Beauty & Essex — Restaurant in Paradise

To start, for most other restaurants this would be a 5 star meal. But this is one of the highest rated and decently accessible fine dining establishments in Vegas and my expectations were in line with that. I'm disappointed to say it was underwhelming.

The Good:

The service was impeccable, absolutely on par with fine dining. We were celebrating a birthday and everyone from the hostess to our bussers and even the manager knew it, and made sure to offer well wishes. The restaurant itself was beautiful, interesting but not over the top and I love the speakeasy like entrance.

Our lamb was perfectly cooked, we got the chef recommended medium rare and we were very happy we did. The ahi tuna in the tacos was also perfect. Everything was presented beautifully, and portion size was good. Nothing too miniscule.

The birthday cake pop dessert was very very good. A flourless chocolate cake with ganache, served with whipped cream. It was honestly the best item of the night and I was so full I didn't eat a while one. This cake should be on the menu.

The Decent:

Their grilled cheese spoons are the signature app for a reason. They are very good. The presentation, while fun and eye catching, was difficult to eat. It's impossible to get the entire spoonful at once and that leaves a decent amount of tomato soup to eat without the balance of the cheese and bacon. And it's very sweet without those things. Actual shots would be easier to consume, but obviously not as striking visually.

The bone marrow was good, onion jam was lovely, grilled bread was great. Solid dish, not amazing.

Strawberry shortcake shots were lovely, well presented, yummy, solid with out being exceptional.

The Meh:

The lamb chop was, again, perfectly cooked, a decent portion but the polenta was not complementary. It was creamy and well made but overwhelmingly rosemary, which I normally am a big fan of. There was no balance.

The ahi tacos/wantons are slightly small and you absolutely need to add a squeeze of the lime in order to have a balanced bite.

The asparagus side was not bad, the preserved lemon was a welcome twist, but my goodness, they must not trim the stalks at all. I should absolutely not bite into the end of one and not make it through because of how woody and fibrous they are. I wasn't able to eat at least an inch, if not more, from any piece. That is completely unacceptable for a restaurant of this caliber.

The drinks on the signature menu were so very sweet. I asked about a couple of them and went for the one that was described as much less sweet, almost like a martini, and it was still so syrupy, I didn't finish it. This is a personal preference in drinks so I have to say that the others in my party found the drinks fine, but if the other drink I was thinking about was much sweeter, I can't even imagine how sweet it was.

All in all, it was a fun evening and not sad about it, but for this type of price point and caliber of dining, they need to step...

This is so overrated place, I don’t know how I end up paying $170 for such an “experience“. This was one of the worst restaurant I tried in Las Vegas so far.

First portions are extremely small, second flavors were weird and cocktails are very lousy. We went to toca madera night before and they also charge above $20 for their cocktails but at least they have presentation and flavors are good. Not mention the show during the meal. Beauty & Essex is really rip off. We tried 4 plates and honestly I was done after 1st plate. 1/5 salmon ceviche was first Salmon ceviche was worst I ever tried. Sauce was very bland, fish wasn’t seasoned properly, but whatever spicy was in sauce not complemented the fish but opposite stole all the flavor.

Shishito peppers 1/5 Absolutely disgusting sauce. Taste like vinegar with brown sugar! Whoever created that dish should be send to culinary school!

Mini French dip 2/5 Was cheeewy and bland. He put little sauce on the meat and took it. Was barely enough “dip”. French dip at Nordstrom cafe is much better and for that price you get huge sandwich.I let waiter know but he didn’t offer anything nor replace the dish or comp it.

Lobster bao buns 0/5 $28 for 2 slices of deep fried lobster? At least you guys should write its deep fried because then I wouldn’t take it. I thought it will be something gourmet with amazing flavors but this is nothing more than rip off because of “lobster’”

Beauty elixir 2/5 Taste nothing more than cucumber with vodka. Cucumber slice in this drink was better than the whole dinner at least it was solid in flavor!

Berries & bubbles 3/5 Was ok for $25 cocktail nothing special. Very overpriced.

Overall- very disappointed in this dinner. Couple beside us had to return their meatballs and they didn’t look happy either with this meal. They both were discussing that, and it was their anniversary. How sad. If I would end up at this place on my anniversary I would probably be so upset too!

Not worth the money or the trip. Waiters are not attentive and don’t care about feedback. He only ask in the end how was everything because he was too busy taking photos of tables that spend more money. Had he ask how is everything during our meal I would send this dishes back. Chef really has to change the whole menu and flavors. Also poor dessert menu with donuts for $14 for 4 round donut holes with chocolate sauce? And they try to say it’s nice experience in the high-end restaurant? Nothing beside ice cream or donut holes? Then rather don’t have dessert menu at all than try to push it as a “good dessert”

Service was subpar, food was terrible, cocktails were bland and...

We were very excited about dining at Beauty and Essex while in Vegas. We made the reservation online, in advance, because we were celebrating our wedding (which was earlier that same day) and made sure to check the box that we were celebrating a special occasion. Having never been in The Cosmopolitan before, we weren’t sure where the restaurant was located, other than on the third floor. It was quite a hike from the hotel’s main entrance. The look is definitely unique and beautiful.

We were seated immediately and our waiter quickly introduced himself and took our drink order. I had the O.D.B. (VERY heavy handed, it tasted like a double rocks glass full of tequila poured over some ice and a couple drops of smoked blackberry syrup on the very bottom, even continuously mixing it up it was much too strong) and my wife had the Garnet Gimlet (non-alcoholic, sweet, and good tasting). The menu is intended to be sharing plates, so we ordered three dishes: Grilled Cheese, Smoked Bacon, and Tomato Soup Dumplings (DELICIOUS! This was our top dish during our entire trip), Mexican Street Corn Ravioli (good tastes but didn’t scream Mexican street corn flavor), and House-Made Cavatelli (the pasta was very good as was the sweet and slightly spicy Italian sausage in the dish).

In summary, the food was good but we probably would have had a better eating experience had we finished our meal with the dumplings; they were so outstanding that everything that followed paled in comparison. In hindsight, I could have sent the drink back and asked it be poured lighter but I didn’t. The primary reason for the lower rating was our overall experience at Beauty and Essex. Despite indicating we were celebrating a special occasion when making the reservation, no one asked what we were celebrating. My wife and I suffer from anxiety so telling the waiter, without being asked or otherwise prompted, that we had just gotten married was outside of our comfort zone (also why I didn’t send the drink back). To make us feel even worse, we clearly overheard our own waiter ask two other tables if they were celebrating a special occasion with them. The noise level was very, very loud, which we did not expect. The music was at a pretty high level and multiple large parties all trying to talk over one another made it difficult to even hear each other. I don’t think we’d dine here again, especially in light of the cost...