Review of Michelin Guide 2009 Las Vegas

Title:

Las Vegas Restaurants & Hotels 2009

Author:

Michelin

Publisher:

Michelin Travel Publications

Date:

2008

ISBN:

2-06-71709-3

Pages:

242

Price:

$12.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@jetcafe.org

September 17, 2011

My recent reading of the Las Vegas restaurant guide, Eating Las Vegas, prompted me to take another look at what many consider to be the gold standard of restaurant reviews, the venerable Michelin Guide for Las Vegas. Technically, the title on the cover and spine of the book is, Las Vegas Restaurants & Hotels, 2009 by Michelin, but I'll call it the Michelin Guide 2009 Las Vegas, as I believe this label is more descriptive and less ambiguous.

The Michelin folks first expanded their roster of guidebooks to include restaurants in the United States in 2006, starting with New York, of course. Michelin expanded its scope to publish its first guide featuring Las Vegas in 2008. By this time, the lineup of fine eateries was certainly sufficient to warrant this attention. However, after publishing the second edition of the guide in 2009, Michelin announced it would suspend publication for 2010. As of this writing, we're well into 2011, and no guide has shown up for this year either, and there has been no announcement about when or if publication will resume. Consequently, for the time being, the 2009 guide is the most current edition.

The Michelin red guides not only review restaurants, but also hotels. By my quick count, 134 restaurants and 32 hotels get a mention in this book. Of course, some of the restaurants are no longer in business, and some of the hotels have undergone renovations or changes that might influence their rating. It would be unfair, though to rank a guide that captures a moment in time by its inability to predict the future.

The highest honor Michelin awards a restaurant is three stars, and only one kitchen in Las Vegas has earned that honor, and that's Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand. Three restaurants, Alex, Guy Savoy, and Picasso, received two stars, and thirteen establishments earned themselves one star. While folks will disagree about which restaurant belongs to each tier, I don't think many people who follow the high-end food scene in Las Vegas will argue much about the establishments that received two and three stars, and I expect most would acknowledge that the one star selections are all at least worthy of consideration.

On the other hand I found some of the more than 100 unstarred restaurants covered in this guide more than a little surprising. As just a few examples, I like both Pink Taco and Casa Don Juan, but there are significantly better sources of Mexican food that weren't mentioned in the valley. Lucille's and J.C. Wooloughan are included but nothing from the Chinatown area deserves a mention? I find this hard to justify. On the other hand, in any guide such as this there will always be fair criticisms around the bubble.

Since entering the American market, the Michelin folks have made strides in looking at our restaurant scene on its own merits rather than by comparison to French fine dining. Nonetheless, the guide retains an emphasis on high-end cuisine at a stratospheric price point. Moreover, the restaurants who receive stars all deliver an experience I think could fairly be described as "fussy". If this isn't your thing, then some other guide book would probably serve you better. Also, the descriptions are typically quite brief. On occasion, these venture into the vacuous. There just isn't enough space provided to do more than give a rough impression of the decor and list a handful of favorite preparations.

As with the restaurants, the hotel section covers only a fraction of the available options, although most of what accounts for everyone's list of the higher end is represented. Again, the descriptions are brief enough to make using them for comparisons challenging. The one thing I really like is that for the top dozen resorts Michelin provides very nice maps of the layout. These are extremely well designed and provide exactly the sort of details that I expect visitors will find handy. I'd like to see more of these. Heck, I'd like to see the resorts themselves provide something this good to their guests.

Even though it's dated now, Michelin Guide 2009 Las Vegas still provides a useful look into high end dining in Las Vegas. Prior to reading this book, my preferred regional restaurant guide was Eating Las Vegas. So, how do they compare? Well, Eating Las Vegas is more current but covers fewer restaurants. The deciding factor, though, is that Eating Las Vegas has superior commentary. In my opinion, this makes it much more useful in comparing restaurants, so I rate it the better guide if you're only going to buy one. Still, though, if you can find a copy, the Michelin Guide provides additional suggestions for the aspirational Las Vegas eater.

Capsule:

Three years after its publication, the Michelin Guide 2009 Las Vegas is still useful as a restaurant and hotel guide to the valley, especially the maps of the largest hotels, which are outstanding. However, due to the time lapse and the minimalist descriptions, we think that Eating Las Vegas is the superior restaurant guide by a significant margin, if you're only going to look at one.