Food

Scarpetta @ Vegas’s Cosmopolitan Hotel Thoughts – TL;DR – It’s Mediocre.

July 4, 2023 / Comments Off on Scarpetta @ Vegas’s Cosmopolitan Hotel Thoughts – TL;DR – It’s Mediocre.

Italian food and 4.5 stars on Yelp… what could go wrong? Either we went on an off night or our taste buds are just too elevated… Can’t win all the time in Vegas.

Amazing Start

Free bread! The bread basket contained a variety of breads, including focaccia, a salami cheese bread (just 1 piece of that… what gives… we split that one 3 ways), a garlic-ish greens bread (pretty good), a ciabatta (meh), and a sourdough French bread (?, standard). It also came with butter, eggplant, and some olive oil. We ate nearly all the bread. Pretty good!!! 

Breads with butter, eggplant, and olive oil

Drinks First

Service was pretty good. We got our menus quickly and the specials were mentioned to us. We also got a drinks menu, and we tried a couple drinks. I asked the server what their recommendation was and they mentioned they like the whiskey drinks and mentioned the Devita, so I went with that. A friend chose their martini. Tried them both and they both tasted OK at first, but the martini somehow tasted worse within each sip. Olives and capers… not my thing. The Devita was pretty good, but it didn’t really stand out in a way that I wanted to get another one.

Devita (knob creek bourbon whiskey, fig jam, peach bitters, squeeze of lemon) and a martini sparco (grey goose vodka, olive & caperberry brine, roasted garlic stuffed olives).

Appetizers

We decided to get 4 appetizers to try, but unfortunately none of them stood out in a good way. In other words, I’d go elsewhere to get these same dishes. 

Burrata - campari tomatoes, arugula, grilled filone, roasted peppers, basil, balsamic. Looks pretty good, but this burrata to its price is probably one of the worst burrata I’ve had. The inside was alright, pretty standard, but parts of the outside tasted like sewer. I sure hope my friends didn’t get that as that was just awful. Subpar burrata. The tomatoes were alright and the basaltic gives it that nice yet generic flavor.
Tuna Tartare - avocado, capers, shallots, chives, pear, agromato, saffron crema, basil & chili oil, sesame lavash. The tuna tartare itself didn’t look so inviting, but tasted alright. Nothing special compared to other tuna tartare. Flavors were alright, not too much I can say about it. The sesame lavash was a nice concept, but those tasted stale to me.
Yellowtail Crudo - olio di zenzero, pickled red onion. One of the better appetizers we’ve tried this evening. Good pieces of yellowtail with a fitting accompaniment on top to give it that lil unique boost.
Calamari Fritti - calabrian tomato sauce, crispy herbs, lemon & basil aioli. So damn basic. With double the price of calamari from cheaper establishments, I expected something amazing from this calamari, but didn’t get that. Sauces were generic and the calamari itself was generic. How disappointing.

Pasta Time!

We must try some pasta at an Italian restaurant! There were some good sounding selections and we decided to give 3 of them a try. Photos/description/Scarpetta review of these pastas below.

Tagliatelle - lamb bolognese & truffle ricotta cheese. Pasta was a tad overcooked in my option, but my bestie loves her noodles soft so this was probably great in that sense. There was a subtle truffle flavor that was pleasant in this dish. I could use some more ricotta to give it that creaminess that I love. The whole dish itself was alright. Good consistency all throughout with this one.
Duck and foie gras ravioli - marsala reduction. I absolutely love stuffed pasta, but unfortunately this one missed the mark in all ways. Duck and foie gras just sounds amazing, but this was so overdone and the filling consistency was very similar to canned tuna. My friend mentioned that and now that’s been said, I cannot un-say it. Ugh, what a waste of amazing sounding ingredients! No duck or foie gras flavor in any of these.
Gnocchi - wild boar sausage, seasonal mushrooms, tomato confit, fines herbs, butter & parmigiano. This pasta dish was more expensive than the other 2 we got. The gnocchi was alright, but a bit bland by itself. Where’s the flavor? The sausage pieces were on the dry end. The tomatoes and mushrooms were good though.

Always Room for Dessert

Though the food itself wasn’t so impressive, we decided to try one of their desserts for the heck of it. Tiramisu sounded the best, so we got that! More in the caption below.

Tiramisu - traditional mascarpone cream, scarpetta cookie, coffee gelato. The Scarpetta cookie tasted stale. No good. The tiramisu itself was pretty good, but like most things here, it didn’t stand out. The coffee gelato was my favorite part. That was good!

Worth It?

Nah, but glad that we tried since now we know. There were a lot more misses than hits, so we probably wouldn’t come back here anytime soon. We’d try other restaurants next time and then go back to places that we really enjoyed!

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