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We’ve been coming to Circo (pronounced CHEER-co) since it opened in October of 1998. It was the first Bellagio restaurant we ever ate in, and by our estimate we’ve eaten here at least 50 times over the years.
The last time we paid for a meal was probably around 9-11.
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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
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Having now met Ryan Hardy twice in the same week — here and in New York (where he was one of the nominees for a Best Chef Southwest award) — we at ELV thought you’d like to see some tasty snaps from our meal last week at Le Cirque in the Bellagio (that most New York of all Vegas restaurants), where Hardy cooked a special dinner based upon the superb ingredients he sources at The Little Nell in Aspen (Colorado, not Alabama).
Hardy flew in many provisions for this meal for about fifty lucky souls, including his house-made charcuterie that (we had to admit) was as good or better than anything we’ve had from Salumi or Fra’ Mani. Our staff now considers it the quintessence of cured meat. Just as good were his marinated sardines, dappled with a Rendevous salad of organic root vegetables and herbs, and an odd-looking but phenomenal octopus risotto, dressed with a lemon confit and paper thin shavings of octopus carpaccio.
The capper was a Four Story Hill Farm veal loin alongside a crispy squab breast, sharing space with some fine-grained Anson Mills grits and fresh morels and fava beans. ELV generally hates fava beans (and all chefs inexplicably love them), but even we were forced to agree that they brought a lot to the party on this plate.
Along with a bevy of beautiful wines personally chosen by Little Nell Master Sommelier Jonathan Pullis, the meal was enough to inspire us to venture to that land of the rich white people — to see what else Hardy and crew are capable of cooking up.
MONTAGNA @ The Little Nell
675 Durant Ave.
Aspen, CO 81611
970.920.4600
http://www.thelittlenell.com/TLN/restaurants/montagna-restaurant.aspx
LE CIRQUE
In the Bellagio Hotel and Casino
3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.693.7223