Las Vegas - Todd English P.U.B.

Mmmm, ahi tuna. That's what I had for dinner at Todd English P.U.B. It's located at the Shops at Crystals Aria. I've walked past this place so many times going through the mall area to get to Aria. We dined here after watching Cirque du Soleil's Ka at MGM. The show was so good. I'm not one to sit for long periods of time and thought this was going to be miserable for me. But they had my full attention the whole time. It's really a cute story and you fall in love with the characters. We had planned to eat dinner before the show, but were so full from breakfast still that we opted to eat dinner after. By the time the show started, we were starving and devoured the overpriced popcorn.

We got to the restaurant around 9 pm and were seated promptly. There is apparently a different hostess for indoor seating vs outdoor seating. Sitting on the patio was nice since the weather was friendly that evening. The only thing I did not like was that the eating area was not gated, so every once in awhile, an obnoxious passerby would walk through the dining area. I also noticed some people sit themselves down and getting angry that they were supposed to check in with the hostess.

Anyway, we rarely ever order appetizers and since we were starving, ordered our entrees right away. I had the hand chopped ahi tuna burger, which is served rare and comes with wonton chips and some kind of wasabi or dijon dip. I ordered the avocado on the side to give to my mom since I'm (sadly) allergic.

OMG. This was sooooooooo good. Although they spread the wasabi aioli on a bit unevenly and I teared up on some bites into my burger, it didn't distract me from the amazing taste and texture of this unique burger. There is a layer of black bean puree that brought everything together. The buns were lightly toasted and the arugula marinated to complement everything else.

I love that they did not overcook the tuna and served it rare. I'm sure the avocado would've been nice in the burger, but the stomach ache would've erased all fond memories of eating it.

Mom ordered their famous brown butter lobster rolls. It came with kettle chips and coleslaw. We split our entrees so I got a whole lobster roll to myself (it comes with three). My goodness, this was one buttery and rich lobster roll. The browned butter is such a genius idea. I will always toast my bread with browned butter from now on. The lobster pieces were generous and not heavily saturated in mayo.

See all those chunks of lobster? I love how they kept the chunks big instead of dicing them smaller to make a filler out of mayo. It really kept things fresh and gave me nice chewing action. I tasted the coleslaw and it was pretty good. My mom is not fond of coleslaw, but she polished it off. The chips were just kettle chips, nice crunch, not overly salted.

All in all, this was such a positive and memorable foodie experience at Todd English P.U.B. Next time you're in Vegas, add it to your itinerary and look for it on the walkway between the shops and Aria hotel.