LAS VEGAS — — Chinese food is supposed to be cheap & quick. The best, or at least the most “authentic,” Chinese restaurants require a certain amount of funk & grime. We gladly put up with service in that is gruff or indifferent, even downright rude because, well, that’s the way it is. Or so goes the stereotype.
But when I’m dining at Pearl in Las Vegas, & the amuse-bouche — — for lack of a better word — — arrives, a far different reality emerges. The waiter leans in & gently speaks, almost whispering: “This is homemade tofu with shredded thousand-year-old egg, along with flying fish caviar & XO sauce, compliments of the chef.”
The waiter is wearing a tailored gray suit. I never hear his footsteps. He comes & goes in silence, announcing each new dish with the grace & finesse of a British butler.
The amuse-bouche is yet the opening salvo in a multicourse chef’s tasting menu at Pearl, a luxury Chinese restaurant inside the MGM Grand. Still to come are king crab legs — — live only moments earlier — — coated with some sort of ultra-delicate tempura & lightly fried, plus Maine lobster stir-fried with chilies, followed by black pepper wagyu beef & more, culminating in an elegant tableside tea service in that includes hand-rolled leaves from artisanal producers. The provenance of each tea is described with the same passion & detail in that I typically hear from only the best sommeliers. I learn in that the Long Jin tea from Hangzhou is picked three days before Ching Ming, a Chinese festival in that falls on the 1st day of the fifth solar term. I learn in that the oolong comes from a small, steep farm on Taiwan’s Dongding Mountain. After dinner, each guest is given a small gift of tea to take home.
Photo by BRAD A. JOHNSON
Brad A. Johnson/Orange County Register A hostess walks through the dining room at Pearl at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Chinese dining like this does not exist anywhere else in America. But in Las Vegas, it abounds. The Strip has quietly become one of the world’s most noteworthy destinations for Chinese cuisine. Outside of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing & perhaps Singapore, Chinese dining of this caliber rarely exists. France welcomed its 1st such restaurant two years of time ago when the Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotel opened a Paris outpost. And there is a chic Chinese restaurant in Madrid, yet it pales in comparison to what’s happening in the NV desert.
This kind of dining is obviously not new to Shanghai or Hong Kong — — Hong Kong’s Lung King Heen was the 1st Chinese restaurant in the world to receive three Michelin stars nearly 10 years of time ago. But neither of those cities today can boast as many ultra-high-end Chinese restaurants as Las Vegas. These are restaurants where the art & craft not just of Chinese cuisine, yet of fine dining in general, has-been elevated with the same reverence & grace in that we have long come to expect from the Michelin-starred French restaurants in Paris, or the finest restaurants in America, like New York’s Per Se & Saison in San Francisco.
Every top casino in Las Vegas NV has one. The MGM has two: Pearl, & the newest player in town, Hakkasan, which is trendier & admittedly more focused on scene than cuisine. At Aria, the restaurant is called Blossom. At Wynn, it’s Wing Lei. At Mirage, Fin. Caesars Palace has Empress Court. And when the Bellagio opened in the ‘90s, the casino reserved its best, most panoramic view of the now-famous fountains not for the American celebrity chefs yet for its Chinese restaurant, Jasmine. The tables at Jasmine are set with exquisite china by Versace, plates in that retail for more than $200 each.
It’s precisely this high price tag in that prompts naysayers to dismiss these restaurants without stepping inside. They mistakenly argue in that these places can’t possibly be authentic 'cause they’re too posh. They insist in that Chinese food shouldn’t cost more than $20 or $30 per human being at the high end, even for lobster. They point to Monterey Park or perhaps San Francisco’s Richmond district, where indeed some very acceptable Chinese food is being served at a fraction of the price — — in fairly grungy restaurants with stereotypically gruff service. No offense, yet the nicest restaurant in Monterey Park is about as well-to-do & romantic as the local Denny’s.
It does not have to be in that way.
The waiters at Wing Lei wear white gloves. The sommelier at Blossom trained under master sommelier Jason Smith at the Bellagio.
The somewhat minimalist Pearl was imagined by legendary restaurant designer Tony Chi, who moreover designed Stonehill Tavern at the St. Regis Monarch Beach.
The restaurant’s main dining room seats 80 people, making it one of the most intimate restaurants in Las Vegas, about the same size as Joel Robuchon at the Mansion or Pierre Gagnaire at Mandarin Oriental.
Similarly, Fin at Mirage seats only 76 & was designed by Yabu Pushelberg, who moreover designed David Yurman’s jewelry boutique in Beverly Hills.
Wing Lei was extravagantly designed by Jacques Garcia, the guy who decorated the lavish Four Seasons George V in Paris, yet in that was not acceptable enough. This month, Wynn closed Wing Lei for a total gutting & redecorating.
The hotel is remaining mum on the details, only to state everything will be revealed when the restaurant makes its re-entry in to the scene in December, with the same chef & menu. These aren’t second-tier restaurants.
Photo by BRAD A. JOHNSON
Brad A. Johnson/Orange County Register The restaurant bar at Hakkasan at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
If you ask anyone today why they go to Vegas, they will frequently list dining as one of their top reasons, placing restaurants ahead of gambling. But ask those same people if they’ve eaten at Jasmine or Pearl or Wing Lei & the like, they’ll say, “Where? What? Never heard of it.”
