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| - If you're short on time and/or simply not a big fan of the written word, let me start this review with all you really need to know about Mastro's: BUTTER. CAKE. That's it. 5 stars for the best cake I've ever had.
Ok, now on to the merely trifling details.
I made a reservation several weeks in advance as my boyfriend and I were headed to Vegas on Labor Day weekend for his birthday. I requested a table in the "tree house" (I called it the birdcage or something equally gauche) and noted the occasion.
We arrived and were told they were preparing "one of the best tables" in the birdcage--that we could sit at the bar for a few minutes or be seated promptly at another table. Obviously we hit the bar which, it bears noting, is visually interesting with a HUGE inventory of top shelf liquors stacked all the way to the ceiling.
I had the Mastro's Martini--Belvedere vodka with handstuffed blue cheese olives. Sweet jesus. Hands down, best martini I've ever had. Three days later, I'm still thinking about those olives.
Didn't even finish my drink before the hostess, a sweet, bubbly thing, took us to our table. Situated on the perimeter of the birdcage, it was a great table. Yes, it's a mall, so our view included Louis Vuitton and a hoard of assholes who had just evidently exited the Elvis show but, whatever. It's Vegas. Plus, I liked the change-up from the normal casino venue which meant I got non-smoky air for a full 3 hours.
Our meal, start to finish, was fabulous, perhaps only outdone by the impeccably rendered service. A special shout out goes to our main server, Matt, whose plesant demeanor, attentive service and knowledge of the menu (and wine list) were truly something special.
We started with a custom seafood tower. Wanting to save room for the steak, we went modest with 3 shrimp (HUGE), an order of Dungeness crab cocktail (the best cold crab I've ever had) and 1/2 dozen Kumamoto oysters. The dry ice effect and caper berry garnish were nice touches but the star of the tower was the hand grated horseradish. When was the last time you noticed and RAVED about horseradish? Yeah, that's what I thought. I will never buy the jarred stuff again.
Moving on to the main attraction: I went with the 12 oz bone in-filet and boyfriend got the Kansas City. We both preferred mine as it offered a better combination of buttery tenderness and intense meaty flavor. He would do the ribeye if he had to do it over again but he was by no means dissatisfied with his steak.
For sides we selected snap beas, glossed in simple butter, creamed corn ,which mercifully left large kernels of corn intact, and an order of the matchstick fries (sans vinegar).
Two TINY complaints:
(1) Upon seating, we received the "Reserve Wine List" which the BF deemed VERY high priced--not a single bottle under $100. A few things we could buy for $150 at the store were priced at $900 and up. 1000% = excessive mark-up. Nevertheless, he picked a nice bottle of red that he thought was reasonable. When the menu came, about 10 minutes later, the left hand side had an enormous list of wines of the style and prices ($100-200) you'd expect at a standard steakhouse. Would have been nice to have seen that list when we were ordering. Might have been an isolated timing thing but worth pointing out.
(2) Our first order of fries came out and were basically salt sticks. And I LOVE me some salt. I could barely eat these. The manager came by and I made a casual comment about them. He said he'd have the kitchen do a fresh batch but would leave us the salt bombs until the new batch was ready. VERY nice touch, in my opinion. Because of course we kept eating them. Second batch was perfectly seasoned and the manager seemed to recognize that the kitchen can get a little heavy handed with them.
These two missteps in no way took away from how much we enjoyed our experience at Mastro's.
Last but NOT least (since it already got a plug at the outset of this review), Mastro's blew us away with the complimentary butter cake--served on a personalized plate ("Happy Birthday Rob!"). I've since seen some recipes for this cake and I'm really sorry I did. I could hear my arteries clogging as I ate this, but man it was worth it. One of those items where you take a bite, laugh at the insane delectability, take another bite, and chuckle some more. For me, there is no better mark of good food than laughter.
I found the prices high, but totally on par for what I expected in Vegas. And, in fact, to the dollar, the amount we spent on Nobu the night before (with cocktails but no wine).
We'll definitely be coming back here. And will hopefully be seated in Matt's section.
Oh, and the table next to us (3 couples) spent most of the evening talking about bra sizes and dirty Sanchezes. Can't beat that for entertainment.
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