California Vegetarian

Our experience at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago, Las Vegas was a mixed bag, and honestly, since I was so excited about going, I cannot say that I’m surprised I was a little disappointed. In general, the food was very good, and eventually the service was good, but things started poorly and given the price, I should not have had to wait for them to catch up.

When George did his searching for vegetarian fine food options in Vegas, Spago was one of two restaurants that made a point of listing vegetarian options on their website. This was the reason that we chose Spago over other names that we recognized from years of following food programming on cable television and reading foodie magazines. You can imagine our shock then when our server, Aaron, appeared less than happy when we asked him what the vegetarian option was for the evening since the menu lacked any clear vegetarian entrée. But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let me back up and tell you a little about our trek to Spago.

Spago is located in The Forum Shops at Caesars.  If you enter through the casino, it is just a few shops into the mall. However, if you enter the Forum Shops from the Strip, as we did, the walk to Spago is pretty long and a bit complicated, and the location seems quite odd for a fine dining restaurant with such a reputation. I expected to instantaneously know the restaurant when we finally arrived at it. Instead, I thought it a casual bar or tratteria when we finally came upon it. It just seemed quite odd to enter a fine dining establishment through a mall. Now, mind you, the mall was full of high-end brands, but given the relaxed nature of the clientele wandering the mall, the restaurant still seemed out of place and failed to command the intention of passersby. The décor lacked any real sophistication, though I was impressed with the one painting which stretched the full length of the dining room, a single work on about a half dozen enormous canvases composed entirely of vertical strips in alternating colors. The artist’s name and numbering of the pieces is visible on the underside of the canvases if you sit in one of the booths, as we did. Unfortunately, I forgot to write it down and the name escapes me now, as I write. We were the first dinner customers to arrive in the dining room; the bar area was full of more casual diners. This may have contributed to my discomfiture at the overall setting of the restaurant.

The tourist environment may also account for a couple issues that I had with our primary server, Aaron. As I already mentioned, he was less than enthusiastic about having our table when he learned that we were vegetarian. This either changed or he hid it better, after I sent him to ask the chef what the kitchen would be willing to do for us. As a side note to this, he initially assumed that I was the only vegetarian at the table, addressing all his comments about ordering the pasta or an appetizer as an entrée directly to me instead of to me and George, while talking to George about their prime rib. When he returned from the chef with an explanation that the chef could prepare a tasting plate for us as an entrée consisting of three of the sides from the regular menu (three menu items minus ‘the protein’) served with a ginger pan fried rice cube and broccollini it was clear that he had figured out that we were both vegetarian.

The second issue that I think was a product of Vegas being a tourist town was Aaron’s assumption that we could not pay for the items we were ordering. He made a point of returning to our table to tell us how much the vegetarian tasting would cost and to point to the cost of the bottle of wine on the menu after we had already placed our order and he had already gone to enter it into their system. We decided to not let his rudeness ruin our meal, assuming that he’d had the unfortunate experience of having an irate customer who was shocked at a price when the bill arrived.

In the end, Aaron ended up doing a decent job, and his support staff was very good. I think that once he did the math and realized that we would not be a cheap table he settled down. The irony at the assumption that vegetarian table equals cheap ticket played out as both the tables next to us arrived after us and left before we’d even been served our entrees. So, let me tell you about the food since it was all very good.

We started with a complimentary amuse bouche made especially for us since the one the chef had mass-produced for the dining room that evening contained meat. It was a caprese of heirloom tomato, green bean, house-made mozzarella, aged balsamic and horseradish.

We continued the heirloom tomato theme with our soup ($19 each). It was excellent! Simple, perfectly seasoned, balanced.

Spago does not put a bread basket on the table, instead, they have a designated bread server wander the dining room with a basket of about a half –dozen different breads. He explains what each variety is and then serves you the one you request. Twice when he returned to our table we took bread. Once I chose a caramelized onion focaccia. The second time, I chose a cracker. George took two pieces of walnut-cherry sourdough.

