Mother Wolf Las Vegas — Restaurant in Las Vegas

If you care what celebrities are wearing to an awards ceremony or you and your fellow diners order things like a "double decaffeinated, half caf, with a twist of lemon" to outdo each other or you've never had truly good Italian food prepared by an actual Italian then you may be one of the people who would actually like this place. The ambiance is nice, but that is about it.

For appetizers we had the Ruchetta salad which was ok and the Margherita pizza which would have been good since it wasn't burned like we saw in so many pictures, but after eating only 2 slices our server cleared the plate for the next course and, even though we said we wanted to take the remainder of the pizza, we never saw it again. For the pasta course we asked about the possibility of a pasta substitution, but were told that "chef" feels only rigatoni could be used for the dish - so no. That's laughable - I doubt any "chef" was anywhere near this kitchen the night we dined. We had the Linguine Limon and Rigatoni All'Amatriciana and while these were just ok also note that these are not entrée sized portions. You would not even want an entrée sized portion of the Linguine Limon - a taste or two would be sufficient and then the constant lemon tartness becomes unenjoyable. The All'Amatriciana was very dry.

The worst was the Tagliata Di Manzo. Because we saw so many reviews about this dish being overcooked we ordered medium rare and what we were served was a tad to the right of raw. I put two slices on my plate and tried to cut through them and couldn't as this was far from a delicious ribeye and was tough and stringy and sure to get stuck in your teeth. For meats, all I ever order is ribeye so I am very familiar with this cut and ribeye cap should be a notch above and instead what we were served for $78 would have been like trying to chew rubber bands. The server agreed that the meat was inedible/undercooked and shouldn't have been brought to our table by the food runner. She offered to take it back to the kitchen - something I never do and never should have to do. Then like some Monty Python bit the busser quickly cleared the table, including my plate taking about $20 of the inedible meat with it, and instead of the kitchen preparing a complete fresh serving of Tagliata Di Manzo to replace the inedible meat unbelievably they brought back only the now remaining pathetically small few pieces that had just been cooked further. What a joke.

As far as service goes overall they were ridiculously aggressive in trying to clear plates while we were still eating which was very annoying. This Mother Wolf experience seemed like an amateur operation.

So we didn't care for the pretentiousness and felt that if "chef" was actually present he should be more focused on selecting quality meat, preparing it properly, making sure it doesn't leave the kitchen until it is right, re-making dishes completely and properly if mistakes are made, training wait staff, training food runners, training bussers, and maybe even consider being a little flexible. Read some of the other one star reviews for the Las Vegas and LA locations and you'll see many with common themes and similar concerns. For a bill that was almost $300 with drinks and tip for a salad, two slices of the pizza and a couple small pasta dishes this was a real disappointment. Even Maggiano's down the street would have been a much better choice where there is a nice atmosphere overlooking the strip, no pretentiousness, every entrée is prepared with consistently excellent quality, modifications are gladly accommodated, huge portion sizes, reasonable prices, and they don't keep your leftovers! Sadly, this pretentious overpriced big bad wolf took our money, ruined any enjoyment of our meal, didn't make it right and as an added insult even kept our pizza. Would not return and would...

The vibe of this place is stunning, I was looking forward to a wonderful celebratory meal and left with bewilderment and disappointment.

To start, we got sat 15 minutes past our reservation. Understandable if you're busy, however, after being sat ( mind you in the bar lounge, with a reservation made a month in advance ), we noticed plenty of open tables. To touch on my parenthesis, I find it extremely rude to seat a reservation with special occasion notes in the loud bar lounge without asking when there's open seats available. Regardless, as we're being sat, the hostess had to put her lipstick on before she could take us to our table, very unprofessional to stop what you're doing for that and right in front of us, on top of making us wait past our time.

We got sat with the most unpleasant human being in the service industry. Tuni, I hope you were just having a bad day, but either way, your service was atrocious, and your nasty attitude should be left behind the bar. Right from the jump, the attitude started, and I was hoping my pleasantries would lighten your vibe, but clearly not. When asking for a suggestion on a more refreshing, lighter, maybe more sweet drink, I got the response of " I can make anything sweet." I was looking for balance, something not so spirited forward, and the descriptions all seemed very heavy. So with that, I received the same response 2 more times until I just ordered whatever. Drinks come out and low and behold, my spouses beverage was exactly what should've been pointed out to me. I can drink liquor on the rocks just fine, but if we're being served by one of the bartenders on duty, don't you think you should know how to explain your drinks ? That was your opening to guide me through your beverages, you know, like steps of service ......

