La Cave Wine and Food Hideaway — Restaurant in Paradise

I hate that I’m doing this because I was SO excited to eat here. First of all, I was in the back room next to a long table where the water station was. I was alone. My waiter came finally and brought a water. I didn’t see him often. I got the pastry b a croissant which looked good but was dry and came with no butter or jelly. And a dry blue berry muffin I did eat top of. Then the waiting began. I had 4-5 serves walk right past me (was wasn’t far from Kitchen just on other side of bar). I guess since I was alone I was easy to ignore. I finally got offered yogurt and fruit. The fruit was amazing. Yogurt good. Standard. Granola fruit. Then waiting. And waiting. Finally, embarrassingly, I had to call for my waiter to ask if I could go in the sunny room since I felt that’s where the food was going. He said he’d talk to the chef. I got a piece of tomato flatbread that was truly delicious and the only hot thing besides tater tots I got. The waiter brought me the tater tots. I was never offered everything on menu. Not even close. I got a cold burger. It was ok. Better I’m sure if hot. I thought it had caramelized onions but mine didn’t. It would have been way tasty warm. But it wasn’t even warm. Eggs came out. They were ok but needed a toast piece with it. Something besides just a bowl of eggs. I was getting things so randomly that I couldn’t mash it up. I never got braised short rib. I wasn’t offered the quail egg flatbread, tomato caprese and I’m sure others. I had to flag down for almost anything I got. They just kept walking past me and I was on an aisle. It was so I comfortable. I had to request a refill of water. The eggs Benedict.::my fave but not this. The meat had a precooked taste. Very well done. And of course it was cold or maybe like warm. Which with Benedict’s is off putting. I asked for the NY sandwich several times and I got one. It was good but this was beyond cold. Cold. Cold. Not even like warm. Truffle grits were pretty amazing. Almost lien creamy potatoes. I’m not a fan of truffles (I know I’m weird) but this was delicate enough that it didn’t make me shudder. I could only eat a little due to richness. This would have been good served with the short rib to dip in.

Bacon. Yall…can you cook it a little more? There was a layer of cold grease at bottom of bowl it came in and while tasted fine it wasn’t cooked enough so I could only eat the end of it. Sweets. The waffle was gross 0/10. Rock hard. Dry. Pass. Snicker pancake, like warm and just meh It was 4/10. Umami cream filled pancake was 8/10. Awesome. Get that!! Burger 3/10. Old cold, dry and over cooked. Bacon 1/10 greasy and undercooked . Eggs 6/10, would be 8/10 if served with a toast point, eggs Benedict 3/10 because the poached egg was lovely but the rest was a skip, steak well done and dry. NY sandwich 2/10 I think this was my saddest thing. Because I looked so forward to it and saw its potential…but flagging someone down with one sandwich was my fault but also I’d not have gotten one at all had I not out in the effort. Tater tots 8/10 they came hot. Fruit 10/10. Amazing fruit cup with mint. Yogurt 8/10. Tomato caper flat bread was 9/10.

To 70$ including tip, it was the worst experience I’ve had and a higher end resort. I would have done much better at the buffet. Management really needs to educate servers that single diners are as important as anyone else. Why I became invisible as soon as I sat I have no idea. The couple in the two top in front of me constant got food. Even when a server walked past me to get to them. I’d see them the opposite direction get food and the server never look at me and turned to go into another room.

I know this is long but the concept was good. The execution was abysmal. And management, offer coffee and tea for free. Or increase the price a little and offer a drink. The coffee and tea prices are Not...

We visited in Dec 2021 on a trip that we had only planned a week or two in advance, and we were fortunate to be able to secure a reservation at La Cave (“lah-cahve”), a wine bar and restaurant in Wynn Las Vegas, when most of the other restaurants in the area were all booked up.

BOOKING/SEATING: There is an online reservation system that made the reservations easy to select and choose, and when we arrived to the entrance of the restaurant both of the hostesses there were friendly, courteous, and welcoming. We were checked in smoothly and were led to a lovely two-seater table in the corner of the restaurant, overlooking the courtyard, perfect for our date night!

AMBIANCE: We noticed there were a variety of other tables, ones with a couch, ones with benches for larger groups, ones at a larger mingling table, ones at the bar. They selected the perfect one for us. The lighting is dim (saw some other tables turn on their phone flashlights to read the menus) and intimate, music is not too loud, the vibe is nice and felt like a hideway.

DRINKS/FOOD: Although La Cave is a wine bar, we did not order wine this time, but instead got cocktails. My husband had one with a Japanese whiskey, nice and forward, and mine was a rum drink with lemon and fresh strawberry, refreshing and light.

For food, despite the server warning us that tapas are on the smaller size, they were actually quite large for tapas I think! We took most of the beef filet flatbread to-go but did eat a lot: seared scallops on polenta cakes (scallops were seared perfectly and polenta creamy yet light), large thick, fatty slices of beef carpaccio wrapped with a truffle cheese filling, a flat iron steak on top of mashed potatoes with potato skins in them which was great for texture, and hugely stuffed short rib tacos. We ended with sharing beignets for dessert, which were not like New Orleans beignets, but instead like large powdered sugar donut holes: freshly hot, with vanilla, chocolate, and raspberry sauces.

SERVICE: Food came out as it was ready, the server was attentive and yet never let us feel rushed, graciously provided boxes to-go, and was friendly and welcoming.

A great dinner experience, next time we'll order just a little less and add on to our bill as we go along! Great visit if you're staying in Wynn or just looking for a tapas lounge-type...

Our group unanimously agreed this was our worst meal in Vegas, and we had lunch at the Circus Circus sandwich counter the same day...

Be aware if you're eating here that they're trying to be fancy, so the portions are all quite small. An adult wanting a full meal should probably expect to order 2 plates for themselves (which is about $40 for just the food, depending on the plates).

We had the charcuterie board to start, and to give them props, that was good, and a good size. The salumi wagyu was profoundly disappointing (tasteless), but everything else on there was good, and the onion jam was actually great.

Some of us had the gorgonzola salad, and it was actively bad tasting, but at least it was a largish size. Probably our fault for ordering a gorgonzola dish, but we had party members who are allergic to fish so we couldn't do the Caesar.

One of us had the mushroom tortellini, and it was the blandest, most tasteless tortellini we can remember having in our lives (we all tried one once the original orderer of the dish couldn't finish it due to its profound "meh"ness). The only flavor was a slight hint of unpleasantness, and the texture had that gritty frozen-pasta mouthfeel to it.

Most of us had the Moroccan chicken skewers, which on their own were dry and tasteless and a bit rubbery. The tzatziki/chutney sauce was good but not anything to write home about, and the Naan was the best part of the meal.

One person had the mini burgers, which was ironically the largest main food item. They were nothing special, tasted like barbecue sauce and were more bun than burger.

The person who got the short rib tacos said they were good, but not great.

The decor was nice, I'll give it that, but the low tables were hard to eat at, and had these underhanging lip things that we kept hitting our legs on.

Normally I wouldn't write a review about a place that was so "okay", but they were trying SO HARD to be fancy and upscale, the dissonance between that and the okay-to-bad food was strong, and as I mentioned at the start it was agreed by the entire party that it was our worst meal all week, so I had to...