Encore restaurants
 

Am going to be staying at Encore with two friends in Sept. Have been to Vegas a dozen times and have stayed at Wynn, but haven't been out since Encore opened so we are staying there. Anyone have suggestions as to what might be the best restaurants there? We originally booked at Switch, but one of my friends that I'm going with was at Encore for an afternoon and went by and said it looked kind of silly and the menu is really uninspired. So now we are booked for Botero since we love steakhouses and he said that it looked like it had a pretty cool atmosphere. Any other recommendations?

Botero, outside ^^^^

Be certain to finish your dinner with a glass of Hennessy Ellipse. :p

I ate at Switch, choosing their "Taste of Wynn" winter tasting menu which was $59 a person. Had lobster bisque, USDA Prime NY strip, and creme brulee. The food was executed well, the service was good, and although the room changing was gimmicky it was very cool; I wanted to seem cool and indifferent, but got excited every time in spite of myself.

I haven't tried Botero but have heard very good things about it. Check out the Taste of Wynn menu and see what the options are.

Do they enforce any dress code at Botero? Trying to see if kingalien's usual suit of t-shirt, jeans and athletic shoes will be acceptable :p.

Ate there last February and wore jeans, no problem. My rule of thumb is, if I can't wear jeans I ain't going! Might need to upgrade the t-shirt to a polo and the shoes to loafers.

Thanks. It's a polo t-shirt, that might still work :p.

Any "must haves" at Botero in terms of appies and sides? What about the meat? I was disappointed by CraftSteak but blown away by Charlie Palmer Steak so looking forward to another great steakhouse..... hopefully Botero will be it....

Why not try Cut in the Palazzo?

A friend recently had a very negative experience (with regard to food quality) @ Cut. Of course, that's just one person's impression.

I think one of the greatest aspects of dining @ Botero, is the outdoor dining option.

Started with the Foie Gras (accompanied by a Sauterne, sorry forgot which one, but NOT d'Yquem ;) ). If memory serves, it was Hudson Valley Foie Gras.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/IMG_0067.jpg

Chateaubriand for two, was excellent.

Actually this was the trip of Chateaubriand, as I also shared one a few nights earlier @ SW Steakhouse.

We also enjoyed a lovely 2005 Cliff Lede Poetry, with dinner.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/IMG_0066.jpg

Dessert, with Cognac, of course...

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/IMG_0069.jpg

Above is Remy Martin Extra,

But, they were nice enough let me 'touch' the bottle of Hennessy Ellipse, which is beyond my level of Cognac appreciation.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/IMG_0065.jpg

Go with Bottero.
Sinatra was a big(and expensive)dissapointment and Switch feels like a fancy casino coffee shop to me.

NO trainers/sneakers or shorts/tshirts at Botero btw they are pretty strict about that.

Another vote for Botero.

Tuna tartare for an app. Wonderful.

I have had two meals at Cut and is one of my favorite steakhouses.

Looks like only enough for one in my eyes :p.

Which one was better?

Was wondering about Sinatra. I'm thinking it's going to turn out to be a Hard Rock/Planet Hollywood type setting where the emphasis is on memorabilia and the food is meh.

Darns it :p.

That was a picture of the foie gras ;) No Chateaubriand pic, sorry. :D

They both were excellent cuts of meat. I'd be hard pressed to call one 'better.'

Now, with regard to service, absolutely Botero. The Saturday evening we were @ SW Steakhouse the service was bordering on awful (though, the food was all excellent); after they dropped the entrees off, didn't see anyone forever... no offer for a second bottle of wine... no refilling the Pellegrino... really shocking. :eek::eek:

I found the overall experience @ Botero to be quite excellent.

Would like to try Boterro if only for the outside seating, but CUT is one of my favorite restaurants in Vegas, not just steak places.

I was not so thrill with the chimichurri flavour added to my bone in filet at Bottero. Would advise to skip that chimichurri even though the waitstaff pushed it

It is my impression that they "dumbed down" the restaurants at Encore since the hotel wound up opening in the most vicious part of the downturn and Wynn already had empty seats at many of his higher end restaurants next door.

