 It's awfully pretty in a boring way. Maybe like the Monte Carlo down the street, but on a bigger budget. The rooms are large and luxurious, the equal of the Venetian. But this place seriously lacks an identity and serves more of like an annex than as its own property.
   
Room Quality: The smallest rooms in the joint are 720 s.f. and they are laid out a lot like the Venetian suites. That's generally a good thing. The sleeping area has a king or two queens and a flat screen. Move down to the sunken sitting area nearer the window where a sectional sofa, table and desk are all yours for lounging. Another flatscreen is for watching. The bathroom has more marble than most Italian quarries. Dual sinks, a big tub and separate shower are for those of us who are into that whole bathing fad. There's another, smaller TV in here will keep you up to date, even as you shave or put on makeup. The decor is slightly more modern than the Venetian, but nothing else suggests that this place is better or targeted for a different crowd.
Service Quality: Very good, and they win a bunch of awards for it. If you're like us, you pretty much like to check in and be left alone, though. So, the value of this depends on how much pampering you want. Room service, while expensive, is extensive.
What You Get Bottles of in the Bathroom: If you need it to smell good, they've got it. Shampoo, conditioner, lotion, the vanity accoutrement and, yes, the motherlode: the sewing kit. You'll have no excuse for entering the casino with your pants falling down.
Clientele: Very much the same as the Venetian. In fact, it sort of cannibalizes the Venetian for customers. Or maybe there were just more people wanting to stay there than they could accommodate. In any case, it's the well-to-do, so don't expect valet to park your Hyundai up front.
How's the Pool? As uninspired as the Venetian's next door, the Palazzo pool deck has several small pools and hot tubs on a large concrete deck with palms around it. It'll do, but is pretty disappointing for a resort this fancy.
Resort Fee: (What is this?) $17 per night. You get internet access, fitness center access (but only the gym part), daily paper and local and toll-free calls.
Table Games: The pit is laid out very simply in the middle of the casino. All the usual suspects are here: blackjack, roulette, craps, lots of Pai Gow, some Let it Ride, some baccarat and a few oddball games for the suckers. It's a clean area, but also strangely charmless. Craps has the Strip standard 3x4x5x odds, and the single deck blackjack has the dreaded 6:5 disease.
Bet Minimums: Look for $10 at most table games on the weekdays. They go up lickety-split on the weekends, when it can easily be $25 a pop at the low-roller tables and easily $200 mins at a few. Roulette is $2 chips and $10 mins.
Machines: From the penny-playing beasts up to $500 and probably beyond in the high-limit rooms. The video poker is lackluster. The slot areas are spacious so you aren't bumping elbows with the nickel jockey next to you.
Cocktails? Cocktails are strong and served in nice glasses, but about average for speed of service. The waitresses get high marks for looks, so at least you got something to think about while you're waiting for your drink.
Who Gets Comps? Reportedly, quite awful. The Palazzo plans to provide zero comps to the low roller and average player. Only the high rollers will receive anything. The rest of us, don't get even get a food credit.
Carnevino: Mario Batali knows and loves meat, and this place shows you. The layout is strange with seating on either side of a wide hallway, and the bar and kitchen accessible only on one side. But the meats are top notch. The Italian is good, too, but the steaks and chops are just fantastic. It better be for these crazy high prices. Oh, the place has a great winelist too.
Cut: Wolfgang Puck's steakhouse is pricey and more than just your average prime rib and strip steak. He's dishing up Kobe and Waygu, Indian spices on some dishes, and starter salads that cost $20 all by themselves. If you want to eat light, the bar has its own menu with quicker dishes for less.
dal Toro Ristorante: This Italian steakhouse serves steaks, pasta ad pizza. All things that are really hard to find in Las Vegas unless you want to walk fifty feet. The food is good, the restaurant used to be part of a Lamborghini showroom.
Dos Caminos: This must be Robert Frost's Mexican restaurant and he'll be having the meal less eaten. Serving lunch, dinner and late night, this joint has some refreshing Mexican that is more true to its New York heritage than most anything else in Vegas, such as empanadas. Plenty of ceviche is also available, plus steak, quesadillas, tacos and more of the usual fare.
