Tag Archives: Fine Dining

The Mayfair Supper Club in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas

03/12/2020 Shirley

During my recent trip to Las Vegas, I ate at the Mayfair Supper Club, the new restaurant that recently opened in the Bellagio hotel. The Mayfair Supper Club is a modernized classic American restaurant with entertainment. The CNN Travel site has named it as one of the 20 best new restaurants in the world.

(Picture of the restaurant entrance.)

I like the entrance of the restaurant and all the internal decor. There are two bars, one by the entrance and another one by the main dining area.

(The bar in the main dining room.)

In my opinion, it’s a little bit difficult to describe Mayfair. Their advertising says that they are a supper club. But what does that mean?

Basically, there’s a stage that has different acts going on throughout the night. For example, there was a piano player/singer. And later there was one singer singing while other dancers performed on the stage. Also, the entertainers were wandering around the dining area and interacting with the dinners. The entertainers act as if Mayfair was a 1930’s style cabaret.

(The piano player/singer in the beginning of the evening.)

In short, Mayfair is a combination of dining and entertainment mixed together. Most fine dining restaurants in the Bellagio hotel close around 10:00pm, but Mayfair serves food until 1:30am.

If you like old school songs such as “Luck Be a Lady” and “At Last”, you’d have a blast at the Mayfair Supper Club restaurant, because those are the types of songs you will hear while you eat there.

If you like Jazz, you’d want to go to Mayfair on Sunday night because there will be Jazz band and singers performing.

To be honest, I was skeptical about the whole concept of the restaurant when I first heard about it. But it worked very well, at least in my opinion. I had a great time eating there with my friends and enjoying the entertainment.

Stay tuned for my future post on the appetizers, entrees, and dessert we had at the restaurant.
(The lounge and the bar at the front of the restaurant.)

(Picture with my beautiful friend, Ying.)

All Posts, Top Five

5 Things to Try This Month – February 2020

02/14/2020 Shirley

February is always an exciting month for me. It’s the month of my birthday, February 22. Although I stopped celebrating my birthday a few years ago, I still like the month a lot. After all, what’s not to like about February?

Below are some of the things I am doing in February.

New Nails

I really love my last month’s multi-colored crystals gel nails, but it’s time to switch back to my favorite red. I asked my gel nail artist to put red crystals on my ring fingers. To emphasize the red crystals, we used gold glitters gel polish on background. There is a heart on the index finger and pinky finger. These red gel nails are perfect for my upcoming trip and the special events of this month.

(This is my February 2020 gel nails, with red crystals, mini gold heart, and my recent favorite teardrop crystals.)

Beauty Products

When it comes to taking care of my skin, I was never as diligent as some of my friends who pamper their face with masks on a daily basis. One of my new year resolutions is to take a better care of my skin and use facial masks on weekly basis. Below are some of the facial masks I am using now.

(These are the facial masks I am currently using. My goal is to use them at least once a week.)

New Restaurant

On the past New Year’s Eve, Bellagio hotel opened a new restaurant, The Mayfair Supper Club. The restaurant is a modernized classic American restaurant with entertainment. The CNN Travel has named The Mayfair Supper Club as one of the twenty best new restaurants in the world!

I am going to Las Vegas with friends this month and we will try the new Mayfair Supper Club. I can’t wait to find out more about the restaurant. Click here to read about my dining experience at the Mayfair Supper Club.

(Here is a picture of the Mayfair Supper Club entrance I took during my recent trip to Las Vegas.)

Special Event

As I get older I no longer celebrate my birthdays because it’s just another regular day to me. However, on my birthday this year my best friend is going to get married and have a small wedding reception. I’ve already gotten a perfect new dress for this special day. Since it’s a intimate family-only reception, I will wear a bright pink Alice and Olivia a-line mini dress with my silver glitter spiky Christian Louboutin stilettos. As for the accessories, I still have time to think about what bag to bring and what jewelry to wear.

(This is the dress I bought to attend my friend’s family-only intimate wedding reception.)

Baking

I recently bought a new bread machine. I’ve been following the recipe making French bread and white bread. So far, the result are good. I am excited to try making other kinds of bread, such as brioche, oat bread, and whole wheat bread.

(This is one of my homemade white bread.>

The Cover Image: I was eating at the Mayfair Supper Club restaurant in Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas. My beautiful friend, Ying, captured this picture while I was touching up my lipsticks in the restroom. I was wearing the Chanel’s matte liquid lipstick and a Self-portrait dress.

