Since CityCenter is a phenomenon of it's own I thought it would be wise for us to start a dining thread just for my new fav place in Las Vegas.


Wolfgang Puck, Todd English, Michael Mina, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Julian Serrano, and Martin Heierling, this should become a very good thread rather fast. I'm sick so I wont be dining out till after the holidays, but I am looking forward to some great foodie commentary!

You always seem to be sick, what's wrong with you?

Tried to make a large reservation for Twist but they never got back so I booked somewhere else.

Actually, email to them for anything has been rather slow, so I would suggest calling.

Has anyone tried the buffet at Aria? I only have so many 'non-gourmet' meals to waste but I'll try it if it's better than bellagio's.

And since I'm throwing a ton of questions out there - does anyone know if I can sign food to my room in bellagio? (arriving in a week): I called them about this a week ago and I was told "ummm... well.. .I dunno... I mean... maybe" <- what kind of answer is that?

I looked @ chowhound.com and they have only one review up...of the breakfast buffet. Rated below Bellagio and Wynn for food - very good service and not too busy.

I'll be in LV mid Jan. Hope for more info. b4 then.

I'll be there next Tuesday, and as I'm sure I'll eat something over the course of two days I'll try and remember to post too. Spoiler: it won't be the buffet.

Ate at Sirio last nite, couldn't get a table at American Fish or the Steakhouse. Service sucked, not surprising since it was opening night, but the food was pretty good

I have chronic sinusitis due to allergies and a deviated septum when I was hit in the nose with a tequila bottle. It feels like I am sick 1/6th of the year :-( On the bright side its almost always sinusitis that turns into Bronchitis or pneumonia (when its really bad), its rare that there are other issues.

Have you been to any of Sirio's other restaurants, particularly Le Circ in NYC? Sirio is the king of service, if you haven't seen the HBO short yet about him called "table in heaven" its a must-see!

PS to all - As a reminder discussion about the other City Center restaurants including Silk Road (owner of Sense at Bellagio) and the Manarin Oriental are included in this thread.

Had Micheal Mina a few times in San Francisco..... maybe the best meal ive ever had, but i def paid for it. Excited to see one in vegas so i can splurge on a meal once and a while.

If you mean the one at The Vdara with executive chef Martin Hierling I believe its called "Silk Road" (named after the old silk road they used in ancient times as trade routes throughout Asia and India). I ate there the second night they were opened and it was pretty good. Nothing that blew my socks off and im sure they were working out all the kinks but still pretty good. They have a menu that is pretty similar to Sensi (Asian/Indian influence with a french twist). Its a real modern kinda hip restaurant.

Taking a girl to city center tonight for our first date. The plan is to wander around aimlessly, stop at every bar we pass to get a drink, etc.

Any suggestions, spots I need to stop by?

Prob gonna want food at like 11 or 12ish. Are there any restaurants that will be open then and not terribly crowded on Aria's opening weekend? If not I guess we could walk to Fix or something, but I'm hoping to do better than that.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...7_N.htm?csp=34

Great article!

And one that's preps the palate in a dining thread, too.

To one of the other poster's asking about Aria's buffet:

I haven't tried it, but the wife went at 11PM on Thursday night. She states,

"I thought the entree selections were very limited. The prime rib was good though. I overhead another lady complaining that the crab legs were waterlogged, but I didn't try them. Not many veggies to choose from; but, they seemed to have had an extensive dessert selection. Unfortunately, I must have made a bad choice in mine. It's priced at $30."

She is quick to reiterate that she went at 11PM on the hotel's opening night so this may not be a fair overall assessment of the experience.

I'm still waiting for Aria to publish the restaurant menu's online.

All I have on the list for Aria is a lunch at Serrano's and that's basically it. I fully plan on walking through Aria to check out the menu's on Tuesday, I hope I find something interesting enough to try for dinner.

Wolfgang Puck -----
Have been to many of his places, not by choice after my first try of one of his spots. I have NEVER cared for any of his food. The others though sound fine---

I suggest the bank or several ATM's.

She also went around closing time. Not many buffest are open past 10pm in this town, so I woulnd't doubt the selections would be very limited at closing. Why spend money to put out tons of food that no one is going to touch?

Michael Mina (the restaurant) is at Bellagio and has been there since the beginning (although it used to be Aqua). American Fish (his company's place at City Center) is his 5th place in Vegas. Whether Michael Mina the person knows he has 5 restaurants in Vegas is debateable, it ain't like he's the one in the kitchen.

If your really into food then dont try a new buffet, always wait until 1-3 months out when they knock out all the kinks. Of course there is also something to be said for trying the buffet now then comparing months later. Generally restaurants never get it right opening week, dining takes time to train and re-train the kitchen an serving staff, even places like Bar Massa will be sub-par compared to when they solve all their problems in a month or so. By then they should probably have to replace at least 5% of the staff, its par for the course in dining, that's why reviewers usually wait a few weeks before providing a formal review.

Your mention of a deviated septum leads me to think this would be your potential course of action:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septoplasty

However, I'm not a doctor.

Walked around last night. The buffet looked, frankly, disgusting. Dirty with deep pans and clearly slow rotation. Very disappointing.

The Aria restaurants had $35 corkage as standard. The one restaurant I saw open in Crystals had a $20 corkage fee.

The American Fish menu looked really good - really looking forward to trying it out. Silk Road looked grossly overpriced. Sirio's menu looked interesting, but the design was way too casual, almost nice cafeteria style. Not my taste.

Access is going to be really problematic for locals.

Going to be (not surprisingly) a disaster from an ROI standpoint.

julian serrano at aria is pretty awesome...i went there last night and they have a wide variety of different types of great family style food! my wife and I ordered about 8 different dishes and everything was great.

I see a doctor tomorrow to discuss this option - http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...7_N.htm?csp=34

http://www.eatinglv.com/2008/07/cork...t-not-so-fast/

great article on corkage fees in Vegas.

your description sounds like Le Circ in the Time Warner Building in NYC, they moved here after Sirio closed Le Circ 2000. Doy ou think that was the influence?

I agree, without a major corridor from the highway its a potential disaster, but there are two saving graces for those in the know. The Harmon Corridor which will be very efficent for people coming from the east side, and from the west side the back-door overpass behind Panorama. I suspect that MGM planned on Harmon to be completed on the west side of town, but as of right now the best plan is to take Dean Martin to the street just after Panorama (heading north), take a left, and another left and your in City Center without having to deal with traffic. Coming from Green Valley I think the best way to go is to take the airport exit and turn left on Harmon, this is for valet only I think though.

John Curtas just reviewed TWIST - http://www.eatinglv.com/2009/12/twis...erre-gagnaire/

After reading the review and seeing the pictures on ELV I am very excited to try Twist. And the price doesn't look to bad, considering. Will probably be pushing for this to be our birthday dinner this year.