During a recent trip to Vegas, I was looking for a bit of a respite from the "ding ding ding" of the slot machines and found Pinot Brasserie. Located between the Palazzo and Venetian hotels(on the concourse that joins the two) Pinot Brasserie had all the makings for a great night out but fell short when it came to the level of service but the food was spot on.
First of all, the bar. We sat at the bar and tried to get a drink. The bartender was busy wiping glassware and talking to one of the servers. Hello? We're here AND we have a show to get to so we were on a bit of a timeline.
When we finally got served, the service was functional but certainly not personable or friendly. Maybe the bartender was going for the "French aloof" affect- but he couldn't pull off anything other than disinterested.
We were seated in the corner of the restaurant at the perfect table. In looking around it was clear the care that went into picking out the interior of the space. Word has it that celebrity chef Joachim Splichal actually went to France to pick out several of the pieces. True or not- the ambiance is delightful as you are able to sit in these intimate little rooms like being in someones home.
Unfortunately, our server seemed to have the same attitude as the bartender. We also told her we had a show to get to and she just shrugged and said she would try to hurry up the kitchen. Now just so you have all the facts- the show was at 9 and we were in the restaurant at our table at 7 so I really didn't think this was going o be a problem.
But the star of the evening was the food. We started with the Lobster Bisque. Absolutely decadent and delicious! For my entree- I went with the black cod served over a bed of tomato pasta. Perfectly done and also delicious. How could the kitchen turn out such great food only to be served by servers who really didn't care, I wondered?
Dinner for 3 ran about $300 including cocktails. And did we make the show? Yep, with about 30 minutes to spare.
The food was terrific, the ambiance delightful. Too bad they couldn't have servers that matched the rest of the place. For if they did- this certainly would have been a 4 star review.