Aria Resort and Casino
3730 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(877) 230-2742
http://www.arialasvegas.com/dining/fine-dining.aspx
With our hotel reservation, we also received $100 dining credit to use at the new Aria Resort and Casino. Lucky for us, Kevin Eats just wrote his reviews on Bar Masa, Sage, and Julian Serrano. After reading Kevin's review, we like Sage the best, and decided to use our dining credit there for dinner.
We made an early reservation for dinner because we had a show to go later that evening. We arrived about 10 minutes before our reservation, but they weren't ready for us. So we sat outside and did some people-watching. A lot of people came to look at Sage's menu, but not too many people actually went into the restaurant.
I tried to peek into the restaurant while waiting outside, and took a picture of the very pretty bar area.
We were seated in the bar area.
Our waiter gave us a tour of the restaurant. I didn't even know they had a big dining area in the back. So why didn't they seat us in the dining area?
Desert Shrub ($14.00)
Tequila Reposado / Prosecco / Pink Grapefruit / Purple Sage
Dr. P ordered me a Desert Shrub. He said he knew I'd like it, and he was right. This cocktail tasted like sweet fruity champagne, and it was sooooo good.
Zinfandel, Holdredge, Alexander Valley ($14.00)
Dr. P ordered himself a glass of Zinfandel.
Bacon Roll
The meal started with bacon roll. There were bits of bacon in the bread. Pretty tasty.
Butter & Sea Salt
They gave us butter and sea salt to go with the roll. I used some sea salt on mine, and it tasted.... salty. Dr. P was like "you know why? Because it is salt! Duh."
Amuse Bouche
Our waiter told us all about the amuse bouche, but I only remember there were artichoke and bacon on that spoon. It was a one bite amuse bouche. Honestly, I didn't taste anything. It was like I was chewing on something, but it didn't have any taste to it.
Pacific Yellowtail Crudo ($19.00)
Shaved Trumpet Mushrooms / Black Winter Truffles / Toasted Pine Nuts
Sage's appetizers all looked so good on the menu. We decided to order 3 appetizers and 1 main entree to share. Pacific Yellowtail Crudo was one dish that our waiter recommended. Melt in your mouth raw yellowtail sashimi was served with trumpet mushroom and pine nuts. There was a big piece of black winter truffles in the plate as well. The yellowtail sashimi was really fresh. I love the trumpet mushrooms. A manager came and asked us how the dishes were. He mentioned that Pacific Yellowtail Crudo was one great dish that they are proud of, but he thinks they need to work on the presentation a little more. I thought the dish looked fine, and it indeed was a great dish!
Roasted Sweetbreads ($17.00)
Glazed Bacon / Creamy White Polenta / Marinated Chanterelles
I have never had sweetbreads before, but always wanted to try it. I let Dr. P did the ordering, but this was the one dish that I requested. From Wikipedia: Sweetbreads are the thymus (throat sweetbread) and the pancreas (heart or stomach sweetbread), especially of the calf and lamb (although beef and pork sweetbreads are also eaten). The manager told us the sweetbreads they used were throat sweetbread. The taste is milder than the pancreas. He said that sweetbreads generally doesn't really have any flavor, which allows a chef to be creative and does whatever he likes with it. The sweetbreads tasted creamy and rich. The texture tasted a bit like firm tofu to me. It was pretty good. I think the chef at Sage must love bacon. He uses bacon in a lot of the dishes.
Wagyu Beef Tartare ($18.00)
Crushed Caper Aioli / Slow-Poached Egg / Pickled Mustard Seeds / Crispy Chocolate
Wagyu Beef Tartare was a very rich dish. The flavor of the beef with chives was delicious. The beef mixing with the egg yolk tasted creamy.
Belgian Ale-Braised Short Rib ($41.00)
Winter Greens / Preserved Orange / Fondant Potatoes
For the main entree, we ordered Belgian Ale-Braised Short Rib. The waiter told us the short rib was braised for 36 hours. It was very tender, but a bit salty. Again, it was a rich dish. The portion wasn't big, but the rich flavor made us full really quickly.
