Since the Las Vegas Weekly can only print a couple of snaps of food with every article, here are a few more of our meal at Union Restaurant and Bar and Jean Georges Steakhouse for your precautionary, palate perusal:

[Show as slideshow]

Continue reading after the jump if you’d like to read the review(s) in a different format.

(more…)

We don’t know what’s more impressive: the fact that Emmy Award-winning Denise Valdez squeezed four restaurants (and chefs) into segment lasting less than two minutes, or that she captured uber-absentee chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten right here in our humble burg. (We guarantee he wasn’t here for long.)

(more…)

[Show as slideshow]

It has the best location of any restaurant in town. Smack in the middle of restaurant row in the Venetian, where every guest, gambler and conventioneer at this mega-plex walks by it at least twice a day.

(more…)

[Show as slideshow]

So here’s what happened last night (recounted through the wooly head of someone who tried to drink all the Au Bon Climat in the house):

(more…)

[Show as slideshow]

We wish we had found Alice “You mean you don’t have a custom-made, wood-burning-oven in your home?” Waters’ talk at the Black Mountain Institute interesting and inspiring.

(more…)

[Show as slideshow]

ELV and his staff were at Rao’s last week, not eating, but rather to observe the shooting of an episode of a television show featuring a certain celebrity chef and Rao’s Carla Pellegrino.

(more…)

[Show as slideshow]

We”ve had it. We are done. Finished. Fin. Finito. Kaput. Over and out. Die ende. Sfarsit (Romanian). Wakas (Tagalog) and isigcino (Zulu) with Mesa Grill.

And no matter how many of you tell us how “awesome” or “interesting” or “tasty” it is, we’re never believing you again.

Because you are wrong.

Because we’ve now eaten there at least ten times and never had anything (except the excellent burger and the cornbread pudding) that was the least bit spicy, intriguing, or compelling from a foodie-point-of-view.

And the “spicy” chicken hash was the last straw…containing as it did, minimal “spiciness” and being bereft of chicken.

We know this because we picked through all those potatoes in the hash whilst furiously fishing for flotsam flecks of fowl flesh and infuriatingly finding figments of fugaciously few.

The difference between youse guys and ELV is: we at ELV feel it’s our duty to go back to places that have disappointed us, whenever a friend or colleague (or perhaps just someone with a strong opinion) tells they “really like” a place that we don’t.

So back and back we’ve gone, again and again, hoping against hope that Boy Meets Grill Boy will show us something.

Anything.

And what we always get is a bunch of tepid, uninspired, barely “spicy” “creations” that are bland or boring or both.

If you really want interestingly spiced food, at a fraction of the price, we suggest going to Los Antojos…or Los Molcajetes, or Salvadoreno Cafe, or Border Grill, or Frank and Fina’s, or….or….

Or if you just want to bask in the absentee aura of a Food Network God, and pay $70 for lunch (no booze) like we did last week, keep your trap shut the next time we’re around each other.

Or until Bobby finds some inspiration.

But don’t hold your breath.

MESA GRILL

In Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino

3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

877.346.4642

http://www.mesagrill.com/lasvegas/

[Show as slideshow]

Nothing about this place is as great as its reputation.

(more…)

So offended is Eating Las Vegas by these goomba-centric, faux tough guy ads:

[Show as slideshow]

Irresistible

food says Stevie and p.r. folks.

Resistance easy.

(more…)

Last week, Mad Man Mancini (aka Al Mancini) — Official Friend Of ELV and restaurant critic for Las Vegas CityLife magazine — sat down with us (accompanied by a tape recorder) by the Mandalay Bay pool to discuss the impact Top Chef (currently filming in Las Vegas), has had on the quality of restaurants and cooking in America (and whether its show will be good for Las Vegas). Short answer: Yes indeedy

Click here to read a couple of critics talk about this (and other weighty matters affecting the televised culinary world) in the erudite, learned, incisive and philosophical tones for which they are known.