Fontainebleau’s Promenade Food Hall

On our first visit, we took a brief look around the Fbleau food hall and were underwhelmed by the offerings and overcome by the prices: $18 for a slice of pepperoni pizza and a Bud Light; $35 for chips and salsa, a burrito, and a churro; $20 for an orange juice and cinnamon roll; $16 for a chicken sandwich. Then there’s the expensive stuff: $18 for a bagel and lox; $22 for a Wagyu and quail-egg bowl; $25 for a cheeseburger and truffle fries. Yikes.

We were, however, impressed with the venue on the second floor of the building. It’s expansive, comfortable, and welcoming.

On the second visit, we dug deeper and we’re glad we did. This food hall is more than meets the eye.
Yes, the burgers are dear, but Capon’s is a venue of Josh Capon, a celebrity chef in New York, after making his bones at restaurants all over Europe, appearing on numerous cooking shows, and winning the New York City Wine and Food Festival’s Burger Bash six times. The Smoke Show burger is slathered with mustard, then grilled and topped with cheese, strong pickles, and a signature onion-and-bacon jam.

Bar Ito’s proprietors are Michelin-starred chefs Kevin Kim and Masa Ito, who also own and operate ITO, a New York City omakase restaurant, and the ITO in the Poodle Room, Fbleau’s uber-exclusive members-only club on the 67th floor.
Miami Slice, we understand, is one of the most popular pizza places in south Florida; the story is it took the proprietors two years to perfect the dough.

Likewise, El Bagel started as a popup at food truck events around Miami and gained a cult following; last year, Bon Appetit named El Bagel one of the “best bagels in the U.S.”

Still, as on our quest to try the least expensive item at Durango, we wanted to see how little we could get away with spending at the Promenade Food Hall. Next time, we’ll try the burger, a slice of pizza, or a taco, but this time, we opted for an everything bagel and butter, total price $3.99 (cream cheese raises it to $6.50).

We ordered at the counter. When we sat down at a table, we saw the QR code for the menu app and were surprised by how many more choices are available in the online ordering system than on the signs at the outlets. For example, we could have ordered the bagel toasted, untoasted, or even burnt. We could’ve added onion, tomato, jalapeno, or dill for an extra $1 (each, of course), plus lettuce ($2), Swiss or American cheese ($3), bacon or sausage ($4), pastrami ($5), or roe ($6). We’d have never known that just from reading the signs. The tacos have six substitutions, a dozen add-ons, and gluten-free and allergy-free choices. Bar Ito has a complete sushi menu—three handrolls ($33) or five ($50), with lobster, spicy scallop, hamachi, and roast shiitake.

We spent an enjoyable 15 minutes perusing all the different selections, while scarfing the bagel, with was excellent, by the way, oversized and the most loaded-with-everything everything bagel we’ve ever eaten. We’d go back for one — or a dozen — of those in a New York minute.

Roadside Taco and Break, the coffee and pastry bar, round out the Promenade’s offerings.

You’ve no doubt heard or read by now that Fontainebleau is a sparkling brand-new hotel-casino with numerous jaw-dropping and wow-inducing features and the seating area at Promenade is without a doubt the nicest of the two other recent openings (Durango and Rio) and in the top two of them all.

But nowhere is Fontainebleau more sparkling than in the bathrooms. It’s worth the trip just to see these—each at least five times more expensive than this reviewer’s entire house.