text: nThe QuicknnnGood but not great contemporary American fare that is served in a setting and demeanor too casual to be called finedining nnnThe DetailsnnnDuring my latest outing to Las Vegas I was searching for a new finedining restaurant to try To my disappointment I was not encouraged by any of the new offerings and decided that I would go with a repeat visit to the current finedine Vegas champ restaurant Alex see my review for more details Unfortunately I was greatly saddened by the fact that Alex had recently closed I could not find a clear answer to why it had closed as it attracted a fair amount of diners and was not lacking in the recognition department star Michelin Nonetheless I was left in the situation where I had to settle for one of the new finedine establishments I have yet to try over the last year or two nnwhich leads me to Sage As alluded to in Vegas dining magazines and articles I had read on the web it appears hotel owners like WynnEncore believe that most Vegas visitors do not hover toward traditional intimate true finedining environments They believed they could attract the most customers via establishments that had good food but a more relaxed hip and glamorous showy experience My opinion on this school of though set aside it basically left me no choice but to pick a restaurant that was not as finedine as I originally wanted With the exception of Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon there are really no more true finedine establishments in Las Vegas at least that i know of nnAnyways here are the concrete details of my dining experience at Sagenn Food I did not care for the offered tasting menu and to my surprise not everyone at the table had to have the tasting menu Consequently my gf got the tasting menu as I elected to pick off the a la carte menunna Appetizer Pacific Yellow Tail Crudo w shaved trumpet mushrooms black winter truffle and toasted pine nutsnI am always a fan of raw fish and especially yellow tail so this dish was a nobrainer for me The tangy citrus marinade worked well with the inherent flavor of the fish However I was not a fan of the shaved raw mushroom and felt it did not blend with the other ingredients of the dish nnb Appetizer Chilled Dungeness Crab Salad with fennel tangerine and creme fraichenAgain another favorite classic ingredient of mine crab Good flavors probably my favorite dish of the night Very delicate mild tastes in the salad Not overpowering but just the right amount of flavor to not mask the sweetness of the crab meat nnc Entree Bluenose Grouper with chanterelles leeks parsley rootnWhy did I get this dish Why did not I go for the kobe Yeah I have no idea actually In hindsight I should have gone for the bold flavors of the meat dishes and skipped the fish The grouper was okay but did not stand out at all It had some decent flavor and was of course cooked perfectly It was strictly ordinary and ordinary was not something one looks for in such a highend establishment nn Service subpar in the context of true finedining establishments Our waiter did not do anything especially wrong or was especially rude but like a lot of the other components of this restaurant he was merely okay I could not differentiate whether the waiter simply had a natural apathetic demeanor or he did want to serve us In either case however his bored casual affect immediately disappointed my dining experience nnOverall Sage was a forgettable restaurant in a slew of similar highend but ordinary Las Vegas restaurants Sure it was pretty good food overall but you honestly find good food like that in almost any other star hotel in Vegas There was nothing that made it stand out from the competition nor did it possess a theme trait dish or element of service that compels me to return