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I knew Las Vegas would be a trip full of great meals. But let me tell you, Carbone changed that. I can read your mind. You think I’m telling you that Carbone was awful. I’m not. Read to see more…

I had read so much about Carbone, what to get, and I thought it was so overhyped. I mean, Italian food is good, delicious in fact. How much better could it get? We had to go to put the restaurant to the test. 

We sat in this super cool, but strange booth. The four of us (my family) sat around a semi-circle table, and we all got to sit in the booth, which ment no fighting. It was a little awkward talking, because if you needed to address someone, you had to literally lean into the table to see them. The restaurant was playing old music, the room was decorated with red velvet, and the largest crystal chandelier I had ever seen was hanging at the center of the room. We were met with a kind server who started us off with the famous Grandma Bread. It was a type of pizza bread, and it was good, but nothing that I’ve never had before. The server also gave us delicious and high quality salami and pickled cauliflower. The salami was great, shaped like a flower, and the cauliflower was amazing and had great flavor. Oh, and don’t you forget the hunk of parmesan they cut for you straight off the wheel. No, this wasn’t one piece for the table: one piece for each person. I swear that just after the complementary foods, I was full.

Prior to this dinner, Phoebe had been doing her research, maybe more than I do for my history essays. She had already decided what we would be getting, and I thought it sounded like a lot of food. Then, as we ordered, the server told us we didn’t have enough food. I thought to myself, these portions must be really small, but I was wrong. We ended up ordering way too much food, more food than I have ever eaten in my entire life. Here is what we ate. 

For appetizers we began with the Carpaccio Piemontese, which was a beef carpaccio. The server had told us that it was so good “and smoothable like butter”. The beef was so thin that it was almost impossible for me to put some on my plate, but I managed to, and thank god I did because I surprisingly loved it. There were truffles, chives, arugula, all the good stuff. My father, Kevin, hates truffles, but he enjoyed it on this plate. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a delicate, light appetizer. 

Next, we were given the famous Prosciutto and Melon, the dish where they cut a ball of mozzarella with the scissors. We didn’t plan on ordering this, despite how iconic it is. However, our server oversold us and at the last minute practically forced us to get it. The plate held three types of prosciutto, one salty, one sweet, and one tangy. It was great prosciutto, but I’m sure that anyone could find prosciutto just as good at Whole Foods or their local deli. The mozzarella I certainly enjoyed. It was warm, salted, and was a perfect bite. The dish was nice, but we definitely could have skipped it. If you ever go to Carbone, save room in your stomach for something other than this.

We moved into our pasta course, where obviously we ordered the Spicy Rigatoni Vodka. Phoebe was so excited and had been looking forward to this dish for months. I, unfortunately, do not love vodka pasta. It’s one of the very few foods I simply do not like. I’m just not a cream-based-sauce-kind-of-girl. So, here is Phoebe, a vodka pasta fanatic, giving her taste of the famous dish. 

“Usually, vodka pasta is too sweet or too creamy, but this one was just the right amount of spice, sweetness, savoriness. It was the perfect bite. I especially liked how this pasta had more of a kick. It was literally amazing.” - Phoebe Josephson, April 13, 3:13 pm PST. 

If you are a vodka pasta lover, I highly recommend that you try this. It sounds like the restaurant nailed the dish perfectly. 

**half a portion. don’t be fooled, it’s a lot of pasta.

At this point in the meal, I was ready to get up and leave. I already felt so insanely full and fulfilled. Everything was great, but I couldn’t handle more. Then, a large wooden cart rolled in front of our table. The table held a large fish, a sauce, and some utensils. We had ordered the Dover Piccata, and it did not come to disappoint. The server cut the fish table-side, scraping it off the bone. He deboned the fish effortlessly. This fish, I kid you not, is some of the best fish I have ever had, and I eat a lot of fish. It was sweet, savory, and so fresh. Watching it being prepared just added to the experience. This fish was so worth ruining my stomach for. Definitely my favorite dish of the night, and probably on my trip to Vegas. 

Now, I actually thought that my stomach would explode. But, guess what! There's still more food for me to review. Next to the fish were placed a chicken and potatoes. The chicken was delicious, topped with a balsamic sauce. The potatoes were like mashed potatoes but still in their whole form. But, I could have skipped these two, although they were delicious. It’s Carbone, everything is delicious. 

Lastly, another cart arrived at our table. I was so distracted by how awful I felt that I didn’t watch the server's mix the Caesar salad. The salad was good, like any Caesar salad. What stood out about this dish were the croutons. One of my biggest pet peeves in food is when the croutons are so stale that when you try to put your fork in it, it crumbles. So usually, I skip on the croutons, but at Carbone, I couldn’t skip. And luckily, they weren’t crumbly croutons. They were crisp, seasoned, and great. Such a simple food stood out amongst all of the complicated dishes I ate. 

Full. Full. Full. Never had I ever felt more like I would explode. But, Carbone just loves “complimentary snacks”. We ended the night with amazing rainbow cookies. My absolute favorite cookie that has ever been created. Amazing. Simple. Delicious. 

Carbone is one of those restaurants that you can only go to once. It’s so great that you have to keep it special. But also, it’s so great that you eat too much food, enough to last you three days. We ended up canceling two reservations because of how full we were. That’s why our Vegas trip became a trip full of some great meals. I still feel full, writing about this restaurant almost a week later. But, if you are in a city with a Carbone, I recommend going. It was a fun and entertaining experience with great food. For those of you wondering if it lived up to the hype, it surely did. I’m Carbo loaded until further notice.