Headline: Loud, Expensive, but Good\n\nAfter my mediocre experience at the other Top Chef Masters restaurant in Mandalay Bay, we decided to go to another one - this one run by celebrity chef Rick Moonen. Right next to the Mandalay Place shopping center (and connector between the Luxor and Mandalay Bay), this place was hopping. A sophisticated look belies the bedlam of noice both inside and outside the restaurant.\n\nLet's get pricing out of the way first. I've ceased to be shocked by the pricing in Mandalay Bay. It's overpriced. Expect to drop over $100 per person - more if alcohol is involved. However, price is not a determiner of quality, as I've discovered many times. \n\nWe started with a three-tier seafood sampler - this thing cost $250 for the table, but for that you will get a whole lobster, a whole dungeness crab, several large shrimp, mussels, oysters and clams on the half-shell. All of it was good. It is accompanied by a spicy butter draw, a spicy cocktail sauce and freshly ground horseradish.\n\nWine was very much in evidence, and the place has a full bar. The wine list is good (if over-priced) and there is wine by the glass. I'd recommend the Gruner Vietliner to start.\n\nOur starters included the bacon wedge salad - a big ball of iceberg lettuce topped with bacon, a most excellent claim chowder that was rich, definitely creamy with potatoes and bacon, and a ceasar salad.\n\nMy entree was the free range chicken, sat atop some wilted spinach on top of a pool of cheesy grits. I don't normally like grits, but these were delicious. Around the table, the seafood (diver scallops and grilled shrimp dishes) were hits, but the cioppino - while delicious - had pasta in it (so not technically a cioppino), and the ribeye steak was not done correctly. My companion didn't even get asked how it was to be prepared, which is unsual in such a place. I'd avoid the steak.\n\nFor the table, we ordered the cheesy cauliflower gratin - not really a gratin, unless you consider anything floating in a creamy cheesy sauce a gratin. We also ordered the fries. The fries were eaten and the gratin not so much, which tells you everything you need to know. \n\nEverything is a la carte, with the sides easily feeding a small family.\n\nOverall, an excellent meal, made better by good company. Avoid the steak, do the seafood, and you cannot go wrong.
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