Travel guide gives 5 stars to two LV eateries

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001 | 11:12 a.m.

Two Las Vegas restaurants have won the Mobil Travel Guide's coveted five-star ratings for the second year.

Picasso at Bellagio and Renoir at the Mirage last year became the first Las Vegas restaurants to win the highest honor by the company's long-published guide for tourists.

The announcement of their repeat in the guide was announced today on Mobil's website, mobile-oil.com. The former Mirage Resorts properties became MGM resorts last year when the two companies merged to form MGM MIRAGE.

"It's wonderful -- I knew the news was coming, and I was a little nervous," said Julian Serrano, chef at Picasso.

"Last year was one thing to win a five-star. This year we had to make sure we kept it. I'm happy, but now the next year is coming too -- but I like this kind of pressure."

Serrano, who won a Mobile four-star rating for a San Francisco restaurant where he worked before coming to the Bellagio, said it is not just good-tasting food that wins such an honor.

"Everything has to be good -- the food, the service. I don't really know what the judges like -- and I never know when they are coming because it's top secret -- but obviously they liked everything."

The Bellagio also won a four-star award in the hotel category, as did Caesars Palace, the Four Seasons and Harrah's Lake Tahoe at Stateline.

Mobil four-star Las Vegas restaurants for this year are Aqua and Le Cirque in the Bellagio and Napa at the Rio, the oil company said.

For more than 40 years the Mobil Travel Guide's rating system of one to five stars has been regarded as one of the most reliable sources for recommending to travelers the best restaurants, motels and resorts in more than 3,000 towns and cities in the United States and Canada.

This year the Mobil Travel Guide gave five-star awards to 16 restaurants in the United States and one in Canada for Nuances in Montreal.

In neighboring California, Ginza Sushiko of Beverly Hills, Gary Danko's of San Francisco and the French Laundry of Yountville in Napa Valley received five-star awards, as did Mary Elaine's in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Four New York restaurants also won the award: Daniel, Jean Georges, Le Cirque 2000 and Lespinasse, all in Manhattan.

The other five-star award restaurants in the United States this year are Charlie Trotter's, Chicago; Grill Room of Windsor Court, New Orleans; the Seeger's Dining Room, Atlanta; Maisonette in Cincinnati; Restaurant at the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas; and the Inn at Little Washington, Washington, D.C.

Two dozen hotels won Mobile Five-Star awards, none in Las Vegas.