There are soooo many restaurants to choose from, and I don't know about you guys, but we don't usually decide what's for dinner until a few hours beforehand.

My questions is, is it REALLY necessary to make reservations in advance for the strip restaurants? What does ADVANCE mean? A day, week, month? Does that apply only to the fine dining restaurants? Are there any restaurants that you DEFINITELY MUST have reservations for?

If we don't make reservations, will we wind up eating at Denny's each night?

We always made ours in advance, especially for weekend nights, because I wanted to eat in specific places and did not want to hear that they had no room when I got there.
We did it as far in advance as about a month or so, Thanksgiving we did way in advance. These were all fine dining.
You won't end up at Dennys though, lol..there are so many restaurants, you can still find plenty of good places to eat.

No, you won't have to dine at Denny's every night! I would make reservations for Fri. & Sat. night for sure. If you go early to the restaurants, say 5-5:30PM you should be fine. My DH and I went to the Wynn a few months back and was turned away from 2 restaurants because we had no reservations, they were full for the night...but it didn't matter much because we were just checking things out. So, if you have a restaurant you have your heart on eating at, then I would make a res., if you're not sure where you want to eat, then just stroll around, you will always find one you can get into. Fri. & Sat. nights are VERY BUSY, so just be prepared to wait about an hour. I have called the day before and even the afternoon of and have made reservations no problem, just depends I guess.

I would make reservations, when I don't, like you I end up at the 24 hour coffee shop LOL! I use opentable.com, which makes reservations really really easy, at least for the restaurants it serves.

Here are places we liked:

Aqua Knox @ Venetian (fab sea food)

Mix @ The Hotel at Mandalay (phenemonal view and great food, cool interior)

Aqua @ Bellagio (lobster pot pie is to die for)

Tao @ Venetian (newest giant hotspot)

Bradley Ogden @ Caesar's

Bouchon @ Venetian (if you like french bistro food)

Chinois @ Caesar's Forum

Sushi Roku @ Caesar's Forum

Delmonico Steakhouse @ Venetian

vegasnative, last time we were in town we went to the Wynn on a Monday night with no reservations and were turned down at every restaurant there (ended up eating fast Chinese food at NYNY instead before seeing Zumanity!)

phylander~hmm, us too, although we were able to eat at their Chinese restaurant without a res., on a Sat. night. However, I was really dissaoppointed with it, so glad I didn't go to the other ones and spend even more money.

In my book ADVANCE means as soon as I know when I want to eat in a particular restaurant. In the case of Las Vegas, there are places I know I want to eat long before I arrive there. However, while in Las Vegas I may discover a place I want to eat and thus be able to make a reservation only a few hours in ADVANCE and thus run the risk of findng the restaurant booked when I want to eat there.

hmmm... I gues what I could do is go to open table and make reservations at 2 or 3 restaurants for each night, and then the day of the reservation call and cancel the ones we decide against? or is that reservation abuse??

One of the great things about opentable is that you can cancel a reservation with one mouse click really. And no penalty, as long as you actually cancel before the reservation time. My husband used my account once and didn't cancel, they give you a friendly warning but it is on your record that you were a no-show. I suppose too many of those and they axe your account or something.

Leave a night or two open for free range dining, reservations the rest, you will be good!

Also, DH and I find that you can almost always go to any restaurant and sit at the bar to eat. We've gotten into many supposedly "impossible" restaurants with no problem that way, and actually the bar is a nice place to eat--more casual and you can sit closer if it's noisy.

Hi,

I just ran into this problem! I was trying to book Fri/Sat night dinners about three weeks in advance for our first choices, Delmonico and Pinot Brasserie. Not a single reservation to be had between 6pm and 10pm on Sat., and only a 6pm for Pinot Brasserie for Friday--and no Delmonico. So, that scared me a bit that I don't want to eat at just Denny's either, so I went ahead and booked Commander's Palace for Saturday--again could only get a 6pm time. I would have preferred later dinner times, but I took what I could get, and feel better knowing that we'll have nice places to eat. I used opentable for Pinot Brasserie and Commander's Palace online reservation system.

So, YES, make them in advance!
AZWildcat

hunterblu: I also recommend making reservations. One upscale restaurant we went to had a really small dining room. There's no way you could eat there without a reservation. All the other places we went to had a good crowd.
If you weren't joking about making several reservations and canceling last minute, I wouldn't recommend that. The 2 or 3 restaurants I called for reservations required my credit card number. I didn't ask what would happen if I canceled last minute or didn't show up (because I was not planning to do that). Does anybody know?

No, I was serious about making several reservations for the same night at different places. But I didn't say I'd cancel at the last minute. I said the day of.

All the restaurants have different policies for cancellation and time required for cancellation.

For instance, Michael Mina required a credit card number and says you'll be charged $60 if you don't cancel by 4PM the day of the reservation.

Rosemary's Restaurant is thru open table, and doesn't require a credit card number. But I would still call and cancel if we decided not to go.

Oh, and many of the 24 hr. coffee shops in Vegas are much better than Denny's. And not much pricier. Paris, Stratosphere, Golden Nugget, Hard Rock and the Orleans to name a few.