We just had an excellent meal at Giada DeLaurentis's new restaurant at The Cromwell in Vegas. Reservations strongly recommended. This was the first time I had been in the Cromwell since the transformation from Bill's. Parking is a little confusing, since you need to enter valet either by turning left from Las Vegas Blvd. toward the Flamingo or right into Linq Ave. from Flamingo still heading toward the Flamingo, but then you pass the Flamingo Valet and head toward the Cromwell but some signs seem to say 'do not enter.' IThere is no self parking.
Giada's has a tasting menu with four courses for $120 per person, but our group of 6 decided we would be better off ordering from the menu. They do have big appetizer sample platters, so we ordered one large and one medium which was plenty for 6 people. They both contained a variety of appetizers. If you want to order just one, the pea pod crostinis are exceptional, and the calamari not so much. The excellent serving staff also brought delicious bread sampler with 6 kinds of spreads, and rosemary bread when paired with the lemon butter was outstanding. Then our group ordered various salads, soups, and pastas for the next course, and a "main" course. Giada likes to use lemons, but forget about ordering Giada's signature lemon spaghetti, which is too dry and doesn't taste very lemony. Instead order the outstanding lobster ravioli which has big pieces of lobster and a delicious lemon sauce. Some of us had the gorgonzola salad and loved it. The salmon and the lamb main courses were also notable.
Then came desert, with a big desert cart. The banana gelato was fantastic, but don't put the pine nuts on, they destroyed the banana flavor and gave a bad after taste. The polenta cake has gotten the most praise and was excellent. There were many more selections, and they were not common deserts, thankfully.
The service was excellent, though maybe they have too many servers and there was a little confusion as to who to ask if we needed something. The restaurant is on the second floor of the Cromwell, and is beautiful but sort of oddly laid out with a strangely large bar and lounge area, and we noticed a lot of people eating in those seats, perhaps because they hadn't made reservations. There is a view of the strip and the Bellagio fountain, but because of the odd layout there weren't as many window seats as I expected. As we left I noticed a door near the elevator (which is about mid casino, and a longish walk from the escalator), which opened onto a large unfinished area in the old parking garage part of the hotel. I wonder if they will use it for another restaurant eventually or an expansion for the very busy Giada's?
The glassware and dishes were very beautiful as well, making for a nice presentation of the food. The seats around the tables were unusually plush -- the nicest seats ever for a restaurant.
The prices are moderately expensive, not super expensive like some name restaurants. In fact our group of 6 paid $760, which included tax and added in 18% gratutity. We didn't have much alcohol, just one $99 bottle of wine and 2 glasses of wine. But we were surprised the bill was that low. As we examined it, we noticed no deserts, and when we asked the waiter he said hey had taken care of them. -- I don't know why. Had they just forgotten to add them to the bill or was it because I told a server that the banana ice cream was better without the pine nuts (I wasn't complaining, just giving them a point if information for future use)? -- odd. After we left I wondered if they might have left off a couple of other items too -- several of us had gotten raspberry tea (which was exceptionally good) and maybe only 1 was listed (? Not sure, I didn't really study the bill all that much). Refills were free. Maybe because they are new there are more mistakes than usual, and in this case they were to our favor, I don't know, but definitely check your bill here.
All in all, all 6 of us thought it was an excellent meal. And we left stuffed and happy.
Posted by: Misscraps <misscraps@aol.com>
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