Category: Celebrity Chef Hell

Michelin Ratings Revealed

Here they are sports fans….the 2009 restaurant ratings of Las Vegas swanky eateries from the mother of all guidebooks Le Guide Michelin. ELV will be commenting more on these ratings in the near future, but for now:
Notable changes from last year: Mesa Grill lost its star.
Biggest disappointment: Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare and RM Seafood not gaining one.
Biggest surprise: Andre’s and Alize keeping theirs.
Most satisfying “I told you so:” The too-good-for-this-world DJT being recognized for its short-lived excellence.
MICHELIN RESTAURANT RATINGS
ONE STAR (*) (by neighborhood)
ESTABLISHMENT NEIGHBORHOOD HOTEL
Alize West of the Strip Palms
Andre’s (Downtown) Downtown
Aureole The Strip Mandalay Bay
Bradley Ogden The Strip Caesar’s Palace
Daniel Boulud Brasserie The Strip Wynn
DJT The StripTrump InternationalHotel & Tower
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon The Strip MGM Grand
Le Cirque The Strip Bellagio
Michael Mina The Strip Bellagio
miX The Strip Mandalay Bay
Nobu East of The Strip Hard Rock
Restaurant Charlie The Strip Palazzo
Wing Lei The Strip Wynn
TWO STARS (**) (by neighborhood)
ESTABLISHMENT NEIGHBORHOOD HOTEL
Alex The Strip Wynn
Guy Savoy The Strip Caesar’s Palace
Picasso The Strip Bellagio

THREE STARS (***)

ESTABLISHMENT NEIGHBORHOOD HOTEL

Joel Robuchon The Strip MGM Grand

NOBHILL TAVERN

Let’s get a few things straight between us, shall we? NobHill “Tavern” is many things. It’s an attractive restaurant with stylish decor, good service, and an interesting wine list. It is also the domain of one Sven Mede, a German by birth who cut his teeth at Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons in Oxford, England; came of age at Bradley Ogden, and now struts his considerable talent in the service of keeping the Michael Mina brand intact and in good form throughout Mina’s MGM-Mirage restaurant empire.

What NobHill “Tavern” isn’t is a tavern. It doesn’t remotely resemble one (uber-designer Tony Chi took care of that), nor does its food pander to anything like the lowest-common-denominator denoted by those words. If Mina and his minions are trying to capture the culinary zeitgeist of the seminal Gramercy Tavern in New York City, we can forgive them that. But if they’re pulling this verbal sleight-of-hand as a way of seducing the slack-jawed hordes in the MGM to give the place a taste, they’re doing a disservice both to the know-nothings and to those who might appreciate Mede’s cosmopolitan food stylings. Because if you wander into this “tavern” expecting tavern-like food, you will be disappointed. If your expectations are much higher, you will be enthralled.

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ARIA Hotel Announces Celebrity Chef Lineup

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST……

Undaunted by the latest….er…uh… economic downturn, CityCenter, the joint venture between MGM-Mirage and a bunch of really rich dudes from Dubai, has announced the first lineup of chefs and restaurants to go into ARIA — the largest of the uber-swanky hotels being constructed there. ARIA will have over 4,000 rooms on 61 floors, and plans to have the following lineup of super swanky chefs and restaurants in its environs (these are, for the most part, as interesting a lineup as we could hope for in our already celebrity-drenched food scene):

Making his Las Vegas debut, Chef Masayoshi Takayama, Chef/owner of Masa and Bar Masa in New York, and a chef who has set the standard for greatness in Japanese cuisine (at least in America), will open Bar Masa, a restaurant divided into two different spaces offering different styles of service and cuisine. In the more casual space, guests will be invited to order from an a la carte menu featuring Chef Masa’s style of modern Japanese cuisine, much like Bar Masa in the Time Warner Center in New York — the only Masa that ELV and mere mortals can afford. The second space, Shaboo, will provide guests with an exclusive (read: much more expensive) dining experience. In spite of the expense, and in spite of the fact that Chef Masa is now franchising himself, ELV is most excited about his coming to the High Mojave Desert.

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