Review: Bites at Guy Savoy

While in Las Vegas recently, I got to eat at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Caesar’s Palace. This renowned French chef gained international attention with his Michelin-starred restaurants as well as Bravo TV’s Top Chef notoriety. His two premiere restaurants are in Paris, France, and Las Vegas. The Las Vegas location has earned 2 stars from Michelin.

On an aside, the Michelin Guide is a restaurant guide published by the (you guessed it) tire people. The stars are described in the book as the following:

[One Star:] a very good restaurant in its category, worth a stop”, [Two Stars:] “excellent cooking, worth a detour”, [and Three Stars:] “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey”

Although there are standards associated with the Michelin review process, the “Red Book” (Michelin book reviewing hotels and restaurants) has come under a lot of fire for being biased towards French cuisine, and not maintaining their inspection schedules – especially for being lax with 3-star restaurants.

Nevertheless, I was in Vegas and I wanted to eat. I went to the Restaurant Guy Savoy to eat in their bar. I heard of the bar menu having a “bites” menu, where you would pick from a list of seasonal/changing appetizers/mini-entrees. It was $25 for 2 bites, $30 for 3, and $35 for 4 (I think).

When you walk towards the Restaurante Guy Savoy, you are kind of walking to one remote corner of Caesar’s Palace. The doors are huge and very modern looking with the multiple panes of glass and the off-set hinge. Inside the main doors is the hostess stand to the left and a giant glass wall where you can see through to the many many bottles of wine held in long racks along the glass. It is quite impressive as the hostess took us to the bar, an open gas fire provided some solace from the constant casino air conditioning.

When looking at the menu, there were many options available for the “Bites”. I ended up choosing the foie gras terrine and the sweetbreads with mushrooms.

What I liked most about my experience at the bar was how the server treated you. Even though I only had two “bites”, I was treated like a full-service meal was ordered. There was some bread with salted butter, amuse bouche of foie gras sandwich and a parmesan waffle bite, and each Bite was served individually as if they were various courses.

The foie gras terrine was really tasty. it wasn’t too fatty and wasn’t too salty (two things I don’t like my foie gras to taste like). It was a single slice of delicious foie gras with toast.

My sweetbreads was the highlight. I like sweetbreads (the thymus gland and/or pancreas) but rarely get to have them. The sweetbreads were really savory and flavorful, along with the truffle slice and mushrooms, it was just perfect.

The other thing on the menu I would have liked to have was the truffle soup. I got to taste it with the group I was with and it was really good. It was not rich at all (little or no cream) but it was a very refreshing hit of truffle flavor. I have tasted nothing like it before.

So if you’re looking to get a taste of Guy Savoy and some really good service, come to Caesar’s Palace and sit at the bar for some Bites. It’s definitely worth it, especially if you can’t afford the $100, $200, or $300 prix fixe menus they serve in the dining room.