Place your bets with the ratatouille pack in Vegas
Big name American and French chefs have transformed dining in the Nevada desert from cheap nosh to top notch. Andy Lynes reports
Sunday, 1 June 2008
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In the 1960s, Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack were the lords of Las Vegas. Now, the American chef Thomas Keller and his ratatouille pack dominate the strip. The Sands hotel where Sinatra held his "summits" with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr was demolished in 1996. In its place stands the audaciously opulent Venetian where America's culinary high-rollers including Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck and Keller play to win a slice of the city's considerable restaurant action.
Every month, tourists swell the city's population from half a million to a three and half million. According to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority statistics, just 1 per cent of first-time visitors say the primary reason for being there is to gamble. That leaves a lot of time for shopping, theatre-going and eating.
Walk into just about any of the hotels on the four-mile strip and you'll find a restaurant bearing the name of a famous American or French chef. Peckish for some grilled quail? American TV chef Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak at the MGM Grand is for you. In the mood for a $68 (£34) bowl of artichoke and black truffle soup? Then head to Caesars Palace where Guy Savoy has re-created his Michelin-starred Paris restaurant.
With 10 restaurants, the Wynn hotel has more high-class dining opportunities than most British towns. Given that the average stay in Vegas is four nights, the only way to sample all that glorious grub is to "dine around". The hotel will set you up the culinary equivalent of a pub crawl, where each course of your meal is in a different restaurant.
We began with a selection of starters in the bar at Daniel Boulud Brasserie where the New York-based chef serves his luxurious DB burger, stuffed with foie gras and braised short rib meat. But there was only time for a bite of superb pâté de campagne before it was show time at the hotel's Lake of Dreams.
The main course at Michelin-starred Wing Lei turned out to be more of a Chinese banquet. The huge lazy Susan in the private dining room filled up with a stream of beautifully cooked dishes including steamed Chilean sea bass.
The night should have ended with a spoonful of panna cotta at the Italian Bartollota restaurant, but the chef just couldn't help but show off some of his fish flown in that day from Italy. Dine around had become dine to a standstill.
Despite the excessive feasting, we found ourselves in the hotel's Blush nightclub enjoying "bottle service". There is something louche about the idea of being left with a tray full of mixers, ice and a whole bottle of premium vodka. But at $500 a throw, it's recommended for high-rollers with very hard heads only.
Hair of the dog was on offer at the Carnival World Buffet in the Rio hotel where Corona beer at 10 in the morning was just the thing to wash down a full Mexican of tamales and chilli. For $14.99 plus taxes, you can take your pick of more than 300 dishes. It was a taste of Vegas before the superstar chefs moved in.
"The only thing that grows in Vegas is prickly pears," said chef Wolfgang von Wieser as he sautéed mushrooms in the Bellagio hotel's demonstration kitchen. As we watched the jovial Austrian whip up herb and pumpkin ravioli, we tried to forget that everything we eat here in the middle of a desert would come with a side order of air miles.
The view at night from the bar at Mix, 43 storeys high at the top of THEhotel takes your breath away, helped by Alain Ducasse's arch take on the once ubiquitous 99c shrimp cocktail.
Down on the strip, the garishly themed hotels are being inched out by new developments. While no one will miss the nasty taste of cheap seafood, it would be a shame if the unfettered exuberance that produced the Venetian hotel's indoor replica of the Grand Canal were to go the same way of the Sands. Some bad taste is worth savouring.
HOW TO GET THERE
Andy Lynes stayed at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, 3950 Las Vegas Boulevard South (001 877 632 7800; mandalaybay.com), where doubles start at $131 (£66) a night, and Wynn, 3131 Las Vegas Boulevard South (001 702 770 7000; wynnlas vegas.com), which offers doubles from $217 (£110).
