{"id":458,"date":"2010-05-24T15:09:53","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T20:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/?p=458"},"modified":"2010-07-29T15:02:33","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T20:02:33","slug":"china-grill-las-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/general\/china-grill-las-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"China Grill – Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>

China Grill - Las Vegas<\/p><\/div>\n

I had planned everywhere we were going while in\u00a0Las Vegas\u00a0but did have a couple of nights free to choose things randomly.\u00a0 On one of these random nights we stopped at a good looking place called China Grill<\/a>\u00a0in the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.\u00a0\u00a0I had walked past it several times on the way to the conference I was attending and had even read about the restaurant in Zagat\u2019s 2009 Las Vegas book.\u00a0 It had a good rating in the book so I figured why not?<\/p>\n

According to Zagat\u2019s, China Grill hearkens from New York City with an outpost in Las Vegas.\u00a0 The Las Vegas outpost is nicely decorated and not too loud.\u00a0 My wife and I were able to have a conversation without any problems and that\u2019s saying something given the town we were in.\u00a0 China Grill offers a fusion of western and eastern food.\u00a0 While the items are distinctively Chinese in origin you can see the western influences in most dishes.<\/p>\n

We showed up, without reservations, at 6pm for dinner and were seated immediately.\u00a0 They had a sushi happy hour going but we opted for the dining room (and a regular dinner.)\u00a0 They gave us a table in the middle that was relatively quiet even though we were between booths and a 10-top table (a table that had 10 seats.)<\/p>\n

After a few minutes the waiter showed up and took our drink orders.\u00a0 He also gave us our menus and told us about the fixed-price menu (of pre-determined items.)\u00a0 While he was off getting our drinks we\u00a0chose the lobster pancakes and spiced crispy pork belly for appetizers.\u00a0 We also agreed on entrees of grilled garlic shrimp and grilled Szechuan beef.<\/p>\n

For most items on the menu you can choose either the half or full portion.\u00a0 The waiter explained to us that half of a portion is plenty for one person but recommended the full portions for two or more people (family style.)\u00a0 After eating there I can tell you that the half portions are fine for people with small to medium appetites.\u00a0 If I were hungrier I would have wanted the full portions.\u00a0 We opted for half-portions for everything except the beef, which did not have a half-portion available.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pork Belly and Lobster Pancake<\/p><\/div>\n

Appetizers<\/h3>\n

The lobster pancakes ($17 half-portion\/$32 full-portion)\u00a0came out within 5 minutes and looked great.\u00a0 Our server cut the single pancake in half and served us.\u00a0 We had a single pancake due to ordering the half-portion but it was enough for our liking.\u00a0 Although the food came out scarily fast, it looked fresh and tasted great.\u00a0 The lobster was very tender and the pancake was light and fluffy.\u00a0 The menu describes the appetizer as being stir fried with wild mushrooms, red chili, scallions & coconut milk.\u00a0 The coconut and chili mixture made for a silky sauce on top and had a great flavor to it.\u00a0 All in all the appetizer exceeded expectations.\u00a0 My only suggestion would be to order a full portion in the future.<\/p>\n

The spiced crispy pork belly ($13 half-portion \/ $21 full-portion) came out with our lobster roll (which is why you see it pictured above on the same plate.)\u00a0 The pork belly is accompanied by a avocado salad and is sauced with a watermelon salad and sweet and sour chili sauce.\u00a0 The avocado salad tasted much like guacamole but was a great addition to eat bite of the pork.\u00a0 The sauce had a nice crisp flavor to it as well and went well with the dish.\u00a0 Once again, my only negative was that I wish I had more of the dish.\u00a0 It was quite good and cooked perfectly.<\/p>\n

Entrees<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Grilled Szechuan beef<\/p><\/div>\n

Our two entrees came out after about 15 minutes of waiting.\u00a0 First we received the grilled garlic shrimp\u00a0($21 half-portion \/ $39 full-portion) that was accompanied by black fettuccine and a red curry coconut sauce.\u00a0 The dish came with three jumbo shrimp were slightly overcooked but had a nice flavor to them.\u00a0 The fettuccine had a pleasant texture and the curry sauce was a nice addition.\u00a0 Personally, I would not order the entree again.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t bad, but it also wasn\u2019t good enough to warrant a second round.\u00a0 There was plenty of food for one person even though we only ordered the half-portion.<\/p>\n

Secondly we received the grilled Szechuan beef ($42) made with sake, soy, spicy shallots\u00a0and cilantro.\u00a0 The beef was accompanied by a large stack of crispy fried noodles topped with a white sauce as well.\u00a0 You cannot order a half-portion of this dish; hence, the full portion price.\u00a0 I ordered the beef cooked medium-rare and it met my expectations.\u00a0 It had little flavor to it\u00a0but the sauce on the crispy noodles had a good amount\u00a0of flavor.\u00a0\u00a0If I were creating the dish I would have put the sauce on the beef instead of the noodles.\u00a0 I did eat the beef with the noodles, at the same time, but they were a little too crisp for my liking.\u00a0 In the end, I wouldn\u2019t order the beef again.\u00a0 If it had more flavor it could be a big winner.<\/p>\n

Desert<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Cheesecake Wontons<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0last thing we ordered ended up being a dessert of\u00a0cheesecake wontons \u2013 ($9).\u00a0 You cannot find the dessert listed on the online menu but it is one of the best things offered at the China Grill.\u00a0 You receive\u00a0 a steamer basked of 3 large wontons, all filled with cheesecake.\u00a0 The wontons are sprinkled with powdered sugar and are accompanied by four sauces in two small dishes.\u00a0 The first dish has a mango and strawberry(?) sauce while the second dish has white and dark chocolate sauces.\u00a0 The wontons tasted amazing and were perfect when dipped in each sauce.\u00a0 I would order this dish again without giving it a second thought.<\/p>\n

The total bill for two people came out to $160.00 USD which is about right for Las Vegas.\u00a0 It felt a bit on the expensive side but was worth the trip.\u00a0 I do wish the entrees would have pleased\u00a0me more but overall I would recommend going to the China Grill if you are in town.\u00a0 We talked about going back and just ordering appetizers (and dessert of course!)<\/p>\n

Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
\n3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South
\nLas Vegas, NV 89119
\n702.632.7404<\/p>\n

\"China<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com I had planned everywhere we were going while in\u00a0Las Vegas\u00a0but did have a couple of nights free to choose things randomly.\u00a0 On one of these random nights we stopped at a good looking place called China Grill\u00a0in the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.\u00a0\u00a0I had walked past it several times on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,205],"tags":[166,167,33,163,73,164],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-reviews","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-grill","tag-las","tag-review","tag-vegas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodiecuisine.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}