The Bazaar by Jose Andres

This is a newish restaurant in the SLS Hotel. The chef is a protege of Ferran Adria of El Bulli, who pretty much started the whole 'molecular gastronomy' thing. The menu is divided into more traditional takes on tapas and a modern menu. The staff was asked to design our meal and we were told that we would be presented with a story in food. Eating at a place like this is not so much just about good food, good service, good wine. The actual eating of the food (placing in mouth, tasting, chewing or drinking) is an experience. The decor is kind of crazy, the design being by Phillipe Starck. We sat in the dark room with a great view of the kitchen. We could clearly see a former 'Top Chef' contestant working away back there. This was a meal unlike anything I've had. It started out with a series of cold dishes. 'Bagel and lox' was in a cone with some kind of fish eggs on top of cream cheese. There are dishes called 'organized' and the caesar salad was one of those. The ingrediants are composed in small sushi roll sized pieces with either a quail egg or parmesan cheese on top. The caprese was small balls of liquified mozzarella with cherry tomatoes and little mini 'air breads' on top of a pesto sauce. You combine the ingrediants on a spoon. Even the more 'ordinary' dishes were amazingly good. 'Corn on the cob' consisted of grilled baby corn on top of corn puree but the taste was phenomenal. They served us a brussels sprouts dishes that actually made the vegetable taste good! I find them usually rather bitter, but here they were combined with peaches, grapes and other fruits and the sweet fruit acids combined beautifully with the sprouts. I probably ate more sprouts than I have in my entire life. Lamb came on top of mashed potato foam and the taste was pure buttery, potatoe-y goodness but with the texture of foam! The meal progressed from lighter fare to heavier. We started with champagne, had a shot of vodka to go with the caviar cones, their amazing white sangria went with the lighter fare and finished with a delicious red wine. There is a lot of description and often instruction to go with the dishes and the servers are clearly having as much fun as the diners. The end of the meal was a caipirinha made tableside with liquid nitrogen to form a beautifully smooth and potent slushy texture (photo). For dessert, we moved into another room where we sat at a little table and had chocolate 'popsicles', flan and mousse. Altogether an amazing dining experience.