Stratosphere Tower, Las Vegas

The ultimate in novelty restaurants, Top of The World is a revolving high class eatery at the far end of the Las Vegas strip.

Came here on our last night, which was good in so far as nowhere else would have matched it for "wow factor", but bad in that we were suffering from end of holiday restaurant apathy, and still felt sick from the dismal lunch we had endured at Circus Circus Steakhouse.

Anyway, a booking at this restaurant bypasses the queue at the base of the tower - and also obviously still gives you the fantastic views. So, my advice if you're not planning to go on any of the pant wetting rides on the roof of this place... come here for lunch. The food is apparently quite a bargain, and you get the view for free.

The tables are evenly spaced, only two deep, so almost everyone has a "window seat" - if you want the pick of the bunch though you need to turn up 30mins before your (essential) reservation. Dont know whether it was the rancid Circus Circus lunch still gurgling in my belly, but I felt decidedly queasy for the first 20mins as we slowly spun round.

Restaurant itself is dated and a bit tatty, but you shouldnt be looking at the carpet anyway - the complete opposite of N9ne at The Palms, and there certainly isnt any totty at the bar. Took about 1 hour to fully rotate, so if youre lucky, you can get the best view (that of the Strip) in twice. Unfortunately, once the Strip is out of sight, its half an hour of mostly nothing until the neon lights of Fremont Street pop up in the distance.

Just like the Nevada mountain ranges on the horizon, my memory of what we ate is now a little hazy. I do remember thinking the choices were a little too formal (although that may have been the result of one too many "scene" restaurants earlier in the holiday), and the food, although fantastic, was a little below what I (and my wallet) had expected. Service was typically fantasic.

Website states a dress code of Business Casual Dress, but as usual for America, we make an effort, then see the Griswalds coming out bedecked in flip flops and orange hawaiian shirts.

After the meal we still had our all-day wristbands on and hit the rides upstairs for one last time - two bottles of wine in no way diminishes the terror, especially as during the meal we had witnessed an amazing electrical storm creeping across the desert towards us.

If you can put up with a terrible film (and Keira Knightleys OTT British accent) the last 15mins of Domino were filmed in this restaurant. Thankfully they blow it to smithereens, so hopefully it gets a well overdue refurbishment in Domino 2.

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Stratosphere Tower, Las Vegas

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