Certainly, the quality of restaurant food is a subjective experience and one man’s Big Mac is another man’s gourmet feast at the Ritz.
So we checked the six reviews on LasVegasAdvisor.com. One said, "Food was excellent." A second said, "Never disappoints." A third said, "I had Hugo's chicken. Very tasty and a big portion. Hubby had the duck. He's not a big fan of licorice, so he didn't like it very well." A fourth said, "The crab legs were fishy tasting and the scallops were bland." And a fifth said, "This USED to be our favorite place to have a quiet, expensive dinner. However the last two times we ate there, the quality & service went down & the prices went up."
This seemed to us to be a pretty typical representation of the various reactions people have to restaurants. Two loved their meals. One split the love. Another thought the first dish was too strong and the second was too weak. And the last claimed it wasn’t as good as it used to be.
So we went to TripAdvisor.com and found that of 262 reviews of Hugo's Cellar, 188 were excellent (72%) and 24 were very good (81%). Also, TripAdvisor ranks Hugo’s #14 out of 1,746 Las Vegas restaurants, which puts it in the top 8% of all Vegas restaurants, based on tens of thousands of ratings and reviewers.
All in all, we consider that pretty promising of a fine meal, though your taste mileage may vary. And personally, we've never had a bad meal at Hugo's. We last covered it in the July 2006 newsletter. Here’s what we wrote:
"For decades, Hugo's has enjoyed a reputation as one of the finest and most romantic restaurants in Las Vegas, and the Four Queens has been wise enough not to mess with a good thing. For example, in a time-honored tradition, ladies are handed a rose when they walk through the doors. The dark and intimate room still exudes a Rat Pack-cool '60s-Vegas look. The waiters and sommeliers have been there forever (our server was 'still one of the new kids on the block' -- after 17 years).
"Hugo's is also known for a couple of culinary traditions, including table-side salad and flambé preparation, the small sorbet cone that's delivered between the appetizer and entrée, and the plate of strawberries, dried apricots, and figs dipped in dark and light chocolate served after dinner. It’s all old-style Vegas gourmet room."
And that right there might be part of the problem. Old school is, after all, old; some people prefer more contemporary cuisine. Hugo's takes pride in a menu that's heavy on the basics: beef, chicken, veal, and fish, prepared by chefs trained in an Old World French tradition that some people have either evolved away from or never liked in the first place.
If you go, here's what you'll find.
Appetizers range from shrimp, duck, and escargots ($12) to the hot-rock specialty, a sizzling slab of granite with tenderloin medallions, chicken, swordfish, and jumbo shrimp ($28 for two). Light eaters can skip the starters, thanks to the huge salads, prepared tableside with a flourish; we like the creamy-pepper dressing.
The sorbet is a nice touch to cleanse the palate (though Barney Vinson claims it cleanses the wallet).
Entrées, which come with potato or wild rice and vegetable, start at $34 for chicken, pause in the high $30s and mid-$40s for veal, duck, seafood, steaks, and Hugo's vaunted rack of lamb, and top out at chateaubriand and lobster for two at $135.
The last time we were there, we had the salmon en papilotte and chicken raspberry, both excellent.
Bananas Foster and cherries jubilee are Hugo's signature desserts (each $16 for two), flambéed at the table. But chocolate-dipped strawberries, apricots, and figs with real whipped cream accompany the meal, so you can get a sweet taste at the end at no extra charge.
Bottom line: You can't really tell if you'll like the food at a restaurant until you go try it for yourself. And if you do, please let us know the verdict.
