Heidi’s Picks
Heidi’s Picks is a weekly selection of restaurant suggestions from Review-Journal critic Heidi Knapp Rinella. Price symbols are based on the cost of an average entree: $ = entrees less than $10; $$ = entrees between $10 and $20; $$$ = entrees between $20 and $30; and $$$$ = entrees more than $30.
CHART HOUSE
The Golden Nugget, 129 Fremont St.; 386-8364
The room’s centerpiece — a 75,000-gallon aquarium filled with upwards of 1,000 colorful fish — might be draw enough, but the Chart House in the Golden Nugget’s new Rush Tower doesn’t rest on the glory of its reefs. Seafood does, as you might imagine, reign supreme in such dishes as a crab-avocado-mango stack, shrimp scampi with crab and macadamia-crusted mahi mahi, but we also loved the fried asparagus and the Chart House classic chocolate lava cake. (6/25/10)
Overall: A- $$$
FIREFLY ON PARADISE
3900 Paradise Road; 369-3971
Tapas restaurants are finally making some headway in this country and for good reason, as they provide great flexibility and variety. And we liked everything we had at Firefly on Paradise: Tortilla a la Española, Manchego cheese and Serrano ham croquetas, albondigas, roast pork and red pepper empanadas, baked stuffed clams, Firefly fries, steak toasts, a Sangria-poached pear with vanilla ice cream, a Nutella-and-banana sandwich — even the garden variety salad. (3/19/09)
Overall: A$$
LAWRY’S THE PRIME RIB
4043 Howard Hughes Parkway; 893-2223
Lawry’s the Prime Rib has a limited menu — mostly prime rib cut at the table by a guy pushing a domed silver cart, with a couple of seafood selections and a rib-eye steak tossed in — but maybe it’s just that stick-to-what-you-know philosophy that had made the company so consistently reliable for 70 years. We love the prime rib (both the California cut and the slightly larger Lawry cut) and also the crisp-crusted sourdough bread, Spinning Bowl Salad, mashed potatoes, creamed corn and lovely Yorkshire pudding. (11/20/08)
Overall: A $$$
LBS: A BURGER JOINT
Red Rock Resort, 11011 W. Charleston Blvd.; 835-9393
The Perfect Burger may not have been perfect — and they’re setting themselves up with that one, aren’t they? — but it was a darn good burger, with its pile of frissee, red onion marmalade, thick-sliced bacon and Gruyere cheese. We also liked a tender steak sandwich with house-pickled shallots, blue cheese and horseradish sauce, plus the warm sourdough pretzel sticks and fried cheese curds. Oh, and an Adult Mocha Milkshake, which certainly did live up to its billing. (11/27/09)
Overall: B+ $$
