A Night in Paris, Las Vegas

View of the Bellagio fountain show from the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris, Las Vegas

Our window seat and view

My mom told me if I went to one good dinner in Vegas, make it to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris. She said she’d “never had a bad meal” and while it was a little overpriced, the view was spectacular and well worth the bill. My best friend, Lauren, and I decided to forget about our future debt and splurge on one great meal in the city.

Eiffel Tower Restaurant Kitchen

The Paris, as the name suggests, is themed around the city of Paris, France. Upon entering the hotel, walking on cobble stone streets, I look up and around and see painted blue skies made to look and feel as though you are in the city. The stump of the 540-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower is centrally located on the main floor, with an elevator to the restaurant located at the top. When the elevator doors opened, you walk out to see the kitchen and everyone furiously cooking. It was a pretty cool set up to walk into the resturaunt and see the chefs at work, and the focus on the cooking itself made me think this place was going to give me the best meal of my life.

We went to the bar and our bartender, JR Starkus, suggested we try his famous Chocolate Martini. I agreed before he could finish saying ‘tini’ since chocolate is my favorite substance on this earth. I had never had a chocolate martini and was surprised by JR’s chemistry skills. The drink was mixed with chocolate shavings and the glass was lined in chocolate syrup. I was in heaven. While they were $18 a pop, I figured it was well worth the money, considering this was the ONLY drink I bought in Vegas.

JR Starkus' famous Chocolate Martini

We were placed at a window seat where we were across the street from the Bellagio where we could see the fountain shows at night. This is noted as being the very best view of Vegas at night – the strip, the lights, etc.

The menu was simple and overpriced, but we had positive thoughts considering my mom had so highly recommended this place. We looked at the appetizers and thought we’d start off with some scallops. Our waiter looked at us and said, “Would you like one order or two? There are only2 scallops per order.”

Now, splurging or not, we weren’t going to drop $26 on two scallops. We passed and decided to save our appetite for dinner.

We asked our waiter for suggestions, and he told us the filet is so good “he cut it with a butter knife,” and told us it was one of the best things on the menu. We were debating between the specialty “Slow Roasted Filet of Atlantic Salmon, Pinot Noir Sauce” ($36) and the “Char Broiled Filet Mignon” with the Lemon Parsley Butter (about $60), so we decided to get both and split them. Everything is a la carte, so we each ordered a side of their mashed potatoes, also recommended by the waiter.

We met this couple from Vancouver who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. They told us the waiter tried to screw them out of some bottle of scotch, something about charging them for something they didn’t ask for… we were getting skeptical.

Cold and tough $60 filet. HMPH.

So our food comes, and it looks good–plain (almost nothing on the plate),  but nonetheless we’re excited for this “buttery filet.” We were just going to cut both entrees directly in half, and when I go to cut the filet I’m literally holding on to the table with one hand as I saw this piece of meat. And it was cold. And the mashed potatoes were cold. We couldn’t believe it.

We call our waiter over and tell him our food isn’t hot, so he takes my fork, stabs it into the two pieces of meat off of our plates and puts it on a bread plate. Is he seriously going to re-heat this stuff? He comes back 5 minutes later, after we’ve been venting to each other about how poor the customer service was and complaining that had this been the couple next to us, he would have been bending over backwards to make a new filet. The same piece of meat is re-heated, placed back together with a dollop of the lemon parsley butter on top. And the mashed potatoes were re-heated (I could see the same scoop from my fork).

Slow Roasted Salmon

We tried to enjoy it, but we couldn’t. The $60 filet was one of the WORST I’ve ever had. I could use a butter knife? When hell freezes over. The salmon was decent, but definitely nothing to write home about. And nothing that should be considered a “house specialty.” The waiter comes over again and asks us how it the second time around, as if a re-heated piece of meat was going to taste good or something. We told him it was tough, cold, and tasteless. NOW he decides to offer us a second filet. No thanks. We have had it up to here with this place, and quite frankly we’re disgusted that they tried to charge $60 for a filet, and then have the audacity to serve it cold.

We tell him we don’t want to wait any longer, to take the filet off the bill and forget about it. Now he’s apologizing saying he “wishes there was something he could do.” Well buddy, what you could have done is made us a new filet when we told you ours was cold instead of poking my entree and attempting to re-heat it to save a few bucks. Needless to say, we were fed up.

But not fed up enough to pass on dessert. Do I ever? I ordered the creme brulee hoping this meal would end on a good note. The presentation was great and the creme brulee was tasty. I’ve had better/worse creme brulee, but I wasn’t complaining.

Creme Brulee at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, Las Vegas

At this point we get the bill and both orders of mashed potatoes and the filet are taken off the bill, as we had figured. That would have been the DAY that I pay for such an awful meal. Lucky for us, the salmon was decent, the creme brulee better than average, and hey, we had a great chocolate martini.

Paris, I will never return to your restaurant unless to have a chocolate martini made by JR. While the atmosphere is great, the food is subpar. This restaurant is overpriced and has failed to live up to its reputation.

Eiffel Tower Restaurant: C-

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