Paul Bartolotta goes there. Rick Moonen goes there. Joe Isidori and David Varley just went, and uber-wine guys Jaime Smith and Ken Fredrickson can’t stay away. In fact every chef and foodie in town is making a pilgrimage these days to an obscure corner of a run-down strip mall that houses this tiny, 30-seat sanctuary of serious robata cooking.

Raku has only been open two months, but it is probably the single most exciting off-Strip restaurant to open in the past two years. And in terms of finely-tuned food, nothing off the Strip can match it.

Chef/owner Mitsuo Endo hails from Megu in New York (the restaurant where we first experienced edamame beans served with the pod still attached to its tree), along with other Japanese delicacies that added up to one of the most expensive meals of our lifetime - around $600 for two if memory serves).

Here you’ll find the tariff much more reasonable. The menu is simplicity itself, and your meal as small or large as you want to make it. We didn’t try the meat guts or Bonito guts pickled in salt, but the Tsukune (grilled ground chicken on a skewer), butter sauteed scallop, bite-size foie gras bowl, pork ear, corn stuffed with potato, whole (headless) Hokke fish (a Japanese mackeral), skewered tomatoes, and meltingly tender kobe beef skewers were so good that most of us were speechless. These are only about half of the plates we tried - but from the portabella (with ground chicken) to the pork cheek - every dish was flawless.

Equally compelling are soy sauces and tofu made in-house, and a wine/sake/sochu list that’s small, well-priced, and perfectly matched to the menu. Some say the Japanese put a finer point on their cuisine than anyone (even the French), and a tour around this menu, with its small plates perfection, will give you an idea what they’re talking about.

RAKU

5030 W. Spring Mountain Rd. #2

Las Vegas, NV 89146

702.367.3511 (although this number seems to be on FAX mode until late afternoon)

Open for dinner only, 6pm-3am, every night except Sunday

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We know what you’re thinking: Nothing screams “economic downturn” like buying a Lamborghini with your linguine.* This may not be possible in whatever burg you hail from, but thankfully, Las Vegas is here to provide these essentials for the rest of us.

Dal Toro Ristorante, the newest offering in the Palazzo, sports “Sexy sports cars and traditional Italian food” and enough high-toned design on each of its three levels to keep Dolce and Gabbana happy. And if 245k (for the aforementioned Lamborghini Gallardo) just isn’t enough carbon footprint for you, there’s a $1,800,000 Bugatti on the premises - for Discover Card holders just itching to spend that government stimulus check.

A level above those sports cars is a mega-cool bar, and some comfortable outdoor seating, and some highly serviceable northern Italian food. The pizzas are reliably thin-crusted and made with good ingredients, and the scampi alla Paprika has some real kick to it. Best of all, the lasagna della Nonna is the real deal; al dente sheets of pasta covering a melange of sausage, ragu, hard boiled eggs, proscuitto cotto, mozzarella and pecorino cheese. The menu says the recipe comes from Chef Fiorenzo Trunzo’s grandmother (”nonna”) and we believe it.

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*The management doesn’t advertise these things (for fear of creating a panic), but if you pay cash for the car, the linguine’s free!

DAL TORO RISTORANTE and Lamborghini Store

In the Palazzo

3325 Las Vegas Blvd. South #200

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.437.9800

He was once the best chef in Vegas. Back when Laurent Tourondel was top toque at Caesar’s Palace (and presiding over the last days of the Palace Court Restaurant from 1996-1998), Vegas had never seen anything like his refined take on French cuisine. Classically trained at Troisgros in Roanne, France, he also experienced immense critical success at the ill-fated Cello in New York, before devoting himself to the more prosaic concerns of building a restaurant empire.

Now he’s two days from opening a 200 seat hamburger restaurant right off the Mirage Casino-in the space formerly home to the famed white tigers of Siegfried and Roy fame - one of whom once tried to make its own burger out of Roy’s face. We’re guessing the cuisine will be a bit less refined than Tourondel’s peekytoe crab soup en gelee (Yup…Nuthin’ gets past EATingLV.com!), but from our sneak peek and taste test of yesterday, the burgers will take you straight back to the classic California Googie diner burgers of the 1950’s, albeit with substantially better beef.

Here’s a preview of the space, and a good look at what goes on in the final hours before the launch of an $8,000,000 burger joint!

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Yellowtail, the Japanese Sushi-Fusion replacement for the (excellent) Japanese restaurant Shintaro that used to be in the space across the hall from FIX Steakhouse that used to be Sam’s American Grill beside what formerly was the LIGHT nightclub that is now The Bank nightclub at The Bellagio is supposed to open next month. Got that?