All Posts, Food, Travel

Returning to Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas

02/05/2020 Shirley

The first time I ate at Joel Robuchon, at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, was ten years ago. My overall dining experience at the restaurant back then was great. In fact, the Joel Robuchon restaurant is on my top five favorite restaurants in Las Vegas.

Read my previous post on the Joel Robunchon restaurant.

Throughout the years, I’ve been going back to Joel Robuchon many times. The food at the restaurant was very delicious; I always ended up overeating.

Other than the exquisite quality of the food, the impeccable service, and the fancy decoration at Joel Robuchon, I love their bread cart and dessert cart. I could just eat them all day.

(Picture of their bread cart)

Of course, there’s always their famous Le Souffle – Chocolate Hot Souffle. I had so many of their Le Souffle in the past, I even have pictures of them being served on different kind of serving plates over the past decade.

(Le Souffle – Chocolate Hot Souffle)

From eating at my favorite restaurants in Las Vegas, I noticed that they are constantly trying to reinvent their menu and make changes to stay current. Sometimes, they’d remove food that I happened to love or add new items that I enjoy.

However, one thing I am grateful about Joel Robuchon is that while they update themselves, they still keep providing everything I love about eating at their restaurant. This includes their bread cart and dessert cart. Among all the bread their offer, they still have my favorite ones!

(Joel Robuchon’s butter with sea salt and my favorite bread selection.)

Below are the food my friend and I ordered during my recent visit to Joel Robuchon.

Appetizers

(Le Potiron – cream of pmpkin with mimolette cheese and Parisian gnocchi, served with black truffle.)

(L’OEuf de Poule Miroir – pan fried egg on pearl rice with shaved Iberico Ham, served with black truffle.)

Main Courses

(Le Black Cod – Caramelized black code in Maiabar pepper sauce with wasabi spinach.)

(Le Boeuf – Wagyu rib eye with stuffed macaroni and Parmesan.)

I enjoy eating at the Joel Robuchon so much, there are just so many good things about it.

There’s another dessert I ate during this trip. It’s so exquisite. I think it deserves to have its own dedicated blog post, so I’ll write it up later.

If you haven’t been to Joel Robuchon, I hope the pictures in this post are enough to entice you to make the trip. Believe me, it’s totally worth it.

All Posts, Food

Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki Restaurant in Seattle

01/30/2020 Shirley

A few months ago, my friends introduced me to one of their favorite restaurants in Seattle, Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki. “Kaiseki” refers to a traditional multi-course Japanese cuisine, prepared with rigorous attention to detail.

The menu at the restaurant changes daily, based on the season and weather. And the restaurant only has nine seats, which makes the reservation hard to get. We had to reserve two months in advance.

Once you are seated, you can watch the chef and sous-chefs prepare each of the courses right in front of you while you eat.

My first time experience at the Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki was wonderful. The food was delicious and the service was great.

I enjoyed eating all the food at Taneda Sushi in Kaisei. However, I have several personal favorites which I don’t mind to eat them all the time.

My personal favorites are the sashimi and uni served over the sea urchin shell, amaebi and uni roll, caviar, uni, Kobe beef over rice, and Kobe beef with meatball.

See below for the images I took during dinner.

(Uni and sashimi served on a sea urchin shell – the ingredients were very fresh; they literally melt in my mouth as I ate them.)

(Amaebi and Uni roll — sweet shrimp and sea urchin — in a close-up image – this is so delicious! I think eating just one is not enough.)

(Special mix of caviar, uni, and Kobe beef over rice – this course has all of my favorite ingredients. The portion is small, but rich in taste.)

(Kobe beef and meatball with special sauce – the Kobe beef is so tender. )

Below are more food, in addition to my personal favorites.

(Sampling of delicious bites.)

(Assorted sushi.)

(Watching Chef Taneda preparing our food.)

I am going back to the Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki with a group of friends tomorrow night. Just by looking at the pictures of the food I took during my last visit to the restaurant makes me hungry. I can’t wait for the dinner tomorrow.

Since the food at the Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki restaurant changes seasonally, I am looking forward to see what’s new. I hope they will still offer my favorite dishes. (Stay tuned for my follow-up post on my returning to the restaurant.)

All Posts, Food, Travel

Top Ten Restaurants in Las Vegas

01/24/2020 Shirley

I’ve been going to Las Vegas with different groups of people, such as friends, family, and co-workers in the past years (why I like to go to Vegas). After trying so many restaurants on the strip, I came up with my top ten list of restaurants in Las Vegas. Depending on who I am going with, my top restaurant list might vary. Below is a list ideal for trips to Vegas with anyone who enjoy great dinner.

