Spago – Las Vegas

Las Vegas, NV (The Joy of Food) — Anyone recalling the old Spago in Caesar’s Palace will remember kitsch at its finest: a blue painted sky, a glistening fake pebbled floor, and a metal barrier on the ‘outdoor’ patio separating you from the passersby like a zoo enclosure. This location in the Bellagio is the opposite of that.

The new dining area is bright and shiny and overlooks the dancing Bellagio fountains. Thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows, there’s really not a bad table in the house. You won’t find the charming old-world Mediterranean-style patio of the Beverly Hills restaurant here, but you do get a seat right over the lake to watch the show.

What’s in a name

Spago means ‘string’ in Italian, a word that might conjure up ideas of simplicity. Usually, the best food is borne from simple stuff and turned into something transcendent thanks to high-quality ingredients. Spago features a basic market-driven menu that changes and rotates depending on what’s fresh and in season. Since not much grows in the Southern Nevada desert, that produce comes from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market.

Ingredients are put to delicious and creative use. Take the strawberry for example. If it looks like a fruit and it tastes like a fruit and it’s named after a fruit, then it must be a fruit, right? Not always. The aptly named Strawberry is a fantastical red cube that features almond-salted streusel, strawberry confit, and micro basil in a creative presentation. One crack of the spoon and the pureed filling comes rushing out, kind of like chocolate flowing from a lava cake. Its deliciousness almost obscures the effort that went into its making. Behind the chocolate, cream, and fruit are the blood, sweat, and tears that were shed for the sake of dessert — years of practice and hours of production.

California pizza

One of the menu classics is the smoked salmon pizza, a creation that features dill cream, red onion, and salmon pearls and one that spurned the whole ‘California pizza’ craze when it was first served in Beverly Hills in the 1980’s. At $39, this pizza is no joke, although the $75 version with added Kaluga Sturgeon Caviar makes it look like a deal. 

We can thank Ed LaDou for this concoction, Spago’s first pizza chef. When he auditioned for chef Puck back in 1982, he reportedly prepared a pate-and-mustard pizza so bizarre that the chef almost threw him out of his restaurant. But he was hired anyway and went on to put things like salmon, duck breast, hoison sauce, and barbecue sauce on pizza crust, to great fanfare. He also went on to develop the first menu for California Pizza Kitchen, a now-middling international chain of restaurants you’ll want to be sure to skip.

Land and sea

Another classic is the Weiner snitzel. At a price point of $40+, I question the value of this, a dish that’s basically veal pounded within an inch of its life, then breaded and sautéed. For chef Puck, this is a hometown favorite, but unless they’re growing gold-standard cattle to justify the price point, I think this one is best skipped and saved for Salzburg or Vienna.

Any fish served Hong Kong-style here is the thing to get, a white fish catch-of-the day (usually halibut, cod, or swordfish) served over a bed of market vegetables and jasmine rice. Some sweetened soy sauce gets poured over the dish table-side. Spago goes against the tide by steaming this fish with aromatics to impart flavor, eschewing the more familiar grilled and fried seafood preparations you’ll see elsewhere.

Size matters

Pastas are all made in-house, like the spaghettini pomodoro or the sweet corn agnolotti, handmade and served in a light sauce of butter, sage, and grated parmigiano. The sweetness of the summer corn works as nicely as you can imagine with the saltiness of the cheese. Some optional shaved truffles can further amp up the taste — and the price.

The only problem: the servings are micro. Portions are meant to be satisfying and not seams-busting so if you eat a lot, you will be starving after a meal here. The online menu doesn’t have prices, on purpose, reputedly because Las Vegas restaurants are known to up their costs when business is heaviest. Think Uber surcharge pricing, but with pasta instead.

Getting Pucked

One of the best reasons to visit Spago is the chance of getting Pucked, a now-common ritual where chef Puck does his rounds in the dining room and offers his hand to the unwashed masses. When the chef is in the house, watch for some mingling at any of his restaurants.

Written by Joy

Thanks for reading. The Joy of Food blog celebrates eating well, traveling often, and living la dolce vita. San Diego, California is home base, but thoughts are from all over. Reviews and photos help to highlight wonderful (or not) food experiences from around the world.

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