Nov 7

Nov 7 Fab Finds: Rao's Las Vegas

Food & Drink, Fabulously Delicious, Travel

Between the shuffle of Vegas, the gorgeous wedding I attended in Napa and my recent shoulder surgery, I haven't had much time to give you the proper rundown of my fabulous dining experiences in Vegas, and what kind of person would I be if I didn't let you all in on the fun!?

First up is Rao's, which is located in Caesar's Palace. I would say Rao's is best known for their jarred gourmet pasta sauces which you can most likely find in your local grocery store, so it was very exciting for me to dine in one of their delicious restaurants for the first time!

As soon as we arrived, we headed straight to their beautiful bar where I ordered an extra dirty Grey Goose martini which was absolutely delicious! There's something about drinking a dirty martini that is not only fun, but something I usually only order on special occasions or fun nights out, so of course, this drink most definitely qualified! Shortly after, we headed back to our table!

As soon as we sat down, we were served with savory parmesan crackers and soft warm bread paired with three differed butters. We then ordered our wine for the evening and we were set!

Appetizer time!! You know how much I LOVE a good appetizer spread! I'm always designated the appetizer orderer and you know what!? I most certainly do not mind!

We started with the Antipasto platter which included an assortment of meats, cheeses, roasted red peppers, olives, you name it! Next up we ordered the Fritto Misto which was a delectable dish of fried calamari, shrimp, cod fish and zucchini. Last on our appetizer train, we order a simple Caesar Salad because you know, we had to order a vegetable *wink wink* covered in a delicious creamy dressing!

First come the cocktails, then come the appetizers, then comes....yup you called it! A very large portion of dinner!

Rao's is an Italian restaurant, and most Italian restaurants have meatballs on their menu. Well Rao's is no different, EXCEPT that they have the biggest, most epic meatballs you will ever taste! Honestly, they are so moist and delicious I could have devoured two orders of those bad boys all by myself! Our table decided to do something different this time around for dinner. Since the menu was so large and the entire menu sounded so delicious, we all wanted to try everything! Thankfully the restaurant offers a family style option where you can do just that...order a bunch of different items and share them with the table. So, we started out with the infamous Traditional Rao's Meatballs. We then ordered two pasta dishes to add to our meatballs and split those among the table. Those included a Gnocchi special tossed in a vodka sauce and Linguine with Clams. The nice thing about the family style option was that they portioned it all out for us so we didn't have to deal with passing around and serving up messy pasta around the table. Oh, AND they do it table-side, so it's fun to watch!

You may be thinking, ok that was probably their meal, perfect! Nope, technically the pasta round is called "Primi" and the next round is called "Secondi" which featured the meat portion of our meal. Here we ordered their massively delicious Veal Parmesan where they were so kind to slice it into portions for us. It was so big it honestly looked like a pizza! Along with the Veal Parmesan, we ordered the Chicken Scarpariello which is essentially chicken sautéed with delicious sausage and peppers. One of the gentlemen at our table ordered the Salmon for himself and it looked absolutely wonderful! All of this food and our meal still came with a side, so we chose mashed potatoes, like why!?!? As if we needed anymore food!

As you can see, Rao's definitely fed us well and we most certainly were able to try everything we had our eyes on! I would highly recommend doing the family style option, that way you won't have to pick off each other's plates and you get a little taste of everything!