Once it opens, The Light Group-which owns all three-will complete its Bellagio trifecta, and be firmly on its way towards world domination of overpriced nightclubs and huge, boring restaurants with trendy decors.

Here’s a sneak peek….

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MAINLAND

Palazzo Resort Las Vegas

3327 Las Vegas Blvd. south, Suite 2852

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.739.6462

Any restaurant that serves luscious duck potstickers, superior ramen, pad thai to die for, and fabulous pho, is alright in our book. Mixing in a groovy decor (designed by India Mahdavi) and channeling a Mao-meets-Elvis vibe is also a real plus; as is the techno-retro soundtrack. What really caps this place though, is the fact that it’s the only restaurant in the Palazzo (other than Espressamente Illy), that mere mortals can afford.

Watch for Mainland as our Restaurant of the Week this week on KLAS TV Channel 8.

ESPRESSAMENTE ILLY

In the Palazzo Hotel Shoppes (When they add the “-pes” to the word “shop;” you know they saw you comin’)

3325 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.869.2233

Illy is one of two major coffee chains in Italy; Lavazza is the other. It makes espresso so good it will make you weep. Illy has 150 coffee bars like this one throughout Europe but this one (in the Palazzo) is the first in the United States. Others are planned for Miami and both coasts, but as with fine French food and a myriad of other happenings in the restaurant world these days….Vegas got the first one. Lucky us. No mixes, no blenders, no powders and no C/D’s for sale. ‘Nuff said.

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Pizza lovers rejoice! Settebello, maker of simply the best pizzas in town (and the best pizzas in Salt Lake City and the only ones certified as authentic by Italian authorities as Vera Pizza Napolentana-real Italian pizza), has announced plans to move from its present location at Valle Verde and Horizon Ridge (commonly referred to by EATingLV.com as the middle of bleeping nowhere) to The District II (a slightly more accessible location in the franchise-restaurant wasteland that is Monochrome Valley.)

Rumor also has it that owner Brad Otton and his pizzaiolo Carmine D’Amato (a master of the craft of pizza making), are scouting locations on the west side of town. Hope springs eternal.

Click here to hear my review of Settebello on News 88.9 FM-Nevada Public Radio.

Click here to watch a YouTube video of D’Amato doing what he does best-to a jazzy Italian soundtrack. But don’t blame me if you can’t understand anything; those darn Italians have a different word for everything!

SETTEBELLO

1776 Horizon Ridge Pkwy.

Henderson. NV 89012

702.647.3556

www.settebello.net

DJT

Trump International Hotel

2000 Fashion Show Drive

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.476.7358

DJT in the Trump International, is the most important restaurant to open in town since Guy Savoy flew across the pond in 2006. Unlike Savoy and Joel Robuchon-two culinary masters revered for their art and lifetimes of craftsmanship-DJT has burst upon the scene like a child prodigy at a fancy new piano who rips through Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto without missing a beat. Yes, it is that good.

Credit goes to Executive Chef Joe Isidori and Chef de Cuisine David Varley for aiming for the stars and hitting their target. No food network celebrity, no jet-setting “consultant” chef, no micro-managed tourist-friendly menu; just two young guys cooking finely-tuned food with the best ingredients money can buy. And unlike too many young chefs (and incorrigible piano prodigies), never do they stray into the land of the overwrought or the over-thought.

My two minutes of local media fame is hardly enough to do justice the exquisitely rendered food, but click below to view our Restaurant of the Week on KLAS TV Channel 8 (CBS), featuring DJT.

That’s how my good buddy Lesley Balla Editor of Eaterla.com posts the news of openings and closings and what’s hot and what’s not of restaurants in L.A. that seems to fascinate Los Angelenos more than the food.

Except I ain’t revealing any construction photos or sneak peeks… just facts. Or things that might be facts if they turn out to be true.

Encore, the sister property to the Wynn Hotel and Casino, is going up before our very eyes (right beside the Wynn) and is slated to open at the end of this year.

We have it on good authority (in other words: straight from the rumor mill and mouths of people who know people who like to play Deep Throat to my Bob Woodward, except that we like to meet in well lit restaurants and drink good Burgundies when they’re telling me these things and they’re not old white guys who work for the CIA), that Tableau will be closed to make room for Larry Forgione to open another An American Place tucked into its ritzy corner of the Wynn. FYI: I ate at the original numerous times in the ’80’s and ’90’s, and at the re-born AAP in St. Louis earlier this year, and all meals were fabulous. Forgione (who’s son is Executive Chef at BLT Prime in NYC), is truly one of the godfathers of regional American cooking, so this is great news….but I digress.

