Caramá by Wolfgang Puck — Restaurant in Nevada

We booked a table weeks in advance and the restaurant followed up a few days ahead of time, asking about the occasion, allergies etc. The website painted a picture of a wonderful culinary experience and we were eager to experience this for ourselves.

If you are looking for a five star, world class restaurant, Lupo by Wolfgang Puck is not it.

If you are looking for an intimate setting with attentive staff and white linen, Lupo by Wolfgang Puck is not it.

If you are looking for an upper class experience with food you will dream of for days afterwards, Lupo by Wolfgang Puck is, yup, you guessed it, not it.

So what is it all about then? Well, it is a large restaurant with R&B and pop music blaring over the speakers, waiting staff in cheaply designed blue blazers zipping between tables to give customers the quick runover of the day's specials, before rushing you to get you through the menu and out the door again. There is no dress code, contrary to what you may have read elsewhere. People came in t-shirts and shorts for dinner.

The wine glasses and cutlery are standard issue and not what you would expect from a high class restaurant. And we cannot complain about the table cloth as there weren't none. Oh, and be sure to hang onto your cutlery after appetizers as you will need the same knife and fork for your main meal. In fact, the waiter asked my wife to take her knife and fork out of the Caprese salad dish and hang onto it for the next course.

We had a Caprese salad and the toasted garlic bread for appetizers. Can recommend the garlic bread but the tomatoes in the salad was over ripe and not seasoned. We ordered the Chicken Piccata and Rigatoni pasta with braised beef and pork bolognese sauce for the mains. The chicken was tasty but the bolognese was bland. Both were presented in a way that resembled something you would get from a cheap buffet. No garnish or anything special.

Through the whole meal the appetizer plates were left on the table. We also had to wait a long time for our drinks order which consisted of a glass of prosecco and a beer - not drinks that require a lot of prep time.

We didn't stay for dessert.

Not once did they mention my wife's birthday or say anything about it. Not that they had to, but why ask what the occasion is if you are not going to use the information. It was an overall disappointing experience and not one that we could recommend, unfortunately.

Our ratings would be:

Ambience/Setting - 1/5 Music - 1/5 Service - 3/5 Food -...

A total disaster from start to finish, my fault it went on that long. I arrive a bit early and was quickly seated and seemed quite nice, if a bit loud. My date was still tied up in a meeting so got waters for us both then it took 3 attempts asking our supposedly serving team to get some ice before I final got some. This was when I should have just left but we had agreed to meet there as the menu looked great. So I asked for some bread and olive oil while waiting, was told I had to order and pay for it, totally crazy when you're $100 for a bottle of wine, and the bread wasn't that good. Finally got through the 26 page wine list and found something that sounded nice and not crazy expensive like everything else. Getting the wine again took ages, as did replacement water in interim. My date arrived, we had a glass of wine which was really great, the highlight of the experience for sure. We ordered the meatball appetrizer, she ordered the swordfish and I order a pasta dish. The meatballs came out quick, quite encouraging, looked great and tasted very good but weren't really hot, they had been standing around for a bit hence why they had come out so quick. Throughout this our server never came by to pour wine which we did ourselves and had to flag someone down for more water. After an unacceptable time with no main course we flagged them down for an update. A few minutes later we were told 2 minutes, at which time they said now 7 minutes. That came and went then their excuse was the chef had only noticed the shrimp allergy before serving so was having to redo the swordfish so another 5 minutes by which time we were both starving. When the dishes finally came they looked great but my date was mad and asked to see the manager, at which point the woman that delivered the dishes said she was the manager in a very smug tone. So we told we weren't going to attempt the swordfish as concerned with shrimp contamination and told her to take it away and we just shared the pasta, which was quite good, even if very tainted. We then noticed while there was quite a decent number of server they were all running out like crazy insects with no sense of order or organization. It is an embarrassment to the name of Wolfgang Puck and certainly won't go again, and now less likely to try any of his other restaurants even after previous good...

Lupo is one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants on the famous Vegas Strip. This one is inside the beautiful Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. This complex is massive and we eventually found the restaurant after walking through the casino.

We used our MGM rewards to get buy one get one free entree with the purchase of 2 beverages. Great deal and there's no price limit to the entrées.

We ordered the following entrées: Roasted jidori chicken, grilled escarole, brown-butter piccata sauce Scottish salmon, sicilian eggplant caponata Salmoriglio, fresh herbs

Both dishes were served on a hot plate. The served told us 25 min wait for the chicken. The half chicken was large and had a heavy char on the skin. I would have liked the skin not to be overdone as the burned skin was not edible. The chicken breast however was juicy on the inside and the brown-butter piccata sauce was addictive. My wife wanted to trade her salmon for more of my chicken. The grilled escarole reminded me of chinese nai yu bok choy. The veggies were blanched nicely. Great execution of blending a grilled half chicken with the brown-butter sauce. Only miss was the burnt skin on top.

The salmon had a nice crusty exterior while the inside was moist and fluffy. The salmon was combined with a tomato caponata sauce with Sicilian eggplant and fresh herbs. The veggies cooked through properly and provided a complimentary dish to eat with your salmon.

Both dishes were presented well and we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. The server waa attentive and offered options for appetizers or bread which are not complimentary. We are glad we didn't order appetizers as we would not finish our main entrées.

We were surprised at the end with a complimentary strawberry mousse cake to celebrate our anniversary. If you're looking for a romantic place to have a meal with your significant other, make sure to visit Lupo by...