BON APPETIT ON THE STRIP LAS VEGAS IS IN THE MIDST OF A CULINARY BOOM, AND THE DINING EXPERIENCES ARE AS VARIED AS THE DISHES.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

LAS VEGAS - Fresh chestnut soup. Lobster risotto with white truffles. Flaky, tasty vol au vent - at a buffet station. Dry-aged strip steak in seven spices, stuffed with Bulgarian feta cheese.

This is the dining experience in Las Vegas?

It is now.

Over the last few years, this city has expended a great deal of energy redefining itself - constructing hotels that mirror European retreats, opening lavish spas, stocking exotic products at chi-chi boutiques, lifting the curtain on Broadway kick lines. It was bound to work up an appetite.

As a direct result, the inclination to dine in comfort and elegance can be indulged at dozens of establishments along the Strip. Why, it seems a dealer can't sweep the chips off a roulette table without accidentally jabbing an elbow into a celebrity chef. The famous cooks who oversee kitchens here (or at least lend their names to enterprises) include Julian Serrano, Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Joachim Splichal, Mark Miller.

Two establishments just received coveted five-star ratings from the Mobil Travel Guide: Serrano's Picasso (at Bellagio) and Alessandro Stratta's Renoir (at the Mirage).

Los Angeles diners, meanwhile, can seek out the familiar: Matsuhisa of Beverly Hills has reincarnated as Nobu at the Hard Rock Hotel; Santa Monica's Border Grill has popped up under that name at Mandalay Bay; a derivation of Studio City's Pinot Bistro can be found here as Pinot Brasserie at the Venetian; Santa Monica's Valentino has surfaced under that name at the Venetian.

Food is an important component of Las Vegas' ongoing bid to attract business from the tourist industry's mid- to upper markets - resort travelers and white-collar conventioneers. But the city's eats aren't entirely clustered at the high end of the price scale.

To complement their fancy restaurants, several chefs have also opened cafe establishments, where the food and wine are priced more accessibly and the most casual of attire is accepted. Buffets at the new hotels - priced a bit higher than Strip tradition, but still reasonable - are offering gourmet items. And there are several new restaurants that are directly targeted to kids, featuring gimmicky surroundings and hefty portions of American classics.

Can't quite part with such Las Vegas standards as the $5.99 buffet, the 32-ounce rib-eye steak or the casino hot dog? Don't worry. For people with cast-iron boilers, those classics aren't going anywhere. You just have to wander far from the glitz of re-created Italian villas and Polynesian hideaways to find them.

On a recent visit here, nine of the Strip's establishments were sampled over a period of three days - from the top of the scale to near the buffet bottom, with several stops in the intermediate ranges. At that, I felt as if I'd I just nibbled around the edges of the city's culinary renaissance.

Roots

Here's where it all started: Spago and Spago Cafe in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

A little more than seven years ago, Puck and the executives who manage his Los Angeles-area establishments reasoned that Las Vegas, long thought to be peopled by impatient, undiscriminating gamblers who ate on the run, was ripe for something a little more exalted. The restaurants opened under the same roof (and awning) in December 1992, and experienced such exponential success that casino bosses all over town scrambled to corral household-name chefs of their own.

It's obviously still a popular spot. The dining room is dressy, with a menu to match. Many visitors seem to gravitate to the cafe, which is outdoors - but only in Las Vegas' trademark sense of suspended reality. It's a sidewalk setting in the upscale indoor mall that is the Forum Shops. You sit beneath a movie-set sky in climate-controlled comfort. Picture fine dining in the Galleria. During our dinner, we counted four sunsets in the distance near the animatronic statues.

There are no standards of decorum at the cafe. Near our table were two women in elegant black evening wear and jewelry, next to them a table of teens in sweatshirts and baseball caps. A guy in a suit. A kid in a hockey jersey. Thus, people from L.A. will feel right at home.

David Robins is the executive chef here, and he does a commendable job of maintaining Spago's West Hollywood traditions. Yes, the menu includes smoked-salmon pizza with a generous dollop of osetra caviar in the center of each slice. A homemade pappardelle pasta was served slightly al dente, with grilled shrimp, tomatoes and a basil pesto. The Caesar salad, big enough to split, was refreshingly without gimmicks - with thick shavings of Parmesan cheese and an anchovy laid out helplessly across its crest. The seafood in the Maine crab cakes appetizer was remarkably fresh.

And here was a revelation: excellent California wines that weren't priced through the fake roof. A pinot blanc from Au Bon Climat in the Santa Ynez Valley cost only $34. Dinner for two (two starter courses, two main courses, a bottle of wine, one dessert, plus tax and tip) came in at $135.

Advisory: A table along the exterior railing is desirable in most sidewalk cafes, but you might want to request a table set back a bit. Las Vegas is still wrestling to achieve a measure of sophistication, and the effect hasn't fully set in yet. We observed passers-by slowing down and openly gawking at diners' plates, as if watching TV.

