High Stakes for High Steaks – Las Vegas

High Steaks is the brand new steakhouse located inside the Rio Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. The name is clever, given that its on the 50th floor of the hotel. Its from the same group as the very popular Esther’s Kitchen. I knew it was new but didn’t know it was THAT new. On arrival, we learned that it was the day before their official opening. After a bit of a wait, we were seated and I immediately asked to change seats. The restaurant was probably 20% full and has two sides. One side looks east towards the strip. This is where you want to be seated. The other side faces west, and while still a view, its Vegas and I want to look at the Strip. No idea why they seated us on the other side as there was only one party on that side. The bar and other side was where everyone else was. A server came by promptly and offered water. This was a relief as my last visit to a restaurant in this group had delicious food but very slow service. This would be the exact opposite servicewise Here was the menu:

They brought some bread and were proud to tell me that everything was made fresh in-house. I love seeing passion at all levels in a restaurant. The bread was warm and pretty good. It was served with a whipped mustard butter which was unique and was pleasant to eat.

The first appetizer we had was the pastrami bacon which was delicious. It was like a candied bacon and had a good balance of sweet, salty and savory flavors with fat and meat. The only thing that could improve this would be a slightly less “jerky” texture. The server proudly told us how it was marinated in bourbon.

The next dish was a cobb salad with fried saltines. The salad was good and the flavors were subtle. Not mindblowing, but good.

For steaks, we had the ribeye. It was cooked perfectly medium rare, and had a nice crust. I could not detect any aging on it. It could of used more seasoning, but they did provide two very interesting salts, one with juniper and the other Hawaiian salt. Not the most amazing steak I’ve had, but it was good. The salts are pictured in the screen grab below.

For sides, creamed mushrooms which were good, and the star of the dishes – the fries.

These fries were incredibly addictive and crunchy. Our server later told us how they were fried, frozen, then fried twice again. This is a lot of work and shows passion, attention to detail and love. All essential ingredients for great cooking. The dessert, a pumpkin spice souffle was another highlight. The souffle was perfectly fluffy, the flavors mild and just right, and all brought together by crunch from either crust or sugar.

Overall, service was incredible. The server and busboy were friendly, attentive and very professional. We had a great conversation with our server about Portugal. The ambiance is also good with views of Vegas though the lighting produces a bright glare so its something that could probably be improved. After dinner, you can go out on to the patio and see probably, the best views of the strip.

I have yet to find an amazing steakhouse in Vegas (other than the old Bazaar Meat) because the benchmark for me, Elisa in Vancouver, is so high. This place ticks most of the boxes of a good steakhouse though. Not sure I’d go back or not, but I would recommend someone who asked me for my opinion, to check it out for themselves.