French Pressed Coffee ($5.50)
After the heavy meal, we ordered a French Pressed Coffee to share. One order gave us 4 cups of coffee.
Canelles de Bordeaux ($10.00)
Winter Spices / Aged-Rum Sabayon / White Chocolate Sorbet
I couldn't decide on the dessert, and asked for the waiter's recommendation. He recommended Canelles de Bordeaux. I was like "what's that?" He said it was a very unique kind of dessert with a crunchy outside and soft inside, and it required to be cooked for like 10 hours or something like that. When I saw the dessert on the plate, I realized it was canele, my favorite pastry! Duh, why didn't I realized it was canele? The Canelles de Bordeaux was maybe a little bit too burnt in my opinion. The outer layer was a bit too hard, and had a burnt taste. But the chocolate sorbet was super good. The "raisins" were too yummy!
Chocolate Syrup
At the end of the meal, our waiter brought us two shots of citrus infused Chocolate Syrup. It was a shot of happiness!
Overall, it was a good meal. The food was rich and heavy.... very manly food. Service was exceptional. Our waiter was very knowledgeable about the food, and very polite and friendly, too. The decoration of the restaurant is beautiful. But somehow we still feel like there's something missing here. We were comparing Sage to Rosemary's because if we didn't have the $100 dining credit, we would definitely go back to Rosemary's for dinner that night. Both Dr. P and I still prefer Rosemary's Restaurant for some reason. Maybe Sage felt too formal to us? Anyway, Sage is still a very good restaurant. We were happy with dinner, and the $100 credit of course.
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great food, I'll remember to order a salad next time to mix it up a bit. Still wondering why we were seated in the bar area??
ReplyDeleteYeah a salad probably will balance out the heavy food.
Maybe they put young & hip people at the bar area and older people in the back? haha
You should have asked them to seat you inside the restaurant and if they said no at least you could find out why not?. In these bad economic times, restaurants should go out of their way to satisfy their customers fully.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't mind seating in the bar area, just wonder why they seated us there.
We saw them taking older people to the dining room.
Then later they sat a young Asian couple next to us.
Before I cry "discrimination!", were the older people in groups of more than 2? Maybe they sit couples or singles in the bar area and groups of 3 or more in the dining room. It sure sounds strange...
ReplyDeleteThey seated an order Caucasian couple in the dining room.
Then some bigger parties for 4 back there too.
And they were all.... Caucasians. Us, and another Asian couple were seated in the bar area.
Hmmmmm...... Is it discrimination?
I spoke with a manager at Sage and told them about this matter and was told that they don't consider their bar & restaurant as being separate and they mix their dining guests between the two areas. He also said that about 40-50% of his guests in early January were Asians and they would never discriminate. I would think this would be true because Las Vegas is a very international city and values its guests (especially in this economy). Also, I think that you and Dr. P are a very handsome couple that everyone would be proud to have inside of their dining establishment!
ReplyDeleteWe didn't think it was discrimination because we're Asian.
I thought they put younger people in the bar area, and more mature customers in the back.
The manager did say that there was a similar complaint on the Yelp website, so it looks like somebody else was suspicious of their practices.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting! I'm gonna go on Yelp to see what the other people said.
I did a quick search on Yelp but couldn't find it (but there were many other complaints about the entire hotel). When I spoke with the manager and told him about your dinner and curiosity about not being seated in the other room (and that another Asian couple were seated next to you), thats when he asked me if I saw it on Yelp because a similar thing was written there too. Maybe he resolved it and the post was removed?---Or maybe I didn't search good enough? I know one thing for certain: They are now surely aware that some diners are wondering about their seating policy!
ReplyDeleteI saw the review on Yelp by Ro J. from Alhambra.
She said that Asians were seated in the back. But we were actually seated in the front.
Maybe the management saw that complaints and started seating all Asians in the front? haha....