Eat These Now – CIRCO’s Lamb Chops

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These pecorino-crusted lamb chops from Circo in the Bellagio aren’t cheap ($51), but you get what you pay for. And what you pay for is about the best lamb you can find…anywhere. Properly trimmed, crusted and cooked, they taste of sweet, grass-fed lamb — not of some de-nuded, lamb-like meat product — and are a lamb lover’s dream. ELV has had them at both Circo’s (in New York and Vegas) and can attest to their lip-smacking lamb-ness at both venues.

You wouldn’t know any of this if you researched Circo on Yelp. On Yelp, you get idiotic comments like:

Pecorino and Thyme Crusted Rack of Lamb. Please get rid of this dish!! I don’t know if they just did an exceptionally bad job since it’s a tasting portion, but honestly one of the worst pieces of lamb I’ve had. A regular sized cut of lamb rack with too much fat. Too overdone. Not that much flavor. And coating is waayy too thick. I take a bite and all I taste is fat and coating, no meat. Not good. I’ve had better lamb from Trader Joe’s frozen section…

That’s because Yelp sucks.

Just thought you’d like to know.

OSTERIA DEL CIRCO

In the Bellagio Hotel and Casino

3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109-4303

702.693.8150

http://www.bellagio.com/restaurants/circo.aspx

6 thoughts on “Eat These Now – CIRCO’s Lamb Chops

  1. In response to the criticism of yelp, yes it can be invalid but it also sets inperspective the consistency of a restaurant. In your case you are known as a crtic so you dont get the same treatment as an average diner. Your ticket is rung in to boh as uber vip and the chef is on top of your table course to course ensuring all food is photo worthy, not to say it should be any different for others but reality it is. So if a diner came in at 8:20 on a sat night and got a mediocre piece of lamb they payed $51 dollars for because the boh was in the weeds they have the right to be pissed off and rant on yelp. In closing its not fair to call others idiotic because their entree was executed horribly and yours wasn’t because I’m sure if you got a misexecuted dish it would be on your blog, so why can’t someone else express their experience.

  2. If you take anything from yelp reviewers is that they aren’t paid to write reviews. If it was so easy, then every tom,dick and sally on yelp could tell you where you could get a dish of similiarity or likeness to it. I dislike that Yelp reviewers will mark down a restaurant/outlet for a mere single infraction about decor. Rather ignoring the prime reason why they are even there. “Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, just not facts.”

    Alot of these wanna-be “foodie” critiques can’t even pen appropiate terminology/verbage or technical break-down while the dish is deemed a failure. Ruling out that nonsense as “It is what it is.”

    Then, in defense for these mis-creants, one might say they either don’t have the time to commit to the knowledge anybody can now research. Or simply the funds not to do so. Yelp is just one giant story board.

    This post is toward “truth.”

  3. So “Truth,” are you suggesting that Circo keeps a prime rack of juicy lamb in the cooler marked “ELV” just in case he walks in one night? That’s as ridiculous as your suggestion that a VIP “cr(i)tic” gets a different, aka “better” cut of lamb, cooked better than what they serve to other customers. If one of the “critics” that pens a review and posts it on Yelp ever wins a James Beard Award for Food Journalism I have an outhouse in Eastern, Washington I’ll sell ya for $20 bucks.

  4. My wife and I are fairly ordinary tourists and we go to Circo every trip specifically so she can get their lamb chops. She agrees with Curtas that Circo’s are the best to be found anywhere on LV Blvd, and the ones she had last week looked and tasted as good as the picture.

    We do get recognized as regulars though, which might make a difference (I doubt it).

    Also last week Carnevino got in a fresh batch of moldy steaks, and I had a fantastic 11 month dry aged ribeye. Now those are definitely an acquired taste, but Curtas isn’t being too hyperbolic when he calls Carnevino the best steakhouse in the country.

  5. Is it better than the Never-never lamb at Twist? That is probably the best entree I’ve had in my life, but I haven’t tried Circo yet.

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