Thank you, Lyle. There are so many excellent choices in Vegas that I want to make sure we make the most of our time and money. If you'd like to email me for further discussion my address is [email protected].

djkbooks, you mentioned that you enjoy dining at bars, are there any in particular that you would recommend? (Other than Morel's, which you have mentioned.) Any other particularly good dishes come to mind at these places?

Thanks!

Great choices. For a special dinner I would go with Aurole Sit in the Swan Court. The steak at SW is the best. Also try Carnivino at the Palazzo

we just got back from vegas and I am sorry to say we were really disappointed with our dinners out. We love vegas and love the dinner choices and plethora of great restaurants. But this time around, for some reason, nothing blew us away. We ate at Alex (my crab risotto tasted like gummy rice), Mix, B&B and SW (our steak was so tough). each had something good but none of our experiences were what we were hoping to be.

I wish we could have tried Fleur de lys and Aureole. Next time...

Great places with bar menus: Craft Steak, Cut (Wolfgang Puck), Delmonico, Guy Savoy, Table 10 (Encore). At Table 10, you can order off the bar menu or the regular menu, but last we were there, the banana cream pie wasn't on the menu.

The bar menus at these places are real food - not sports bar type offerings.

You can also dine at the bar at Bouchon - raw bar and limited menu afternoons, full menu evenings.

We often order appetizers and/or salads.

emcash, I am sorry to hear that your dining experience wasn't fabulous! I know how disappointing that is. Do you go to Vegas frequently? Hopefully it will be better next time.

djkbooks, thanks so much for the info. Gonna look into these now.

So far, have made reservations for Wing Lei and RM Seafood!

my husband goes more often than I do- it's probably been about 7 years for me, but it is such a great place. I hope we go back sooner rather than later, and this time, i will plan the trip and timing around the restaurants i want to go to!

The Picasso at the Bellagio does have a prix fix dinner menu each night and if I remember correctly, it had quite a bit of "game" on its menu... duck, venison and quail. A friend and I ate there a few years ago for a special birthday dinner, beautiful restaurant, impeccable service... very pricey. it was something to experience but having been there once, I probably won't return.

Last month our favorite dinner in Vegas was at Bobby Flay's place in Ceasar's Palace. The menu looked incredible and hard to pick just one app or just one entree'...wonderful service, a casual atmosphere and the food was great.

I am now over fine, really expensive dining in Vegas ... it always seems to be a little disappointing, in the end not worth the $$.
The places that stand out for me are Bouchon (mostly breakfast) and Daniel Buloud at Wynn. Not outrageously priced, but delicous food.
On my last trip in January $250 later, I found Fleur de Lys to be ok, but definitely not worth the price point.
The best meal I've had in Vegas so far was at Emeril's Fish House at MGM. Unbelievably good. The problem is, we went back a few months later, and dinner was just mediocre.

Oh, and even if you don't have dinner at the Eiffel Tower, it is so worth a visit even if just for a cocktail. Great ambiance, and my favorite view in Vegas.

Isn't table 10 at the Palazzo?

Based on recs here, we ate at Daniel Boulud's and had the fixed price menu. It has gone up to $49 now, which is still a good deal. The service was impeccable. The food was delicious and special. The water show....hmmm. We were seated with a perfect view of the waterfall. A ginormous tree frog mechanically rose above the waterfall "wall", planted his huge robot feet on the top of the wall, and sang "What a Wonderful World." This CAN'T be the water show people have been raving about. What did we miss?

I forgot to say we ate here on March 31st.

OK. Now I am totally overwhelmed with choices!!! I love this thread because of the common sentiment of wanting that WOW factor. It can be so hit and miss and who wants to be out the cash with a miss? I never regret the money when it's a hit. But Roubuchon is a little too pricey. I saw a mention for a pre-show fixed price but I don't see it on their website. I tried calling but only get the main MGM centralized reservations. It would be nice to figure out a way to dine there.

We tend to shy away from steak houses. With so many options, I would rather enjoy a bunch of different foods then invest in a choice steak. We did the Fleur de Lys and loved it. I also make it a point to have a brie burger and martini at Mon Ami Gabi. I was also disappointed with Olives.

When we return this summer, I want to aim for fine food but not too exotic. I don't eat raw eggs, raw seafood or some of the gamey meats. On some of the 5 course and up menus, you can't even recognize what you are eating. We are a little more basic than that and usually go for 3 courses with a nice halibut or lamb. Any suggestions? We like to keep it around $40 - $75 per person for food only.

