SENSI Remains Sensational

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Martin Heierling does double duty these days between Sensi and Silk Road, but neither restaurant seems to suffer for it. Call it Germanic dedication, serious chops, or just plain passion; he brings a certain precision to every recipe and format he touches.

How else to explain the continued deliciousness of Sensi — a restaurant that is, by turns Italian,  Thai, a steakhouse, Japanese and Indian. Tandoori? They may do it as well as anyone around. Naan? Ditto. Tom ka kai with shrimp? Puts almost every Thai restaurant’s version in town to shame.

You can get steaks and pasta here and find nothing to complain about, but we find the Indian tandoori, raita, mint sauces, kheer (rice pudding), and tempura to be where our palate always heads.

About the only thing we’ve had that left us shaking our heads is the $28 pad Thai — a skimpy portion of a poorly executed copy of a classic dish that’s done better all over town for 1/3rd the price.

But we’ll forgive Martin this single mishap, as just about everything else in his repertoire is right on.

One of the most righteous things remains the house-made ginger ale — a refresher so bracing, it’s worth driving across town for, parking at the Bellagio, and taking a stroll to Sensi just for a sip.

Yeah, it’s that good.

SENSI

In the Bellagio Hotel and Casino

3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109-4303

702.693.7223

MIX ZONE CAFE – Dan’s Summer Salad

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In honor of our review of Mix Zone Cafe being published tommorrow in the Las Vegas Weekly, we thought we’d feature one of Chef Dan Coughlin‘s killer noodle dishes — a “salad” of chopped greens over flat, creamy rice noodles on top of a small, unctuous Thai omelet, all dressed with his special Thai-waterfall sauce.

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Last Night at BOULUD BRASSERIE

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…and the crumbs…touched my palate….(and) a shudder ran through my whole body, as I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place….at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me…

— Remembrance of Things Past, Vol. 1: Swann’s Way

Proust got it right; sometimes the taste or smell of food can create an out of body experience.

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