Restaurant Review -- Worth a Gamble: 630 Park Steakhouse

The new 630 Park Steakhouse

It's a glitzy, high-end Las Vegas-type environment, spacious with tall ceilings. Its interior design features include a "Wall of Wine," a "Wall of Fire" (pictured) and beautiful Swarovski crystal chandeliers reflecting the movement of the flames. White tablecloths and luxuriously-upholstered leather booths with damask-covered bolsters for your back complete the feeling of sumptuousness.

And that's before you even open the menu, which trumpets a dozen cuts of steak, including some off-the-menu items like Japanese wagyu and rare items like large bone-in filets. Real wagyu, somewhat of a rarity in the U.S., is dense with spidery veins of fat streaking the red meat. If you order it here, you can even view the Certificate of Authenticity Traceability, which certifies it as genuine wagyu beef and even states the carcass number.

Only one warning: Prices are not for the faint of heart. If you think paying $23 for a glass of local Cabernet Sauvignon, $52 for a Kansas City strip, or $80 for a rich wagyu steak of only 8 oz., might induce cold sweats, dimming vision, trembling and a temporary loss of consciousness, then 630 Park Steakhouse is not for you.

But if you are out for an extravagant, celebratory evening -- one that includes gambling or not -- this could be just the ticket.

You may have guessed already that this haven of red meat luxury is located in a casino, the newish Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park, California. Some 70% of the four-month-old steakhouse's customers drift in from the gambling tables, estimates Chef Jerrett Davis, but he wants to attract a bigger share of dining-only, "foodie" customers from Sonoma County and the San Francisco Bay Area beyond. Graton's cavernous casino also contains almost a dozen other dining choices, all more casual than 630 Park.

Chef Davis' menu lifts the ordinary wedge salad ($10) to deluxe heights: The generous crisp wedge of iceberg was sprinkled with copious amounts of flavorful bacon, and rich chunks, rather than petite crumbles, of Blue cheese (and could have been a meal in itself). The lobster chowder ($12) was a creamy melange of lobster, potatoes and bacon. Opulent without being overly heavy, the sides of creamed spinach ($10) and potatoes au gratin ($9) were both delicious.

That $23 glass of Cabernet, by the way, was an excellent 2011 A. Rafanelli Cabernet Sauvignon from the nearby Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma. A 2013 Unti Rosé ($11), also from Dry Creek Valley, was lighter, but also a good companion to many of the dishes on the table.

Diners who don't eat meat won't be disappointed either. The menu offers Ahi tuna steak, rotisserie chicken and lobster tail, among other main dishes, and many more vegetable and starchy side dishes.