Imagine the pressures of maintaining one of Las Vegas’ favorite steakhouses, night after night, then add the demands of a seafood restaurant where live lobsters are the essential dish. It’s all in a day’s work for David Walzog, executive chef at Wynn’s standard-bearing SW Steakhouse and the neighboring Lakeside. “There are common threads between the two: approachability with a fun twist, and always quality ingredients,” Walzog says. We challenged the chef to name the dishes that define each restaurant.
What to order at SW: “You have to start with the iceberg salad, with house-cured pepper bacon and blue cheese, of course. Then a ribeye—everyone loves the fat of the ribeye, the way we char the steak and kind of render some of that fat but also crisp up the edges. Get it with black truffle creamed corn or spinach, and then to finish, the funnel cakes.”
What to order at Lakeside: “The king crab and guacamole is a very vibrant, fresh starter. It really falls in line with the whole menu, the music and the décor of the spirit of the room—energetic. We also have these new caviar sliders, little fresh-baked brioche with crème fraîche and golden Osetra caviar with the garnishes, and if you’re so inclined, like I would be, you can tack on the little airline bottle of Ketel One right out of the freezer. It’s fun stuff. Then you splurge, get into the lobsters, where there are different price points and experiences just like the beef at a steakhouse. We’ve got them from Maine, Scottish blue lobsters, South American from Chile, all over.”
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