We ordered Tartare, pizza, and pasta. Tartare bread wasn't great, it was pizza dough, no flavor and burnt, tartare itself was okay. The pizza was the spicy one, claimed to have a few different meats. I only counted one. It was a good flavor but soggy center pizza. The pasta we got was the shortrib ragu, no flavor, just shredded short rib and noodles. I was so disappointed, a missed opportunity for something incredible. We also found a foreign object in our ragu while eating. As we were examining it, the server noticed and offered to "double check with the chef that it's just fat." Before we could say no, he was gone. To be clear, fat breaks down in the cooking process, and it definitely wasn't fat. I've cooked shortribs hundreds of times, and that was not fat. After chewing on it, I was completely turned off from the meal. After more contemplation, it was probably tendon or something similar from the cow. Regardless, the way that was handled was very awful. I don't need you telling me 5 times it was fat when it clearly wasn't, and it already ruined my meal. Don't gaslight the guest assuming they don't know anything. I wasn't expecting nor wanting any compensation. An apology would've sufficed, not once did we receive one. We disregarded the dessert menu thrown on our table and paid our check. You deserved 0 dollar tip, but we aren't jerks and still tipped you. I couldn't wait to get out of there, I was so disappointed and frankly shocked at what we experienced.

Overall, this is a tourist trap. Food was mediocre for the hype around it, and service was the worst we've ever experienced. We made sure to let our friends know as they had prior reservations they soon canceled after hearing our experience.

I would recommend local Italian spots in Vegas. The small businesses actually...

Overall: 4.4/5 [dine in]

I came here for my birthday dinner celebration. The ambiance is nice, and our table, though set for 6, worked well for our party of four. It allowed us to enjoy our conversations without overhearing others, and the extra spaces was needed for all the food that we ordered.

Our server, Tyler, provided outstanding service. Since it was our first visit, he shared some history about the chef and restaurant which was cool to hear about. He recommended sharing family-style and ordering 5-6 dishes. The menu titles were all in Italian so Tyler guided us through each section.

The restrooms were only labeled in Italian with no symbols on the doors, making it tricky to tell which was for guys vs girls. Luckily a girl walked out from the restroom after a few seconds of trying to figure it out so we went through there.

Dishes We Tried:

Sfincione ($12): This is Chef Evan Funke's signature focaccia with sea salt, extra virgin olive oil, and origano selvatico. This was perfect crispy outside and soft like a cloud on the inside. A must try for for bread lovers; I can see why this is highly recommended.

Polpette Di Coda ($31): This appetizer came with 5 crispy short rib meatballs, sugo di pomodoro, & pecorino romano DOP. I thought it was okay in terms of flavor but wasn't a huge fan of the texture since the meat was shredded rather than minced. Tyler recommended dipping the focaccia in the sauce which was a great idea, though I wouldn't reorder this again.

Gamberi In Salsa Verde ($39): This appetizer came with 5 blue prawns & green garlic salsa verde. The blue prawns were good & juicy, and that salsa verde was so delicious, we poured the sauce on other things like our focaccia or pasta.

Funghi Pizza ($38): A 13" flat crust pizza topped with wild & cultivated mushrooms, scamorza, taleggio, parmigiano reggiano, and erbe aromatiche. While the toppings were flavorful, the wild & cultivated mushrooms was overpwoering for me; I had better funghi pizza elsewhere.

Linguine Alle Vongole ($45): This white sauce pasta came with manila clams, aglio, olio, peperoncino, & vino bianco. I do not eat clams so I'm biased when I'm saying I didn't like this dish. However, the clam didn't have a chewy texture or a strong sea smell/taste so that was a plus. The pasta had a subtle clam flavor so I mixed the green salsa verde in which helped for my taste.

Scottadito Di Agnello ($70): These are Australian lamb rib chops & peperonata salsa verde. These typically come with 3 lamb rib chops but Tyler said he will add another one since there were 4 of us. (We didn't even have to ask!) The lamb rib chops were good but had a bit of a gamey taste still.

Cocktails We Tried ($21):

Dea Vesta: This cocktail is made of butterfly pea flower infused el tesoro tequila blanco, orgeat, & lavender. Strong and not too sweet - our favorite of the night.

SPQR: This cocktail is made of hazelnut woodford reserve bourbon, frangelico, and angostura. Smooth, not too bold, but just okay.

Ceres: This cocktail is made of del maguey mezcal, campari, and pomegranate. It has a beautiful red color with a citrus-forward taste.

After our meal, they brought out a birthday dessert for us. It was like a lemon mousse that wasn't too sweet. The flowers on top gave a fall vibe and they tasted pretty good for flowers. Overall, we had a good dining experience but there was nothing impressionable that made us want...