Staff spent months training before this restaurant opened, and many were flown to the other Gordon Ramsay Steak outposts.

The restaurant layout has not changed from when it was ’37 Steak, but the decor, at least, is an upgrade from the previous dark brown and polka dot color scheme best suited to a mid-range hotel lobby. The Gordon Ramsay Steak at Harrah’s is the fourth casino installment for this branch of his brand (other locations include Baltimore, Atlantic City and Las Vegas) and the first time Ramsay has dipped his toes into the Midwest market. Ramsay is a busy guy, with thirty-five restaurants globally. Walk-ins were unilaterally directed to the bar and lounge, essentially a loud, dimly lit holding area for that quintessential cross-section of society that dines in casinos. If you were interested in eating in the sumptuous dining room, where you could shrink under Ramsay’s intense glare and enjoy a soundtrack of hits by everyone from Wham to Mumford and Sons, you’d have to be happy with a dinner time of nine or later. When it opened in early November, the restaurant was booked with reservations. Where else would you put a restaurant that has as much razzle-dazzle as a Vegas showgirl? And Gordon Ramsay Steak is meant to dazzle, from the gilded portraits of the eponymous chef in action on the walls and the oversized chainmail Union Jack flag in the dining room to the steak trolley displaying the raw cuts of beef that is wheeled from table to table and, yes, the Caesars Palace price tags. It makes sense that the new Gordon Ramsay Steak is located inside a Kansas City casino.

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