VEGAS: 10 top tables on the Strip

IN today’s Las Vegas, if you’re not blown away by the food, you just need to stop going to the wrong places.

Like here in New York, it’s easy to get confused and overwhelmed. The choices within a highly concentrated area centered on the Strip are so many and so varied, it can get to be a little much.

Whether you’re a total noob or an old hand, clip and save this Top 10 list for your next visit.

1) BARTOLOTTA RISTORANTE DI MARE

Paul Bartolotta’s Italian seafood and pasta joint at Wynn has been basically ignored by Michelin and is grossly underrated by people who don’t know what they’re walking into (it can be very, very expensive). A James Beard Award for best chef in the Southwest this past year has been a partial vindication, and it’s about time. Bottom line: If you’re looking to blow a few hundred bucks and want to eat some outstanding seafood that was flopping around in the Adriatic Sea a couple of days prior, for the love of God, stop messing around: Book a table (outdoor is best) and go to town.

2) SAGE

It’s impossible to have foreseen this, but Chicago chef Shawn McClain’s contemporary American spot is the most interesting and delicious thing going at CityCenter, a sprawling new complex that sometimes feels like the sequel to a movie nobody liked all that much the first time around. Sage — with its seasonal, farm-to-table and sustainable seafood offerings — is new and different in these parts. And since it makes its home in the newest resort on the Strip, Aria, it has our attention, though the soft-as-butter veal cheeks and perfectly seasoned barramundi didn’t exactly have to send up a flare.

3) JOEL ROBUCHON

The most decorated restaurant in town and the only Michelin three-star in Las Vegas is a safe choice for a pricey night out in a town where pricey nights out can often be questionable value. The decadence begin with the free limo ride for all guests holding a reservation and moves on to the 16-course tasting menu, a relative bargain at $385 a head and crammed with wonderfully fun dishes like roast lobster in green curry, rice pilaf with frog leg fricassee and other dishes that’ll ensure you’ll be rolling out the door at night’s end. There are cheaper tasting menus, but the big one’s the one. Don’t be ashamed to ask for a seventh-inning stretch.

4) BAR MASA/SHABOO

A bigger, more airy version of the Columbus Circle shoebox that had us at “affordable bowl of lobster risotto” is a thing of beauty and definitely the second most interesting thing about the CityCenter complex. But the most exciting part of Masa Takayama’s first Vegas venture is the small hot-pot room on premises. Called Shaboo, it offers an induction into Japanese-style DIY cooking at an eye-popping $500 per person. Maybe play some roulette first.

5) MICHAEL MINA

Bellagio was the first resort that truly put fine dining on the map in Las Vegas, and Michael Mina remains the best place to eat in Bellagio. All the Mina classics are here — there’s even a $108 cookbook tasting menu that includes the chef’s famous lobster pot pie — and the caviar parfaits ($195 to $445) are still the city’s ultimate splurge. And given the San Francisco-based Mina’s relationship with California vineyards, there are often tasting menus based around wine — for less than $150, wine included. The staff here is usually aces, whether you’re at a table of high rollers or a solo diner at the bar.

6) WING LEI

If you want to eat Chinese in Las Vegas, you’re in luck — well, at least if you don’t mind leaving the Strip for a little while. On the Strip, well, that’s another matter — just because every casino has an Asian restaurant doesn’t mean you ought to bother. Wing Lei at Wynn is a different matter: Chef Richard Chen cooks banquet-worthy dishes for Wynn’s Asian client base, which means he’s often entertaining the richest people who happen to be in town on any given night. The five-course Peking duck menu, a deal at $78, is a good introduction to Chen’s food (we adore the Peking duck salad), and the wok-fried Cantonese lobster is a reason to keep coming back.

7) ALEX

Alessandro Stratta is not a flamboyant man, even if his opulent Wynn dining room veers towards the dramatic. His inspired traditional French cooking speaks for itself, though, and critics have been paying attention. After Robuchon, this is one of the most celebrated dining rooms in town, it holds a coveted two-star rating from Michelin. Fun fact: The two restaurants that have really given Wynn its culinary profile — Bartolotta and Alex — are helmed by people with Wisconsin roots. The Bartolotta family name is synonymous with food in Milwaukee; Stratta was born in America’s Dairyland while his father attended business school at UW-Madison.

8) TWIST BY PIERRE GAGNAIRE

The holy trinity of Paris celebrity chefs — Guy Savoy, Joel Robuchon and now, Monsieur Gagnaire himself — now lives in Las Vegas part-time. Could it really be true, all of these guys (whom you can actually catch in town now and then) with restaurants on the same street in the Nevada desert? While the unimaginatively named Twist is just another uninteresting room in the frustratingly stuffy new Mandarin Oriental hotel at CityCenter, there’s a definite buzz on Gagnaire’s intriguing cooking (langoustines five ways!). Even if there wasn’t, it’s Gagnaire, and it’s not all the way over in Paris. What — you’re waiting for an engraved invitation?

9) SIMON

Local nightlife players The Light Group might have been spawning young-skewing restaurants with accessible, smart American food all over the Strip (See: Fix, Stack, Union), but none come close to attaining the cachet (and the setting) of this poolside Palms Place fine-diner, acclaimed for its awesome brunch parties (come for brunch, hang by the pool afterwards) and a favorite of celebrities looking to go out away from the madding crowds a couple of blocks east on the Boulevard proper. We love the bar scene, too. (Hi, Tera Patrick!)

10) SW STEAKHOUSE

Vegas is full of steakhouses, but it’s safe to say you don’t have to look too far beyond this well-done room at Wynn, which boasts the title of top-earning restaurant on property. (It’s said that this is also the top-earning steakhouse in the city as well.) Blissfully straightforward, good service, solid cooking and intensely tasty meats are a winning combo.

Follow David and Andy around town (and the world) on Twitter @davidlandsel and @andywangny