Chef Rick Moonen is at the helm of this wonderful restaurant. He spent many years working for some of the best restaurants in New York. Luckily for seafood lovers, he finally decided to open a place of his own.
It is located inside The Shoppes, which is a mall inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel. The restaurant is multi-levelled and provides elegant fine dining on the top level. Downstairs, there is a more casual feel. Two different kitchens provide menu options that are unique.
It might as well be considered two separate restaurants. The lower level, with its open kitchen at the back, has an environment that will remind many visitors of an upscale bistro. A large sushi bar is connected to the main kitchen. The sushi bar is made of white marble and has seating in high chairs for as many as eight people. To your left as you come in, there is an iced seafood station. Here you can look at all of the oysters, crab legs, mussels, clams and fresh lobsters. The alcohol bar is nearby, featuring all of the cognac, rum, tequila, whiskey, scotch, gin and vodka that you could ever ask for. There is a patio area with floor-to-ceiling glass doors that allow diners to view The Shoppes. The upper level contains all of the elegance of a restaurant that is ideal to dine at during a romantic date.
Some of the favorites prepared by Chef Moonen are the Maine lobster rolls, the BBQ pork mac and cheese and the catfish sloppy Joe. The most extravagant shellfish sampler is called The Kitchen Sink. It earns this name by including Dungeness crab, assorted mussels, one dozen large gulf shrimp, one dozen clams, 18 fresh shucked oysters and two lobsters.
The surf and turf is the ideal main course, consisting of a nine-ounce prime filet mignon and half a lobster poached in shell. Although the emphasis is clearly on seafood, the menu also offers a 14-ounce New York Strip steak, a 24-ounce tomahawk cut rib eye and roasted free range chicken.