I had dinner at Envy, the Steakhouse last night. I really like this place. It probably doesn't stack up to Delmonico, Craftsteak, or any of the VERY top tier steakhouse. It does compete quite well with many steakhouses that you find to be top rated. It is located in the Renaissance Hotel, just south of the convention center on Paradise. Parking is in the rear garage and you have to walk through the non-gaming hotel lobby. They have a nice little hotel lobby bar too.
I've had breakfast, lunch, and dinner there, and always came out satisfied. Last night, I was using one of three $100 gift certificates that I bought for $25 a while back.
I started with the shrimp cocktail. It was a bowl of ice with a small cup of cocktail sauce on top and 3 big shrimp around the edge. 3 shrimps for $17 isn't really a bargain to me. The shrimps were peeled and deveined and tasted pretty good. They weren't $6 apiece good, but they were good.
For bread service, a guy brings out a plate of slices of bread, describes them, and asked which ones I wanted. I had a whole grain something and an olive something. Both were very good. I told the waiter that I was an unsophisticated moron and asked why the butter was frozen solid. He said it had nothing to do with class or sophistication and was just chef preferences. Some chefs like whipped soft butter, some like hard planks.
For dinner, I had a bone in rib eye steak, medium rare, a jumbo baked potato, and 1/2 pound of king crab legs added to the entree. Just before the meal arrived, the waiter brought out a little 3 compartment plate with sea salt. I can't remember the story behind each one. The dark lava sea salt was best used on the meat, the middle one was to be used on my white meat, and the third was a Himalayan salt and would be fine for general usage. I don't remember if I wasn't paying attention, was overwhelmed, or just didn't care. I know the dark salt did work well on the red meat. The crab legs didn't need salt. I experimented with all 3 on the potato.
The bone in rib eye was very good. It was not huge but the chef had carved out the usual large pieces of fat that a rib eye steak has, so my entire steak was served lean. The meat had very good flavor and texture. The flavor was accented with a sauce that was part of the plate decoration sauces that chefs like to put on the plates these days. It kinda had a mild BBQ taste to it. The steak was $42 and wasn't bad at all. It wasn't enough to hook me so I think next time, I'll try a NY cut or a T-Bone.
The half pound of king crab legs were not bad. In the world of king crab legs, these would be the smaller selections, less than a foot long. They were hot and they were pretty good. There were 3 legs on the plate. I guess they were half legs since they were split in half. I don't know if $21 would be a bargain on this serving.
The baked potato was pretty good. It was about the size of two of my fists and cooked properly. It came on it's own plate, with a tiny cup of sour cream, a tiny cup of fresh chopped chives, and a tiny cup with a frozen hunk of butter. The potato was priced at $7.
Envy has a wine list that they are very proud of. I know nothing about wines except that I am allergic to them. For drinks, I had a bottled iced tea at $5 and regular ice water.
The total cost was $92.00 and with $7.42 for tax, that ate up just about the whole $100 certificate. I left a $20 tip and walked out satisfied.
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