First time experience at the Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace. Decided to try lunch on a Wednesday and thought that it might be a good idea to go in on Tuesday and make a reservation. But once we found out that we would be charged $50 per person if our group of four cancelled after 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday monring we decided to just take our chances and show up as walk ins. ( I mean really, it's Vegas! I won't even be awake until noon so how could I call and cancel before 9:00 a.m.?) Don't know if that would work on a weekend, but we did fine walking in at 1:30 on a Wednesday.
First, the service: wonderful! Attentive without being obtrusive. Friendly without being overly chummy. Obviously a restaurant that puts some time and energy into training the wait staff, which I appreciate.
Next, the food: also wonderful! I had the fixed price lunch menu for $29. You get a choice of one of two appetizers, one of two entrees and the chef's special dessert. Price-wise it's like getting dessert for free. For the appetizer I had the Blue Corn Grilled Duck Pancake which was like a soft taco with shredded duck in the most delicious barbecue sauce I have ever tasted. Buffalo burger for the entree - quite good though a little dry. That's the buffalo meat tho' which is very lean. The dessert was warm chocolate cake which was excellent - not overly sweet, just the taste of good chocolate. And they had great coffee!
My husband had the pork tenderloin sandwich, which he expected to be hot but was served cold. Very tasty though. Two young adults with us had the coffee-rub steak sandwich which was very good - tender meat that was easy to eat sandwhich style and french fries with a slightly spicy seasoning.
The menu has so many interesting sounding dishes that we will certainly be back to try more. I thought the prices were fair for Las Vegas, particularly on the lunch menu - things are a little pricier at dinner. Except for the idea of charging people $50 each for missing a reservation, I thought this was a great restaurant.