It is in no particular order. I will go into details in my future posts.

Allegro at Wynn
Bardot Brasserie at Aria
Harvest at Bellagio
Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand
Le Cirque at Bellagio
The Mansion at The Mansion
Michael Mina at Bellagio
Picasso at Bellagio
Sinatra at Encore
SW Steakhouse at Wynn

Las Vegas has way more great restaurants than I could fit into my list. There are three more I would have considered to add to my top ten list, except that they were closed in the past few years, mainly for economic reasons. They are: Restaurant Charlie by Charlie Trotter, David Burke, and Switch. I will explain why I like them later.

LasVegas Restaurant AquaKnox — American Red Snapper from AquaKnox at Venetian

LasVegas Restaurant Allegro at Wynn — Osso Buco D’agnello from Allegro at Wynn

All Posts, Fashion

The Dress with 80’s Fashion Vibe

01/24/2020 Shirley

The off-the-shoulder fashion style was popular in the 80’s, and it has made a come back in the past few years.

I think when it comes to picking a dress for evenings or parties, the off-the-shoulder style is an ideal choice for a fun and sophisticated look. If you pair the dress with the right accessories, you can transform the look with plenty of sexiness.

The self-portrait’s Black Sequin Embellished Ruffle Mini Dress (above) is a good example of a off-the-shoulder dress. It is made with black sequins with a asymmetrical top. The dress has fitted bodice with golden zipper on the front and ruffle trim skirt.

(Getting ready for dinner.)

This off-the-shoulder black sequin embellished ruffle mini dress is one of my favorite dresses. The design of the dress is intended to fit to the body perfectly and it flatters the figure. The asymmetrical top shows off just enough shoulder to add some sophistication to the look.

How to Complete the Look?

In general, to complete a 80’s outfit, it’s ideal to wear a pair of statement earrings, intensified/bold makeup, and a red lipstick.

To complete my evening off-shoulder silhouette outfit for dinner, I wore a cocktail flower ring, a pair of the chandelier earrings, and suede heels with crystals around the shoe platform.

For the lips, I wore my favorite YSL lipstick in bright red. And for my eyes, I used both purple and blue eyeshadow.

To summarize, I think getting a silhouette with a classic 80’s vibe, like my off-shoulder dress, is a great investment. This kind of dress with timeless fashion style will always be in style.

All Posts, Top Five

5 Things to Try This Month – November 2019

11/20/2019 Shirley

As we are getting closer to the holiday season, it’s time to think about what dessert I want to make for the Thanksgiving and stock up on glittery makeup for the celebration days.

Below are the things I’d like to try this month.

New Nails

I just got my nails done the past weekend. I was so tempted to do red glitters again, but I decided to hold off on my favorite nail colors until December. I went for full-on crystals with light pink and silver undertones. The result is a different kind of flashy effect than red glitters. I think it’s a great alternative for this month!

(Crystal Gel Nails for November!)

Beauty Event

On the first Saturday of this month, my girlfriend invited us to the Nordstrom beauty event. At the event they showcased the new beauty products and the current makeup trends. We got our makeup done and had a lot of fun shopping for makeup products!

(Lunch after the beauty event!)

New Beauty Product

When it comes to holidays, one of the many good things is that there are plenty of glitters to shop for. For someone who’s obsessed with beauty products that have glitters, it’s the perfect time to shop. Among many new eye shadow palettes I got this month, there’s NARS’ Inferno Eye Shadow Palette (which has ultrafine blends of shimmer, glitter, and pearl reflect light for eye-catching effects).

(NARS Inferno eyeshadow palette!)

New Coffee

Nespresso released its holiday limited-edition coffee. As usual, the holiday coffee is offered in both the Original line and Vertuo line. My favorite pick for the Original line is the Nordic Cloudberry. The aroma of the Cloudberry reminds me of the Summer time. And my favorite pick for the Vertuo line is the Nordic Vanilla Princess Cake. I like the way the Vanilla Princes cake adds a hint of sweetness to the coffee.

(Nespresso Nordic coffee for this holidays!)

Dinner

Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki is a new Japanese restaurant that opened in Spring 2019 in Seattle. There are only nine seats at the sushi bar. A reservation is hard to get. My dear friends made a reservation for us two months ago. We ate there during the second Sunday this month. In my opinion, everything exceeded my expectations. The food was delicious and the services was great! I highly recommend it.

