In town for a seminar for Husband, this was my one request. To experience B&E! I had admired all the food pics and admired the inventive menu...could picture my five-star review.... couldn't wait for it! Finally made it to the Cosmopolitan on Sunday night right after they opened, feeling clever that I knew to look for a pawn shop. What I didn't know was, GO through it. Don't expect a pawn shop employee to be helpful and tell you to go through the closed door when you say you're there for dinner. (Gal simply said "okay" when we said we were hoping to dine). Soooo...TIP: walk in the pawn shop, turn to your left and open the door. (you're welcome!)
Fortunately we were greeted a little more warmly at the hostess stand, and brought to a small two-top just inside the dining room near the bar, which meant one of us had our back to the dining room. Not overly comfortable, especially considering the place was pretty empty. Now I'm not the most observant human being on the planet, but I couldn't help but notice one of my forks had a big glob of something clinging to it. Pointed it out to our Server and he removed it with a "sorry", but didn't replace it.
We were fine with tap water. Husband is a Bourbon guy, so he ordered: The Woodsman: Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Allspice Dram, Maple Syrup, Lemon, Muddled Pears, while I went
with a Cabernet. Both were quite good, which was a good thing as we were $33 committed at this point.
Two items I wanted to try after having seen all the pics were the tomato soup dumplings and the french onion ones. Well they aren't doing the french onion ones anymore. Wah! But fortunately the tomato soup ones are still on the menu. That was a no-brainer must-try for me. Surprisingly, Husband wanted us to try the Bone Marrow. (surprising because he doesn't eat meat on bones, so I assumed he would never want to try the inside of bones). And the Thai Shrimp sounded really good, so we decided to start with those three.
Loved that our Server asked if we were in any hurry or if he could put the dishes in to come out one at a time. No hurry for us. The moment I'd been waiting for arrived...the dumplings came out first. Beautiful presentation on the soup spoons, but... a bit hard to eat. After awkwardly throwing a whole one in my mouth, I got smart and cut the other two with a knife. Never did taste the smoked bacon, but they were good. $18 good? Maybe?
Somewhere around this point, the young guy pouring water managed to dump some in Husband's lap. Oops. Another "sorry".
So, the Marrow arrives, and my silverware had been cleared after the dumplings. I had to ask for more. All of the components worked beautifully together...the jam, salt, and teeny bit of greens. There was just enough for the six small pieces of grilled bread. Good, but again...$19 good?
We were still eating the marrow when the shrimp arrived. Five beautiful shrimp, lightly battered, nice Thai flavor with a small salad underneath. Slightly spicy. Very good, but it didn't go with the marrow (remember, no hurry and one at a time?) and for $22...well...maybe worth it?
Ready for dessert, and knowing my obsession with fried dough, Husband ordered the Doughnuts for us. We also each got a cup of decaf. The doughnuts arrived before our coffee (not the order we would have preferred). They are round large doughnut holes with cinnamon sugar and three dipping sauces...chocolate, caramel and berry. The caramel was both of our favorites. We enjoyed it, but would have enjoyed it a lot more at half the $14 price. Coffee was good and surprise-surprise not crazy expensive at $3.50 each. Although we were not offered a
refill.
Two more things that we weren't crazy about...no restrooms in the place. Yes, I know that's not unusual for Vegas, but for a restaurant of this caliber? And the other thing that got annoying was the repetitive spiel that the Servers all use. Tables are close enough together so we couldn't help but hear them recommending how many dishes to order, etc. etc. Good to be trained on the selling aspect, but more attention to detail like silverware, and caring if you've gotten a lap full of water might be important also.
Yes I realize this is Vegas and the Strip and the Cosmopolitan, and we expected high prices, have happily paid them in the past for celebrity chef experiences, but this time the experience, especially considering the service, didn't warrant them. Which is why the 5-star review I was sure I was going to write, is a 3-star. A-ok.