Chef Michael Mina remains among the most popular Las Vegas celebrity chefs, helming approximately five restaurants through Las Vegas and forty restaurants worldwide. Our recent trip to Las Vegas would allow us the opportunity to try out Chef Mina’s contribution towards classic french bistro styled cuisine at his Bardot Brasserie by Michael Mina restaurant at the Aria Resort and Casino – Las Vegas.

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This post is one chapter on a weekend trip from Canada to Las Vegas Nevada, United States of America. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Bardot Brasserie by Michael Mina Brunch Restaurant Las Vegas, Aria, Nevada, United States of America.

After experiencing terrific brunch experiences at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon – Las Vegas, it was time to branch out and try something new. On this trip, I happened to discover Bardot Brasserie by Michael Mina, which represented Chef Mina’s entry into classical french bistro styled cuisine. Hoping for a great breakfast, we ended up visiting for a breakfast brunch.

About Michael Mina & Bradot Brasserie:

Chef Michael Mina is a celebrity chef whom runs a small empire of restaurants that mostly span across the United States and the United Arab Emirates. Originally immigrating to the United States from Cairo, Egypt, he grew up in Ellensburg, Washington, United States of America. During his upbringing, he ended up working in french restaurants, in addition to working at the Space Needle restaurant in Seattle, Washington.

Chef Mina attended the University of Washington, before formally entering culinary training at the Culinary institute of America in New York, USA. Michael Mina’s approach to cooking is said to revolve around balancing four basic elements: spice, sweetness, acidity, and richness.

Turning to today’s visit, Bardot Brasserie by Michael Mina – Las Vegas opened in January 2015. After his lease on his restaurant “American Fish” expired at this location, the Aria Resort and Casino proposed a different concept to Mina, whom wanted to open a restaurant with french food.

The restaurant “Bardot Brasserie” was named after Brigitte Bardot; known for being a fashion icon, a sex symbol of the mid-20th century and a centre piece of European film.

Booking a Brunch at Bardot Brasserie Las Vegas:

It was pretty easy to get a booking at Bardot Brasserie. After accessing the Aria Resort and Casino website, I was able to select a time using the reservations systems operated under “Seven Rooms”

If you’re hoping to come for dinner, the restaurant is currently open Wednesday – Sunday. It’s worth mentioning that Bardot Brasserie only does “weekend” brunch on the mornings of Friday’s, Saturday’s and Sundays starting at 9:00 AM.

I ended up locating lots of availability about three weeks before my visit, with a full choice of times available. The restaurant does not seem to be super popular based strictly on reservation availability. I found lots of seats on Fridays’ and Saturday nights throughout the evening time slots, in addition to ample seating available during weekend brunch periods.

Arriving to Bardot Brasserie:

I was staying nearby at the conveniently located Signature by MGM Grand – Las Vegas. We walked over to the restaurant, which was located in the Aria Hotel and Casino.

The restaurant was located in the restaurant precinct, which was up the escalators at the rear of the Aria Casino on the second level.

When we arrived to Bardot Brasserie on a friday morning, the restaurant was almost completely deserted. It’s worth mentioning that Bardot Brasserie appeared to have lost the popularity contest next to the other Aria American breakfast restaurant: Salt and Ivy.

It’s always a little unsettling when you arrive to a restaurant, only to find it deserted. It makes you second guess your choice, when a different restaurant across the hall is lined up, while your choice sits nearly empty. Regardless, since we had committed to a reservation, we stuck with our original plan and continued on with our visit.

Bardot Brasserie has a circular entrance with the restaurant located up a short flight of stairs.

The Bardot Brasserie also has a faux sidewalk for dining, similar to a Parisian café. It’s a nice touch but it seems a little “out of place” in a dead end commercial restaurant space. Sitting outside, wouldn’t necessarily be my first pick of seats.

On arrival, we presented ourselves to the side walk podium. We had no wait validating our reservation. We were shown to our table immediately.

Inside Bardot Brasserie:

Bardot Brasserie has done a terrific job reflecting a contemporary french bistro space. The Bardot Brasserie colours are in black with patterned white tile, along with a patterned ceiling representative of a bistro in old Europe.

After entering the restaurant, you’ll pass by the bar. It reportedly took six months to fully design and complete the bar. The bar featured an elevated brass shelf allows the spirits to be suspended from the ceiling.

