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| - Stellar, stellar experience. I hate seeing recent reviews that say service is lacking, because I had what was probably the most engaging wait staff experience of any restaurant I've visited, anywhere.
It was 4 of us, feeding on each other's stupid jokes - not to say we were obnoxious or anything, but just...obviously joking and and laughing, in a good mood. The waiter was able to read the table, jump in to our jokes without forcing it, and...for lack of a better term, connect with us easily. Never felt faked, it was just really personal and nice. Didn't hurt that he was very witty - some pretty clever jabs. Plus he was extremely helpful in recommending food and drink. So, massive, massive points for the wait staff.
The table went for the tasting menu, and we were not disappointed. Added bonus - guest chef for the weekend was Graham Elliott, whose restaurant in Chicago I really enjoyed a few years back (maybe 9 or 10 at this point).
Amuse bouche was an oyster with a lot of little accompaniments (I specifically remember creme fraiche, thank you South park) that was very mild, very tasty. I don't crave oysters, but this was quite good, and even a diner who wasn't a seafood person said it was very good.
Then a salad of baby arugula with burrata, marcona almonds, and a nice piece of honeycomb. This was great. By themselves, the arugula was a little bitter/salty, the honeycomb overly sweet, but combined together and with the mild, creamy cheese and the crunch of the almonds, we all cleaned our plates.
Duck confit ravioli was excellent, in a sort of spicy mild mushroom broth and tiny cubes of beet. The beet was quite mild, but the duck was extremely flavorful and rich, with the pasta perfectly cooked. Again, table agreed, we could have eaten a lot more of these. I particularly loved the spicy broth with the ravioli, and most of us all but drank anything left after the ravioli were gone.
Next scallops with chorizo and stewed peppers. The scallops (two nice sized ones) were cooked just right for me, a little rare in the middle, but not too much, with a nice sear and good flavor. A little grit, not excessive. None of the flavors here were over the top - again, a friend who would never normally order seafood was glad to have tried this, even if it wasn't up his alley, so they appealed pretty universally.
And oh man, the wagyu ribeye cap. So rich and flavorful, perfectly cooked between rare and medium rare. The truffle listed on the menu wasn't overpowering (I think it's frequently overused and covers up other flavors). Again a pretty nice sized helping, I wish this went on and on. I was excited to see ribeye cap on the menu and I was well rewarded.
And then dessert, undersold as a "banana split". Delicious bruleed banana, vanilla gelato, plus candied hazelnuts that I would have eaten 10 pounds of, and chocolate sauce. Plus I feel like a really rich, maybe liquor mascerated cherry and some strong cherry sauce, perhaps leaking from the cherry. Simple thing, but really excellently executed.
Now we're stuffed and it's time for the absinthe course. Our excellent waiter takes his time, explains the whole thing to us, passes around bottles from his dedicated absinthe cart for us to smell and compare, then even comps us one more item than we ordered so we could try more kinds and the different preparations (one of which involved huffing the vapors from flamed absinthe? Awesome!)
Just an exceptional experience across the board. Every course was great, service was fantastic. The meal was expensive, but no one felt like it wasn't worth it. If I have to recommend a great experience to someone based on this and my last visit, Sage is way up there for Las Vegas when you're looking for something a little creative but not overdone.
And I just realized that this was my 1000th review, and I didn't even plan it that way - glad it was something good!
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