Part I: Michael Minas -- Las Vegas

My trip to Las Vegas with Shelley was incredible. The sites, the shows and the food. The best food I had was by far at Michael Minas at the Bellagio. I was having a seriously hard time selecting what to eat, so I finally settled on the "cookbook" tasting menu.

It starts out with a tuna tartare appetizer. I love ahi tuna, so I am easy to please on this dish. The tune was a beautiful rich red and it was diced and formed into a circle. It is served with a raw quail egg on top that looked delicious, but the server could not assure me that it was organic, so I had it removed. The description did not say anything about a quail egg, so that did surprise me. The tuna was served with roasted pine nuts, diced garlic and mint on the side, which the server mixed together table side. I enjoyed the crunch of the pine nuts contrasted with the tender tune squares. I must admit that I was hoping for something special from the mint, but I could not taste it. I have had tuna tartare dishes that I have enjoyed more with light fruity vinaigrettes and crunchy salad greens, but like I said, I am easy to please with tuna tartare and I was pleased with this starter.

The lobster pot pie served next was a successful experiment in decadent comfort food. A golden brown flaky crust topped a ramekin filled with tender lobster, black truffles, fingerling potatoes and a bit of spinach. I was worried the lobster would be tough. How can lobster be properly cooked in a pot pie? Well, ask Michael Minas, he knows how. I used my fork and knife to cut the lobster meat into bite size pieces, but then employed my spoon with each bite to scoop up the light cream sauce infused with the rich flavor of black truffles.

The miso black cod was perfectly cooked. The cut of the fish was tall, and I believe it was poached in the miso broth. The miso broth had long slender baby mushrooms. The menu said it would contain shrimp raviolini, but fortunately it did not. As I cut the cod, the moist white flakes would fall into the miso broth below and create what I thought was an elegantly simple combination of flavors. I would have been content if the meal had ended with the third course, but only because I did not know how good the fourth course would be.

A kobe beef ribeye medallion topped with foie gras?! What a treat. A friend I was dining with was a little hesitant to eat "duck liver." So I told him it was not duck liver, it was "duck caramel." I knew he would enjoy this combination, so I encouraged him to cut a slice of steak and foie gras, but to say in his mind "duck caramel" as he put it in his mouth. "Wow, this is really good," was his reply. And it was. The lightly braised "duck caramel" over rare kobe beef fused together into a melt-in-your-mouth meat opiate.

The dessert trio was very good, but ordinary. The root bear float with sassafras ice cream was a slight sophistication on the original; the coconut cheesecake was cheesecake with a nice flavor and texture, but nothing spectacular; and the chocolate cake with caramel ice cream was delicious, but ordinary. The three desserts were not really paired to accentuate or play on each other's flavors. It was just a sampling of well done, but not spectacular desserts.

The service was fabulous. We were dotted on by our waiter (who cheerfully answered all of our questions and added suggestions) and an array of servers who delivered our dishes with excellent timing and made sure our glasses were full and our needs met.

The restaurant is very expensive, but it was a great dining experience that I would recommend.