Rachel’s Kitchen does many things right, but improvements needed

Rachel's Kitchen in The District at Green Valley Ranch is nothing if not a restaurant for our time.

It's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so you can pop in for a meal at any time. It's counter-service, so it's both quick in our time-pressed days and less expensive in an era when budgets are tight. There are tables indoors for when it's hot or cold, and outdoors for when the weather is more pleasant, the outdoor seating also in keeping with the pet-friendly ethos of The District. The restaurant serves beer and wine for those who wish to imbibe. Service is friendly.

And the food? The food is pretty good. But it should be better.

Consider, for example, the potato-cheese soup ($4.50), which was the soup of the day on the evening of our visit. The texture was starchy, a little pasty, but we'd expect that from a potato soup. We'd also expect potato soup to be pretty bland - bland potato, ergo bland soup - which is a good reason to pair it with a cheese, which generally can provide a nice infusion of flavor.

Not in this case, though. Had we been asked if this was plain potato soup or cheese-potato we would've guessed the former because there was no discernible cheese flavor. In fact, the only real flavor was extremely vague, and reminiscent of celery more than anything. On the side were slices of a nice peasant-style/ciabatta bread, which shone brightly compared to the soup.

A barbecued chicken wrap ($9.95) was better. Although the menu says it comes in a spinach tortilla, ours was in whole wheat, which really didn't matter. What did matter was that there was a good balance of grilled chicken breast, ripe tomatoes and crisp lettuce, with just enough barbecue sauce to add some spark without overwhelming. Offered a choice of sides that also included a mixed green salad, onion rings or fries, we chose the sweet-potato fries, which were just slightly crisp (that's a good thing) and flavorful.

But then there was the fettucine Alfredo ($9.75). Here's the thing with fettucine Alfredo: I seldom order it, because if done in the traditional manner it's pretty indulgent; many restaurants today take that indulgence to an extreme, which usually doesn't do much to improve the dish. Cream, butter and more cream and butter until the arteries scream for mercy, and in a lot of cases it's pretty bland.

The version at Rachel's was tempting because the menu board said it contained spinach and mushrooms, both of which would add color, texture and flavor, the spinach a nutritional boost. And yes, the mushrooms were there, in reasonable profusion. The spinach, however, was all but absent, and "our delicious cream sauce" tasted mostly of garlic. We figured the promised Parmesan was there - we could see the strings as we twirled the properly al dente pasta - but the flavor was so mild that we would've overlooked it otherwise.

The evening was beautiful, and relaxing outdoors was a real treat.

I loved the idea of Rachel's, and wanted to love the reality. But while the restaurant does do a lot of things right, when two out of four dishes are off - even if not overwhelmingly - somebody needs to do some tinkering.

Las Vegas Review-Journal restaurant reviews are done anonymously at Review-Journal expense. Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at 383-0474 or email her at
hrinella@reviewjournal.com.