Tableau’s chef, the ultra-talented Mark LoRusso (KNPR and KLAS TV’s Chef of the Year for 2007), is getting his own restaurant at Encore (no doubt directly as a result of those ultra-prestigious MAJOR AWARDS being given to him), to be called Botero, after the Columbian sculptor of oversized bronzed booties that have fascinated me fo….now I’m really digressing.

Click here to hear my review of Tableau on News 88.9 FM KNPR-Nevada Public Radio.

Moving along; the ultra high-end joint at Encore is tenatively slated to be called VIP 5 (dumb name that…we’re guessing it’s a working title), and will be Italian and small-sorta like Del Posto without the size and the tackiness(!), and blessedly, without Batali. Chef to be named later.

Finally, Encore looks to mark the return of Sam DeMarco! Those who remember the Bellagio opening of Oct. 1998, may recall Sam’s American Grill-a cool and casual spot that featured his avant-garde take on classic American grub, served in what looked like a Flinstone’s cave.

For some reason known then only to the odious folks running the Bellagio F&B (Food and Beverage-all are gone now), DeMarco’s way-cool food was sent packing after only a year or so. FIX now occupies the space. His main man at Encore will be Billy DeMarco (no relation, no kidding). I have it on good authority (the same ones who told me Big Brown didn’t have what it takes in the Derby), that this joint will be called The Garden Cafe(!?)-is that the lamest name in the history of restaurants or what? Again, we’re guessing/hoping it’s a working title.

Let’s also hope someone wakes up and smells the arabica before the signs are hung on these places….’cuz the kitchen talent deserves better.

Now if anyone doubts the veracity of any or all of this report, I hereby give my special Easterbrook Guarantee*- all predictions true or your money back!

*invented by the tastefully named Gregg Easterbrook-a Brookings Institution Fellow and part-time NFL columnist for ESPN.com

Payard Bistro and Patisserie

Caesars Palace

702.731.7292

The most common questions I get asked about this second job of mine as a world famous restaurant critic are: how does one become a restaurant critic? How many times a week do you eat out? And finally: why aren’t you the size of sperm whale? Well the answers are: It’s a long story, 10 times a week, and I have the metabolism of a hummingbird. I’m hardly svelte, but I like to say I’m not as fat as I could be nor as thin as I should be, and one of the ways I keep from looking like a building with feet is by avoiding (or at least minimizing) my intake of sweets, pastries, cakes and desserts. And that was pretty easy for me, until Francois Payard came to town.

Click here to listen to my current review of Payard Patisserie and Bistro.

Because one of the first things The Food Gal and I do whenever we travel to New York, is to hop a cab to Lexington Avenue on the upper East Side, and immediately tuck ourselves into a tiny table at Payard’s for a generous sampling of superlative pastries. We’ve done this for years, because for years it’s pretty well been acknowledged that Payard is the best pastry chef in America. And as long as he stayed in New York, I could indulge myself with his croissants, pain du chocolat, madeleines, financiers, macaroons or whatever tasty cakes struck my fancy. …because I was only there for a few days and could go nuts without serious waistline consequences. The Food Gal of course never has this problem, because she’s never hungry for the stuff like I am, preferring instead to pick off my plate….which just means that I have to order twice as much.

Unfortunately, for the past 8 months or so, I’ve become vexed, tortured, tempted and tormented, ever since Payard diabolically moved into Caesars Palace and brought all of his French delicacies with him. He even went so far as to hire Gregory Gorreau, the immensely talented pastry chef from MIX, to be his Executive Chef, to further plague and confound my best laid dietary plans.

WORST of all, they decided to open a charming bistro along side their pastry shop….that provokes me morning, noon and night with the best omelette in town, the best quiche in town, the best croque monsieur in town, and a chocolate nutella banana crepe that will make you weep. They also do a pretty spectacular hamburger, and the eggs benedict are nothing to shake a baguette at either. And when you’re done swooning over all of those, there are those pastries and chocolates in the shop next door, calling to you like a siren song of forbidden delights.

Lash me to the mast please! It’s just not right I tell you!…..The best breakfast in town, a stunning lunch and dinner, and the best sweets and baked goods on this side of the Atlantic….something needs to be done about that perfidious Payard, and his henchman Gorreau….because they constantly remind me that I can resist anything except temptation.