La Cave (Las Vegas, NV)

La Cave
Wynn Las Vegas
3131 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
Dining date: 5/12/12

After a heavy lunch at Holsteins, my parents and I were looking for somewhere to grab a very early dinner before our flights out of town. There aren’t a ton of options open in the 4-4:30 range, but we settled upon this casual dining restaurant at the Wynn. The place is a sort of blend between wine bar and small plates restaurant, and is one of the newer entrants to the Wynn lineup (opened at the end of 2010).

The menu is pretty varied, with sections broken out into items from the sea, the farm, the oven, the garden, the grill, the butcher (charcuterie), and the cow/sheep/goat (cheeses). Given neither of us were very hungry, so we stuck to some of the lighter fare.

Jumbo Lump Crab Lettuce Cups, Citrus Segments

I thought this was nicely done. Sweet cool chunks of fresh crab sat in a crisp lettuce cup; a little bit of citrus went a long way too. Tasty and refreshing.

Three Bean Salad, Roasted Artichokes, Ice Wine Vinaigrette

This dish caught my mother’s eye. Creamy cannellini, waxy green and crunchy fried garbanzo beans were tossed in a light vinaigrette. I thought the roasted artichokes provided a nice sweetness to the dish, while the textures kept things interesting. Another in the cool and refreshing category.

Ahi Tuna, Pomegranate, Basil Oil

This seared ahi tuna rounded out our cold small plates. It was typical but solid, with the sweet pomegranate and basil oil complementing the tuna pretty well.

Diver Sea Scallops, Polenta Cake, Shrimp Sauce

I found the scallops to be nicely seared and cooked to a rare temperature in the interior. I couldn’t ask for more from them, but I wanted more flavor out of the polenta cake, which I found to be rather dense and bland.

Roasted Salmon, Vegetable Pasta, Yellow Tomato Broth

The salmon was a little bit overcooked and had a fishy flavor. Not good. The vegetable pasta was a fun element, with small pearls of various vegetables making a bed for the salmon. I found them to be a bit soft though, and could have used some textural crunch from some of the vegetables.

Our meal at La Cave was okay. The restaurant isn’t particularly ambitious, seeking out to prepare approachable flavors at (relatively) reasonable prices. I suppose it does achieve this, there just wasn’t really anything memorable about it. Of course, it didn’t help that we weren’t that hungry at the time either.