Loved this restaurant. Beautifully furnished. Nothing about it said "Vegas" except for the views. We arrived 20 min early for dinner and they still seated us immediately. Service was perfect and food was delicious.
Upon being seated, we were delivered warm rosemary bread, coupled with both pesto and freshly churned butter with lemon mascarpone folded in. --I already make my own butter for my homemade breads, but now I'm excited to attempt to recreate the added lemon and mascarpone as well. It was light and silky. Love.
To Start: The roasted beets paired with port soaked pears and goat cheese was divine. It was a feat to keep my husband's fork away from my beet salad. He should have ordered his own instead of his bacon wrapped dates. ;) The dates were good. Spicy and a little sticky. But he could have eaten an entire bowl of my port soaked pears.
Main Entree: Flavorful and very tender short rib braised in Barolo, nestled in polenta, with roasted carrots and pearl onions on the side. It was comfort food at its best. Perfect on a cool desert night.
My husband ordered the Veal Chop and was happy with it, but I loved my short rib more. I took two bites of his. The chop by itself and a bite of chop with the flash fried herbs. The flash fried herbs made the chop. Perhaps I'm biased with the opinion that the short rib was vastly superior. --I was in desperate need of comfort food that night and the veal chop just didn't satisfy enough.
Added Sides: Herb Polenta w/Spicy Sausage. Absolutely loved it. Loved it more than the polenta that accompanied my short rib. I left my own polenta alone and ate the side instead. Loved the herbs and the bites of sausage.
Roasted Fennel.... didn't love. Didn't even like. For being "roasted" there was no caramelization at all. Just white and hard. No flavor. It was the only thing on my plate that made me want to hide it like a 5 yr old would. Or slip it to my pup, but I don't think he'd have eaten it either.
If Giada's was located in Chicago, I'd go there yearly. No doubt. Since my parents live in Vegas and I'll visit regularly, coupled with my dad's love of gambling (too much), I *might* return. I can drag him away from blackjack and maybe back to Giada's. There are so many restaurants I haven't been to though!