Steve
09-18-2005, 03:14 PM
Gaylord's upscale atmosphere, good service and excellent food justify the price tag.
By Al Mancini
As I've written in the past, I've been eating Indian food for close to 20 years, and I've always considered it something of a budget delicacy. In most of my favorite Indian restaurants, 10 bucks will buy you a great meal, and 15 is enough for a feast. I'd never really been to a gourmet Indian restaurant until I recently paid a visit to Gaylord, inside The Rio. What I found there were more sophisticated versions of all my Indian favorites, as well as some things I'd never tried before, all presented in a beautiful dining room.
Gaylord is a Las Vegas spinoff of a San Francisco establishment that the owners boast has served "presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors, senators, mayors, rock stars & celebrities." When I visited this location on a Monday night, the relatively empty dining room was hosting a handful of Indian families and a couple of Caucasian tourists.
The room itself is ornately decorated in Indian fashion, which had an immediate calming effect on me. It also made me hungry, bringing to mind all of my favorite Indian dishes. Scanning the large menu, I came across plenty of familiar offerings, at considerably higher prices than I'm used to. There's lamb samosa ($9.95 for two), mulligatawny ($6.50), tandoori chicken ($17.95), assorted vindaloos ($20.95 to $23.95) and various versions of the rice dish biriyani ($15.95 to $23.95). But Gaylord has plenty of things I don't remember seeing before, either because they aren't offered at the less expensive restaurants I usually frequent, or simply because they never made much of an impression on me. They also have a huge vegetarian section, four combination dinners ($28.95 to $30.95) and four monstrous "royal feasts," each of which includes at least ten different dishes served over four courses ($39.95 to $49.95).
While I was tempted by the feasts, my wife talked some sense into me, convincing me that we probably weren't that hungry. I still ended up ordering more than I could finish, although the leftovers heated up pretty well at home.
We began our meal by splitting an appetizer of assorted tandoori hors d'oeuvres ($19.95), a large dish of chicken tikka, booti kabab and seekh kabab. The chicken was delicious, while the two types of lamb were remarkably different -- with both my wife and I preferring the seekh kebab over the booti. I also tried an amazing bowl of mulligatawny ($6.50).
For my entrée, I decided to experiment with a dish called prawn bhuna ($22.95), which consisted of at least a dozen good-sized shrimp in a slightly spicy red gravy. My wife also decided to try something she'd never had before, a recipe called sag gosht ($23.95) that consisted of lamb in a spiced cream spinach sauce. Both were delicious.
The only real disappointment of the night was my choice of bread. While I normally order aloo paratha ($5.50), a flat bread stuffed with potatoes and peas, I decided to try something called paneer paratha ($6.25), which promised spiced farmer's cheese as its filling. What I got was a rather bland flat bread, with only the slightest hint of cheese. Other than that, however, the food at Gaylord was excellent. The real question is whether it justifies the price.
While Gaylord offers a wider selection and slightly better cooking than most of the inexpensive Indian places I've found here in town, the food alone isn't worth the large jump in price. But most of those other places are tiny little hole-in-the-wall joints, often with counter service, where you wouldn't really feel comfortable bringing a date, or celebrating a special occasion. Gaylord, therefore, fills a much-needed niche. It's a high-end Indian restaurant with a great atmosphere, good service and excellent food. And it's that combination that justifies the price tag.
Gaylord Indian Restaurant (inside The Rio)
http://www.lvcitylife.com/articles/2005/05/05/dining_out/dining.txt
By Al Mancini
As I've written in the past, I've been eating Indian food for close to 20 years, and I've always considered it something of a budget delicacy. In most of my favorite Indian restaurants, 10 bucks will buy you a great meal, and 15 is enough for a feast. I'd never really been to a gourmet Indian restaurant until I recently paid a visit to Gaylord, inside The Rio. What I found there were more sophisticated versions of all my Indian favorites, as well as some things I'd never tried before, all presented in a beautiful dining room.
Gaylord is a Las Vegas spinoff of a San Francisco establishment that the owners boast has served "presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors, senators, mayors, rock stars & celebrities." When I visited this location on a Monday night, the relatively empty dining room was hosting a handful of Indian families and a couple of Caucasian tourists.
The room itself is ornately decorated in Indian fashion, which had an immediate calming effect on me. It also made me hungry, bringing to mind all of my favorite Indian dishes. Scanning the large menu, I came across plenty of familiar offerings, at considerably higher prices than I'm used to. There's lamb samosa ($9.95 for two), mulligatawny ($6.50), tandoori chicken ($17.95), assorted vindaloos ($20.95 to $23.95) and various versions of the rice dish biriyani ($15.95 to $23.95). But Gaylord has plenty of things I don't remember seeing before, either because they aren't offered at the less expensive restaurants I usually frequent, or simply because they never made much of an impression on me. They also have a huge vegetarian section, four combination dinners ($28.95 to $30.95) and four monstrous "royal feasts," each of which includes at least ten different dishes served over four courses ($39.95 to $49.95).
While I was tempted by the feasts, my wife talked some sense into me, convincing me that we probably weren't that hungry. I still ended up ordering more than I could finish, although the leftovers heated up pretty well at home.
We began our meal by splitting an appetizer of assorted tandoori hors d'oeuvres ($19.95), a large dish of chicken tikka, booti kabab and seekh kabab. The chicken was delicious, while the two types of lamb were remarkably different -- with both my wife and I preferring the seekh kebab over the booti. I also tried an amazing bowl of mulligatawny ($6.50).
For my entrée, I decided to experiment with a dish called prawn bhuna ($22.95), which consisted of at least a dozen good-sized shrimp in a slightly spicy red gravy. My wife also decided to try something she'd never had before, a recipe called sag gosht ($23.95) that consisted of lamb in a spiced cream spinach sauce. Both were delicious.
The only real disappointment of the night was my choice of bread. While I normally order aloo paratha ($5.50), a flat bread stuffed with potatoes and peas, I decided to try something called paneer paratha ($6.25), which promised spiced farmer's cheese as its filling. What I got was a rather bland flat bread, with only the slightest hint of cheese. Other than that, however, the food at Gaylord was excellent. The real question is whether it justifies the price.
While Gaylord offers a wider selection and slightly better cooking than most of the inexpensive Indian places I've found here in town, the food alone isn't worth the large jump in price. But most of those other places are tiny little hole-in-the-wall joints, often with counter service, where you wouldn't really feel comfortable bringing a date, or celebrating a special occasion. Gaylord, therefore, fills a much-needed niche. It's a high-end Indian restaurant with a great atmosphere, good service and excellent food. And it's that combination that justifies the price tag.
Gaylord Indian Restaurant (inside The Rio)
http://www.lvcitylife.com/articles/2005/05/05/dining_out/dining.txt