For our last dinner in Vegas, Bryan and I went all out and did a full on fancy pants dinner at the highly recommended Mastro's Ocean Club. Our friends Mike and Jenna have dined at the California location and waxed serious poetics about the steak and famous butter cake dessert, so we decided we had to check it out for ourselves.
We arrived on time for our 8:30 pm reservation, but the hosts let us know that unfortunately they were running a little behind getting their reservations sat. Bryan and I had no complaints--especially after we were given complimentary glasses of champagne. We took the extra time to study the menu and the wine list before getting a drink at the bar before dinner.
{the very impressive bar at Mastro's}
The bulk of the dining room tables are inside this "treehouse" structure. It floats over the mezzanine of the Aria's Shops at Crystals, a geometric jewel of a mall.
{the lit up "treehouse" as seen from the bar at Mastro's}
{photo from mastrosrestaurants.com: the 80 foot tall sculptural "treehouse" seen from the outside}
We were a few sips into our cocktails when a host collected us from the bar and led us into the main dining room inside the treehouse.
{Mastro's menu}
{2009 Stag's Leap Petite Syrah with dinner}
{the epic bread basket that I only lightly touched since I was saving room for the flurry of dishes that we were about to order}
When Bryan found out that Mastro's served sushi, he strongly requested that we order the Seared Ahi appetizer...
...and the Hamachi with Fried Onions.
Maybe not the most appetizing thing when photographed...but holy moly was this dish absolutely amazing. The hamachi, sliced sashimi style, is served with thinly sliced fried Mexican green onions, and topped with ponzu truffle oil and truffle salt.
I had the first bite, and I eagerly waited for Bryan to have his because I knew he was going to go bonkers for it.
And he did. The fried onions are so delicate that they melt on your tongue like butter. The combination of the fried onions and sushi sound like an incongruent pairing, but they complemented each other perfectly.
After our sushi first course, we split a Caesar salad. The homemade dressing incorporates capers!
For our main course, Bryan ordered the bone-in 12 ounce filet, and I ordered the rack of lamb. I should have paid attention to the ounces listed next to the lamb on the menu, because it would have clued me in that I got a full rack of lamb in my order. 22 ounces is a lot of food. Even for me.
All the proteins are served a la carte, so we ordered Gorgonzola Mac & Cheese and Roasted Brussels Sprouts for our sides.
{my full rack of lamb with mac & cheese and brussels sprouts}
{a very happy camper}
After eating half a rack of lamb, I had to throw in the towel.
The portions at Mastro's were so incredibly generous, that we had to leave much of it behind. Both Bryan and I lamented the leftover mac & cheese that we had to part with when we left the restaurant. Both of us spoke of it fondly when we were starving on the plane ride back home.
Even though we had made several promises to Mike and Jenna about ordering Mastro's signature dessert, we simply didn't have it in us to order the Warm Butter Cake. We had completely given up.
I took the dizzying flight of stairs up to the bathroom (a little tricky to negotiate in sky high heels with a few glasses of wine in my system} while waiting for the check to arrive.
When I got back to the table, the Warm Butter Cake was sitting there.
"Did you order this?" I asked Bryan. I may have been a bit peeved. I thought we had agreed that we didn't have the ability to eat anything more.
Bryan told me that the server had brought us the dessert on the house since the restaurant had to seat us past our reservation. Talk about amazing service.
We couldn't just abandon the dessert that was so kindly given to us (in fact, Bryan wasn't able to help himself and snuck a bite while I was still in the bathroom), so we dug in. With gusto.
The cake is topped with a mound of vanilla bean ice cream and is served with a dish of homemade whipped cream on the side.
As much as I was hurting before the dessert even arrived, I'm so glad that we managed to get one. The Warm Butter Cake might be one of the best desserts I have ever eaten (watch out Banana Cream Pie from Leoda's, you have competition!).
Even though we were loving the dessert, we left about half of it on the plate. This meal did us in.
On our way out the restaurant, the hosts poured out our leftover wine in glass "to go" cups so we could take our drinks into the Aria casino next door. I may have pressed my leftovers onto Bryan--I was trying to avoid a hangover for the plane ride home.
We cruised the casino, and I played a few more rounds on the Wheel of Fortune slot machines before calling it a night.
We went back to the hotel room where I curled up into a fetal position on the bed and hoped to recover from our meal before we flew out the next morning. Bryan on the other hand was feeling a little bit more mobile than me, and he went out to pull an all nighter to play his last rounds of poker.
At 4:30 in the morning, I woke up in the hotel room and Bryan was walking back from Bally's with his poker winnings. We reconvened in the room, packed our last minute essentials and headed down to the lobby to catch a taxi to the airport.
Bleary eyed and exhausted, we left the lights of the Vegas strip behind us. They were still lit up and blazing as our airplane took off. Adios, Vegas. We promise to come back soon.
