We didn’t eat all of our meals at the Wynn or Encore but we did eat there several times and I have to say that we did not have a single disappointing meal there the entire time.  The hotel really has the restaurant thing down.  So many Vegas hotels sacrifice restaurants (and service) for the casino.  Our favorite lunch spot was located in the Wynn and is called La Cave.  It’s a wine bar, small plate concept with an international flair but does have a few full size entrees as well.  We loved that we could share several small plates and they had an extensive wine selection by the glass and offered several different wine flights as well.  We liked La Cave so much that we ate lunch here two days in a row!

The menu is very eclectic and we tried several different items, including crab salad in lettuce cups, moroccan spiced chicken skewers with pear chutney, two different flatbreads, one featuring a Thai basil chicken with spicy green curry sauce (I forget the other but it was vegetarian) and scallops on polenta cakes.  Every dish was excellent though I think the flatbreads were my favorites.  One day I just had a lovely sparkling prosecco by the glass and another day I tried a flight of Italian varietals.  Steve usually went with a cocktail as they have a full bar as well.  The large patio area can be opened or closed depending on the weather (closed due to the heat for us) but has floor to ceiling windows overlooking the pools and gardens.  It had a very French Riviera feel to me and was enjoyed our long leisurely lunches here.

Our other lunch was at The Country Club restaurant which overlooks the Wynn golf course.  As you may expect, it did look and feel just like a U.S. country club with lots of wood paneling and traditional chandeliers and furniture (leather club chairs, white table cloths, etc…).  We started off with a glass of Perrier-Jouet champagne and a massive shrimp cocktail with the biggest shrimp I have seen that were amazingly not tough or chewy at all. Their horseradish laden cocktail sauce had a nice bite to it as well.

What really had me wanting to come here was that The Country Club is one of only six restaurants in the whole U.S. that serves the “Impossible Burger.”  This is a 100% vegan “hamburger” patty that looks and tastes like real meat.  It does not resemble in any way what you are probably used to when you think of a veggie burger, which usually has a patty made of beans, soy or ground up veggies.  This burger was created by a group of scientists over the course of 5 years by modifying and playing with various strains of wheat and vegetable proteins to develop a vegetable protein that essentially looks and tastes like meat but has no fat and far fewer calories (it does have gluten though).

As you can see, it looks pretty much like beef. I will say that I could tell the difference between real meat and this but it was far closer to meat than any veggie patty I have ever tried.  The main difference was that the impossible patty was a little looser and more slippery in texture than a real burger and it lacked that umami unctuousness that you get from red meat.  However, it was really good, especially with the chickpea hummus and pickled onions, which is how The Country Club prepared it.  Steve went with a turkey burger which he really enjoyed but I think my favorite part was their homemade parmesan truffle potato chips.  So.  Good.

Our last meal was at Sinatra in the Encore Hotel which is connected to the Wynn and is considered one of their “fine dining” restaurant options.  It features an Italian heavy menu and has lots of memorabilia of Frank Sinatra, including several of his gold records, his Oscar statue, signed pictures and records and his Emmy award. They also play a lot of Sinatra music and Rat Pack music (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.), which we loved.  It was a fun atmosphere – kind of like being in an upscale Italian Club.

Their bar is small but beautiful and I loved the ship light fixture above it.

The restaurant itself had subdued lighting but also looked onto a private courtyard where you can dine when it’s not a million degrees outside.

Steve and I started with some wonderful cocktails (I can’t remember the name of mine — I may have had a drink or two before we got here and was a little buzzed).  We knew beforehand from Yelp reviews and pictures that the portion sizes were huge so we decided to split two appetizers – an order of Frank’s clams which are sauteed in a spicy, garlicky tomato broth and a caprese salad.  Following that we split an order of veal parmesan, which was awesome and got a side of caponata, which is one of my favorite vegetable dishes.  So glad we shared these items because we couldn’t even finish them and we were too full for dessert.

The caprese salad was perfect for summer as it was very light and fresh and the tomatoes were not mealy at all.  The clams were actually a little salty for my taste which I determined was the broth itself.  They just needed to lighten up on the salt seasoning a bit and they would have been perfect.  The veal parm stole the show.  It’s hard to believe that this is actually one portion split onto two plates.  I can’t imagine who could eat a whole portion by themselves.  The veal was so tender and the ooey cheese was off set by a bright tomato sauce.  It was a simple dish but very well executed. We also split a side of roasted caponata to go with it.

We had a few other meals outside the Wynn, two of which I’ll post about separately but we never regretted staying in our hotel to eat!