The centerpiece of the wife's and my trip to Las Vegas was dinner at é by José Andrés, an intimate fine dining restaurant within a restaurant, inside of Jaleo. In fact, the planning for our trip was largely built around dining here. We had made reservations almost three months in advance for the 5:30 seating on Wednesday. é only offers two seatings (5:30 and 8:30) per night (Tues-Sun) limited to eight people per seating. It was a fixed, 20-course menu with optional drink pairings. Yes, it was uber-pricey. We had the drink pairings, which made it even pricier. Fortunately, I was able to cash use all of my Identity points (the Cosmopolitan's players reward program) to offset some of our meal's cost, which made it considerably less expensive, but still far from cheap. Upon checking in at the hostess stand at Jaleo, we were taken to table in Jaleo's bar to wait for the entire party for the 5:30 seating to arrive. Once everyone was there and 5:30 rolled around, we were taken through a door into é's small, somewhat unconventional, dining room where the diners sat at the counter like at you would at a small diner or coffee shop except the chefs behind the counter were more akin to artisans crafting works of art.
I can't begin to do it justice in describing what we had, but the menu described it as such:
Sangria 2016
Truffle Tree
"Potato"
Spanish Pizza
Bocadillo
Chupito
Oyster & Caviar
Gambas Naturales
"Tartar"
Esparragos Escabeche
Txangurro a la Donostiarra
Raya
Lenguado
Chuleta
"Empanada"
Rosa de Sant Jordi
Intxausalsa
Flan
Cherry Bomb
More Things...
After 8
It was literally culinary performance art and the dining equivalent of a Cirque show. However, its substance more than matched its unique style. Having dinner at é isn't for everybody. It probably isn't for most people. The wife and I are adventurous when it comes to food. We appreciate fine dining, modernist cuisine, and in full disclosure, we were very familiar with José Andrés and the cuisine served at é having eaten at his original minibar, a similar concept restaurant in DC. é, in my mind, was a far superior experience compared to minibar. We loved it! It was easily in my top 3 meals I've ever had in Vegas. I highly recommend é as a "destination" dining experience.