Review: Celebrity Chef Mario Batali Performing at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas

Mario Batali's Enoteca San Marco restaurant inside the Canal Shoppes area of the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was, in short, a major disappointment.

Maybe the problem was that we went on a major holiday-or maybe Batali isn't made of the same "celebrity chef apron" as his other colleagues' restaurants that we have been fortunate enough to dine in. It's not that we frequent these venues, but this is the first of the few my husband and I have tried that we've actually come out feeling negative about our experience.

Our first "celeb" dinner was at the Two Hot Tamales Ciudad in downtown Los Angeles. It was chic to look at (both the décor and the crowd), service and food were excellent and all went well. Next, while in New Orleans, we went to Emeril's original restaurant. It's a meal we still recall with wonder and consider it to be one of our finest dining experiences. We've had brunch at the Las Vegas Mesa Grill owned by Bobby Flay and enjoyed the look and the excellent food and wait staff. One a recent trip to New York City, my daughter and I had just as wonderful a dining experience at Flay's Bar Americain.

Sorry Mario. We made reservations-we didn't expect to be seated on a holiday without them. When we arrived, the first thing we saw was a TV monitor with a flash of menu competing with a screen size picture of the chef. Then we let the rather cold, condescending hostess know that we were checking in. She acted as if we were a bother. We were seated with an "I'm to busy to care where you sit, so just take your seat" wave.

The first waiter arrived. (pay attention to the fact that I said first) I explained about a food allergy and asked for a suggestion. He gave none-except to say "well stay away from anything that sounds as if you might get sick". He took the order and disappeared and never came back-no one ever did explain where he went. We sat there for about five minutes when the water we had requested finally showed up. The bus person didn't ask us if we wanted/needed anything else. Then someone else came by and put a paper package on the table. It had cold bread inside. No olive oil, balsamic vinegar or butter. Not a plate.

We ordered to cold sides, which probably would have actually been quite good had they been hot. Broccolini with spicy lemon oil and a lentil salad. Then our entrees were served. My husband ordered the grilled swordfish over fingerling potatoes. It was quite tasty, but nothing we couldn't have had at a local Italian restaurant near our home for a fraction of the cost. My dish was mini-ziti with roasted eggplant. Now I like my pasta al dente, but these were almost crunchy and my food was room temperature. Since eggplant isn't expensive, they should have made sure there was more of it on the plate. I wanted to ask them to heat it up, but no one came by!

Finally, a cheery young waitress came and asked us if we'd like dessert and handed us the bill at the same time.

Luckily, we had purchased two for one tickets for this meal-it was really not worthy of paying full price.