Jill, while cruising the various foodie sites looking for info on Vegas eats I came across this one, where the guy has been to 70 different Vegas restaurants (many of them multiple times) and has informative write-ups on them, from the "Big Three" (Robuchon, Guy Savoy, Alex are his choices for the best high-end meals) to buffets and breakfast dives and even the In-N-Out Burger and the Coca Cola Store.

http://home.comcast.net/~lasvegasvac...rantGuide.html

"But Roubuchon is a little too pricey. I saw a mention for a pre-show fixed price but I don't see it on their website. I tried calling but only get the main MGM centralized reservations. It would be nice to figure out a way to dine there."

I think there is a 'quickie' dinner menu at "L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon", which is a less formal restaurant than "Joel Robuchon" and also in the MGM. L'Atelier is still rated highly, with one Michelin star (Robuchon is the only restaurant with three Michelin stars in Vegas). This is listed as the "L'Unique" menu for $49, served within 15 minutes for $49 and available until 6:45 PM:

http://www.mgmgrand.com/restaurants/...ique-menu.aspx

We are dining at the more formal Robuchon restaurant next week and if I hear of a pre-show menu I'll post a follow-up, but I haven't seen anything about this on their web site. Most of the meals seem to take 3 - 5 hours there with all the bread carts, 'surprises' and the 45 item bonus candy cart ("mignardises") presented at the end of the meal.

We dined at the more formal Robuchon restaurant (the one with the Michelin *** rating) earlier this week, so thought I'd update this thread for future reference. This was the ninth time we've had dinner at a Michelin 3-star or Forbes/Mobil 5-star restaurant in France or the USA and wife and I both felt this was the finest meal we've ever had anywhere, by a big margin.

Here's what we had ... (plus a bottle of moderately priced Burgundy from the Beaune area and two bottles of Evian ... they charge for water here, $10/bottle):

The opener was an amuse-bouche of caviar over fresh crab (rated "A" for exceptional ... this would be a $40-50 appetizer at most restaurants) ... then there was a bread cart with about 15 kinds of bread to choose from (pick as many as you wanted to try ... we sampled four but next time I'm going with just one and leaving more room for the other plates) ... both the amuse-bouche and breads were included with all the menus, even the 'two-course' one, so everyone dining there gets this (plus the candy cart described at the end).

Appetizers were "King crab and asparagus blancmange, medley of season vegetables" for my wife, "Truffled langoustine ravioli with chopped cabbage" for moi, both rated "A"

Soups were "Light green pea cream with a hint of peppermint, sweet onion cloud" (wife) and "Delicate tofu veloute on warm smoked eel seaweed gelee" (me). I'm not a tofu fan and was not sure I would like the eel, but I like to step out of my comfort zone (for at least one course) at these fancy restaurants and I'm glad I did as the combo was exceptional, with delicate flavors and creamy texture. Both rated "A"

My wife's one main course was "Spring lamb roasted with sweet spices, vegetables and morels with lemon confit", which she rated a "B" because the lamb was a slightly chewy (veggies were great). Getting real picky here because all the other items were so exceptional.

I had two main courses ... first was "Roasted lobster on pilaf rice and caramelized sea urchin with oriental essences" ... this was the single best plate I've ever had at ANY restaurant. The rice had a spicy flavor, like Spanish rice, the sea urchin was incredible, and the lobster's texture was a perfect foil to the urchin. I could have eaten three plates of this one! A+

My 2nd main plate was "Braised veal cheeks in Thai broth, vegetable couscous with broccoli". The veal was extremely tender, the broth very delicate and savory. Another "A".

Then a cheese cart was rolled out with about 20 cheeses from France, Italy and Spain. Against my better judgement we selected five (five! typing this I realize we were gluttons!) of these plus more bread (walnut and raison flavored). By now things were blurring together a bit but my favorite cheese was a soft, sweet goat cheese from the Basque region.

Now for desserts ... for the wife "Guanaja chocolate with coffee ice cream, caramelized puffed rice and lemon zest", which she graded an "A". For me, "Tahitian vanilla pineapple, coconut sorbet and elderflower liqueur", another perfect dish, light and sweet and very tasty. Another "A".

All menus include tea or coffee served here at the end, plus the legendary "escorté de mignardises", which is a trolley of small chocolates, cakes, custards and other sweets, usually 40-45 different choices. No limit, feed your face! Shoulda skipped three of those breads ... anyway we had one silver platter of 8 chocolate truffles, petit-fours, cookies, etc, then (I blush to admit) a second platter of 8 more different ones. These were all pretty tasty. I was tempted to ask for a third tray but somehow found the willpower to resist. The server looked disappointed.

As a final going-away gift we were presented with a small box of about 20 marshmellows, half infused with delicate lemon sauce, half with raspberry sauce. We held off on eating these until at least 15 minutes after we woke up the next day. Light and savory to the last bite.

Looking forward to returning!

(Here's a Youtube video someone shot of the fabulous candy cart ... next time we'll go lighter on the bread! ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kczO0dCcHLQ )