This restaurant's strategy is a comfortable array of Southern Italian cuisine that comes across as "fine" without being intimidating or priced into the stratosphere.

The room is small by comparison to many Vegas restaurants but it isn't exactly intimate. If there is one complaint it is here since two sides of the room are open to the casino and a walkway from the parking garage respectively. Expect a lot of gawkers watching you eat.

But luckily you'll be so engrossed in your meal that you probably won't notice or care.

The warm ciabatta bread served as a starter is baked on the premises and the pesto you put on it is "homemade," subtle in texture and flavor that strikes the "just right" balance. I'm more of a butter man myself when it comes to bread toppings but the pesto made me want to reconsider my stance.

Appetizers seem to fall mostly to the Italian side of the spectrum with an assortment of bruschetta, fried calamari, beef carpaccio, assorted sausages and prosciutto, and more available to get you started.

I went for the potato gnocchi, soft dumplings in a creamy tomato sauce with melted mozzarella. It's important to note that this is not always on the menu because they are very concerned about potato quality, which speaks highly not only of the dish but of their standards.

It was delectable, with the dumplings almost literally melting in my mouth and the chunks of mozzarella providing a chewy counterpoint. I had to restrain myself from licking the plate clean and then asking for seconds.

I skipped the wood-fired pizza section but if you are so inclined you can get sausage, meatball, salami, prosciutto, and a simply mozzarella version among others.

Ditto the soups and salads but there are plenty to choose from here including a basic Caesar, a chilled seafood, and a steaming bowl of pasta fagioli soup.

The main course options are equally wide-ranging. A few simple pasta dishes such as rigatoni with meatballs and baked lasagna mix in with more extravagant fare like beef short ribs in a red wine sauce, seared sea scallops, traditional oso bucco, veal marsala, and linguini with clam sauce as just a few examples.

I was tempted to go with the baked lasagna but ultimately went with the roasted pork chop. Why? Because it was stuffed with fontina cheese and prosciutto. That would ultimately be pork stuffed with cheese and pork and I don't know how anyone could pass that up.

The chop itself was thick on the bone, roasted to a golden brown topped with chunks of garlic and onion. Inside the meat was tender and juicy but that filling of cheese and prosciutto was the real victory here. Even though I knew it was going to be there, it still came as a delightful surprise, like unwrapping a really cool toy for Christmas and finding another toy inside that one. Melted to a generously gooey level and slightly tangy, the filling turned an already good pork chop (which admittedly can be a bit boring) into a great one.

The only disappointment in my meal was the side I ordered of parmigiano and garlic potatoes. These roasted chunks tasted as though they had been roasting about three or four minutes longer than they should've been, so they were a bit dry and the much of the flavor had been leeched away.

For dessert I went with the chocolate toffee cake, which I think should've been called the chocolate coffee toffee cake since it had layers of cappuccino mousse between the fluffy cake layers and the whole thing was rolled in crunchy chocolate toffee pieces. A crunchy piece of cake is disconcerting at first but I got over it because it was just that good.

Prices are high but not for a Las Vegas casino restaurant. In comparison to most nice places, especially at Wynn, Stratta would be considered moderate. Appetizers, salads, and pizzas are in the $10-20 range and most entrees are in the $25-35 range although a few like the lobster and oso bucco break the $40 barrier. Desserts are all $10. So figure with a glass of wine, an appetizer or salad, a main course, dessert, tax, and tip around $75 per person. It's scary that $75 is considered moderate in Las Vegas but there it is.

Stratta had a lot to prove and it does so with style.

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Originally conceived as a sister to locals’ favorites like Orleans, Suncoast, and Gold Coast, the South Point continues to follow the successful locals’ casino formula: lots of low-limit gambling, plenty of low-cost dining and entertainment options, and comfortable and relatively inexpensive accommodations.

When the hotel first opened I complained that it didn’t have much of a personality. It felt bland and a bit impersonal, but it’s amazing what a new owner and a new attitude can do for a place.

South Point is located on Las Vegas Boulevard South, more popularly known as The Strip, but not in the region most tourists consider when thinking of the destination. It’s about six miles south of Mandalay Bay, right along Interstate 15 in a rapidly developing area of condos, apartment buildings, shopping complexes, and houses that was nothing but scrub brush a few years ago.

