Bill Addison

LAS VEGAS — Sometimes you beat the casinos. Sometimes they beat you. Either way, you have to eat.

And you’re in luck. This gambling mecca has evolved into one of America’s most glorious restaurant towns.

Not only do the city’s megaresorts continue to draw the nation’s (and, increasingly, the world’s) most brilliant chefs, but the service in many of these places often defines professionalism. And the restaurants’ interiors are evermore artistically designed.

A great dining town excels beyond the high end. With a bit of research, you can also find excellent mid-level dining options in Vegas, as well as pockets of inexpensive, regionally specific ethnic eateries.

Which can be a comfort and a necessity if the cards and slots turn on you.

I recently dined through the city with a gambler’s capricious fortunes in mind: Where to eat if you win big, if you break even and (sorry, pal!) if you lose big.

But regardless of budget or shifts in luck, for people who travel to eat, Vegas is a world-class destination, as the 11 selected restaurants bountifully illustrate. (Read the Break Even and Lose Big stories to get all the picks.)

How did I pick four restaurants from among Vegas’ constellation of fine-dining options? With a prompt from the Michelin guides.

MGM Grand

The bread cart tempts at Joël Robuchon, which was the only Vegas restaurant to win three stars from the Michelin dining guide.

The restaurants guides, known as arbiters of gastronomic tastes in Europe for decades, have begun tackling America’s major restaurant towns: First came New York and San Francisco. In November, the company released its first handbooks for Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

The Vegas guide bestowed three stars to only one restaurant: Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand. It awarded two stars to three restaurants: Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace, Alex at Wynn Las Vegas and Picasso at Bellagio Las Vegas. Based on my research, these all seemed like reliable choices, though the shrouded-in-mystery Michelin rating system has been heavily debated by critics and astute diners.

Were these ratings on point? I’d make my own decisions.

Joël Robuchon

MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. South;

702-891-7925; www.mgmgrand.com/dining

Two of us stare down at our first courses: a shot glass layered with green and white purees called L’Avocat. On top of the final, snowy stratum, a ring of tiny, perfectly shaped bottle-green dots encircle the glass.

MGM Grand

Le Victoria delights the palate at Joël Robuchon in the MGM Grand.

“It takes one chef 20 minutes per order to complete those dots,” whispers our server.

We sink our spoons through layers of avocado, herb gelée and fresh curd cheese anointed with pungent olive oil. The combined flavor hits almost too intensely before it unfurls in a surge of tastes as orchestrated and clear as a four-part harmony. Never has my palate received such a wake-up call.

Every aspect of Joël Robuchon feels this rarefied.

MGM Grand president Gamal Aziz reportedly gave Mr. Robuchon, one of France’s most celebrated chefs, carte blanche to create the extravagance of his dreams. The art deco-inspired room is decorated in purples so deep and regal that one needs a better word to describe them: violet, maybe, or aubergine. The restaurant produces wondrous breads in its own bakery. There are 25 cooks in the kitchen preparing food for a 60-seat dining room.

Two menus are offered: a six-course and a 16-course. (A cheese course is extra and dazzles with the ripest specimens.) High rollers shouldn’t hesitate to go for the full 16. Executive chef Claude Le Tohic and his staff execute Mr. Robuchon’s culinary vision with unwavering devotion.

Even with a menu in front of us, the ride through the dishes reveals one surprise after another. Tradition-minded creations such as a caviar tasting and a small rectangle of kobe beef with horseradish segue into wild cards such as oat velouté (yes, think oatmeal) revved with roasted almonds and chorizo, and amadai (a Japanese fish in the carp family) bathing in a broth made from lily bulbs.

By the last bite of yuzu soufflé with banana ice cream, I know this is the best French meal I’ve had in the U.S.

A final treat for the senses: We step into the restaurant’s side room, featuring a wall of ivy that glows an otherworldly green. Breathing the pure air near the plants refreshes us — an unexpected but idyllic ending to our remarkable evening before we walk back through the hotel’s smoky casino.

Guy Savoy

Augustus Tower, Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South;

702-731-7286; www.harrahs.com

We tug open the templelike doors to Guy Savoy and find the chef’s son, Franck Savoy, waiting on the other side with an enthusiastic greeting. Like most big-name toques with Vegas restaurants, Guy Savoy visits only a few times a year, but his son moved here to oversee the restaurant.

Caesars Palace

Crispy sea bass with spices entices the taste buds at Guy Savoy in Caesars Palace.

