And the Winner is.... .

Posted by Marilyn from Las Vegas, NV on 6/8/06

What others saw as a bland dining room, I saw as understated elegance-simplicity of style. There is an outside door from the street. A hostess swishes you directly up to the restaurant in an elevator. You don't need to go into the hotel at all. We took the menu, a prix fixe meal with a choice of 3 entrees, 3 main courses and 3 desserts, followed by petits fours and coffee (Havana espresso) The menu included a half bottle of wine each. Several amuse-bouches do arrive together (as noted elsewhere) but I think this is a sort of tapas custom and we certainly weren't rushed to finish them. We both started with eggplant and pimento confit in olive oil with cream cheese and salad greens. The cream cheese was wrapped in the eggplants and pimentos - an unusual and spectacular starter beautifully executed. I had marinated pork loin with corn cream and sweet potato as my main course, my husband had rabbit au chardonnay with little onions, champignons and rice. (this is quoted exactly from the menu.) Mine was excellent but my husbands was absolutely outstanding - the chardonnay sauce in particular was memorable. We both had a speciality of the house for dessert, "sphere of choclate mousse" and it was formidable. The wine - a chardonnay to start and a cabernet with the main course was poured very generously. I estimate we drank more than a half bottle of both. The service was unobstrusive and attentive, truly impeccable. And how much did all this cost? How about $58 total for both of us! This is slightly less than we paid the next day at Las Lilas for one course. This was a quite different style from Las Lilas however. This is refined cuisine, elegant and understated like the surroundings, but also unusual and creative. Only after you are half way through the course do you really appreciate just how good it is. Certainly the best meal I've ever eaten in South America.