The overall scheme of the property is Southern California sunshine, all muted earth tones with white and gold accents. To be honest, this helped to contribute the bland complaint I had about the hotel but for compared to many newer Las Vegas hotels, which are the definition of the word bland, I don’t have as much of a problem with it as I used to.

The main floor is given over to the casino of course - an 80,000-square-foot barn of a space that when it opened provided absolutely no intimacy. But a reorganization of the floor along with additions like a high-limit area and a lounge has broken up the sight lines so that I don’t feel exposed like I did before, which is great because you don’t want to feel exposed when you’re feeling guilty about blowing the rent money or little Billy’s college fund.

There are plenty of games on which to do just that – more than 2,200 slot machines with plenty of video poker (all coinless, ticket-in/ticket-out technology), several dozen of the most popular table games, a race and sports book, a keno lounge, a poker room (more of a poker corner), and a giant bingo parlor on the second floor.

Ringing the room are the restaurants, bars, lounges, and a 400-seat showroom. There are no name-brand eateries here (except for Seattle’s Best Coffee I suppose) but they have all the usual suspects covered including a big buffet, a steakhouse, an Italian joint, and a 24-hour café among others. An addition since Gaughan took over added another couple of restaurants and a bar on the second floor.

Also on that second level is the aforementioned bingo parlor plus a 64-lane bowling alley with all of the latest high-tech wizardry the sport seems to demand these days, a video game arcade, and a 16-screen movie theater complex.

Other amenities include a very well-equipped work-out room (all the machines have their own TV screens), a nice spa offering all manner of massages and treatments, and a pool area with multiple places to splash around or lounge. They even have a sundry store that proclaims to have the lowest prices in town on packaged liquor, something worth noting if you are tired of paying twice the going rate for a six-pack at your hotel’s sundry store.

But the centerpiece of the hotel and the thing that makes it different from pretty much everywhere else in town is the giant Equestrian and Events Center, a 4,400 seat arena for horsing around and other entertainment. It features a 250x125 foot show floor arena, 1,200 climate controlled horse stalls, room out back for 2,000 head of cattle, over 100,000-square-feet of meeting and convention space, a bar, and snack facilities.

It has become one of the premiere equestrian facilities in the country and you can regularly see guys with big hats and buckles wandering the halls. During the National Finals Rodeo held in Vegas at the Thomas and Mack arena in December it is pretty much impossible to get near the place much less find a room here.

Of note is the giant statue of legendary casino magnate Benny Binion astride a horse just outside the equestrian center. It was donated by Binion’s daughter but was so big they had to cut holes in the walls to get it inside.

The existing 1350 guest rooms in a multi-winged 25-story tower are lovely, each around 500-square feet and completely packed with all of the conveniences you could possibly need including flat-panel televisions with movies and Internet access, separate high-speed and wireless Internet access, hair dryer, iron and board, coffee maker, and more. The beds are plushy, the furnishings are all simple and tasteful, and the towels in the moderately sized bathroom are soft.

Prices are a bargain, on most days, not only for what you are getting but for the city as a whole. Rates during the week are as low as $70 a night and rarely exceed $100, while weekends are as low as $80 and rarely go over $120. Not the cheapest hotel in town but when you look at what it has to offer in terms of amenities and appointments those are great prices.

Service was extremely friendly everywhere I went, a nice change from when the hotel first opened and things were a bit too cold for my tastes. Looks like Mr. Gaughan focused on this when he took over the property and it shows.

As stated, I found the hotel boring when it first opened as South Coast, devoid of personality. These days South Point may not be the most exciting hotel in town, but it has found its niche and is doing a great job of making a statement beyond just its low cost and high value.

Highs	Very nice rooms, a lot to do, bargain rates.
Lows	Location.
Category	Rating	Notes
Location	4	Not too far from The Strip but far enough.
Price	8	You can get some very inexpensive rates here.
Value	10	Worth it even when things get a little pricey.
Rooms	8	Very nice.
Casino	8	Lots of options, low-limits.
Amenities	10	Rooms have everything you want.
Facilities	10	Property is full packed with things to do.
Service	9	Very friendly and efficient.
Fun	8	Improved since the name change.
Bonus	7	A good Strip alternative.
Vegas4Visitors Rating: 82

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