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| - ***Alize serves decent though not great French fine dining cuisine and also offers an excellent view of The Strip***
Las Vegas is filled with luxurious items and experiences including many of which like fancy watch stores that may not hold the same stature they did 10 years ago. Another category of luxury in Vegas would be the French fine dining restaurant. It seems top rated and expensive French fine dining restaurants are everywhere, and the classic French dishes are all here in the city from foie gras courses to indulgent soufflés. These French restaurants though, like many experiences in Vegas, have not evolved much. So many of these restaurants have been operating for decades and yet both the décor and the menu remain surprisingly the same, which makes you ponder whether you are enjoying a classic or something that is simply old-fashioned.
Alize is definitely a French restaurant that imbues that grandiose Vegas experience. The menu is full of premium ingredients and the view (56th floor of Palms) immediately makes you think amazing and exclusive. The food at Alize is a mix of mostly traditional though there are a few modern touches throughout to keep things interesting. Overall, the food at Alize is decent but not great. Their cuisine tops several other Vegas French restaurants like The Eifel Tower Restaurant, Aureole and the now closed miX though Alize does not quite measure up to Picasso, Joel Robuchon and L'atelier de Joel Robuchon.
I had their tasting menu, which was not too rich and heavy given the mostly small portions. The tasting menu is a build-your-own experience, and there is a good variety of proteins though I wish there were more vegetables to accompany the proteins. The dinner started with a refreshing chilled cucumber soup that was accompanied with cucumber gelee topped with carrots, pickles, black pepper, and pecans.
I opted for the supplemental caviar course, and while the portion was small, I did like the salty caviar paired with the creamy toasted brioche panna cotta even if the custard was slightly too sweet. The smoked salmon course was dainty, but I really enjoyed all the garnishes like the creamy avocado puree intensified with the use of an acid, salmon roe, fried capers and light potato crisps. The foie gras course featured a buttery and rich seared foie gras though the foie gras was a bit oily and lacking in smoothness of great foie gras I've had elsewhere. I enjoyed the sweet garnishes of blackberry, caramelized peaches, almond streusel, and toasted oat cream.
I was really disappointed with the truffled lobster ravioli. The filling was good, and I was not bothered by the very thick pasta sheet too much, but the porcini consommé, which was a big part of the dish, was incredibly bland. The tea smoked duck breast fared better even if the duck was cut too thin and cooked too long for my taste (the meat was still juicy and tender even though it was gray in color). The garnishes of gai lan, crispy soba noodle cake, ginger confit, and plum sauce were very Asian in inspiration (the duck breast was completed with a seared foie gras on top).
For my main, I was allowed to swap out their on-the-menu meat course with veal wellington, and I thought they did a good job with it. I liked the prosciutto wrapping, and the mushroom duxelles were very well prepared. The puff pastry was good enough, and the black truffle and shallot jus was thick, rich and noticeable in truffle flavor. Like the duck, I did not love the color of the veal, but it was surprisingly moist, tender and seasoned enough.
I did not love their choice of cheese (a run of the mill cow's milk cheese), but I really liked the plating and the garnishes (especially the fennel marmalade) to provide a fine dining cheese experience without the heaviness of a full cheese platter. The chocolate soufflé was very perfectly baked with a lightly crisp cake-like outside and a moist inside. The chocolate sauce was okay though I would have preferred a more contrasting (at least in terms of flavor) vanilla crème anglaise.
Service was quick and good (polite, professional and friendly). Prices are high (whether you go a la carte or with the tasting menu) though the prices are consistent with overly similar French or fine dining restaurants in Vegas. The décor is fine though not memorable with the real selling point being the view.
Alize is a decent French fine dining restaurant and might be somewhat surprising in quality given its location in Palms. It is the kind of old-fashioned and overpriced French fine dining restaurant that would struggle in most cities, but it will probably always have an audience in Las Vegas. It is not a must visit though if you dine in Las Vegas a lot and are a completist, you could definitely do worse.
Palms, like most Las Vegas casinos, offers free self parking.
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