Read about my dining experience at the Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki.

(Watching sushi chef Taneda preparing our food!)

All Posts, Food, Travel

Spago Restaurant in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas

08/06/2018 Shirley

While I was on my business trip to a Deep Learning conference in Las Vegas last month I ate at the new Spago restaurant in the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. (The Spago restaurant was in their soft opening when I ate there and they were officially opened on Thursday, June 7.)

The Spago restaurant is owned by the celebrity chef, Wolfgang Puck, who has many restaurants including five Spago restaurants (in Beverly Hills, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Maui, Singapore). The Spago restaurant in Las Vegas used to be at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, and it’s now re-opened in the Bellagio hotel in June.

The Spago restaurant serves California cuisine, which means it offers fresh ingredients and all-natural meats, and the food is prepared in different cooking styles.

The décor of the new Spago restaurant in the Bellagio is simple and yet has a modernized look and feel. It is located by the Fountains of Bellagio. If you sit at their patio, you will get the close-up view of the fountain show every 30 minutes.

During this Las Vegas trip, I ate at Spago twice; dinner with colleagues on Monday and lunch with a friend on Tuesday. I guess this shows how much I enjoyed their food!

For dinner, my two colleagues and I sat at the patio. We shared Smoked Salmon Pizza, Sweet Corn Agnolotti, Fettuccine with Wild Mushrooms, English Pea Soup, Seared Alaskan Halibut, Grilled Prime New York Steak, and Roasted Colorado Lamb Rack. Each dish was delicious. After a day of work, a couple of Dirty Martinis with Gray Goose Vodka, delicious food, and great company were just what I needed!

(Smoked Salmon Pizza)

(Seared Alaskan Halibut)

(Roasted Colorado Lamb Rack)

The next day, I met a friend for lunch and we went to Spago. The menu for lunch is slightly different than previous night’s dinner, but I was glad that they offered the same Fettuccine with Wild Mushrooms as the previous night. This pasta dish brings out the best flavor of mushrooms, and it has became my new favorite at the Spago restaurant.

(Fettuccine with Wild Mushrooms)

For lunch at the Spago, my friend and I shared Half-Dozen Kusshi & Beausoliel Oysters, Caesar Salad, Tuna Tartare (served in Sesame-Miso cones), Fettuccine with Wild Mushrooms, and Grilled Double R Ranch Filet Mignon. We also had assorted treats for dessert.

(Half-Dozen Kusshi & Beausoliel Oysters)

(Tuna Tartare – served in Sesame-Miso cones)

(Grilled Double R Ranch Filet Mignon)

My overall experience at the Spago restaurant in the Bellagio hotel was great! The service on both visits at the restaurant was equally great. I like the fact that they are open for lunch while most fine dinning restaurants at the Bellagio hotel don’t open until dinner.

Next time you visit the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas and are looking for a place for dinning, I recommend that you try the Spago restaurant!

(Desserts)

The featured image of the Spago Restaurant’s patio was from the restaurant’s Web site.)

All Posts, Food, Travel

The Picasso Restaurant at the Bellagio Hotel In Las Vegas

05/25/2017 Shirley

The first fine dinning experience I had in Las Vegas was at the Picasso restaurant (French cuisine) in the Bellagio hotel, back in year 2005. I was there celebrating our best friend’s engagement. My memory of the restaurant was upscale decoration, fancy food, and great wine!

It has been a long time since my last visit to the Picasso restaurant, because there were too many great restaurant options on the Vegas Strip, and the Picasso restaurant was closed sometime during last year for renovation. But I finally had the chance to eat there during my recent trip to Las Vegas!

As I walked into the Picasso restaurant by the award-winning chief, Julian Serrano, I recognized the newly renovated interior. It looked different than what I remembered, but the restaurant was still unique and colorful. And the Picasso paintings were all over the walls just as they used to be.

I’ve dined at most restaurants in the Bellagio property many times, such as the Prime Steakhouse, Le Cirque, and Todd English’s Olives. I’ve also sat at the tables right by the window, where I could enjoy the closer view of the Fountain of Bellagio. But for this time at Picasso, we preferred to sit at the table a slightly away from the window, so I could sat back and get a bigger view of the fountain via the window frames throughout the night.

My friend and I ordered the prix fixe menu ($118 per person). We got to choose from the menu for each part of the three-course meal and a dessert in the end.