The Bardot Brasserie restaurant features an open kitchen which is tucked behind glass. With both a main dining area and a small side dining room, we ended up being tucked into the side dining area.

The appearance and decor of the Bardot Brasserie is contemporary and modern looking. There’s no mistaking that you’re in a modern french bistro as the whole restaurant has showy and modern fixtures.

The Menus:

We were attending Bardot Brasserie for weekend brunch. We had a great number of of breakfast specialities that you might expect on a french breakfast menu.

The Bardot Brasserie Brunch menu featured escargot, caviar devilled eggs, croissant and lox sandwiches. The appetizers were adventurous and offered all your french favourites.

The main courses featured specialities such as french omelettes with gruyère cheese, crêpe madames with paris ham and mornay sauce, duck waffles with orange glazed duck confit belgian waffles, and terrific looking steak frites with duck fat fries. All of their breakfast items looked appealing and attractive.

Bardot Brasserie prices were about as expected, with most starters pricing at $14 – $26 USD and most main course entrées pricing at $25 – $35 USD. A bit strangely, the prices were not shown on outward facing menus on the hotel website (unlike fellow sister restaurant Salt and Ivy), and only shown in the restaurant menus themselves.

Bardot Brasserie offered a full featured drink menu. The drink menu offered a host of signature cocktails, a champagne cart, along with six white wines and six red whites from France; all of which were available by the glass.

Unfortunately, Bardot Brasserie has previously cut it’s “all you can drink” sparkling breakfast feature. Never ending bubbles over Bardot Brasserie’s brunch breakfast is now priced as $65 USD per person, which is remarkably uncompetitive for this class in Las Vegas. During our visit, most competitors were offering this at a far more reasonable $30 – $35 USD per person. This was a bit of a disappointment, especially considering that the restaurant does not appear to be all too full or attracting many visitors during brunch on our friday visit.

On a brighter side, the restaurant did offer us two complimentary glasses of sparking wine, as a result of our reservation profile notation that our visit was in honour of a wedding anniversary.

The Meal – French Omelettes and Seafood Benedict:

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with a Michael Mina branded breakfast. We’ve previously enjoyed his Michael Mina – Bellagio restaurant, having had an excellent meal there. On today’s Bardot Brasserie experience, we ended up with a quality breakfast that was a little on the heavier and filling side.

MrsWT73 went with the french omelette with gruyère cheese, a potato pavé and french greens. The omelette was immersed with french parsley throughout. The omelette was exceptionally prepared. It was lightly folded with just enough softness to the texture, with eggs that remained fluffy and light.

I ended up with the seafood Eggs Benedict. The smoked salmon was presented over top of french croissant, two potato pavés, along with a side of ketchup. The hollandaise was exceptionally thick and heavy. The eggs were poached to medium hard, which was a little more than my ordered “medium”.

Overall, the food was enjoyable. However, I wasn’t as impressed compared to when I visited Thomas Keller’s – Bouchon Bistro. I found that the food and Bardot Brasserie was a little heavier than I might have expected, with a little less excitement that I might have been hoping for. While there was nothing specific that was lacking, I just found the meal to be very good, without being outstanding and memorable.

The service at Bardot Brasserie was much along the same lines. The service was professional, pleasant but unremarkable and a bit “assembly line” in nature. Coffee refills arrived promptly and frequently.

While I wouldn’t expect the most personalized service from a higher volume property located in a casino hotel with four thousand hotel rooms, there wasn’t much to report on the service other than it was timely with a minimum amount of interaction.

Ending Brunch & Closing Thoughts:

The brunch offering was a prompt affair. While we lingered a little bit, there wasn’t much need to stay longer than necessary.

Our check came to $62 USD, with two entrées, a $6 USD drip coffee with several refills, and two complimentary glasses of sparkling wine.

I ended up putting this on my American Express Platinum Business Card for a 1.25 earn rate to Membership Rewards for some future adventure.

The Bottom Line: Bardot Brasserie by Michael Mina

This marked my second visit to a Michael Mina restaurant in Las Vegas and my first breakfast experience with them.

While the food was relatively solid, and the decor of the restaurant was world class, I found the experience to be a little more showy over substance. The highlight of the meal was the french omelette with gruyère cheese and two complimentary glasses of bubbles.

I’d easily return again if I happened to be staying in the Aria Resort and Casino. I’m just not sure if I’d make the trip across town, in order to visit again.

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If you have visited Bardot Brasserie, did you find the visit worth your effort ?

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