I am late to this thread, but had to jump in. I have found lately that "fine dining" is not enjoyable for me when I travel due to really bad, lazy service. Not necessarily bad food, but bad service for the price paid and level of service received. Now I have to admit I live in Sonoma County and I agree with TEHJ, maybe I am spoiled due to service having to be good at local restaurants in order to survive in wine country. But I was raised in Chicago, so I am not a wine snob.

Case in point, last week Las Vegas, "fine dining" restaurant at "high end" hotel on strip, (I was entertaining clients, it was their pick) they served a cheese course to the table, plopped down the plate and left. No utensils, no markers, no description of any thing on the plate, no matter how tasty it was it was not fully enjoyed due to the lack of service (we all tried to serve ourselves with our own silverware, not very sanitary).

But what really blew me away was when we heard a high "ping" and the woman sitting at the table next to me is holding her wine glass stem in her hand with no bottom (on the wine glass, I am sure she had her bottom!). The wine glass had "ping" broken in half, as these things happen, and the waitstaff came over, looked at her and said "here is a new wineglass so you can pour the rest of your wine into it". HUH! She sat there looking at her hand to see if was cut or any shards were in it, and NO ONE from the restaurant came over to see if she was OK, or ask how the could compensate her. I was stunned! The lack of common courtesy really ruined the restaurant for me. Again, maybe it's me, but it seems like this should be really basic service at a "fine dining" restaurant.

Just my little vent