A Tuscan Villa Tucked Into Treasure Island in Las Vegas - Francesco's Restaurant
Written: Feb 27 '08 (Updated Apr 11 '08)
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Pros: Impeccable service, Nice dining atmosphere, Large selection, Decent food
Cons: Didn't find a dish that really wowed us
The Bottom Line: If you're staying at Treasure Island or want to dine there before seeing Mystere, Francesco's is a reasonable choice - the service was impeccable and the food was good overall
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| jps246's Full Review: Francesco's |
When you think of fine dining and Las Vegas, the restaurants at Treasure Island (TI) don’t always come first to your mind. That was the case with me at least, but we had wanted to eat somewhere in TI so that we could then go to the Mystere show without having to worry about rushing in between.
That’s how we found Francesco’s. We sort of stumbled onto it as we were going around Treasure Island the day before the show. Francesco’s is one of TI’s four ‘fine-dining’ restaurants (the others being a steak house, a Mexican place and the new Social House which caters towards sushi). There are a number of other restaurants in TI but most of them don’t accept reservations.
So we made our reservation for the next evening at Francesco’s and away we went.
Finding Francesco’s
Francesco’s is located inside the Treasure Island (TI) Hotel and Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard. TI is on the northern end of the southern strip. It’s across from the Venetian and the Wynn and the Mirage is just to the south.
The restaurant is fairly easy to access, located on the outside edge of the casino and towards the front of the casino area near the main entrance.
Reservations are strongly recommended and are probably required especially on Friday and Saturday nights. We were there on a Monday night and it was not overly busy, but we had a reservation ahead of time just to make sure that we would get in and out with enough time to see our show.
Ambiance
I think Francesco’s must be one of TI’s older fine dining restaurants as its been there as long as I can remember and its décor seems to have been designed when the hotel was first put in. I can’t say its out of date, but compared to the modern, minimalist look at many other Vegas restaurants, Francesco’s seems a bit quaint.
Think of a Tuscan villa redeveloped in a corner of a casino and you have Francesco’s. The design is pleasant, the atmosphere a bit refined and overall it is a pleasant dining experience. I just felt that it was kind of odd that you could look out into the casino (thankfully through closed windows to reduce the casino noise).
Dining attire is what they call “dressy casual,” which basically means from what I saw of other guests, to look nice. No baseball hats, sweatshirts or sweatpants it seems. We were already dressed up for the Mystere show so we didn’t have a problem. Just be aware of this if you’re coming in off the Strip and want to eat.
Service
While I have to admit I wasn’t terribly impressed by the food, I was very impressed by the service at Francesco’s. Our waiter along with several other members of the wait staff made sure that we were completely taken care of from the moment we sat down to the time that we left.
The meals were also well paced, drinks were kept full and all in all, it was just a great dining experience when it came to all the aspects related to service.
Menu
The menu at Francesco’s is varied enough that almost anyone, even those not really fond of Italian (or I suppose in reality Tuscan) food will find something to eat. There are a number of different appetizers that included calamari, clams, shrimp and antipasto.
Three out of the four of us skipped the appetizers though and got salads instead. The one appetizer that we did get was a special that included a number of different seafood items. While I didn’t try it, everyone else did and they liked it. My partner and I got Caesar salads and the other person in the party got a spinach salad, which was another special of the night. I loved the Caesar dressing on the salad, much better than the run of the mill dressings you get elsewhere and our friend continues to rave about the spinach salad to this day.
From there are quite a few different choices for dinner. You can choose from a number of different pastas dishes along with several entrée meals. The pastas are much like you would expect and include lasagna, linguini with clams, cavatelli with broccoli and chicken, along with a number of other dishes. My partner got the linquini with clams and besides complaining about getting a few spots on his shirt from the clam sauce, he thought it was an excellent meal.
I instead went with the boneless half chicken that was grilled underneath a brick and came with sautéed greens. It was okay. The chicken had a nice Italian roasted flavor but overall it was a bit of letdown. It wasn’t anything different than I could have gotten anywhere else.
The others with us tried out pasta dishes. Neither was really wowed by the meals but neither of them had any complaints either.
The size of the meals was quite good. I think I had the smallest overall but even with that, I really couldn’t finish it before filling up. The others had even more left over when we had finished our meal.
While we didn’t continue into dessert because of time constraints (and not wanting to be over-full for the show), Francesco’s does offer a full dessert menu that includes gelato along with various cakes, crepes, and crème brulee.
Francesco’s (along with the other TI fine dining restaurants) offers a Mystere dinner package. You get tickets to the show along with dinner from a prix fixe menu. We didn’t get this package so I’m not exactly sure what is on that menu.
Price
Expect to spend at least $50 a person, especially if you start ordering drinks. Most of the pastas and entrees are $20 to $30 each while the appetizers and salads run around $10 each. Desserts are slightly cheaper but not much.
These are average Vegas prices though for a nicer restaurant.
Overall Thoughts
I liked Francesco’s, especially when it came to the service that we received. I just wasn’t wowed by the taste of the food. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a quality meal, it just wasn’t filled with the flavors and tastes I would expect in a nicer restaurant.
Would I personally go back? Probably not.
Would I recommend it for someone staying at or looking to dine at Treasure Island? Probably yes.
It’s not that Francesco’s is a bad restaurant, it’s just that Vegas has so many choices for dining, I wouldn’t likely go back to a place I didn’t fully enjoy. That’s not to say that it would be a bad choice for someone looking for a nice restaurant in Treasure Island (your choices are really limited) and that’s not to say that there are some really good things going for it (the service was amazing).
I would probably just want to try somewhere else before I went back to Francesco’s.
Final Thoughts
If you are staying in Treasure Island or want to dine there before you catch Mystere, I think that this restaurant is a good choice. The service was impeccable and the food was quite good overall.
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Recommended:
Yes
Kid Friendliness: No
Vegetarian Friendly: No
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Make reservations
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