Delmonico Steakhouse

Delmonico Steakhouse is Emeril Lagasse's steakhouse in The Venetian resort on the Las Vegas Strip. It joins a classic American steakhouse with the Creole cooking of New Orleans.

Lagasse opened it in May 1999 as an offshoot of Delmonico, the century-old New Orleans restaurant whose name it carries. The kitchen builds on French technique with the strong flavors of Louisiana, and the menu goes well beyond the usual porterhouse and creamed spinach. Ronnie Rainwater, who joined the kitchen a month after the opening, led it as chef de cuisine for many years.

The beef is USDA Prime from Creekstone Farms and is dry-aged on the premises; a filet mignon comes with demi-glace and asparagus, a sliced New York strip with roasted mushrooms. Emeril's New Orleans barbecue shrimp, perhaps his best-known dish, sits in a rich sauce built on a dark roux. Thick slices of apple-cured kurobuta bacon are glazed with Abita root beer and served with pickled watermelon, and truffle and Parmesan potato chips arrive hot from the fryer. Captains still mix Caesar salad at the table, and rabbit saddle is rolled in prosciutto as a porchetta. A wilted spinach salad comes with a warm sherry and bacon dressing, pecan-crusted bacon and a fried poached egg.

Banana cream pie, layered with pastry cream and bananas under caramel and chocolate, is the signature dessert of the house. The wine program has held a Grand Award from Wine Spectator since 2004, and a whiskey collection of several hundred bottles stands beside it. The dining rooms are formal but relaxed, with a dress code of business casual, and a Grasshopper made with Fernet Vittone Menta is a common way to end the meal.