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| - The restaurant is located between the Mandalay Bay and Luxor restaurant row walkway area, and you can choose between upstairs or downstairs restaurants. The upstairs is a lot more upscale and fine dining, while the downstairs is more casual but still classy.
They have different menus, but we chose downstairs since it was just my buddy and me and the menu looked more our style anyway. The menu looked good but a little pricey for 2 guys just looking for dinner, but I had just won a thousand playing blackjack so it wasn't a big deal. My friend had seen Rick Moonen on Top Chef so he suggested eating here after looking around the other restaurants nearby.
The hostess was on the phone and made us wait. She seemed to give us attitude too instead of apologizing (not that we complained either), but besides her, service was excellent. The waiter knew the menu well and went through the specials which sounded impressive, he also made some excellent recommendations on the menu. We ended up ordering the small seafood sampler, which had 6 oysters, a half lobster tail, mussels, shrimp, clams, and the special escabeche. It was really good! For our main course I got the red snapper and we ordered the mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes cost $7 and I remember thinking what can they do to mashed potatoes that would make them worth $7? I ordered them anyway because I like mashed potatoes, but it turns out it was pretty amazing. They added fresh capers, basil and chopped red onion which gave it a whole new dimension in flavor and texture. It was really good!
We sat close to the windows, and apparently there was a concert at the House of Blues, because there was a long line of skimpy dressed young club goers with women in sexy outfits and eye candy hotness. Made our dinner a lot more entertaining with this constant parade of Vegas party girls slowly moving by.
We didn't have enough room for dessert but I'm sure it would have been amazing. I'd probably come back again if I'm at the Mandalay Bay. It was expensive but the food was great. Also I later see they have restaurant.com discount coupons!
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