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| - Sometimes the greatest triumphs are born from disasters, and our visit to Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill at Caesars Palace was no exception. This review's a bit long, but trust me, it really hits its stride around paragraph eight.
My girlfriend and I wandered into the restaurant on Saturday, March 7th, lured in by a sign at the entrance advertising some pretty appealing happy hour deals. The deals were so enticing that we failed to notice the not-so-fine print indicating happy hour only occurred M-F. Oh well.
We approached the host stand and were immediately greeted warmly by Randy Goldich, who we came to find out later is Bar Manager for GRP&G. Randy was a great host and was incredibly accommodating upon learning that my girlfriend was not only vegetarian, but also allergic to wheat. He brought us a gluten-free menu and even gave us happy hour pricing on our Angry Orchard cider/Fireball shot combos (also known as Angry Balls...you gotta try). And that's where things started to fall apart...
I ordered the fish and chips, and the GF ordered the vegetarian blah blah whatever sandwich with gluten free bread. The food didn't arrive until the Angry Balls had already done a number on us, so we were ravenous. As I stuffed my face with fish I couldn't help but notice that my GF's gluten-free bread looked remarkably like...bread. We called our waitress Nini over, and she was incredibly apologetic and immediately took the sandwich back to the kitchen.
As we waited for the sandwich to be fixed, two more ciders were mistakenly delivered to our table (not a complaint), and suddenly it felt like we were in a rotating restaurant. But boy did we make friends with all the staff! We met waiter Marvin, who recently won Caesars employee of the year, and yukked it up with Tom Tom (or was it Ray Ray?), their award winning mixologist. We were practically falling off our stools by the time the replacement sandwich came, but it finally did: a beautiful vegetarian, gluten-free sandwich wrapped in lettuce and filled with...chicken.
By this time I was forced to relinquish my own hand-cut fries (apparently they call them "chips" in Vegas) due to the girlfriend's voracious state, and the potatoes did a good enough job of soaking up the fermented apple juice that we were ready to call it an afternoon. Randy was apparently tied up in the kitchen, so manager Michelle came by the table and let us know that our meal was free. She also sent us off with the correct order in a to-go container, 2 1/2 hours after we had initially arrived for a light lunch.
Less than an hour after leaving the restaurant, I received a call on my cell phone from Randy, who apologized profusely and invited us back for dinner the following night as his guests. I was initially shocked as to how Randy had gotten my number, but then the GF reminded me of my tendency to hand out business cards to everyone I talk to after imbibing a few cocktails.
To say we were shocked at his offer would be an understatement. We're not high-rollers; we're not even the lint in Dean Martin's belly button. But if there was anything that we learned after chatting with our boy Randy, it's that the man takes a genuine vested interest in his customers' happiness. It's not about Yelp reviews or who can tip the most; it's about making every guest feel like they had a remarkable experience. It's an old-school approach to service and building customer relationships that seems to be lost on so many that work in hospitality nowadays. So obviously, we took him up on his offer for dinner.
We returned at 9:30 the following evening and came to figure out that even though Randy's scheduled shift had ended several hours earlier, he made it a point to stay until we were seated and served the meals we ordered. He put us under the tender loving care of waiter Roger, and introduced us to season 12 winner of Hell's Kitchen Scott Commings, who can whip up a meatless wedge salad like you wouldn't believe. Even after we declined dessert, Roger still brought us every single gluten-free dessert option on the menu! It turns out that vanilla ice cream was really the only option that fit the criteria, but we were impressed nonetheless.
After two experiences in two days with GRP&G, I was left with two very distinct lasting impressions: 1) Randy Goldich is a pretty incredible guy, and he and his staff will apparently do whatever it takes to make their guests happy, and 2) this is definitely the most awesome thing that has ever come from dating a gluten-free vegetarian. Because of our experience, we actively look forward to visiting Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill next time we visit Las Vegas.
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