Chowhound: SW Steakhouse at Wynn Las Vegas
If you're familiar with Steve Wynn you'll see his fingerprints everywhere when you visit SW Steakhouse at Wynn Las Vegas. The very name, SW, is named for Steve Wynn. SW is located below the casino floor and adjacent to the beautiful Lake of Dreams. When you step inside the restaurant you'll see Mr. Wynn's artistic side with beautiful paintings on the wall.
To get to SW Steakhouse you'll take a quick ride down a winding escalator which drops you off to a view of the Lake of Dreams and just steps from the front door of SW Steakhouse. Even though it's a bit dark and feels as if you're in a basement, I recommend sitting in the large bar area for a cocktail or two before dinner. Once you pass through the bar, enter the dining room, a bright space with a wonderful ambiance. The brightness is helped along by floor to ceiling windows that slide open let natural light into the space (during the daylight hours of course which during the summer months last until close to 9 pm). If you sit near these windows you can enjoy a front row view for the Lake of Dreams show which is backed by with a water wall where the light show is presented at 9 p.m. nightly. If it's earlier in the night, you'll feel like you're dining lakeside. Not something you experience often in Las Vegas.
On my most recent account, my party decided not to be disturbed by Lake of Dreams show so we could focus on steak, wine and an evening of camaraderie. It's an understatement to say that the service at SW Steakhouse is great. Our table had multiple servers; one made sure we never had an empty bread basket, which SW Steakhouse has amazing bread that's made on premise, another person made sure we never had to wait for water to be refilled and our head waitress never allowed anyone at the table to have an empty wine glass. Runners brought out our food and the head waitress returned minutes after the food hit the table to make sure everything was prepared as we wanted. It was and we felt like Kings with such wonderful service.
After sampling very good appetizers and salads (I recommend the Beef Carpaccio and Steve’s Chopped Salad) and it was time for the real reason I was at SW Steakhouse, steak! The New York Strip I ordered was a perfect medium and was gently seasoned with salt and pepper. There were steak sauces available but as I always say, if I need sauce I don't want the steak. The Nebraska Corn-Fed steak at SW Steakhouse was one of the best steaks I've had in Las Vegas. The potato and broccoli sides were excellent, but they were barely touched because the steak and wine were both so good.
SW Steakhouse at Wynn Las Vegas has been the winner of the AAA Four Diamond Award for good reason. The service is as good as I've had in Las Vegas as are the steaks. While Botero is the sexy new(er) steakhouse at Wynn and Encore Las Vegas next to XS Nightclub, don't forget it's more traditional older brother SW.
