Jaleo at Cosmopolitan Review

Jaleo's menu, click to enlarge. 

Tapas restaurants are all the rage these day on the Vegas strip as the last 8 weeks has seen Mandalay Bay's, Fleur De Lys restaurant by Hebert Keller turned into Fleur a tapas restaurant, La Cave opened at Wynn and now Jaleo by Jose Andres has opened up at the new resort Cosmopolitan. Jose Andres, original Jaleo restaurant in Washington DC has been one of the most successful tapas restaurants in the country now for almost two decades.

Paella station below during a quiet period. Usually there was about 3 chefs around there cooking and it can get a bit warm if your table is in that general seating area.

There was three in our party, Alaska, myself and Socalgirl whose birthday we were celebrating. We were seated at a comfortable booth raised up a level but close to the Paella station.

Since we had already had a couple fine cocktails in the Cosmopolitan casino I was the only one to order a drink and my deconstructed Clementine Martini was marvelous. There's a short video of our server preparing it in the video clip section of my blog. Don't think the deconstructed part was just a gimmick, the drink itself was great just the right amount of sweet and sour and I would order it again.

We ordered a lot of plates among the three of us to try. The first to arrive was the pan con tomate which was a excellent bruschetta but nothing that stood out from ones I have had at other restaurants.

Croquetas de pollo, traditional chicken fritters is in the above photo. They were tasty and a good choice for anyone who likes more meat and potatoes type of food.

Espinacas a la Catalana which is sauteed spinach, pine nuts, raisins and apples, very light and tasty.The photo above is how it's served and below of course is my plated version.

Below is the Datiles con tochino 'como hace todo el mundo' or fried dates wrapped in bacon. The menu stated that you will want to eat them ever day and after tasting a couple, I agreed. The shoe presentation was a bit of whimsy that we loved.

I loved the lobster salad and can't wait to order this dish again, so light and refreshing.

Unfortunately we can't say the same about the lobster paella which was featured that evening as it was too salty and the lobster not very nice.

Fortunately the lobster paella was the only dish the three of us thought wasn't good, and the vegetable paella was marvelous.

So where's the beef? The Lomo de buey, grilled hanger steak with piquillo peppers was prepared perfectly and had a fantastic flavor.

Yes and the food just kept coming, a lesson not to order when one has already had two very potent cocktails from the casino.

I liked La Cave at Wynn but personally thought their beet salad was terrible (they don't mention on the menu it's hot and more like borsht), so I wanted to try Jaleo's, Remolacha con citricos which is a salad of red beets,oranges, Valdeon cheese and pistachios with a sherry dressing. I thought it was marvelous and look forward to trying it again soon.

Things are getting a bit hazy at this point and my last small plate was seared scallops which was delicious. Looking back on the menu I believe it was called Vieiras con calabaza y clementinas, seared scallops with butternut squash puree, clementines and pumpkin seeds.

I tried a tiny taste of both desserts and they were wonderful, just wish I had some room left to eat more of them. Fortunately since Alaska and Socalgirl didn't eat the scallop dish that I was forced to enjoy all by myself they had room for dessert. The dessert that was ordered was Flan al estilo tradicional de mama Maris con espuma de crema Catalana (whew), which is spanish custard with cream and oranges. The dessert with the candle which was complementary for the birthday was Espuma de avellanas y chocolate, which is a creamy chocolate and hazelnut mousse torte.

I'll be staying at Cosmopolitan with my husband for a couple nights Valentine Day weekend and I'm going to have to return to Jaleo even though there are so many interesting restaurants to try at Cosmo. The food and service is just too good not to share with my husband next trip, though I'm sure we'll fit in Comma Ca and a couple other of the restaurants at Cosmopolitan too.