Yawn: An A- for La Cave by HKR, Wimpy Barbecue, More

Las Vegas Review-Journal food critic Marilyn Hagerty Heidi Knapp Rinella spends the first four paragraphs of her review of La Cave Wine & Food Hideaway at Wynn Las Vegas waxing on about her love of raclette cheese. Readers’ eyes may have glazed over during her diatribe about the Swiss cheese, so they may not have noticed that she didn’t like the version served there.

But this was either a very mild version of raclette or it was considerably neutralized by an abundance of the other two elements, because there was a decided lack of pungency and the dish ended up seeming dumbed down, more's the pity.

That and a burnt piece of bacon on one of her dates earned the place an A-. Perhaps this is why most food critics visit a restaurant three or four times instead of once before writing a review.

At least food critic Al Mancini at CityLife visits a restaurant several times before writing his reviews. And he didn’t care for the version of barbecue served at North Forty Bar-B-Cue and Saloon. “The food proved to be above average, particularly by Las Vegas standards, but unlikely to impress hardcore barbecue aficionados.” [CL]

Word on the street has it that Brock Radke is going from freelance to full time with Las Vegas Weekly. This week, he checked out the Mexican fare at Diego at the MGM Grand. “The end result is a Mexican restaurant that should be moved out of the ‘maybe overlooked’ category and into ‘serious contender’ status.” [LVW]