My wife and I stayed at Bellagio this past weekend (3/5-8). We've stayed at Wynn before and enjoyed it so we wanted to check out Encore while we were in town by having dinner there. We chose the steakhouse, Botero.

As our reservation was at 8 pm on Friday we took a cab from Bellagio about 7:30. When it arrived at the Encore entrance off LV Blvd. about 7:45 our cab was the only car in the entryway! We entered an essentially empty lobby and felt like we had the place all to ourselves. It was almost like you could hear a pin drop (if they turned off the Sinatra sound track that is). This is NOT the "buzz" that we seek in Vegas!

I've been receiving some pretty good offers from Wynn/Encore (at least for low rollers like us) that included 3 free weekday nights or weekends at about $149 and now I see why. I realize the whole city is slow, but Bellagio was fairly busy as were other places we visited. As we walked around Encore, we noticed most of the restaurants were only about two thirds empty..though they may have filled up more as it got later. Much of the table games were closed and we had our choice of BJ tables with limits as low as $10-$15. Decor was clearly high quality...but not really our taste with the red satin chandeliers and overall Asian feeling theme.

Dinner at Botero, however, was excellent. Great looking restaurant serving well prepared food. The staff was well-trained and efficient, though the average was about 25 (so it seemed at least). My wife and I asked to share a bone-in NY strip that was cooked 1/2 medium (her) and 1/2 med-rare (me). Our waiter checked first with the kitchen, which agreed to the split, and then the chef cooked the steak perfectly.

We were shocked at the basically empty casino floor at Encore and hope it was an anomaly....but I fear that it further confirms the difficulties that Vegas is having and will continue to have in this economy.