Southwest sensations

Coyote Cafe, the creation of Southwest wizard Mark Miller, is another casual, reasonably priced establishment that complements an upscale cousin (the Grill Room). They share the same frontage in the gargantuan MGM Grand.

As at Spago Cafe, this is a sidewalk setting, though along an indoor walkway, and ambiance, accordingly, takes a beating. During our lunch there, the electronic bleeps and blurks of the nearby casino games bled down the hallway.

But the food was spicy and savory, representing clever variations on familiar items. The Southwest tasting platter featured a chicken enchilada made with a blue-corn tortilla and smothered in salsa verde, a duck quesadilla and a gordita - a thick, pitalike corn tortilla pocket stuffed with pork and other goodies.

From the Baja portion of the menu, a Cabo-style tostada boasted a generous complement of shrimp, plus asadero cheese, black beans and roma tomato slices. If you're looking for a light course at a Southwest-Mexican restaurant, this is it.

For the slaking of a thirst, the bar serves four Mexican beers, plus 32-ounce margaritas that come in glasses 2 feet tall. Lunch for two with beer was $46.

Advisory: When the waiter first arrives and asks if you'd like chips and salsa, be advised that they don't come complimentary. You'll pay $3 for this snack.

Prime cut

What is it about being in the desert that stirs a craving for a generous cut of grilled, juicy beef? In its frontier-theme days, Las Vegas had steakhouses in every block. In the rejuvenated stretch of the Strip, it still does; they're just better.

Choose from among Delmonico, Gallagher's, Morton's of Chicago, the Palm or Smith & Wollensky. Or Charlie Palmer Steak, which opened at the Four Seasons just a few weeks ago.

Like the hotel itself, the restaurant is blissfully removed from the clamor of casino gambling. And it shamelessly plays to Rat Pack Revival: dark, clublike, comfortable, with tables well-spaced. At the adjacent bar, there is overstuffed living-room furniture, a generous supply of Bombay Sapphire and martini glasses the size of candy dishes.

Steaks and chops are difficult to foul up. A restaurant just needs to track down thick, exceptional cuts and then keep a close eye on the grill. Two of the offerings here were impressive, particularly the filet mignon, which was perhaps 2 1/2 inches thick, extraordinarily tender, lightly charred on the outside and garnished with two roasted shallots.

But it's the side dishes that distinguish this restaurant. Two of the favorites at our table: a double-baked potato with truffle cream and sauteed spinach (we were considerably less impressed with the oven-roasted potatoes). Don't worry about feeling like a Philistine if you ask to share an item; the restaurant expects it, and in fact positions the side dishes family-style, in the center of a table for two.

The experience here was marred only by the wine manner of the sommelier, who was tardy in producing a requested bottle of Ravenswood merlot, then disappeared, opened the bottle at a sideboard, poured some in a glass, sniffed it and tasted it. When I protested that this should be my responsibility, he said, ``I wanted to make sure it was good. Some people have had an entire bottle not knowing that it wasn't.''

Fortunately, when the steak arrived, it didn't have a bite out of it.

Dinner for two (two starters, two main courses, three side dishes, a bottle of wine, a shared dessert, plus tax and tip) was $180.

French elegance

Napa, a restaurant at the Rio, just west of the Strip, has one feature that isn't easy to come by in the casino-bound restaurants of Las Vegas: windows. Over dinner here, you can actually look out over the pool and its bordering greenery, and watch the setting sun fire the desert sky.

The management of this hotel was among the pioneering element in fine dining in Las Vegas, and this restaurant, the province of chef Jean-Louis Palladin, is superb. It combines country French cookery with an exhaustive wine list, often featuring more than 100 offerings by the glass.

The room is seductively lit, with the walls adorned with abstract art and the kitchen open to view. The service was unfailingly attentive, yet discreet - thankfully, no one conforms to a popular restaurant trend of trying to be your best buddy (or, worse, a stand-up comic) for two hours. The waiters are trained not to reach across your body to place a glass or a fork, and they don't remove one person's empty plate while the other is still eating (my wife says that practice always makes her feel as if she's being pressured to hurry up).

Lamb chops were cut thick - two rib bones per chop - and cooked perfectly: Here, medium rare was actually medium rare, not rare, as is common in so many restaurants these days. One of the main-course specials was exquisitely rich: risotto sauteed in truffle butter and cooked in truffle consomme, then served with Parmesan cheese and Maryland lump crab and topped with shaved truffles. Four different kinds of breads were offered during the first course, including a warm brioche.

Because of the extensive wine-by-the-glass offerings, we were able to complement our disparate dishes properly and also match wines with courses. Dinner for two (two starters, two main courses, three glasses of wine, one dessert, plus tax and tip) was $174.

Belly up

A whiplashing contrast to these restaurants and cafes was found one morning deep in the bowels of the Sahara, at the northern, not-so-chic extremity of the Strip. It was the classic casino buffet: $4.99 for all the breakfast you could fork down.

