Fun and Games: Las Vegas Scene

STEAK YOUR CLAIM

Steve Wynn’s SW Steakhouse offers an American classic in an elegant environment.

Overlooking Lake of Dreams, a 200-foot-wide lake framed by a 105-foot mountain and more than 1,500 trees, SW serves steak-house fare with personal touches from executive chef David Walzog, whose résumé includes The Steakhouse at Monkey Bar and Michael Jordan’s The Steak House NYC.

Starters include crab cakes, foie gras and tuna (from $20 to $25), and entrées feature scallops, lamb chops and chicken (from $37 to $50) for those not interested in steak, as well as rib eyes and dry-aged tomahawk chops paired with lobster tail and crab legs (from $21 to $78).

Executive pastry chef Kimberly Valdez balances savory and sweet flavors in the desserts ($12 and up), offering a selection of treats for those who aren’t too full after a big steak dinner.

Walzog’s creative twists to an otherwise traditional fare earned SW the AAA Four-Diamond award from 2008 to 2011, and the double rib eye was recently featured on Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate.”

The Las Vegas desert and the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright inspire the dining room, designed by Vicente Wolf Associates. SW includes a main dining room, outdoor seating, two private rooms, a bar and a lounge. Reservations are recommended one to two weeks in advance and, despite the swanky interior, the attire is business casual.

Unique to the SW experience, diners enjoy the Lake of Dreams show — beginning after dark and occurring every half hour — which transforms light, water, horticulture, architecture, music and imagery to create a multisensory experience. The seven shows use water effects, light, music, projections, robots, an enormous frog and even a giant head rising from the lake. — Kira Cole

SW Steakhouse, The Wynn Las Vegas, 3131 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Tel.: 702-770-3325, Hours: Open for dinner service, Web: wynnlasvegas.com