Chinese Mexican Food and Fire Breathing Dragons

We're at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas and our first stop was the Chandelier Bar, floor 1.5. The drink to try is "The Fire Breathing Dragon." It starts with a small glass of frozen raspberries and when you eat them smoke comes out of your nose and mouth along with the smell of raspberries. The drink that follows was a VERY sweet raspberry concoction. A fun novelty drink and a very happening bar.


We went for a late night snack at Jose Andres China Poblano for noodles and tacos. An odd combination all done in small plates. We tried the veggie spring rolls, a bowl of hand-cut noodles with mushroom corn truffle, a lobster taco and tuna ceviche. I can handle hot but the lobster was overwhelmed by the heat in the taco. The noodles were good, nice and chewy and the mix of mushrooms and corn truffle (??) was interesting. The best dish was the tuna ceviche with crispy amaranth seeds.

But the stand out thing at this restaurant was the desserts. We shared two. A Mango Sticky Rice, shaved frozen mango with what looked like whipped cream but was actually a dense foam made from rice and some crispy rice topping. Novel and delicious. We also tried the Coconut Tapioca Balls, tapioca pudding topped with balls of froth made from coconut and a scoop of mandarin orange sorbet.

The other nice thing about this restaurant was the staff and decor. The staff were very friendly and knowledgeable and the decorations were a fascinating blend of mexican and chinese. Masks, statues, framed pictures that changed. It was entertaining just to sit and take it all in.

There was nothing I'd particularly want to go back for but I wouldn't hesitate to go back and try some of their other dishes either. Good fun. We closed the place.