I think that having dinner at the Stratosphere Top of the World restaurant could be my favorite experience from our trip to Las Vegas.  Not only was the food wonderful, but the experience is amazing.

We arrived at the Stratosphere a few minutes late for our reservation, because we started walking the wrong way when we got off the monorail.  My directional lesson in Vegas was that when in doubt while outside, find the strip, and inside, find the Casino (all of the hotels have their casinos on the Strip level, if you find the casino you can find your way out).

The Top of the World had the most involved entrance process that I have ever seen for a restaurant. You first check in with a hostess at ground level, then they send you through a security check point to the elevator.  Inside the elevator there is operator who takes you up over 100 floors, in approximately one minute, to the restaurant.  You are then greeted by a second hostess who seats you in the revolving dining room.  Over the next hour and 20 minutes you will slowly revolve and see the entire 360 degree view of all of Las Vegas,  in fact, you can see about 600 square miles.

After being seated, the waiter immediately brought us water, bread and Stratosphere shaped butter.  From the menu we chose:

Three Course Dinner for Two with wine pairings

First Course:

With a choice of soup or salad, we chose the Caesar salad , which was paired with Trimbach, Pinot Gris, Alsace

Second Course:

Copied directly from the menu:

“Our World Famous Chateaubriand for Two Angus Beef ® tenderloin, roasted to perfection, served with sautéed langoustines with garden vegetables, house potatoes and sauce Béarnaise”

Paired with Beaulieu Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford

In a couple of words: Delicious! Melt in your mouth! Fantastic!

And then, as if we hadn’t already had enough delicious food to eat, we were served our third, and final, course, which was a dessert sampler. The sampler included: (from left to right) Trio of Desserts- Raspberry Mousse in a white chocolate bowl, Chocolate Mousse, and White Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding

Sinful!

Paired with Godiva Chocolate Coffee

Tickets to the Observation deck, just above the Top of the World, are included with dinner, normally about $14 per adult.  So when dinner was complete we took the elevator up another floor or two to the observation deck to take pictures from the top of the tallest free standing tower in the United States.

(The blue light show in the picture below is the beam from the top of the Luxor)

The observation deck is also where you can board the Stratosphere Insanity rides.  I was too much of a wussy to take the chance, and Ryan had already done it once before, so we just soaked in the view of the lights of Las Vegas.

We had a great time at the Stratosphere and truly enjoyed our dinner at the Top of the World.  The three course meal for two, with wine pairing , was a little pricey, at $220, but worth every penny for the experience and the excellent meal.