Ah Rao's. Living in the NYC area we have wondered what the food would be like as the Rao's in the city is hard, if not impossible, to get into. The destination is actually popular as a charity item with a reservation usually going for somewhere on the order of $10,000. Yes, that's a reservation and not the meal which we hear is of low to average cost for something in NYC.
Thus we had to head to Rao's in Las Vegas to see what the food is all about assuming...and hoping...it would be close to the elusive fare closer to our home. One of the dishes in particular that we wanted to try were the meatballs since our high mark on those has become Macaluso's in Miami Beach, FL.
So, how did everything turn out? First, it was fun going to the location. Caesars itself has always been a cut above. I remember from 30 years ago when the buffets were $2.99 at all of the other places and you would go to Caesars and spend the big $7.99 to get something really amazing. Well, at least for my first impression that scale of class still continues as you approach Rao's and see what looks like the facade of the NYC location rebuilt in the middle of the casino on the inside.
Our reservations took us to the back... It started out as a quiet meal but the only downside to the entire experience was an extremely loud table of around 10 guys shouting at each other (describing their volume and not demeanor) for the entire dinner. Oh well... I had a caesar salad -- wow, it was huge! (and good) and a salmon dish for the main entree. The main dish was excellent but what about those meatballs?
Well, I think Macaluso's has a runner in the top competition and the only way to figure out which is best is to do a side by side blind taste test on this one. Instead of trying to actually arrange that somehow I will leave the result for someone else to figure out and simple enjoy the best meatball experience at both places depending on where we are in the country.