Wednesday, 24 September 2008

• Michael Mina - Las Vegas, NV

  Given previous positive experiences at Michael Mina's in vegas, we decided to return with friends during most recent vegas trip to finally try their signature lobster pot pie. Michael Mina was first based in SF, but now has opened four restaurants in las vegas. The restaurants offer mostly higher end comtemporary american cusine, some with a seafood focus.

  The decor at Michael Mina's is modern, sleek, but not too uptight. The crowd was well dressed but not too formal. Last visit I had an annoying stuck up waiter who made it his life mission to "educate" us about food and wine. Not in a fun or enjoyable way either, he had apparently forgot his job was to SERVE. Luckily, this visit our service was friendly and relaxed.

  Amuse bouche - some sort of gazpacho (almond?) topped with herbs. This did not do much for me, flavor wise was a bit bland and the texture was too grainy instead of smooth.

  

  Crustacean trio american classics - sweet shrimp trio with horseradish, Maine lobster roll with citrus aioli, crab "po boy" with remoulade ($29). This was a very "it is what it is" type of dish. Basically american classics done well. Ingredients were good, flavors on the heavier side, especially the deep fried crab was a bit oily. Overall it was a hearty enjoyable dish, but lacked the creativeness I had hoped for.

  

  Trio of sashimi ($24) - fluke with grilled pineapple and japapeno gelee, kampachi with coconut gelee and curry, albacore with mango and nuoc mam cham. Didn't taste this myself but my friend seemed to really enjoy this.

  

  So when ordering our food, my friend opted for some foie gras dish, which apparently the "half" foie gras was a perfect entree size per our waitress.

  Roasted half valley foie gras ($MP) - forgot how much it was given we were just all so taken back by the SIZE of this monster! The waiter pushed this over in a big cart, opens the lid, and presents this giant piece of foie gras, really, basically size of a full serving of steak. That is one gigantic liver! The first pic below shows the size, for reference, the spoon/fork in the picture were the large serving utencils.

  

  Our waiter procedes to cut up the foie gras and plate it. This baby was so big, that he had to plate it onto two plates! Each one looks like the pic below. My friend ended up eating one of the plates as entree, and the other plate was shared between rest of us. The foie gras was pure fatty heavenly bliss, the outter layer had a thin charred crisp and inside just melted in your mouth. This was defintely one of the better preparation of foie gras I had. However, I would say for some reason the overabundance of the portion took away a little from the "experience" itself. Our eyes were already full looking at the dish! This definitely proves there is some logic to the small platings in fine dining =).

  

  American kobe ribeye trio ($70) - puree, hen of the woods, spinach, gratin, spring onion. This definitely was a bit of a disappointment. One of the reasons I like the trios is because I look forward to three different pairings of flavors with one ingredient. This, however, was just like piece of steak and each of the trio just paired with a "side". Though the sides were fine, the pairing did not enhance flavors. Each piece of steak tasted the same, just had a regular "side" placed on top of the steak. Furthermore, the supposingly "kobe" "ribeye" was a rather lean piece of meat lacking fatty marbling. It was done perfectly median rare, but without the fat the steak was not as tender and juicy as I had hoped.

  

  Maine lobster pot pie ($78) - baby carrots, fingerlin potatoes, black truffles. This dish did not disappoint. The dish first was carried out by the waiter in a pot, a literal pot pie presentation. Then the waiter opens up the pie and plates it tableside: phyllo crusting at bottom, lobster on top, then drizzled the beautiful sauce all over the dish. The lobster was well prepared, fresh and not too ruberry. The sauce was this amazing lobster bisque I prolly could have drank as a soup. The only complaint about the dish was that it was perhaps oversalted. Nevertheless, this was quite a satisfying dish, with a fun presentation.

  This meal turned out to be more filling than we intended it to be, we somehow all ended up with heavy dishes. By the end we were too stuffed for any desserts. Since it was my birthday, the restaurant was kind enough to prepare these cute little chocolate popsicle cubes and lit a festive candle. It was a nice touch.

  

  Overall, I did enjoy our dinner. However I regret that our choices of food all coincidentally ended up being quite heavy. Especially the gigantic foie gras made me feel plaques building up in my arteries! We were all in a food coma afterwards. Who knew I would ever complain about too much foie gras? lol. The food somehow lacked the delicateness, the dancing of flavors I had hoped for. But it was damn hearty and good tasting. I would definitely go back, and perhaps visit other Michael's restaurants. I especially like his "trios", I like the idea of getting different flavor combinations out of one dish.

  Michael Mina @ Bellagio

  3600 Las Vegas Blvd south

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  (702) 693-7223

   

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