Ramsay's Kitchen — Restaurant in Paradise

Well, the beef Wellington was certainly enjoyed by my wife, but everything else about the experience was miserable. A group of people with a young child had one of the elderly ladies at their group loudly tapping a fork on the table making a reverberating ringing sound through the whole restaurant. Not just a couple times mind you, for several minutes. Then a 39 second break, thank goodness was it’s over, but no there’s more. Another five minutes straight of tapping to attempt to entertain the young child. I got nothing against young children making noise I have several myself. But the constant noise was driving me and several other tables crazy. I walked past them briefly, observed they were speaking a friendly language, then attempted to politely communicated with them my point by pointing to my ears, then made a “x” with my arms, then pointed to the fork the elderly lady was tapping hoping that they realized just how much noise they were making. Then continued on and back to my table. The manager came out several minutes later and without introducing himself or any kind of opening just sat down in a chair next to me and asked forcibly “what’s going on what’s your issue??” Maybe I was being presumptive that they may not have spoke English, but I don’t think I over reacted but apparently they complained that a rude person at another table had “accosted them”. I don’t fault the restaurant for the other group but I do think the manager came in very hot without even introducing himself or anything and instead sat down next to my family and in a raised voice was making accusations without first any kind of a reasonable discussion about understanding 2 sides of a story. Normally I might have removed from my table any individual whom sat down next to my family uninvited and then initiated a conversation in a raised voice with no context..,,thankfully I noticed the table in question constantly making glances over to our table afterwards, saw them speak to their server and point at me so was already expecting a visit of inquiry of some kind. Anyways, the rest of the food outside of the beef Wellington was so-so, certainly not a dinner worth $450 for a family of 5 with 3 kids. My steak came out undercooked and had to send back - I showed a very bloody rare steak to my server and asked for a second opinion if it was cooked medium or not and he certainly agreed it was not, then after a properly cooked steak was as re delivered later proceeded to tell me the kitchen staff and him later agreed I was wrong and it was medium. Overall a negative experience, got the vibe the whole time that they are just trying to draw people in with the fancy restaurant name, serve them up as quickly as possible and push them out to make money on the next group. I expect a certain amount of that but would have hoped for a better experience as a part of dropping so much money for dinner. Anyways, can’t give this place a great rating especially with the management so low grade. Unfortunate and wasted way too much in dinner. I would recommend avoiding-‘ money better...

First time here. I eat at several high end restaurants at home, so I was interested in seeing how the man, the myth, the legend, the franchise stacked up. After all, I’ve been watching him on TV for a decade. Let’s see how it goes. We were greeted by the hostess and sat promptly in a quiet well lit corner booth. Hostess and server were both very friendly, prompt and professional. I ordered a crab cake appetizer and shrimp cocktail. My wife ordered Caesar Salad. With my entire family coming from Maryland, it only seemed natural to I own a crab cake empire making hundreds of thousands of crab cakes. So of course I was a certain Gordon’s crab cake wouldn’t measure up. I was hoping for an 8 on a scale of 1-10.

The crab cake came first and for the first time in my life, I found a crab cake better than my family’s recipe. The consistency, texture and flavor weren’t much different than mine, but somehow Ramsey was able to source much larger lump meat than I had. Of course, neither of ours showed any filler whatsoever, but the quality and size of the lump meat was clearly the difference. And I thought I bought the best meat.

The presentation of the shrimp cocktail was nice. The shrimp were large but very tough and had almost no flavor. You can’t win them all, I guess.

I bought the Filet Mignon. I’m usually a New York Strip guy, but the restaurant had run out of those. I ordered the filet medium.

The food came in record time. To be fair, the place wasn’t terribly busy, but I suspect that the staff are used to operating with an efficiency that keeps things moving quickly. The steak looked perfect.

The flavor was fantastic and the meat was as tender as any cut of beef I’ve ever had. It didn’t indicate it on the menu but I was fairly certain the cut was Choice and not Prime, even still, it was cooked to absolute perfection and tender and as flavorful as you could imagine. For $55, I think it is the deal of the century for a Filet Mignon.

I asked the server if she knew the quality of cut. I was shocked that she immediately knew that it was a choice cut of meat. She stated that they were moving to prime cuts of meat when supply issues were resolved. I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE what they can do with prime, based on what they did with choice.

Chelsea was the perfect server. She was the perfect blend of attentive but not intrusive. She answered every question quickly and accurately. She even tried to resolve the shrimp cocktail issue, but I wouldn’t let her. I never ran out of drink and never lacked for anything. I wish she could be my server every restaurant I eat at.

All in all, a pretty fantastic experience. If you go, ask for Chelsea. Tip big. ...

Not having any reservations, I sat at the bar and I was very happy with my decision mainly because of my server John. He was awesome. He was friendly, easy to laugh, great with the service and even told me that I did NOT have to leave him any tip being that I paid for my meal with my Caesars Rewards credits. I usually tip on my CC but since I didn't use my card, he said not to worry about it. With his exceptional service, there was no way I was not going to tip him so I tipped in cash. As for the meal, there was a special limited menu due to Harrah's 50th Anniversary celebration so I opted for that. It's like DineLA where it's a smaller menu and you choose items from each section. You start with the Salmon Crudo and as John warned me, it is really small and literally one bite. The salmon was fresh but for me, it was too tart/sour and too salty. There are small garlic chips on the salmon but the chips I got were pure salt. Perhaps the chef sprinkled a little too much garlic chips on mine but it was so bad, I had to grab my water just to down it like I would a pill. Next up I opted for the Seasonal Beet Salad. The presentation was gorgeous. So pretty with vibrant colors. It was good but I thought it looked better than it actually tasted. The yellow beets were a little tart and the red ones not as sweet so the flavors were a little muted for me. I enjoyed it but it wasn't as amazing as it looked. Next up with the 24 oz Bone-In Ribeye. I ordered it medium and unfortunately it came cooked medium well. It was a little tough for me even to the point where I had to ask for a different knife as I had a hard time cutting through it. John offered to have a new one served but by then I was already getting full so I respectfully declined. TBH, I was most disappointed by the ribeye being that they didn't cook it as requested. I expected more from a Gordon Ramsey restaurant. As for the meal, the 2 highlights were the Maitake Mushroom side and the Sticky Toffee Pudding dessert. Both were amazing!!! I would totally come back just for the mushrooms and the dessert. I'm thinking some nice bread to have with the mushrooms and then the Sticky Toffee Pudding would make a great meal. Overall, I was a bit disappointed BUT John made a huge difference in my...