Trips to Las Vegas have started to look a little different since I entered my 30s.Gone are the days when my friends and I would solely survive on McDonald's or Panda Express, lugging grease-stained brown bags or heaving cartons of orange chicken as we rushed from the pool party to the nightclub.Oh, to be young. Or at least that young!I'm still going to the clubs, but you won't catch me at the Venetian food court anymore. Dining in Sin City has never been better, and I treat each visit as an opportunity to explore.On my most recent Vegas trip to review The Vanderpump Hotel, I got the chance to try three very different restaurants by three very big names: Lisa Vanderpump, Gordon Ramsay, and Giada De Laurentiis.There were highs, there were lows, there were cocktails covered in smoke. There were birdcages stuffed with charcuterie, towers stacked with crostini and crepes, and who could forget the world's most famous beef Wellington?Here's how it all went.
My first meal of the trip was lunch at Giada, located at the brand-new Vanderpump Hotel.
The entrance to Giada at The Vanderpump Hotel.
Jacob Kepler for BI
Giada was De Laurentiis' very first restaurant, opening at The Cromwell hotel in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip in June 2014. The property has since been completely revamped by Vanderpump and now bears her name, but Giada remains in the same space.
