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| - Before planning my trip to Vegas I had actually looked pretty thoroughly for somewhere that did an all beef tasting menu, because I figured if anywhere would have one it would be the land of steakhouses and extravagance. My searches yielded no results, and so I made several other dinner plans for this extended weekend trip. I wound up canceling all of those dinner plans because my friends just weren't interested in dining at ex-Michelin starred restaurants, and fortunately wound up stumbling into the beef tasting menu that I had been searching for, here at Carnevino. Sometimes in Vegas you actually do get lucky...although like everything else in this city our last dinner wasn't all it seemed from the surface.
Italian and steakhouse might not generally be two genres you expect to sensibly coexist, but I recall one of the better steaks I've ever had coming from a little Italian place in Fort Worth called Nonna Tata (http://www.yelp.com/biz/nonna-tata-fort-worth#hrid:rGS0dYxxgDOEN_H6QeMAig), so when I found out this place was owned by the celebrity chef Mario Batali I had rather high expectations. Overall I thought all of the food was good, and the service was excellent, but I honestly found some of it just a bit uninspired, and maybe that's because the menu hasn't changed at all since Gregg M and Carol W were here more than a year ago, except for a different dessert, which was easily the most forgettable course. Also, considering the prices here ($120 for the tasting) and relatively small portion size per course I would have expected a much higher quality grade of beef to be used.
The first course was a Wagyu beef crudo with coriander, saffron, and fennel piled generously in the middle, and was the only course to feature what most people would consider elite farmed beef. The fact that this was about 1 ounce of actual meat, uncooked, per person certainly left me desiring a bit more. Given that, the flavor of the raw beef was outstanding, and the fennel added a delicious pop, although if the saffron was there I didn't notice it.
Up next was actually a delicious pasta course, beef cheek ravioli with Aceto's 20 year aged balsamic vinegar drizzled over it, along with a bit of shaved parmesan. This really highlighted the Italian side of the cookery at Carnevino more than any other dish, and both the pasta and meat were done perfectly. The rich flavor from the mature balsamic was an outstanding addition.
For our third course we were given the first of a contrasting pair of sliced steaks, this one being wet aged Piemontese beef, served over spinach and garlic and topped with a fried quail egg. For me, this was the superior of the two offerings, due to the moistness of the steak and the additional textural enhancement of the quail egg. Meat and yolk together are really sublime, and this was just a bit more pleasurable to eat.
The second steak in the duo was dry aged "BBL" beef, drizzled with Bernaise sauce and served with a lobster and potato hash. Firstly, let me address this BBL beef moniker, because I believe it's quite important. This is something they've essentially made up, and claimed that it's better than USDA Prime beef, in addition to being hormone and antiobiotic free. Google BBL beef and all you get are references back to Carnevino...shady. There is nobody verifying the quality of these steaks other than Mario and Joe (Bastianich) supposedly, and you know they're not actually in the kitchen here. How did it taste? It was good, sure, but for this price I want some sort of credibility besides your own word (which again, they aren't in the kitchen doing the work). The lobster and potato hash however was fantastic, and I could easily eat a larger portion of this as an entrée.
As I mentioned earlier, dessert was a relatively simple and mostly boring goat's milk panna cotta, with "market" berries. I'm guessing the market in Las Vegas never really changes, since no real produce comes from here. This time around it was strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and I'm guessing if you come back 3 years from now and in December it will still be the same damn berries.
The final verdict? Good food with totally unjustified prices. I think the most reasonable thing we got was the $300 bottle of Quintessa to pair with the steaks. Someone needs to come in and shake this place up a bit, as it currently seems like a shell of a great restaurant looking for some spirit to fill in the rest.
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