Public School has been on my list as a place to try since opening in Downtown Summerlin. When given the chance to dine here on Wednesday, I jumped at the chance to have dinner at the cool spot perched on the second floor of the "Dining Arroyo" at my favorite shopping center in Vegas. Although Public School did provide a unique, modern dining/lounge option with great views, the service and menu fell
short of my expectations.
Upon arriving, we were seated immediately in a comfortable booth. The decor is modern and hip and I was excited about the experience. The server took a while to greet us (I saw him and another server arguing who was taking our table), but when he arrived, was friendly. We ordered a couple of beers and the Hummus as an appetizer. The Hummus was excellent, with fried chick peas on top
And served with excellent grilled flatbread. For
Dinner I ordered the Thai noodle salad and he ordered shrimp and grits. Although I was looking for a cold noodle salad, this one fell short. There was a lot of dressing and the ingredients were just ok. To be fair, the shrimp and grits were supposedly excellent. The beer was also ok, mine being a little hoppy and his not matching his favorite ciders he usually orders.
My gripe with this place is it seems to want to be pretentious and have an elevated menu, but the staff seems unmotivated to convey these ideas to
The guest. I would have loved a better recommendation for my beverage or maybe some ideas on special and unique menu options. Instead, we were asked if we were ready to order and if we wanted dessert, which is cool unless your intentions are to provide a more chef driven casual menu.
P.S. There is nothing worse than opening a menu after arriving at your table and it being stuck together with food and whatever else. This is a particular annoyance at a supposed upscale-casual restaurant with the prices to match.. just saying..