We each had a baby beet salad with goat cheese, topped with sprouts and a couple slices of orange ($17 each). The orange slices seemed completely unnecessary, but made since given that the dressing was an orange juice and balsamic reduction. We both love beets. So, you’d have to work hard to mess up a beet salad for us, and I’m happy to say that Spago did not mess this one up. Even so, it did not blow us away like the soup had.

Our entrees were the vegetarian tastings ($29 each) I have already written about. They were presented as four servings, each on a small square plate arranged on one large square plate. Two samples included fava beans, which are always a treat given how hard they are to prepare—I simply never make fava beans at home anymore. The ginger pan-fried rice cube was very nice. It was also very sticky. I think both of us found the creamed corn on one of the dishes our favorite.

I mentioned earlier that Aaron made a point of returning to our table to point to the price of the bottle of wine for George before he brought it to open it for us. That bottle of wine was excellent. George chose a Guigal Hermitage. It needed a little time to open up, but once it did, it was very drinkable and complimented the food wonderfully. As a side note, George did have to specifically ask for the bottle to be decanted. Aaron even made a point of telling George that Spago does not decant without request. So, if you choose an older wine, as we did, make sure that you request the decanting, because they will not offer it.

For dessert, I had their Black Mission Fig Tart ($12). It was very nice, built with pistachio frangipane between the crust and the port-glazed figs, all with a dollop of honey mascarpone. I love pistachios and figs. So, the combination was a winner for me, and was not too sweet. However, I can see that the port-glazed figs may be too strong for some diners who are not giant fig fans.

George chose their chocolate soufflé ($14). He said that he really enjoyed it. From the bite I took, I can agree that it was very tasty. They served it was a small scoop of espresso ice cream and their special “10-year” chocolate sauce. When George asked why it was called that, Aaron explained that their chocolatier says that it took her 10 years to perfect the recipe. It was so good that we believed the story. The soufflé itself was quite large. My fig tart was dwarfed by it. We each had a glass of Warres 85 vintage port with dessert.

A brief side note on the dinnerware and another comment on the dining room: both my water glass and one of the plates from my tasting sampler were chipped. This seems a picky observation, but given the amount of money that we spent at Spago, I was surprised to see so little attention to detail that two pieces of dinnerware could make it to my table with chips in them. When we left a made appoint of telling Aaron that they needed to dispose of the water glass because the chip on the glass was enough to have constituted a danger to a customer’s lip. My last annoyance with Spago was the location of the restrooms in relation to the restaurant’s storage of extra seating. George and I both wanted to stop in the restrooms before we exited the restaurant after finishing our meals. We were directed up the stairs on the side of the dining room. Once we were at the top of the stairs, we had to be directed further by two other customers who were relaxing on a randomly placed couch watching an American football game, I believe. The landing at the top of the stairs which held this couch, as also a make-shift storage area for extra dining chairs. Past the television screen were a handful of additional tables that had views over the rest of the dining room. As I past this odd décor, I felt like George and I had accidentally entered a backroom restricted area. The chair storage and the chipped dinnerware were really out of line with the fine dining experience which was reflected in the food and definitely in the price of the food.

When we had finished in the restrooms and made our way back down to the restaurant entrance, the host was very helpful in walking us to the escalator where we would be able to hail a cab to take us back to our hotel.

In the end, Spago, Las Vegas was vegetarian friendly, and I believe that meat-eaters would also find food that they would enjoy. George and I had a great time together at Spago, but then again, we have a great time together eating at Taco Bell. The odd combination of tastelessness (from Aaron’s assumptions that we would not be able to pay our bill, to chipped plates and glasses, to a restroom located through chair storage) and the very nice food was irreconcilable. I do not know if Spago, which claims to be the restaurant that started the foodie trend in Vegas, has just become complacent, or if their regular clientele simply does not care about true fine dining.  Maybe most of the people who dine at Spago wander in from the mall and so really do need to have the prices pointed to on the menu, and maybe very few customers purchase more than an entrée. If all you care about is food, and you find yourself in Vegas with a lot of money to spend on food, you should give Spago a try. If you want a fine dining experience that covers all the bases and does so happily from the moment they learn that you are vegetarian, you may want to skip Spago. I am not sure right now if George and I will return to Spago if we find ourselves in Las Vegas again.