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| - 3.5 stars. I told myself I would write more reviews for this last foray to my favorite city, but writing a review for Giada is tough. There are equal amounts of pluses and minuses in my mind....and the fact that Giada DeLaurentis is my fantasy woman (don't tell the wife) makes this review especially difficult, but here goes.
You need to make reservations well ahead of time. Right now, this restaurant seems to be the hottest thing around and even calling a month ahead only got us a 10:15 p.m. reservation.
The Cromwell seems nicely redone. Leaving our taxi, we walked through the casino to the escalator leading straight up to Giada. It was bustling even at 10:00. While we waited, we took advantage of her photo booth-a definite thumbs up!
The restaurant, like the woman, is beautiful and so......tasteful. Should we expect less? Our table gave us a partial view of Caesar's and the Bellagio. Clientele were well dressed except for one party of 4 dudes in shorts, jerseys, and baseball caps worn backwards.
Giada opened her windows, letting in the cool fall air. Good in theory, but a few things worked against the ambience. First of all, the restaurant was a bit noisy considering the beautiful people dining....ahem. On this night, sirens cut through the restaurant every few minutes. (We found out later that a distubance had occurred downtown.)
Our waiter seemed to know his stuff and had a wry demeanor I liked. The problem was his timing was not in synch with ours. For instance, he was ready to take our drink orders when we were still deciding between a red or a white to go along with our food. When we decided, he was gone. I know we could have used the iPad, but neither the wife nor I could get it to go where we wanted it. In general, everything was a little slow....ordering, drinks, food, coffee, check. We were always waiting......
The food was perplexing. Servings were small, but ingredients were quality. Tastes were innovative, but not necessarily what I wanted. For instance, I imagined the Crispy Oysters Rockefellers would be spinachy, cheesy, and bacony, with a rich sauce that I thought would be crisped up somehow. (My vocabulary is growing!) Now maybe I'm wrong, but although the oysters were fresh, they were cooked in what tasted like a mignonette sauce (wine vinegar). I think the crispy part was the bacon. So it was refreshing and different, but not what I was looking for.
The same thing happened with her spaghetti with shrimp. I wasn't expecting that much lemon so the first bite surprised me. The rich. cheesy pasta needs to be eaten hot. It grew on me as I ate and while you might think there isn't enough shrimp, they are quite large and cooked perfectly.
I should have asked more questions about each dish.....at least then I wouldn't have been off balance so much. I would give the food 4 stars, but service gets only 3 stars for all the waiting......I still love you, Giada.......
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