The dining room is minimalist luxe, almost like a gallery, with modern art and tables spaced for privacy but not isolation. It provides a rich juxtaposition to the food, which is a lush amalgam of consummate French techniques with contemporary flourishes.

Artichoke and black truffle soup, a Guy Savoy classic, satisfies as much from its heady aroma as its surprisingly delicate flavor, given the assertive nature of the ingredients. Crispy sea bass is also rapturously fragrant: Vanilla and ginger envelop the fish in a tango of sweet scents.

Accompaniments prove nearly as extraordinary as the dishes. Our server takes pains to explain the characteristics of each option on the champagne cart. Types of breads are matched to featured seafood and meats: lemon confit bread for the sea bass; a chestnut variation for a course featuring foie gras with glazed chestnuts; bacon for poussin with fingerling potatoes and chanterelle mushrooms. Wine pairings, particularly a toasty 1990 Henriot Champagne with black truffle risotto, marry poetically with the food.

I dined at Guy Savoy the night before Joël Robuchon, and honestly wondered how the latter could trump the former. It did, but only by a nose. In my version of the Michelin rankings, based on one meal, Guy Savoy hovers within close reach of the coveted three-star rating.

A confession (and a consideration when you’re counting your winnings): Both meals at Joël Robuchon and Guy Savoy reached into four digits. Were both worth it? For sworn food lovers, yes. If you’re feeling flush but not quite that gilded, consider the next two restaurants.

Alex

Wynn Las Vegas,

3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South;

702-770-7000; www.wynnlasvegas.com

Alex’s dining room is probably the town’s most sumptuous intersection of old and new Las Vegas: Bugsy Siegel would feel right at home descending the grandiose staircase into this realm of textured woods, sweeping drapes and creamy furnishings. So would Paris Hilton.

Chef Alessandro “Alex” Stratta’s cooking traipses through French, Italian and New American cuisines with a warmth that keeps pace with the surroundings. He serves carrot salad and carrot vinaigrette with foie gras au torchon, an outside-the-box combination that works. Crispy frog legs are an unusual menu mainstay (and, yes, the tastes-like-chicken analogy applies). White beans, garlic confit and pancetta give the morsels a Provençal twist.

Wynn Las Vegas

Venison is just one of the unique menu offerings at Alex restaurant in Wynn Las Vegas.

And what a pleasure to see so many interesting fish choices beyond the typical salmon and tuna: John Dory, roasted wild turbot, crispy loup de mer in lobster broth.

Pastry chef Jenifer Witte knows how to incorporate a hint of Americana into the finale. Almond cream, waferlike walnut crisp and sour cream ice cream enhance caramelized apples. Walnut toffee cream adds depth to both spicy gingerbread and wonderfully simple roasted pear.

Service at Alex is an accommodating whirlwind. The sommeliers have wit, the servers practically read minds, and the hosts and hostesses help you into your coat and graciously hold the doors open, making you wish you’d lingered in this parallel universe of Hello Dolly! hospitality a little longer.

Picasso

Bellagio Las Vegas,

3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South;

702-693-7223; www.bellagio.com/restaurants

Look up when you cross Picasso’s threshold: Rows of ceramics are embedded in the ceiling, a rustic touch that sets the stage for an unpretentious meal among precious, familiar-looking works of art.

Bellagio Las Vegas

Try something different at Picasso restaurant: sauteed medallions of fallow deer with caramelized green apple.

These are Pablo Picassos, all right. His paintings, gouaches and ceramics of several career phases are displayed in the room’s most flattering lights. The rest of the space is kept wisely neutral, so your eyes always wander to one piece or another.

Julian Serrano, the Spanish chef who presides over Picasso’s kitchen, is a Vegas anomaly. He moved here in 1998 after a long stint at venerated Masa’s in San Francisco. (To be fair, Alessandro Stratta lives in Vegas, too.)

Compared with the culinary fireworks offered in Vegas’ other high-end restaurants, Mr. Serrano’s food can come off as subtle, sometimes even safe. Certainly, there are charmed fillips, like the amaretto-nutmeg marshmallows in butternut squash soup that dissolve instantly in the mouth, leaving nothing but a tremor of spice. And entrees such as fallow deer medallions with caramelized green apple and zinfandel sauce exhibit undeniable skill, though a ragout of seasonal vegetables with pieces of foie gras came off as unctuous.

The persistent romance of the setting elevates the meal, though. When the Bellagio’s water-fountain show explodes outside the window, obliterating the view of the Strip’s neon and the faux Eiffel Tower across the street, it’s hard not to smile inwardly at the myriad tricks up Vegas’ sleeves.