It’s hard to stand out as an exceptional steak house in Las Vegas. There’s a ton of restaurants here whose main focus is serving steak, and a lot of them do it very well. Even though I’ve been to countless of these meat (and usually seafood) eateries I’m almost always game to try another one. A friend of mine recently suggested we go to FIX which is located in The Bellagio. He remembered enjoying a really tasty steak there sometime last year, and I hadn’t had a chance to try this place yet so it was a perfect opportunity. I don’t think the restaurant actually classifies its self solely for serving steak but their menu focuses on cuts of meat aged differently (wet aged, dry aged etc.) and a selection of separate side dishes to be ordered a la carte. They do have a main course section which offered a surprisingly good variety of non-beef choices that all looked good and didn’t feel like afterthoughts. We were seated right away and greeting by a series of friendly staff members. They have a good wine and beer selection and I ordered my usual red wine (I chose a Pino Noir) at the server’s suggestion and was pleased.
We started off our meal with the Spicy Tuna appetizer which is basically spicy tuna on top of cubes of crispy rice that’s served with a ponzu type of dipping sauce. It was pretty good. The tuna could have used a little more seasoning to give it some flavor but the crunchy rice paired with the somewhat mushy tuna was the perfect contrast. We both knew we wanted to order steak so we figured we would pick a side and share it. My date went with his favorite, the 28 day dry aged 20oz bone in Rib-eye. I picked the dry aged 14oz bone in sirloin, and we decided to share the grilled asparagus. The steaks came out fairly quickly, looking gigantic, and were both topped with a few salt and vinegar (I’m assuming house made) potato chips. I found this a little different but I figured it must be their signature thing so why not give it a shot?
They also served us 2 steak sauces, one was the house version of “A-1” and the other was a creamy something or other, and both were tasty. It’s nice to not have to order condiments and pay $2-4 for each one (which is usually the case when you order a steak in Vegas). I asked for my meat to be cooked med-rare and my friend wanted his cooked medium. It almost seemed as though they mixed up our requested temps because we both got what the other wanted as far as doneness goes. Although I think this could have simply happened because my steak was 6 ounces smaller than his and was probably resting for quite a bit longer. Overall the flavor of the meat was really good. My friend said he remembered it being “better” the last time he had that same steak at FIX, but isn’t that usually the way the human memory works? We’re always setting an unreachable standard based on an experience we most likely barely even remember. I thought it was pretty good. The Grilled Asparagus was perfectly fine, but when isn’t it?
Oh wait, I can’t forget the potato chips that sat awkwardly atop my steak. I took a bite of one and it was pretty flavorless, just gum slicing-ly crunchy (not in a good way). The next bite I took was SO salty I almost had to spit it out and ask for a glass of water. Learn how to evenly season a potato chip guys, or better yet don’t put some strange thing on top of my meal trying to be trendy unless it’s so good it’s gonna make me regret questioning it being there in the first place. No harm done. The chips were easy to take off. So in any event, FIX is good (like pretty much every restaurant at The Bellagio). If someone invites you to dine there I’m sure you’ll enjoy your food and the service, but like I said earlier a good steak is easy to come by in this city. This restaurant just needs to focus on FIX-ing some small issues and I think they will be good to go.