Well, almost all. Posted signs warn that patrons will be limited to a ``maximum two-hour dining experience.'' Five late-teen men in line in front of us seemed crestfallen to receive this admonition. (When we were pre-paying, one actually hollered to a comrade, ``Hey, Dan, gimme that nickel.'')

This Vegas tradition is strictly for power eaters. It's not unusual to see people gobbling items from their plates while standing in line.

The fare here was only a slight step up from a college dorm cafeteria, and the place was thick with large families, international travelers (we heard a great number of foreign tongues) and budget seniors. Highlights: an outstanding selection of fresh fruit (mostly ignored), an impressive array of doughnuts (attacked mercilessly) and decent offerings from the omelet station.

Tres bon

For a considerable step up in buffet fare, try one of the new theme hotels. Sunday brunch at Paris Las Vegas' Le Village Buffet, for example, was a pleasant surprise - and reasonably priced at $21.95 per person, including unexceptional champagne (it might be better to stick to orange juice). This is obviously a popular feast; the wait was about 50 minutes.

The various stations are set up to roughly conform to various regions in France - mussels, scallop salad and a delightful seafood quiche at Normandy, for example; prime rib and veal at Burgundy; sausage at Alsace, etc.

You can probably imagine the other choices: a crepe and waffle bar, an omelet bar (it was billed as Alsace, but had more the feel of Marriott), an impressive selection of cheeses (including cantal, Camembert and a delicious Roquefort), king crab legs stacked nearly to the ceiling and a decadent array of French pastries and made-to-order bananas Foster at the dessert station.

Just for fun

The hope on this trip was to sample the intriguing WB Stage 16, a new restaurant that promises re-created backdrops from Warner Bros.' Burbank lot, including such film settings as ``Batman'' and ``Casablanca.'' The restaurant trumpeted a December opening, but in the first week of January it was still under construction, and only recently got around to its grand opening. It is located at the star-crossed Venetian, which has been plagued by chronic construction delays since its hurried opening last spring. (Rival hotel officials have taken to calling it The Incompletion.)

As an alternative, we sought out the America Restaurant at New York-New York. This is a fun place for kids - it is big, open and airy, with a giant relief map of the United States forming a canopy for it all. Characteristics of each state are embedded in the papier-mache map, and it's fun to peruse the stereotypes: cheese, beer, cows and Harley-Davidsons in Wisconsin; cotton, Elvis, a guitar in Tennessee; potatoes and a hunter (or is that a survivalist?) in Idaho.

The menu features an exhaustive array of lunchtime items, ostensibly tied to regions of the country. There's an Oklahoma chicken-fried steak, a Rhode Island traditional turkey dinner (shouldn't that be Massachusetts?), a Betty Crocker tuna melt from Minnesota, and of course, a Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwich. As you might imagine, there were also half-pound all-American burgers, with an impressive array of fixings. The children's menu alone has eight items ($4.95 each, including a drink and ice cream).

Kids sitting at tables nearby often contorted in their seats, peered upward and asked questions about the vast geography lesson overhead. Not a bad thing.

Maybe someday they'll be able to look at the southern reaches of Nevada ... and spot an embedded knife and fork.

IF YOU GO

A sampling of some of the intriguing restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip, and where they can be found:

Aqua (Bellagio)

Aureole (Mandalay Bay)

Border Grill (Mandalay Bay)

Canaletto (Venetian)

Charlie Palmer Steak (Four Seasons)

China Grill (Mandalay Bay)

Chinois (Caesars Forum Shops)

Coyote Cafe and Grill Room (MGM Grand)

Delmonico (Venetian)

Eiffel Tower (Paris)

Il Fornaio (New York-New York)

Le Cirque (Bellagio)

Lutece (Venetian)

Mon Ami Gabi (Paris)

Napa (Rio)

New Orleans Fish House (MGM Grand)

Nobu (Hard Rock)

Olives (Bellagio)

Onda (Mirage)

Picasso (Bellagio)

Pinot Brasserie (Venetian)

Postrio (Venetian)

Prime (Bellagio)

Renoir (Mirage)

Spago and Spago Cafe (Caesars Forum Shops)

Trattoria del Lupo (Mandalay Bay)

Valentino (Venetian)

WB Stage 16 (Venetian)

Wolfgang Puck Cafe (MGM Grand)

CAPTION(S):

drawing, 4 photos, box

Drawing: (color) no caption (Las Vegas entertainment)

Illustration by Jorge Irribarren/Staff Artist

Photo: (1) Spago Cafe lies along a walkway in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. The spinoff of the popular West Hollywood eatery was on the leading edge of Las Vegas' fine-dining revolution.

(2 -- 3) Paris' Le Village Buffet features pastries, while New York-New York's America Restaurant, with an enormous map of the United States overhead, offers dishes from nearly every state or region.

(4) For Southwest fare in a casual setting - and at reasonable prices - it's difficult to beat Coyote Cafe in the MGM Grand.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

Box: IF YOU GO (See text)