NoJennyNo: Wing Lei, Chinese Fine Dining in US

Wing Lei for date night!
It was the first Michelin starred Chinese restaurant in the US, until they took down Vegas from their rating list. I will also add here that Chinese is one of my least favorite cuisines, but this is one of the exceptions.

Though it may seem like I do these quite often, it's only happened a couple of times these past 2-3 months. So when I do go to nice dinners like these, I make sure to milk the opportunity to make an entire blog post about it :)

Hallway near entrance.

We chose Wynn yet again for another date night. It's not only because they have some of the nicest restaurants, but I wanted a change of scene for a high end Asian cuisine and Wing Lei is arguably one of the only fancy Asian restaurants in town that is worth the high price ticket that comes along with it.

Other options were Kabuto (fully booked), Nobu (very expensive), Lemongrass (tastes bad), Blue Ribbon (tried in NYC, very western) are all great for atmosphere, but Wing Lei offers amazing authentic Chinese food in a space that is definitely not takeout.

I've seen complaints from those who found it too expensive for the food and found it to be the same quality as Panda Express - as with those who must go to McDonalds after, I would mistrust the opinions of those whose tastebuds seem to find microwaved chain fast food places more appetizing than those prepared by experienced, reputable chefs.

Upon entrance, you are struck by the abundance of gold and a giant golden dragon in the window. You might need sunglasses. Over the top? Perhaps.

They did have a dress code here - casual T-shirts, jeans, cleavages are allowed but absolutely NO midriff! I recall a more casual Chinese place at Wynn pointing and punctuating every word THAT. MY. SHIRT, showing about an inch of skin and mostly covered by a business like blazer, WAS. TOO. SHORT. and that I cannot dine unless I cover up. All the while I saw girls dining with breasts oozing out of their neon bikinis BUT with a sheer fishnet dress to cover it. So, so tasteful.

At least here they apologized for the inconvenience and gave me a shawl to cover up.

Shame, shame, shame.

We got the Imperial Peking Duck Tasting menu because we were craving some of their delicious duck. There aren't many places even in Hong Kong or Macau that cut and prepare down to wrap assembling the perfectly-crisped duck right in front of you, but here they do everything. Michelin star quality food and plating for just $88 is rather reasonable. They look like small portions, but perhaps due to the fat content we were so full by the end we couldn't finish the dessert!