First Food & Bar: It's supposed to be a take on the "neighborhood bar" with burgers, fries some pretend graffiti on the walls. They serve breakfast clear through late-night dinners and claim to be affordable. Maybe that's true relative to other restaurants at the Palazzo, but if all you really want is a patty melt or a salad, you can get them for half as much downtown.
Grand Lux Cafe: Just like the one next door at the Venetian, this Grand Lux is a coffee shop by the Cheesecake Factory folks. And they are most famous for huge portions and desserts. The menu is upscale coffee shop with a lot of pastas and sauces at dinner. At breakfast, try the waffles or French Toast.
Lavo: First the good news: there's a huge painting of a naked lady hanging over the lounge. Now the bad news: this is yet another restaurant that wants to be both a restaurant and nightclub. The cuisine is pan-Europe, including the French, Spanish and mostly Italian greatest hits. The nightclub has wash basins around because Lavo means to wash. There is also plenty of pricey bottle service and DJs and all the other tired accoutrements of a hipster nightclub.
Morels: Part of a string (or is that chain) of French bistros, Morels has three distinct elements. First is the fancy-pants bar with the snooty cocktails and celebrity bartender. Second is the lounge area where you can hang out. Third is the restaurant with many seafoods, including an iced seafood bar, salmon, halibut and lobster. They also serve steaks, like a flat iron and a Kansas City, and have a fantastic cheese bar. Preparation and foods are excellent.
Solaro: Wolfgang Puck's breakfast and lunch cafe is by the pool and pleasant for outdoor dining. There are omelets, breakfast burritos and paninis.
Sushisamba: Sushisamba offers an interesting fusion of sushi and Brazilian and Peruvian cuisine. The filet mignon comes with ginger, garlic and soy. The lamb is served with guava ponzu. You can get regular sushi, too, along with dishes from South America like churrasco and anticuchos.
Table 10: The celebrity behind this one is Emeril Lagasse, and the restaurant is named after a famous table in his New Orleans restaurant. Famous enough, we guess, that they'd never let us sit there. The menu is largely creole, with seafood, gumbo, jamablaya, steaks and ribs. Andouille sausage is one of our favorite things, though, so we're saving up our pennies.
Zine Noodles Dim Sum: As the name suggests, this restaurants is dim sum. The restaurant claims to borrow from all of Asia , but it also adds a little comfort for the unadventurous diner in the filet mignon soup or steamed lobster.
If you're in a hurry but still want to overpay, try Espressemente Illy for coffee, gelato and pastries. Out by the pool, you can eat Wolfgang Puck food at Solaro. I Love Burgers serves up pricey burgers in the shopping mall.
Jersey Boys: A Broadway show that traveled through some big cities before it got to Vegas. The musical is about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. That means it appeals to the same kind of people that the casino does. Or, people who just really, really dig falsetto.
Number of TVs: There are about 32 screens, all of them small. Eight are behind the windows, and ten are on another wall. The stadium has a giant screen. So, apparently, after you bet you need to eat and drink to really enjoy the game. What about those of us on the Atkins?
Number of Seats: None near the betting windows. All the seats are in the "bar and grill". There are seats for about 175, and they are all comfortable, with 75 in a theater arrangement before the giant screen in the Lagasse Stadium. For big games, they require a minimum overpriced food and beverage purchase to sit there. Some are chairs, some are day-beds and some are love seats, which may be awkward when it's just you and a buddy and there's only one love seat left. Beyond the theater seating are another 100 seats served by two more bars.
How Many Betting Windows? Ten windows to serve you in two different areas.
Free Drinks? Sure, if you bet fifty bucks on a game. So, you can get pretty blotto for about $300 if you want.
Snack Bar? The Stadium Grill is a high-flying sports bar by Emeril Legasse. It has burgers, soup, snooty tomatoes, quesadillas and barbecue shrimp. This food is for the folks who want bar food, but want it fancy.
Other Notes: This repurposed nightclub area has pros and cons. The room is huge and sprawling, has outdoor seating and lots of comfortable lounge areas. But, it's downstairs from hotel check-in in an isolated spot, and there is only one giant screen. It's ridiculously overpriced and doesn't have a communal vibe so much as a "let's hang and drink" vibe. For the gambler who wants to wager sports without even being in the sports book, Palazzo offers wireless handheld devices that allow you to bet on anything while you are anywhere in the casino.
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