevy of neon.

Sure, you’ll still find el cheap-o shrimp cocktails, freebie casino drinks and the bargain-basement prime rib that makes you wonder just what animal it came from.

But these days, don’t be surprised also to see imported caviar served tableside, pizza draped with prosciutto and figs, salmon marinated in grappa, and creamy lobster risotto, pungent with shaved white truffles.

This isn’t your grandparents’ Las Vegas anymore. Not when it’s now home to a glitzy array of dining spots run by high-roller chefs.

Just how well does the new highbrow marry with the age-old kitsch?

Let’s just say the aftertaste is a bit surreal. Imagine enjoying a six-course tasting menu, only whipping through it in a blazing 75 minutes. And imagine dining in a restaurant as elegant as can be, only just outside the door are raucous choruses of flashing, clinking, coin-spewing one-armed bandits or grown men and women actually scuffling over plastic beads thrown by scantily clad samba dancers.

This is fine dining in Vegas.

Excess is the game. Big prices. Big portions. Big wine lists.

Big. Big. Big.

Conventional wisdom says that if everything else in Vegas is larger than life, shouldn’t the food be, as well? Of course, part of the allure is that it’s there, that almost any luxury imaginable is available - if you have the bucks.

After all, when folks are dropping thousands of dollars on hands of poker, what’s another few thousand for a rare vintage wine? Even nickel-slot-machine players like me find it all too easy to fork over $100 to $300 for dinner for two in these posh places.

Vegas dining is quite the temptress. At Aureole in the Mandalay Bay Hotel, a 42-foot-high, 10,000-bottle wine tower almost begs you to order a bottle just to see it fetched by a woman in a black cat suit hoisted upward on a rope, a la Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible.”

At Napa Restaurant in the Rio Hotel, more than 100 wines by the glass are offered for your delight, from $9 to $50. Yes, for one glass.

And down below, in the 100,000-bottle wine cellar there, you can buy rare bottles to take home as souvenirs. How about a 5-liter 1924 Chateau Mouton Rothschild? For $200,000.

At Picasso Restaurant in the Bellagio Hotel, which just received a five-star rating from the Mobil Travel Guide, former San Francisco chef Julian Serrano plies taste buds with Mediterranean cuisine in a dining room decorated with actual priceless Picassos. The food is equally opulent. Only tasting menus are offered: a four-course one for $70 per person and a six-course one for $80 per person. For wines to complement every course, expect to pay an extra $38 to $48.

To get a real understanding of the decadence available, consider my dinner at Napa. I admit to a soft spot for foie gras, so when it was recited as a special that night, as one of chef Jean-Louis Palladin’s signature dishes, it sounded too good to pass up.

From the Hudson Valley. Oven-roasted with olive wood. Finished with rhubarb coulis.

And when it was brought to the table, my dining companion nearly keeled over.

As the maitre d’ would later explain, “Jean-Louis wants people to know he doesn’t skimp on the foie gras.”

Oh, nooo, believe me, nobody would ever think that - not after seeing his version.

At most restaurants, foie gras, fattened goose liver, so rich and caloric because it’s almost entirely fat, is served sparingly in portions at the most the size of a small cookie. What was set before me, though, was the size of my entire hand.

Slack-jawed, with eyes bulging, I just stared, thinking, “How in the world could one person ever eat this much foie gras?”

But I did.

The cost of my indulgence? $32. And that was merely an appetizer.

For even more extravagance, saunter over to Aqua in the Bellagio Hotel. There, you can order an entree of a whole roasted foie gras, the size of child’s football - for $80.

Is it all worth the price? Will you leave these chic spots feeling you’ve hit the epicurean jackpot?

That’s debatable.

Don’t get me wrong. Every meal I had in Vegas had its good points - from the amazingly sweet onion ring wisps piled into a tower at Olives in the Bellagio Hotel to the not-too-cloying, not-too-nutty, just-absolutely-right-on-target pecan pie at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House in the MGM Grand Hotel.

But for the same amount of money or less, you could probably eat just as well or better in many cities. If you live in a small town, where the pickings are slimmer, you might want to gamble more on the big-name restaurants in Vegas.

This sidebar appeared with the story: Top chefs, top restaurants By Carolyn Jung San Jose Mercury News

Here is a list of some of the best-known chefs who have opened restaurants in Las Vegas:

Wolfgang Puck (of Spago in Palo Alto and Postrio in San Francisco, as well as Spago, Granita and Chinois in Los Angeles and around the country)

Spago, Caesar’s Palace, (702) 369-6300 Lupo, Mandalay Bay Hotel, (702) 740-5522

Chinois, Caesar’s Palace, (702) 737-9700

Postrio, The Venetian, (702) 796-1110

Michael Mina (of San Francisco’s Aqua)

Aqua, Bellagio Hotel, (702) 693-8199

Julian Serrano (formerly of San Francisco’s Masa’s)

Picasso, Bellagio Hotel, (702) 693-7223

Todd English (of Boston’s Olives and Figs)

Olives, Bellagio Hotel, (702) 693-8181

Onda, The Mirage Hotel, (702) 791-7223

Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken (the Food Network’s “Too Hot Tamales” who operate Santa Monica’s Border Grill)

Border Grill, Mandalay Bay Hotel, (702) 632-7403

Nobu Matsuhisa (of Nobu in New York, London and Tokyo, and Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills)

Nobu, Hard Rock Hotel, (702) 693-5090

Jean-Louis Palladin (of Washington, D.C.’s Jean Louis and New York City’s Palladin)

Napa, Rio Hotel, (702) 247-7961

Charlie Palmer (of New York City’s Aureole)

Aureole, Mandalay Bay Hotel, (702) 632-7401

Stephen Pyles (of Dallas’ Star Canyon)

Star Canyon, The Venetian Hotel, (702) 414-3772

Jean-Georges Vongerichten (of New York City’s Jean George, Jojo’s and Mercer Kitchen, as well as Vong in New York, Hong Kong and London)

Prime, Bellagio Hotel, (702) 693-7223

Emeril Lagasse (of Emeril’s and Nola’s in New Orleans)

Emeril’s New Orleans’ Fish House, MGM Grand Hotel, (702) 891-7374

Delmonico Steakhouse, The Venetian, (702) 414-3737

Mark Miller (of Santa Fe’s Coyote Cafe and Washington, D.C.’s Red Sage)

Coyote Cafe, MGM Grand Hotel, (702) 891-7349

Joaquim Splichal (of St. Helena’s Pinot Blanc, and Los Angeles’ Pinot Bistro and Patina)

Pinot Brasserie, The Venetian Hotel, (702) 735-8888

Sirio Maccioni (of Le Cirque in New York City)

Le Cirque, The Bellagio, (702) 693-8100

Access www.unlv.edu/Tourism/LVCelebChefs.html for a list of star chefs who are trying their luck in Vegas, the cookbooks they’ve written, and some of their recipes.