la cave wine & food hideaway

the wynn and encore are some of my favorite properties in las vegas. their elegant styling with classic and luxurious design cues all make for a perfect resort. walking into sw steakhouse with no reservation, i realized i was being too optimistic. reservations is a must at sw — lesson learned. scratching that idea, our dinner plans turned into something more casual but elegant at the same time. la cave at the wynn is a wine bar, tapas bar, and hideaway all in one. i don’t know what a food hideaway is exactly, but that’s what it is. their classic tapas items paired with some interesting wine tastings made for an incredible dinner service. sw steakhouse surely wasn’t on thebackof our minds. we started thngs off with the la cave caesar salad. with the romaine lettuce left whole, we cut into it like a steak. wrapped in the most delectable, yet really salty prosciutto, i was all smiles. mixed all together with their lemon anchovy dressing, the salad was a great ice breaker for our meal. t

this is the only restaurant at wynn & encore that i avoid. it looks amazing, but the dishes and service are uneven at best. it's also the only wynn restaurant where i have sent a dishbackto the kitchen. and, i have given it 2 tries.

excellent. walked in late on a weekend. greeted by a nice lady upfront. mentioned i only wanted a drink, but since the bar was full, they still seated me at a 4 person table. ordered two cognacs, then decided at the last moment to order some food after looking the menu over. the waitress knew the menu well, and she recommended the 3 bean salad with roasted artichokes and an ice wine vinaigrette. it was excellent, and i am tempted to gobackjust to try it again. service was excellent, staff was friendly, food was great, the spirits and wine list was amazing, and the atmosphere inside was great. location was down a long corridor in the wynn away from the loud casino, so the atmosphere was much quieter and reserved than the bars and restaurants inside the casino. overall, it was very classy and nice, but without the pretension in some of the other restaurants. highly recommend.

love the vegan options. chose la cave because like all other wynn restaurants there are great vegan/allergen menu options. i ordered a 'creamy' mushroom tortellini pasta dish that was amazing. my husband ordered the gluten-free salmon with pea shoots and red wine reduction. he hasn't stopped talking about it since. we also enjoyed the thematic wine tasting selections. we chose a regional theme - spain - and were impressed by the variety. i'll bebackto la cave for sure the next time i'm in vegas.

worst birthday dinner ever. last nght i celebrated my 40th birthday at la cave. i found nothing on the website that suggested that it was a tapas only menu, two of my guests left because of this issue. the service was extremely slow. after ordering a bottle of wine and $140.00 worth of tapas. the flavor was very good, especially the mushroom grits, but three of the items we ordered ( the filet, the lambchop, and the stuffed chicken) all came out burnt, the server never camebackto check on us and see how the items were. we waited several minutes before my guests finally got to hungry to wait and ait the chicken and lamb any way.
when the server did finally make it back, i showed him the filet, and he apologized and did have the filet remade. my sister at some point mentioned that it was my birthday and at the end of dinner service i was presented with a small birthday cake which did help heal some of the hurt from the bad service and bad food. until i got the bill. they charged me for a birthday cake that i did not even order. i have been a server for 20 years and work at the tropicana. i have never charged someone for a birthday cake. all in all, the flavor of the food was adequate but the service sucked, and to be presented with a bill for a birthday cake that i didnt even order was the final straw. being a server myself, i still left a 20% tip, even thought it was definately not deserved.

my mother and me were looking for a nice outdoor restaurant to have lunch and we stop at "la cave" since somebody told us it was very nice.
we were very disappointed with the food!! we order 4 different items including small hamburgers, pizza, grilled meat ( $19 for 5 small little slices) .... and i barely could finish my meal! i also order a glass of rose and they charge me $16 for 4 oz. i could not beleive it!!
just to make it short i will never gobackthere!!

an evening at la cave. yesterday, i decided i might as well try out wynn's new tapas bar for late lunch/early dinner. and hey, why not? it's already getting plenty of buzz, and i was already getting mighty hungry.

and thank goodness curiosity got the best of me! i started off with the buttermilk bleu cheese plate, and a lovely wedge of this stinky goodness arrived alongside toasted mini baguette slices and fig jam. for some reason the bread was at room temperature, but that was quickly forgiven when i dove into the heavenly cheese paired with that divine fig jam! (hopefully in the future, they'll make fresh batches of toasted baguette.)

from there, it was onto my pizza... err, "flatbread". i ordered a flatbread with roasted tomatoes, micro mozzarella, and capers, which is essentially a pizza margherita shaped more rectangularly, and with the basil swapped out in favor of the capers. but whatever one wants to call it, one can't deny it's tasty! the roasted tomatoes were sweet and tangy, and the salty capers provided the perfect balance and contrast. the mozzarella melted beautifully, and the crust was soft and pillowy. this definitely makes my "top 10 pizzas in vegas" list!

and of course, what good meal is complete without dessert? i couldn't help myself, i had to try the "american chocolate cake". and trust me, if you're the kind of american who can never get enough chocolate, you'll love this cake! actually, there's a thin layer of cake hidden somewhere in the midst of a beautiful mold of chocolate mousse covered in chocolate ganache. oh, and there's a thin chocolate wafer cookie on the bottom. and oh my, this was so perfectly sweet and smooth and creamy that i had to hold myselfbackfrom licking the plate!

all in all, my first impression of la cave was quite strong. again, my one small quibble was over the toasted baguette, and that can easily be fixed. otherwise, the food was terrific, service was strong, and i'll likely bebacksoon to take full advantage of their wine list!