I ordered Poached Oysters, Roasted Langoustine, Roasted Milk-Fed Veal Chop. And my friend ordered Crème of Butternut Squash, Sautéed Filet of Scottish Salmon, and Sautéed Filet of Black Bass. (The pictures are presented below in the order of the list.)

Poached Oysters

Roasted Langoustine

Roasted Milk-fed Veal Chop

Crème of Butternut Squash

Sautéed Filet of Scottish Salmon

Sautéed Filet of Black Bass

My friend and I were craving for different food on the night we went to Picasso (as you could tell from the items we ordered). But all of our dishes were delicious.

I love to sample a variety of foods. I was very satisfied with my choices. The Poached Oysters (garnished with Osetra Cariar) were slightly warmer than the regular chilled oysters, but they were delicious.

The Roasted Langoustine was prepared exactly to my liking. The other restaurant that makes a great langoustine is Joel Robuchon in MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. And the Roasted Milk-Fed Veal Chop is the perfect main course. It was tender and flavorful.

I tried a bit of my friend’s dishes; they were also very tasty.

I’d say no fancy meal is completed without a nice drink. I ordered a Hemingway Daiquiri cocktail drink. It is made of Bacardi Light, Luxardo Maraschino Cherries, Fresh Grapefruit Juice, and Fresh Lime Juice. The drink tasted different than other Hemingway Daiquiris I’ve had in the past, but it was definitely very good.

Hemingway Daiquiri

After we finished our delicious three-course meal, we were pretty stuffed. When it came to ordering the desserts in the end, I got to make the choices for both of us, because my friend wasn’t as into desserts and I was.

For desserts, we ordered Chocolate Bread Pudding and Pineapple Tart. My friend only had a few bites of each dessert, and I basically ate all of the them. (When it comes to desserts, I just couldn’t resist the temptation of the delicious sweets sitting right in front of me! )

Chocolate Bread Pudding

Pineapple Tart

Our overall experience of the Picasso restaurant in the Bellagio hotel was great! The services was outstanding, food was unique, and the ambience was perfect.

I’d say for a fancy restaurant like the Picasso in the Bellagio Hotel, the price we paid for our meal was well spent.

All Posts, Food, Travel

Stripsteak Restaurant by Michael Mina in Las Vegas

08/25/2015 Shirley

Las Vegas is known mostly for gambling and shows, but the city has some of the best restaurants in the world. On a recent trip to Vegas with my girlfriends, I ate at two well-known steak restaurants in the city. Interestingly, both of these world-class steakhouses were in the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

My friends and I stayed at the Delano Hotel, which is actually a hotel-in-a-hotel inside the Mandalay Bay hotel. There’s also a second hotel-in-a-hotel inside Mandalay Bay, The Four Seasons. The Delano used to be called The Hotel, but the property changed names recently. My guess is that ‘The Hotel’ just wasn’t distinctive enough.

Anyway, the first steakhouse we ate was Charlie Palmer Steak in the Four Seasons Hotel in Mandalay Bay. The second well-known steakhouse we ate at was Stripsteak by Michael Mina in the main Mandalay Bay hotel restaurant row.

My first impression on walking in was that Stripsteak was a bit more casual and relaxed than a classical steakhouse. Stripsteak was bright and lively and even at 6:00 PM there were a lot of people at the bar.

My girlfriends and I went directly to our table. Our waitress was very perky and personable, and not at all snooty like waiters and waitresses at some fancy steakhouses.

My two friends and I all shared our food. The night before we ate steak, and usually one meat meal per trip is enough for us. But for some reason we were still in the mood for steak so we had rib eye steak (again), and Alaskan cod, and Ahi Tuna. But before our main course, instead of the usual bread basket, our waitress brought us the restaurant’s signature French fries — three different kinds with three different dipping sauces. The fries themselves deserve a separate blog post!

The bottom line is that I give Stripsteak by Michael Mina a solid 9 out of 10. Great food, excellent atmosphere, good service, and reasonable prices make Stripsteak one of my highest recommended steakhouses in Las Vegas.

Shirley Style

Tag Archives: Fine Dining

The Mayfair Supper Club in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas

5 Things to Try This Month – February 2020

Returning to Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas

Taneda Sushi in Kaiseki Restaurant in Seattle

Top Ten Restaurants in Las Vegas

The Dress with 80’s Fashion Vibe

5 Things to Try This Month – November 2019

Spago Restaurant in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas

The Picasso Restaurant at the Bellagio Hotel In Las Vegas

Stripsteak Restaurant by Michael Mina in Las Vegas

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