My favorite place to eat in Las Vegas is the Mastro’s Ocean Club, which is located inside of The Crystals upscale mall, just south of the Bellagio. Some of my work buddies and I ate at Mastro’s Ocean Club on Tuesday night after a long day of being in a conference and eating conference food.

Mastro’s Ocean Club offers a few dining areas. The most popular is the tree house main dining room, which is inside an 80-foot wooden structure that scales two floors of the mall. The second is the bar and the lounge area. Lastly is a private dining room upstairs. I’ve always eaten in the bar and the lounge area. The lounge area reminds me of a 1950’s supper club–which a good thing.

Inside the Mastro’s Ocean Club Tree House

Mastro’s Ocean bar and lounge area

One of my favorite things to drink at Mastro’s Ocean Club is the lemon drop, which is served over dry ice. The lemon drop bubbles and smokes adding to the outstanding dining experience here.

The smoking lemon drop at Mastro’s Ocean

Another of my favorite things here is the live pianist. Some of the people in my party thought that they were listening to recorded Billy Joel music and were surprised to see it was a young man playing the piano in the bar.

Son, can you play me a memory? The piano player at Mastro Ocean Club

It is my opinion the food at Mastro’s Ocean is excellent. On Tuesday night three of us ordered the filet, which was magnificent. The filet was seasoned to perfection and was one of those melt in your mouth experiences. My boss ordered the sea bass, which she said was outstanding. The crab cakes looked superb, but the person that ordered them was disappointed because she felt the seasoning was overpowering and tasted like poultry seasoning. Being a crab lover, she had hoped to have tasted the crab. The entrees are served ala carte, so we ordered a few side dishes to share. The side dishes are quite large and can feed about four or five people. One of the restaurant’s most popular side dishes, which we did not try that night, is the lobster mashed potatoes. Doesn’t that sound rich? The steaming seafood tower is another thing I would like to try here.

Crab salad

The wedge

The sea bass

Crab cakes

The filet with a side of Brussels sprouts

To top off the meal we ordered the warm butter cake, which was outstanding and served alamode and accompanied with huge bowl of whipped cream.

The warm butter cake at Mastro’s Ocean Club

Great food, great service, great music, great ambience. This is my kind of place.

~merry~

Sing us a song, you’re the piano man. Sing us a song tonight. Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody and you’ve got us feelin’ alright.  ~Billy Joel