When it all looks so good, it’s hard to make a dinner choice, isn’t it? It’s doubly difficult when you love a cocktail to start. When you stop into Caramella for your evening meal, you’ve got your work cut out for you—let me help you out with a few suggestions.
First, try to score a patio table; it’s perfect for the spring weather in Vegas, and you get a great view of the Strip. I love starting my meal with a cocktail like La Granita—the addition of prosecco makes the blend of Maestro Dobel Diamante tequila, orangecello, lemon and grapefruit so refreshing. If you are a fan of bourbon, The Gold Watch might be the drink for you, with Horse Soldier bourbon, Romana amaro, lemon, egg white and olive. If you prefer an alcohol-free option, the zero-proof version of The Gold Watch features Lyre’s American malt, lemon, egg white and olive.
Your basic arugula salad gets a nice upgrade here with shaved fennel, Parmigiano, roasted pine nuts and a lemon vinaigrette. The jumbo shrimp cocktail is a bigger version of the classic with Calabrian chili cocktail sauce, while the bone marrow surf and turf combines the marrow with rock shrimp slathered with garlic butter.
Pasta fans (and, yes, I am one) have quite a few options to choose from, including cavatelli Bolognese with ground veal, tomato and Parmesan. For a vegetarian option, the spicy tomato penne comes with a cream sauce and is accented with Calabrian chili and Parmesan. Another favorite of mine is definitely the spinach and ricotta-stuffed ravioli—who doesn’t like a plump pillow swimming in marinara?
For main courses, you can go the steak route, with such items as a delicate, tender 8-ounce filet, 14-ounce New York strip or a 20-ounce bone-in ribeye, with traditional sauces and even a Calabrian chili hollandaise. Get them with additions like Gorgonzola cheese, roasted bone marrow, lobster tail and jumbo lump crab.
Forgo the steak and you’ll find center cut lamb chops, chicken alla diavola with Calabrian chili, cherry peppers and olives, Chilean sea bass piccata with lemon, capers and butter, and stuffed chicken Parmigiano. For sides, you can’t go wrong with cannellini beans and escarole (a deeply flavorful dish), roasted broccoli, quattro formaggio mashed potatoes (cheese, anyone?) and mascarpone creamed spinach.
For dessert, you have several choices, but I recommend the signature Caramella tart, with dark chocolate, custard and salted caramel, or New York-style cheesecake with berries, a decadent morsel. (It’s more than a morsel, and easily shareable.)
Tip
On Mondays, Caramella offers Nonna’s Dinner Menu, and it will channel that nostalgia with classics like garlic bread, lasagna alla Bolognese with veal and bechamel sauce, spaghetti and meatballs with fresh ricotta, rigatoni Genovese with braised short rib, and Sicilian cannoli.
Planet Hollywood. 702.785.5551 or caesars.com
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Dining and Cooking