My wife and I were here with a party of 10 for dinner, 8pm on a Friday night. We arrived a bit early, told that our table was ready, and then asked to wait in the bar (???). We waited. And waited. And when I returned to the hostess and said, “You know, we’re all here, right?”, she asked my last name and then seated us at a round table with a nice view of the Bellagio fountains.
The décor is modern and stylish, and actually rather inviting. On the other hand, the place was as loud as Galatoire’s at Friday lunch, minus the brass band, and could benefit from some sort of acoustic engineering.
By 8:28 pm, we had yet to order as no one had come by our table since seating us and giving each of us menus. When our serve did show up, she informed us that with large parties, it’s easier to just have them bring out a number of dishes to share . . . we agreed, and the menus disappeared. A few more minutes passed, and they took our cocktail orders, and the food started arriving.
The whirlwind of plates came and went, and this morning (Saturday), I can’t really remember what we ate, except for a gnocchi dish in a blue cheese sauce (Gnocchi alla Romana) where the gnocchi were rather grainy and almost “cake-like.” So – cheating here – I looked at the menu on their website (http://www.bellagio.com/files/restaurants/menu-lago-dinner.pdf). In a somewhat random order, we had the following:
Bruschetta al Pomodoro (tomatoes, basil, garlic oil) that was served on barely toasted, and thus very soggy, bread.
Salumi Platter (prosciutto di Parma, finocchiona salame with [not enough] flatbread); although the meats were not made in-house, they were quite delicious.
Cheese plate (Piave, quadrello di bufala, some Parm, and flat crackers) which tasted like something purchased at Safeway or Kroeger’s.
Caponata (eggplant, onions, peppers, basil, pine nuts) that was very well done.
Polpa di Granchio e Farro (fresh crabmeat, organic farro grain, confetti) that I thought was quite good.
The Polpo e Fregola al Nero (octopus with squid in couscous and bottarga) that was really delicious and tender.
The Vitello Tonnato (veal in a tuna and caper dressing) was good, but very basic.
And the Agnello Scottadito (grilled lamb chops woth garlic and rosemary) that was delicious.
Clearly there are some very good and not-so-good things going on here; hopefully any missteps, were at least in part, due to the size of our party and the pace of a busy Friday night. But . . . . .
