We’ve been intrigued by the Caviar Bar, recently renamed Aqua Seafood and Caviar, since it opened at Resorts World. Not that we’d pay the freight for the regular menu: $6 per oyster ($15 each with caviar), $22 for a Caesars salad, $29 for a crab-cake or foie-gras appetizer, $28 for spaghetti and tomato sauce, $34 for fried chicken, $89 for Dover sole, $110 for eight ounces of king crab, $175-$850 for caviar, let alone $16 for mashed potatoes or French fries.
But the concept of a caviar bar got our attention and at those prices, we figured the food would be, or at least better be, something special. So when Resorts World started promoting the restaurant with a “cocktail hour,” we figured we’d give it a try.
This special starts at 5 p.m. daily, including weekends, and the only requirement is that you sit at the eight-seat bar (the restaurant has only 10 tables, 50 seats total). We were alone in the joint at 5:30 on a Thursday night, but the place was mostly filled by the time we left an hour later.
You have eight choices of bar bites.
We tried the least expensive, the smoked trout sandwich ($10), along with the lobster roll ($20; it’s the same roll served at dinner for $28 with fries). A dozen or so good chunks of lobster come in a buttered and grilled roll, though it’s a bit heavy on the mayo for our taste, and the espelette (an expensive capsicum pepper) was lost on us. The smoked trout sandwich was smoky and filling, but again, the salad part overpowered the fish part.
All the drinks are $10; we tried the Boiler Maker without the whiskey, just the Radler, half-beer and half-grapefruit, which was excellent, even for ten bucks. And we’re thinking that the 2-for-1 happy-hour beer is perhaps the best deal in all of Resorts World.
The total bill, with tax and without tip, came to $43.35. Not bad considering the venue and casino, but Luke’s Lobster Shack is not only better lobster, but a better deal.
