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| - My boyfriend and I went out to this restaurant Friday night for dinner and were disappointed. The view is nice, but the décor inside the restaurant looks cheap and cheesy (presented as fancy and elegant). We ordered the shrimp on a stone, calamari, carpaccio, rack of lamb, and crème brulee.
Shrimp on a stone- The generous portion of shrimp was well seasoned, and I enjoyed the horseradish dipping sauce. The presentation was gimmicky and the size of the shrimp leads me to think the shrimp are frozen and not fresh. Nothing wrong with that except the appetizer is $12 and the restaurant puts on an air of fine dinning. I would have preferred a smaller portion of large fresh shrimp with a unique element. Like most of the other food we tried here, this was good but nothing special.
Calamari- The calamari had a nice texture and was well cooked. There were two dipping sauces, a homemade spicy marinara and a sweet sticky sauce (not sure what seasonings were in it). The marinara was not spicy at all and its viscosity was way too thin for dipping. The sweet sauce had a great consistency for dipping, but it was a little too sweet for my taste. A thicker more seasoned marinara or a fun aioli would have been a better pairing.
Carpaccio- I was skeptical ordering carpaccio here because I've had some amazing carpaccio in Las Vegas. It's not fair of me to compare Ventano's carpaccio to, say, Carnevino's (which is amazing). However, I love savoring good raw beef and it is always difficult to pass up carpaccio and steak tartar on a menu. Unfortunately, I could not enjoy the subtleties in the meat and toppings because they overpowered it with mustard (not mustard oil like menu states). The ratio of mustard and capers (and I like capers on carpaccio) to meat was off.
Rack of lamb- We ordered the lamb rare, but it came out medium-rare to medium. It had a nice lamb flavor, but the balsamic sauce poured over it was not the best complement to the lamb. It was served with an assortment of vegetables: miniature squashes, carrots, onioins, celery, and roasted garlic. I love squash, and the whole miniature green and yellow squash were a nice surprise. The celery was a bit out of place, and some of the garlic cloves were under roasted and too firm. However, the garlic cloves that were roasted to sweet perfection complimented the sauce very well. Again, the dish was okay but nothing special, and definitely not reflective of its $26.50 price tag.
Crème brulee- The custard had a wonderful flavor and consistency. They used real vanilla bean and it made a world of a difference. It was a good temperature, and the custard just melted in your mouth. My only complaints here are trivial and often done by even the best restaurants. The crust on top was a little thin and the strawberry pieces on top were not ripe. It is extremely difficult to get ripe berries especially in the middle of the desert. If they put the berries on the custard before sprinkling the sugar and torching it, that would help give the berries more character.
All in all, I would not suggest this restaurant. There are better restaurants in Las Vegas with the same pricing scale. If you are looking for good fine dinning in Henderson, I'd suggest Todd's Unique Dinning. Otherwise, the valley is full of great restaurants more worth your time and money.
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