Prime Steakhouse — Restaurant in Paradise

My family and I came to Vegas for celebrating graduation and mother's day. We wanted to splurge on a fancy dinner and Prime Steakhouse did not disappoint! The evening did start rocky but the people of Prime Steakhouse and Ballagio made it right and went above and beyond to fix the issue. My moms high heel, specifically christian louboutin, got stuck in the escalator at the entrance of the restaurant, quite literally causing the escalator to come to an emergency stop. As my mom was exiting, her heel got stuck in the ridges of the stairs and before she could get it out, the heel got trapped in-between the layers where the stairs go underground. Fortunately, my mom was physically fine and her foot slipped out before any harm could have been done. But, the whole incident was startling and it shook her up. While my dad was making sure she was okay, the hostess called the resort staff and engineer to resolve the issue. She told me that this is a reoccurring problem specifically for woman who were louboutins, so the staff was not surprised by this event. After about 15 minutes the resort personal took down our information and the engineer removed the staircase slab of the escalator releasing my moms high heel. The staff was extremely comforting, resolved the situation, and gave us a $100 voucher towards the meal. They were quick to verify my mom was okay and if she needed anything they were ready to make it happen; her safety was their main concern. My mom was still uneasy and her right high heel was cut up. However, I knew the dinner would make up for this and it did. As we sat down we were immediately comped with excellent Champagne and our server came over to reassure us. It didn't take long to look past the abrupt accident and settle into our fine dining. Darlene Zamora was our server and she provided top notch service. After we had our bubbly we ordered some cocktails and appetizers. Darlene made her rounds to our table and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do to make our evening special. For the appetizers we had crap cakes, bacon wrapped shrimp, and the break basket. Each of which was flavorful and delicious. There was a lovely photographer that came around and took our pictures which we did purchase at the end of our meal. For the entrees, I go the filet mignon, my mom had the Chilean seabass, and my dad had the ribeye. For the sides we go the truffle mashed potatoes, broccoli, and mac and cheese. Every dish was cooked perfectly and tasted amazing and it was paired with this unbelievably good Spanish red wine recommended by the sommelier. Darlene even brought out more bacon wrapped shrimp for free simply because she knew we loved it. Her cool demeanor and hospitable nature made us feel well taken care of. After the entrees, all of us were stuffed we couldn't even think about dessert. But before we even knew it, wait staff started bringing out multiple signature desserts to our table completely free in celebration of my graduation and as an apology for my moms heel. Despite being full, the dessert was hard to resist and my favorite ended up being the strawberry shortcake, creme brûlée, and the cheese cake. All to say, the evening was saved! Darlene was a gem and highly recommend requesting her as your waitress. Also, the next day we told the managers of Ballagio about the incident which did result in my mom's expensive heels being damaged. And they did what they do best. They made it right. They were quick to look up the price of new louboutins and took it off the total for our room. All in all, the main takeaway is Ballagio knew how turn an unfortunate situation into something better. They were sincere and the people took care of us, which is an excellent quality for a...

