Click here to read our article entitled: “What’s New In Las Vegas” — published today in John Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet.

Photos: Beverly Poppe

Click here to read today’s review of EL Sombrero in the Las Vegas Weekly, or continue reading after the jump. Fyi: Much to ELV’s relief, the editors of the Weekly have decided to dispense with the awarding of “stars” with these reviews. Whew!

In 1950, five years before Bob Taylor opened his steakhouse in, what was then, the middle of nowhere in northwest Las Vegas, and eight years before the Golden Steer appeared on west Sahara, a man named Clemente Griego opened an unassuming Mexican restaurant in a square, squat little building at 807 Main Street in downtown Las Vegas. Griego had been running the place for fourteen years, when his nephew, Jose E. Aragon joined him at the stoves.

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Photo: Beverly Poppe

Every restaurant in Vegas would be a steakhouse if it could be. Ask any restaurateur on or off The Strip and they will tell you that steaks ’n’ spuds are what sells, and nothing whets a Las Vegas tourist’s appetite like a big plate o’ prime beef. What follows are our top 10 beef emporiums, listed according to the quality of their meat (and the cooking of that meat), how interesting and well-done their nonsteak items are, and the overall restaurant experience you will have when dining in them. These are the best in town (and, by extension, among the best steakhouses in the world). None of them are cheap, because great prime beef isn’t, either. But at any of them, you will get some of the best beef money can buy, and a superb dining experience no matter what you order.

A note about “wet-aged.” There really is no such thing. “Wet-aging” seals the meat in airtight plastic that actually inhibits the aging process. When done right, dry aging tenderizes and intensifies the flavor of the meat. “Wet-aged” is a marketing ploy that chefs like because there’s less shrinkage, and they can therefore make more money on more volume (but less flavor). But by valuing size over substance, they deliver a product that has a serumy/bloody/metallic edge, rather than the naturally tenderized, luscious, mineral-rich, brown-roasted, beefy flavor that true carnivores crave.

Click here for the link to today’s article in the Las Vegas Weekly, or continue reading after the jump.

1. CARNEVINO

The best steak in town? The answer is simple. If you’re a connoisseur of aged beef, order one of the 6-to-8-month-old, dry-aged beauties from Molto Mario’s Italian steakhouse in The Palazzo.

Think 30 days is “aged”? Those are for vegans. Sixty days seems like an old piece of beef to you? A mere tyke. The last one of these ancient porterhouses we had was 260-plus days old and tasted like beef from another planet. The texture is almost ham-like, the flavor like steak infused with some vague, subtle, blue cheese essence. You know you’re eating steer muscle, but it’s beef that has transcended its humble roots and metamorphosed into something ethereal—earthy, funky, silky and soft—with an umami depth charge that lasts a full five minutes after you’ve swallowed a morsel.

Carnevino chef Zach Allen tells us they are the only steakhouse in America aging their beef for this long, and if youvwant one of these “riserva” steaks, you need to call in advance. Those just wanting the second-best steak in town—Carnevino’s 60-day, dry-aged strip or rib-eye—can get one any night of the week, or also at lunch.

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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:

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

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Yes, it’s true food fans, ELV has sold out, capitulated, given in, rolled over, lifted his skirt and is now working for “The Man,” as restaurant critic for the Las Vegas Weekly. (“The Man” in this case is uber-editor Scott Dickensheets — a guy it’s hard to say no to.)

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Cold weather makes us crave hot (as in highly seasoned/spicy) food, and vittles don’t get much more soulfully warming than the cuisine of India.

So we’ve tucked ourselves into a couple of lunches recently at Origin India to see what Kuldeep Singh was whipping up. (more…)

As Dorothy Parker once said of another’s writer’s work: “It was written without fear and without research.”

The story’s title read: VEGAS: 10 Strip restaurants to skip, and contained all the thoughtfulness you would expect from a newspaper prone to headlines like this:

The authors — David Landsel and Andy Wang — purport to tell tourists what famous eateries they should avoid in our humble burg. In no particular order, the authors toss rotten tomatoes at: Guy Savoy, Bouchon, Rao’s, all Wolfgang Puck restaurants, Picasso, Restaurant Charlie, Wazuzu, Beso, Tao, and anything and everything at Mandalay Bay(?).

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Here is the on-line link to Desert Companion magazine: http://issuu.com/philatknpr/docs/desert_companion_2009nov;

Where you can read all about our fifth annual restaurant awards for News 88.9 FM KNPR-Nevada Public Radio.

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The slow, steady decline of a once noble restaurant is hardly something we take pleasure in witnessing. But this week’s story in CityLife about the whys and wherefores of Pamplemousse’s recent tribulations (and its refusal to keep up with the times) is a fascinating study in obliviousness on the part of the owner (who refused to be interviewed), a clueless manager/maitre ‘d, and a poor chef soldiering on against all odds, cooking food that was dated twenty years ago.

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