Sinatra is a bit of a joke, a red sauce Italian joint with high prices (good service, however.) I really didn't want to like Switch, as the moving walls seem so gimmicky, but it is actually a pretty good choice at its price point. They have an excellent foie gras dish and a great young sommelier who used to work for Charlie Trotter. I have not been in Botero.

Under the same roof, I would do Alex or Daniel Boulud brasserie over anything at Encore, but I will have to try Botero at some point and I will hope for the best.

Thanks for all the advice. I think we've decided to do Botero. We're there for three nights and I think we'll hit Bartolotta, Daniel Boulud and Botero. Am looking forward to it. Usually go to vegas at least once a year, but haven't been in 18 months.

Please report back your dining experience :).

+1 especially since my visit to Daniel Boulud was quite disappointing last time. Awful service and remarkably overpriced food of mediocre quality.

Oh goodness, while the food was fine; we had major service issues @ Daniel Boulud in April. And, this was a rather elaborate dinner that began with Caviar service and Champagne. Shocked enough to reflect the horrible service in a very small gratuity.. which, is quite rare (for us).

That is inexcusable! You're basically sitting down and waving a flag that says, "my bill will be rather large, don't mess up and you'll get at least 15%". I mean, at that level of restaurant, service should always be fantastic, but especially when you're ordering off a "by the ounce" menu.

Hmmmmm, comped X 15% = 0 :p.

Depending on when you're going...

Botero has no outside seating due to heat right now.

Not sure when they have outside seating.

We will be there in late Sept, so hopefully it is cool enough then for outdoor seating at Botero.

We have DB scheduled for the first night. There are three of us on the trip and all coming from the east coast, so while there are a ton of options on the DB menu, we'll be having something light that night--salads, a cheese plate, stuff like that. Nothing to heavy the first night--with the time change and the sleep deprivation that we all have as we all have kids less than a year old right now, it's a slow rolling start on the food. In a previous trip we stayed at the Bellagio and would start the trip with a dinner at Fix where you could get small plates for the table. I loved that place and it seems really popular. Am surprised other casinos haven't copied that model.

DB has a very nice(and very reasonable)prixe fixe three course early dinner.Portions are not huge-but might just be what you are looking for.
We were not thrilled with the service either-started off just fine-then went downhill to the point that I had to get up and chase down our waiter to get the check.It can get VERY loud in DB also-so patio dining might be a good idea.
Bartolotta is much better than Sinatra=but the wine list is ridiculously overpriced(as is the specialty whole fish dish)but if you order wisely you can get out of there without having to mortage the house.

It started out OK, and then... at some point our main server left to go home --- like her 'shift' was over, and she was replaced by another server who was horrible. And, it wasn't even that late (IIRC, we were seated shortly after 8PM). I don't recall all of the details (it was April), but I do recall an argument with the 'new server' about how they didn't have any Hennessy XO; of which we told them they had it 'across the hall' @ SW... needless to say, a bit of arguing and they finally were able to get me my XO... sheesh... (there were numerous other slip-ups, but I try to block those things out... after a while) The gratuity we left was just about 10% on a check that was just shy of $1,000; probably should have even left less......

It is precisely the service issues which make me hesitant to return to DB at Wynn AND also try the DB Bistro here in Vancouver...... such a shame as his flagship restaurant in NYC is stunning in all respects.

Botero is a beautiful room and the menu is lovely. Try the hamachi "lolipops" for appetizer. I also like the outdoor dining if the weather is good.

I like Sinatra too, but it is a pretty standard Italian restaurant.

Alex is by far the best restaurant on the property.

QL

luxury, I know your standards from some of your other posts and I agree that DB LV is certainly disappointing given that it has a Michelin star. The service is stupidly unprofessional/informal for such a place. HOWEVER, I am not sure it is overpriced, and I have had good experiences there dining at the bar.