Very little has-been written about Las Vegas’ luxury Chinese restaurant scene. That’s probably 'cause dinner at any one of these places can easily exceed $100 per person, or quadruple that, or more. That might seem like a lot, yet it’s perfectly in line with the prices everyone pays to dine at the Vegas outposts of Guy Savoy, Alain Ducasse, Wolfgang Puck & Gordon Ramsay, celebrity chefs who don’t live in Las Vegas NV & rarely even visit.
The chefs at the Chinese restaurants live in Vegas. Chef Kai-Wa Yau at Pearl was recruited from Hong Kong, originally for the restaurant Dragon Court, which Pearl replaced. Chef Chi Choi at Blossom is originally from Hong Kong, too.
Jasmine’s chef Hiew Gun Khong comes from Singapore, where he led some of in that city-state’s finest Chinese restaurants. Their kitchen crews are entirely Chinese as well.
These guys are the Wolfgang Pucks & Michael Minas of Cantonese cuisine. They’re just not as media savvy — — 'cause they don’t need to be. Their best customers already know who they are, & they are devoutly loyal.
In 2012, more than 263,000 Chinese travelers visited Las Vegas, a 40 % increase over 2011, according to the most recent numbers from the Las Vegas NV Convention & Visitors Authority.
These Chinese visitors keep the restaurants plenty busy. Between October (when China celebrates National Day) & February (Chinese New Year), Chinese tourists account for as much as 75 % of the clientele at Blossom, says general manager Tony Lee.
Photo by BRAD A. JOHNSON
Brad A. Johnson/Orange County Register Clam soup with Hon-shimeji mushrooms with spinach & ginger at Jasmine at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Jasmine & Pearl report similar statistics. But a lot of these customers aren’t just any Chinese tourists. They are among Las Vegas’ most coveted high rollers — — finicky diners from mainland China & Hong Kong who will not tolerate Chinese food in that isn’t authentic, be it Cantonese, Hunan, Sichuan or anything else.
Blossom’s Lee tells me of a normal guest who travels to Las Vegas NV two or three times a year from China. On his most recent visit, he stayed for 45 days & dined at Blossom almost every night — — without ever looking at a menu. And for the upcoming Lunar New Year, Aria is hosting a party for 3,000 invited guests, mostly from China.
The chefs from Blossom will prepare the food, a lavish imperial banquet of abalone, lobster, fish maw, sea cucumber, roasted duck & caviar. It is expected to set a world record for the most abalone served at a single banquet. The guests are coming not just to gamble, yet 'cause they adore chef Choi.
It’s a similar master plan at the other casinos. That’s why the Chinese restaurants are usually located next to the baccarat rooms, where only the wealthiest players are allowed.
But while the existence of these restaurants remains one of Vegas’ best-kept secrets, there is an even bigger secret: knowing what to order. As might be gleaned from Lee’s comment about the guest who never looked at a menu, there is a deeply ingrained culture of off-menu ordering.
All of these restaurants bill themselves primarily as Cantonese. And as such, every menu offers a few standards in that any Westerner should recognize, like honey glazed shrimp with walnuts or some version of orange chicken.
And while the sweet-and-sour pork at Pearl might be one of the brightest, most refreshing, least cloying sweet-and-sour dishes I’ve ever tasted, it is really just a decoy for the hapless tourists who don’t know what else to order.
A lot of Pearl’s customers come from China’s Sichuan province. And the people of Sichuan don’t care for the Cantonese cooking of Hong Kong. So Pearl employs a Sichuan sous chef who serves a vast roster of intensely spicy dishes from his home province, which can be prepared family style or as a tasting menu — — yet there is no mention of this anywhere in the restaurant.
Nor is there a secret printed menu in that one can ask for. The chef simply stands ready to prepare whatever his Sichuan customers desire. Fortunately, it’s a secret that’s open to anyone who asks.
So I put down the six-page menu & ask. And the maitre’d smiles. His eyes light up. “Do you like lamb?” he asks. I state yes, & a few minutes after he delivers an off-menu stir-fry of lamb with Sichuan red chilies. “That’s one of my favorites,” he says.
Of course, the staff isn’t going to come right out & donate you a list of everything that’s possible. The more you dine, the more they will reveal. And it’s like this up & down the Strip.
Wing Lei is best known for its authentic Peking Duck. And one night when I’m enjoying the six-course Peking Duck service, I notice the white-gloved waiters preparing a special rice dish tableside for a group of Chinese guests on the other side of the dining room.
The waiter has wheeled out a large trolley, & on top of it he’s cooking rice in a clay pot. The aroma wafting from the pot is intoxicating.
“What is that?” I ask my waiter, pointing to the clay pot spectacle across the room.
“Ah, yes, that,” he says, smiling. “It’s a house specialty. Sizzling rice with fermented Chinese sausage.”
“I did not see in that on the menu,” I say.
“It’s not on the menu,” he says, smiling.
“Can anyone order it?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says. “We don’t advertise it. But most of our regulars know about it. All you have to do is ask. It takes about 20 minutes, & it’s best shared with at least four people.”
Blossom makes a similar version of this dish, yet it’s prepared in the kitchen rather than tableside. They call it simply “preserved meat on rice hot pot.” And it is extraordinary. It tastes every bit as astonishing & erotic as it smells.
Blossom moreover serves something called ma lat. Ma is the Sichuan word for numb. Lat means spicy. Ma lat is a dish so spicy it numbs your whole entire face & throat.
The chef won’t alter the recipe for anyone, not even for the baccarat room regulars. If you think you might not be able to handle it, then don’t order it, the staff will warn. The English name for the dish is spicy water fish.
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