Panevino Italian Grille & Deli Café — Restaurant in Paradise

Panevino is the restaurant that you never knew you were looking for, until you found it. I've passed Panevino and at one point worked around the corner for years and have always said one day I'm going to try this place. Well that one day finally came, and it was well worth the wait. My lady told me to pick any restaurant to dine at for my Birthday, and though a more popular strip restaurant came to mind I went with Panevino. First let me say Panevino exceeded our expectations. This place is amazing! I personally feel finding a great place to dine that has great food, environment and customer is extremely rare in Las Vegas and Panevino has perfected all areas. Upon entering Panevino the first thing you'll notice is how clean, fresh, casual, laid back and classy the dining area is. To the west of the building there is also a bar and lounge. At around 6 o'clock in the evening they raise the curtains to reveal an extraordinary view of the Las Vegas Strip and McCarran Airport. Customer service is just ridiculously awesome. Everyone you interact with is extremely pleasant and welcoming, it feels like you've been there before and they really missed you. The food is exceptional! We started off with wine, bread and an olive oil with balsamic vinegar mix. The bread was fresh, the olive oil had a rich nutty flavor and I know this sounds crazy but even the water tasted refreshing, not like the typical funny tasting tap water you get at lesser quality restaurants. I love Riesling wine but it is very hard to find in restaurants and if they do have it its not very good. We next ordered Crab Cakes for our appetizer which were crispy Maryland-style crab cakes with honey-mustard dressing, and though $20 for two crab cakes the size of silver dollars may seem expensive, you will definitely want to order more. That $20 will seem like a few pennies for the best crab cakes ever! After being amazed by our appetizer we were extremely excited about our main course meals. My lady ordered the Rigatoni Blackened Chicken which consisted of rigatoni with blackened chicken breast, sautéed mushrooms, onions and roasted bell peppers in a spicy tomato sauce. Her dish tasted fresh and authentic. I ordered the Assorted Grilled Fish which consisted of grilled lobster, salmon, shrimp, scallops, tuna and Chilean sea bass on a bed of sautéed spinach and roasted potatoes drizzled with lemon sauce. I experienced a sense of euphoria with this dish lol. All jokes aside, if you close eyes while eating this meal you will feel like you're dining along the ocean side in Southern California. Rarely do we ever order desert because nine times out of ten we get some type of generic brownie with chocolate sauce and ice cream, but not at Panevino! We ordered the Panevino Trio which was a tasting trio of crème brûlée, tiramisù, and lemon pastry cream Napoleon. Only thing I can say about the desert is try not to lick the plate, it might be frowned upon in this type of establishment. This year my dinner experience was the highlight of my birthday and there is no need for my lady to ask me where I want to dine next year... I'm going...

The service was excellent, and our server was very attentive. The rest leaves a lot to be desired. The ambiance was dark, even mid-day, however it has a decent view of the airport. Still, the place felt like an old vestige of a restaurant that may have already seen its prime long ago. The food was not good, other than he artesian bread, which was definitely the highlight - but at $7 for a single piece - uh, no. The salads were passable, though I really didn't care for the overly sweetened house vinaigrette. My wife wasn't a big fan of the kale/legume salad, either. It was supposed to have some sweeter type of sesame-based dressing, but instead tasted bland. Then came the shrimp cocktail. The FIRST time they brought it out to us, the pieces of shrimp were covered in a mysterious pink creme sauce which we both passed on and sent back (Flag #1: Less-than-fresh ingredients are usually covered in something unnecessary). They were brought back out sans the pink creme. The cocktail sauce looked like a dark, jarred, thick ketchup-like mixture, and tasted sweet - similar to chili sauce sold in grocery stores that comes in a plain jar with a hint of horseradish added to invoke a similar flavor to that of actual cocktail sauce. The shrimp was obviously frozen and thawed using a boiling/steaming method and had lost any flavor resembling that of fresh shrimp by the time it was served. The shrimp had that taste of a slight hint of wet dog (a byproduct of it losing all its flavor in frozen storage....not unhealthy - just unsavory by any stretch), with the slightly rubbery consistency of a hard boiled egg white. I had ordered a linguini with clams and spicy red sauce. My wife ordered the vegan meatloaf. They brought me linguini with red sauce (no clams - a mistake that actually only brought me relief after having tried the shrimp). My entree was so saturated with butter I had to send it back as well. I got it back without any butter. The sauce was canned. $20 for the pasta - and it tasted like what they would serve at a really cheap buffet at best. My wife was impressed with the meatloaf, though she didn't care for the tomato sauce either. It seems like the vegan options show potential, however it was too little to save our overall unpleasant lunch experience. Two appetizers, two ice teas, two salads, two entrees, one piece of artesian bread...$103 later and - rest assured - we will not be returning. We've spent less on the strip and had actual fresh seafood and real cocktail sauce (not jarred). I don't do much reviewing any more, but at this level of disappointment, I had to...

16 October 2024 Another Happy Hour visit at the bar. This time tried Sangratini ($9): Enjoyable thin tartness. Mozzarella Sticks ($12): Six standard-sized pieces, good crisp breading and thick stretchy cheese within. Menu stated the sauce would be ranch, but the cup contained the usual marinara. Fettuccine Blackened Shrimp ($12): Possibly the smallest, shallowest bowl of pasta I have been served. The ribbons were excellent, sauce full of cheesy creaminess, the four medium shrimp were firm with a crispy spiced crust. The only demerit was the wee size. Also repeated the Sauvignon Blanc ($8) Moore Family Estate 2022 from New Zealand. Still a generous pour.

Value: Took a slight nick from the pasta bowl, but not enough to remove a full star from the overall rating.

Service: Efficient

25 September 2024 After a regular restaurant of mine removed all of its awesome pizzas from its menu, was persuaded to check out Panevino for happy hour. Arrived a bit after 4pm, which while early turned out to be a good plan as a) The online reservation system Panevino uses (as of the time of this review) does not accept parties of one b) The bar area seemed first-come, first-served c) By the time I left, still during the Happy Hour, the bar was packed, patrons were standing around, and more hopefuls were pouring in the doors. On an early Wednesday afternoon.

Was greeted by Dylan promptly and was offered water and menu. Plenty of choices in both food and drink. Ordered- Cucumber Collins ($10): Tall cool fizziness. Sausage & Mushroom Pizza ($9): Served on the wooden paddle, good thin crisp crust, super stretchy cheese, nice amount of toppings. Ate it all. Sauvignon Blanc ($8): which was Moore Family Estate 2022 from New Zealand. Generous pour.

Value: Insanely good.

Atmosphere: Bar area was spacious with a long bar (most which incorporated video poker machines), booth and lounge seating. Airy, with a high ceiling and large windows fronting the airport and Strip; view likely more attractive once the sun goes down.

Service: Friendly...