Even though service is overly familiar and food is not really of Michelin star quality (Would this place be * in Paris?) one can have a reasonable meal there for about $100/per person and they are pouring a 2005 Bordeaux by the glass for about $18 which is really about the best value you are going to get in the Wynn/Encore neighborhood.

Have you been to the lounge at Guy Savoy yet? There was another thread where you asked me about that place which certainly features outstanding food and service, with great value on food (but very high wine/champagne prices)

I was most disappointed with 8 very thin asparagus with a hollandaise type sauce for $24 -- I thought this was a rip-off. Perhaps I need to give them another try.... maybe they were on an off night.

This trip, coming up in just under 3 weeks, we intend to try Guy Savoy for our big splurgy meal. I certainly will post my thoughts for sure!!

Looking forward to it. :)

Well, I am back from the trip that inspired me to start this thread and get all your feedback. Thanks again for that--it was very helpful. Thought I'd post a report on my dinners.

Thursday night we ate at Daniel Boulud. I know some people had spoken of subpar service at this place. We couldn't have had a better experience. There were three of us, we sat outside on the patio next to the Lake of Dreams. One word about that--that thing is stupid. The "shows" were so dumb. Why do I want to see an inflatable frog singing "what a wonderful world"? Just dumb. But dinner was fantastic. We started with a cheese plate--I think this was my favorite way to start a dinner in Vegas. The three of us had a great time over 30-40 minutes matching up cheese with the fruit, nuts and honey that accompany them. The waiter couldn't have been better--we gave him the choice of cheeses for us and he asked us several questions about what we did and didn't like and then put together what we considered a fabulous selection. For dinner, I had a special they had that night which was a Thai snapper that had just been flown in that morning with a potato crust. Absolutely loved it. I'm not going to remember everyone's specifc dish, but my friends had the sea bass (I think it's the loup de mar) and the chicken. We also had a great bottle of white wine suggested--ended up drinking two of them as it was so good. Service was excellent which I know is in contrast to what others have said--maybe we just got a good night.

Friday night we hit Botero. Liked this place a lot as well. Had a caesar salad and we split a dish of different sashimi style fish. I think there were four different preparations of sashimi fish on there. For dinner, they cooked us an extra big piece of chateaubriand so the three of us could split it and we got a bunch of sides. We got the foie gras on the side which was very well done. The potatos au gratin were very good, the spinach was also very good. The best though were the risotto stuffed zuchinni flowers. I love zucchini flowers but have only had them in Italy so was happy to see them on there. Service was good, but not great. We always like to get the waitstaff's opinions on things and while she tried her best, my impression was that she wasn't particularly knowledgable about the different options yet. Maybe she was new. Definitely worth a trip though.

Saturday night we ate at Bartolotta. We had hoped to get a cabana on the lake outside, but on a Saturday night, they had all been given to high rollers, but we did outside on the veranda which was very nice. Our waitress was very nice, but not particularly helpful--another one that I thought might have been new and just didn't know all the dishes yet. But the guy that came over to show us the fish was great. We had one member of our party that didn't like seafood so he just got the gnocchi, but myself and my other friend decided to go for the experience and try the fish right out of the mediterranean. We talked to the guy that brought the fish over and he helped us pick out one (the Orata) and a sauce to go with it. He had the goat cheese ravioli as an appetizer and they were very good. Then the fish came--it was roasted whole with potatos and zucchini that were also very good. The waitress skinned and deboned the fish for us and split up the filets for my friend and I and added the sauce. I think this was probably the highlight of my trip--while the production of doing it all in front of us is great, the fish was just fantastic. One of my favorite meals ever. The guy that we had talked to gave us a perfect recommendation for our tastes. The wine person (I can never remember what they are called) picked up a great red for us--I can't remember the name of it now--some italian vintage. It was just about as perfect a dinner as you could want.

So all in all, I think we went 3 for 3. Some of the waitstaff weren't particularly helpful, but nobody was rude--I think they were just new. They all tried very hard. So it wasn't something that turned us off. The ones that we got that were very good, particularly our waiter at Boulod and the fish dude at Bartolotta were fantastic. I'd recommend all three places.