Dinner - 7:30 - Aug. 1st, 2017
Dinner for two. escorted promptly to a corner booth in one of the back rooms, with a view of the room. Unbelievably noisy. The place has zero sound dampening. The crowd wasn't a young one, either. Mostly late 30s/early 40s convention people. Not at all conducive to conversation.
Service was polite but extremely rushed. They looked like they couldn't wait to churn the table. Dishes arrived all at once instead of coursed out as they should. If this restaurant was in Italy, dinner would have taken twice as long and been all the better for it.
Cocktails were obviously prepared by a "mixologist" who is more interested in being "creative" than putting out good drinks. None of the three we tried were worth the money.
Food was a mixed bag. The wedge salad was good (how hard is it to screw up?) with a tasty buttermilk blue cheese dressing. The chorizo arancini were way too dense for the dish. Aioli was bright and helped. The standout small plate was the grilled cheese and bacon/tomato soup dumplings. Creative and delicious. The short rib mac & cheese was a tremendous disappointment. Very bland and dry. Like they ran out of cheese and flavor half-way through prep.
Desserts were top notch. The pot du crème surpasses even that served at Wynn Country Club, while the New York donuts were light, airy, melt in your mouth gems.
All in all, Beauty & Essex is a place I'm glad we tried, but I'd never go back to. There are much better places to eat at Cosmopolitan, where they don't rush you and actually care about the food and drink they serve.