What Happens When One of the World’s Best Chef Comes to Las Vegas?

Las Vegas’s culinary scene is wild. You can find everything from the best Thai food in America — tucked in a strip mall — to celebrity-chef food halls, mega buffets, and outposts of the hottest New York and Los Angeles restaurants.

But among all the spectacles, Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace stands apart. It’s a rare bastion of elegance in a city built on excess. And, it’s the only one helmed by a living legend. Restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris has been voted the best restaurant in the world for eight years in a row by La Liste, a prestigious global restaurant ranking website, among many other accolades, and has influenced a new generation of chefs with its approach to fine dining. Guy Savoy’s motto is simple: “Cuisine is the art of instantly transforming products laden with history into joy.” It’s a philosophy that not only defines his food, but also his approach to opening a restaurant in Las Vegas, a city he helped transform into a serious culinary destination. 

While many of the world’s top chefs run vast global empires, Guy Savoy has only two: his namesake restaurants in Paris and Las Vegas. The latter might sound like an odd choice for his second restaurant. Until recently, Sin City was not considered a culinary destination, and even today, the hottest tables aren’t unique to Vegas; they’re spin-offs of trendy spots, not Michelin-starred restaurants known for fine dining. Yet, for Savoy, a challenge is an integral part of creation. 

Savoy opened the restaurant 19 years ago, long before Las Vegas’s culinary transformation. “I heard snickers when I said I was coming to Vegas,” he says. “I’m happy, in my small way, to have contributed to its evolution so that today there are a great many restaurants. Suppliers too; you can find everything, and at high quality. White truffles from Alba in November and December, black truffles after that, and all the caviars. Everything. No, this is the place to be. And I’m delighted to be here because New York and Los Angeles started this evolution long before, but Las Vegas has made a tremendous catch-up.”

The Las Vegas restaurant captures the meticulous technique and reverence for ingredients that Savoy pioneered in Paris, shaping a generation of chefs and influencing restaurants worldwide. While some chefs might have diluted their signature menus to be more “American-friendly,” Savoy was adamant that the quality and dishes would not be out of place in his Parisian restaurant. “We have the same DNA, certainly,” he says. 

This is evident the moment you open the menu. Many of the dishes appear in both tasting menus, including the artichoke soup with brioche, oysters concassée, colors of caviar, and the mosaic of foie gras, poultry, and artichoke. “We can speak of two twin brothers,” he explains. “Here, perhaps there’s a bit more emphasis on beef. In the United States, the quality of beef is more consistent than in France. That’s why I don’t have beef on my menu in Paris, whereas we do have beef here. I think we take advantage of each country’s strengths. But I’d say 90% of the menus are the same. Ninety percent is a lot.” 

The restaurant has been open for almost two decades, and you can feel that familial pride among the staff, especially since many share French heritage. This warmth and openness in service is important to Savoy.“I believe a restaurant is a home, and like any home, it must be embodied by the people who bring it to life,” he says. “The key people were here 19 years ago, on the very first day.” 

While the restaurant offers an à la carte menu, you should certainly indulge in one of the two tasting menus, and I highly recommend the Prestige menu, which comes with a wine pairing. The eight-course menu includes many of Savoy’s signature dishes from the Paris restaurant, including oysters concassée, as well as the Vegas-exclusive “surf and turf,” called Sealand. Of course, the turf is an A5 Japanese Wagyu beef, and the surf is a perfectly cooked lobster with Bordelaise sauce. 

With an eight-course menu, it’s essential to involve the diners in the culinary journey so they don’t get bored, and Savoy’s team does this with tableside flair, rather than making you traipse through the restaurant as many places do. Between courses, there’s always a small moment of theater — a dish finished tableside, a flourish while serving — that keeps the energy alive without breaking the spell. 

The opening move in the evening’s ballet is a decadent bread cart with a dozen different types of bread, as well as a mountain of fresh butter. Savoy notes that “the bread offering is much more extensive than in Paris,” and calls it a paradox, as Paris is known for its boulangeries and bread. 

Every course feels like a miniature performance, first to surprise you, then to showcase the exceptional ingredients and technique. The salmon iceberg is a perfect example of this ethos. A chef brings out a cart with a slab of Himalayan salt topped with sashimi-grade salmon to add some seasoning, then transfers it to a block of dry ice for a cold sear to slightly cook it. It’s an unusual technique that retains the natural flavors of the salmon because a cold sear doesn’t caramelize it. Once it has seared, they serve it with a warm broth that begins to defrost the partially frozen salmon. The texture and combination of hot and cold is genuinely unique, an oft-overused word in haute gastronomy. The broth quickly does its job, so be sure to take a bite right away to experience the dish fully. It perfectly captures Savoy’s culinary philosophy of transformation: from ice to warmth in a single bite. 

When Savoy comes to Las Vegas, the restaurant frequently offers something special. This year, there was a special Louis XIII Cognac pairing alongside the Prestige menu. “We finish with the Louis XIII,” he says. “It’s, how shall I say, the apotheosis. It’s rare, exceptional. That’s the high point.” 

By the time the magnificent dessert cart arrives, you’ve lost track of time and are fully immersed in Savoy’s world. It’s a testament to his team’s skill that hours seem to pass in minutes. 

I’m fortunate to have dined in Michelin-starred restaurants around the world. And while Las Vegas had a short-lived Michelin Guide in 2008 — the restaurant earned two stars — I can confidently say it was the best meal I’ve had in more than a dozen trips to Las Vegas. And unlike in Paris, you might actually be able to get a reservation here, as the elegant dining room and pricy menu aren’t drawing in the partiers that flood Sin City on the weekends. 

With the French staff, the exceptional haute cuisine, and the superb wines, you might forget you’re in Las Vegas and be transported to Paris instead. That is, until you look out the window and see the city’s mini Eiffel Tower glittering at night alongside brightly lit hotels and roller coasters. After your meal, do something you can never do in Paris. Walk out to the Strip and embrace the spectacle of Las Vegas. 

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