If you're even thinking about booking this place for a special occasion/wedding night—don’t. Just don’t. I wish I had listened to the reviews, that ALL follow a bad service theme, before booking our wedding night dinner here. I’m writing this in hopes of saving another couple from wasting their time, money, and patience. We made a patio reservation months in advance for what should’ve been a romantic, memorable first night as a married couple. They got us seated at a gorgeous, private patio table… and then promptly forgot we existed. We were in full wedding attire, a gown and suit. Not one “congratulations,” no warm welcome, not even a “Hey, I’ll be right with you.” Nothing. You’d think they’d at least fake some effort when they see a bride and groom walk in, but nope. It took 27 minutes after our drinks arrived before our server returned to take our food order. TWENTY-SEVEN. MINUTES. We weren’t even being dramatic or picky, we were literally just sitting there in silence, waiting to be acknowledged like we were invisible. We ordered the "tableside smoked bacon" to start. Sounds fancy, right? Spoiler alert: it’s five pieces of regular bacon, with smoke flavor, tossed into a lantern, and carried out then the bacon is removed and sat on your table. No smoke, no sizzle, no tableside presentation. Just bacon. In a file folder holder. We looked and laughed at each other asking "did we really just order only bacon"? We both got the filet and split the mac and cheese and fries. The food was fine. Nothing memorable, not terrible—just middle-of-the-road, overpriced steakhouse food. If you’ve ever eaten at an actual upscale steakhouse and had service from a hospitality trained server, you’ll instantly know this place is all flash of the fountains, and not substance or service that make it worth celebrating anything there. We switched from cocktails to soda after our first round. But guess what? No refills. Or, rather—no free refills. Nobody told us we were being charged $6 per soda, and we ended up with a $30 soda charge because we had to keep asking for more just to avoid choking on dry steak. As someone who’s worked in the service industry, I know it’s the server’s responsibility to tell guests if it's a "refill" or if they would like to purchase another soda. Otherwise, it’s just shady and seems like youre racking up the bill. While they’re quick to enforce a table minimum, there’s no automatic gratuity, which is fine, because I’ll happily tip based on the service I actually received. And let’s be real, there was barely effort given, so guess what? A small tip earned. They weren’t busy. He wasn't overwhelmed with tables. They weren’t even seating new tables on the patio. It was clear our server just didn’t care. The lack of service had nothing to do with being busy. It was end of the night and I'm sure doing side work and closing duties. We had 8pm reservations and didn’t leave until almost 11pm, way past closing and not because we were soaking up the romance, but because service was that slow and checked out. On our wedding night. Make that make sense. And listen—I get they see couples ALL the time. Vegas is the marriage capital of the world, but this was OUR first few hours married. A little warmth, a little attentiveness, literally any effort would’ve made a difference. Instead, we were treated like a nuisance. This place might look upscale from the outside, but don’t be fooled. It's all about appearances and zero about guest experience. Overpriced drinks, mid-tier food, and a staff that couldn’t care less if you were celebrating or suffocating.

Save yourself the disappointment. Go somewhere that actually values its guests—because...

Worst steakhouse experience in Vegas. I have been to I believe every Steakhouse on the strip and eating solo at most. This was the only time in Vegas I felt embarrassed and completely unwanted dining alone. The server was visibly frustrated that I was a one top between his body language and the way he spoke to me it was blatantly obvious. He did not even tell me all the specials I heard him telling all the other tables, also he did not go into a full Spiel like servers do especially at high end steakhouse. I am a life long server and my latest job was a very well known fine dining steakhouse. You could also tell he was upset that I only ordered a steak and a french onion soup. He never wants check to see if any of my food was good or if I was happy at all. My steak was very dry and I asked him to make sure there was a fairly good amount of seasoning on it. It had seemingly no salt or anything on it at all. Every other Steakhouse has a finishing salt they will give you at the steak if you ask that tops it off perfectly, however I don't know if they do here or not because I was never checked on and the server did not care. A nice gentleman brought me a dessert menu and drop the check off and I paid and got out of there. The worst part to me is first of all it was booked under MGM VIP reservation which usually they take extra good care of you and most of the steakhouses will bring you either a complimentary cocktail or a small bite from the chef or just something to personalize the experience and make it special. I couldn't even get halfway decent service here it was mind-blowing. The last thing that really bugged me is every time you book a restaurant through MGM as soon as you are done they send you an email asking how your experience was. I wrote down all the problems I had and sent the email and never heard a word from management or anything. I went to yellowtail the next night and not even an hour after I submitted a very positive review on them the manager emailed me thanking me and then the next day I got another email from the manager thanking me again and inviting me back. The following night I went to Gallagher's the food was absolutely amazing I got a filet and lobster tail for less than the price of the steak at Prime and it was way better. Also the service was impeccable. It's sad when a considered more low end Steakhouse for Vegas completely blows away one of the supposed best. I was treated amazingly no judgment and the server even took time to chat with me and so did the manager even though they were both busy. Also that was not put on MGM VIP reservation that was just a walk-in.

Overall the soup was good but nowhere near worth the price they are charging for it, and the steak was dry and just did not look appealing. I had the fillet mignon. I've eaten a lot of them in my day and this was probably the worst I've had. The Ambiance is amazing and it seemed like the servers took good care of tables of more than one. I sat there and washed amazing service at many other tables as I got completely ignored and rushed out of there. The food is extremely overpriced there for what it is compared to other places on the strip. I would have a very hard time recommending this restaurant after the way I was treated and the food...