GIADA Happy Hour. The Strip

The lemon spaghetti is the cleanest way to taste what Giada De Laurentiis actually does here, a coastal Italian style built on lemon and fresh herbs rather than heavy red sauce. It is a smart first order if you want a sense of the kitchen before committing to a full dinner. The bruschetta and the meatballs are easy picks if you are splitting with someone. The room is the other draw: Giada sits inside the former Cromwell with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the Strip, so a bar or window seat during golden hour does a lot of the work for you. It suits a date, a small group, or a solo stop before a Caesars-area show, since the theaters are an easy walk. Go early in the afternoon if you want the window seats before the dinner crowd fills in. This is an upscale spot, so dressing up a little fits the room. The bar may run an afternoon happy hour, and those deals can shift around, so check with the restaurant for the current days, times, and specials before you go. If the lemon spaghetti lands, the full dinner menu is worth a return trip.