Cuisine:

• Others
• Californian
• Contemporary
• Homestyle
• Steak House

Suite & Tender Description:
A massive 900-pound bronze door serves as the portal to this über-swank steakhouse and mod lounge where Dodd Mitchell's sexy, low-lit ambience meets culinary panache. A wall relief of San Diego harbor plastered with 14-carat gold paint nods to the Vegas roots of the owners. The buzzword here is gastro-tourism---an invitation to create a food expedition with bells and whistles along the way. Chef-driven cocktails are jiggered tableside; oysters or little necks are summoned by ticking a raw bar menu with a golf pencil; Kobe nuggets are sold by the ounce; and wine pours range from "sips" to a "bottomless" well. Concept chef Christopher Lee (Gilt, Aureole) conceived the imaginative food (a team of sous chefs currently commands the kitchen), with his hamachi tacos leading the appetizer charge---yellowfin cushioned in soy sour cream, lettuce and pineapple chutney over avocado purée. A deconstructed surf 'n' turf appears as a duo of crisp-skinned pork belly with salty notes that play off the tart kumquat citrus, while diver scallops float on cauliflower purée, lavished in brown-butter hazelnut pomegranate sauce. Before carving that 16-ounce rib-eye, a tray of knives, like a rose petal-handled Lauguiole or Shun samurai, appear. A grand duchess of a dessert arrives as baked Alaska, with lime meringue peaks encapsulating hazelnut genoise with guava sauce and coconut sorbet for a fruit-forward finish.


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