One of the great joys of traveling is trying out different restaurants that you wouldn’t normally have a chance to try out in Hawaii. Keao and I watch a lot of reality TV and so we’ve had the chance to eat at a few celebrity chefs’ restaurants.

During this trip to Las Vegas we decided to splurge (we don’t normally eat at such fancy places) and try out Tom Colicchio’s craftsteak. Tom Colicchio is the head judge of Bravo TV’s Top Chef program of which Keao and I are huge fans so when we found out that Keao’s WPPI conference was being held in the MGM Grand it was a no brainer.

It was a Friday night so the place was fairly crowded, but since we made reservations a few months ago it was no problem.

The entrance to the restaurant

We started by ordering two appetizers to share. Apparently this is a common occurrence because our waitress didn’t bat an eye and even offered to split up our soup, lobster bisque, in two portions for us. In addition to the lobster bisque we also tried quail with kumquat (which was a very great flavor). Then to our surprise, our waitress brought out a third appetizer which she said was on the house! We got some fried Hawaiian prawns for free! What a deal!

The prawns, bisque and quail dish

Of course the real reason we were there was to have the steak. When Top Chef visited craftsteak on the television show they did an entire vegetarian meal. We weren’t doing that. We wanted meat. You really can’t go wrong with a ribeye so that’s what we ordered. A nice 16 ounce ribeye cooked to a perfect medium (they even sliced it up).

Here’s the grilled ribeye

Finally there were the sides. Like most high-end steak houses everything is ala carte. We ordered two sides. We tried the sauteed baby broccoli and the roasted garlic and leek gratin. The baby broccoli was excellent. Keao really liked the potatoes which I thought was good, but nothing spectacular.

The sides

Overall, it was a great meal. If money were no object, I would definitely eat there again. If you’re ever in Las Vegas and you have some money to burn it’s a great place to try out.