Last night we dined at one of the best known chefs in America, Bobby flay who owns a number of restaurants around the country. The Mesa Grill,located at Caesars Palace and the restaurant is a vibrant and busy place so bookings are essential.
We had previously made a reservation and only had a short wait once we arrived at the restaurant. Our table was small and extremely close to the tables next, in fact my wife sitting on the opposite side of the table was further away than the two sitting at the next table on either side, this was disappointing. I told the waiter I wasn’t happy with this arrangement and asked to move, they told me all tables are like this.
Our waiter offered water in a jug or bottled water, which was a surprise as there was no up-selling the bottle water, however the water was pleasant and wasn’t full of chlorine like in the hotel.
We ordered a bottle of local Californian wine at $48 which was average. The wine list wasn’t too extensive, but as any restaurant, they are overpriced and under rated. There were only a few cocktails and from looking at some of the other tables who ordered them, they looked boring.
From the menu, we selected one appetizer, Tiger shrimp with Roasted garlic corn tamale along with Corn and cilantro sauce @ $16. The shrimp was cooked perfectly, however the tamale was a little dry and it should have something like tomato to break the flavor, also there was only 4 shrimp on the plate.
For our Entre, we selected the Mango spice crusted Tuna steak with green peppercorn , green chile sauce, toasted pine nut cous cous @ $38. The tuna was cooked to perfection and the flavors were all there, however it needed a punch which it didn’t have.
Our second choice was pan seared wild striped bass (substituted with Halibut) a with roasted yellow pepper grits and yellow pepper romesco @ $36. Now this dish was something else, the fish was cooked again to perfection and it also had the right flavor combination which also had that kick I was after.
Each of the dishes don’t come with any sides and have to be ordered extra which makes the dish a little expensive.
The dessert menu wasn’t extensive and very appealing at all. Mexican chocolate pudding with gingersnap crumble, Deep dish banana cream pie with praline wafer + hazelnut brittle, Pear buttermilk upside down cake with butterscotch sauce + autumn – spiced ice cream, Red grape + apple pot pie with caramel apple ice cream, Toasted coconut layer cake with coconut cream sauce and finally Churros. As I am diabetic I asked the waiter for a substitute in which he offered coconut sorbet. Bron had the Churros which she said wasn’t as good as she could get back home.
Overall, the atmosphere was pleasant, but the tables were way too close and conversations on each table could be heard.
The food was good, but not exceptional. As always in America, the service was exceptional.
The Bill was $176 in total + tip.