Michael Jackson One is Cirque Du Soleil magic. (Isaac Brekken/Getty Iamges for Cirque du Soleil)
Akira Back’s Seoul Garden roll at Kumi is bibimbap meets sushi. (
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Cruise from downtown Las Vegas to the south end of the Strip and you’ll drive past Wynn, Caesars Palace, Bellagio and the Cosmopolitan. After rear-viewing those eye-grabbing spots, it’s easy to consider Mandalay Bay’s tropically themed frontage as the end of casino-lined Las Vegas Boulevard. Technically, in fact, that might be true. But it’s also a matter of perspective.
According to Chuck Bowling, president of Mandalay Bay, the southernmost casino on the Strip, “We think of our location as the start of the Strip. It’s where the Welcome to Las Vegas sign is. Mandalay Bay is the first thing you see. It’s where things begin to happen.”
Mandalay Bay and sister property MGM Grand, both owned by MGM Resorts International and both situated on the south end, have indeed begun to happen again. After spending years in need of enhanced diversions, the two casino resorts are now bouncing back in big ways.
Stroll through MGM Grand on a Friday or Saturday at, say, 11:30 p.m., and it’s impossible to miss the packs of girls in giant heels and their guys with ripped bodies. Follow them and you’ll wind up in front of Hakkasan, a $100-million-plus nightlife wonderland that boasts four different experiences (including a solid Cantonese restaurant helmed by a Michelin-starred chef) topped out by a mega-club hosting the biggest DJs in the world. Anyone who wants to see Tiesto, Deadmau5 or Calvin Harris in Vegas will end up at Hakkasan. If they’re lucky, they might spend the wee hours in one of the club’s luxed-out skyboxes, situated above the DJ and coming complete with sound control, TVs, security and mixology supplies.
Food-wise, MGM is not missing a beat either. Michael Morton, who revolutionized Las Vegas dining with his turn-of-the-21st-century N9NE steakhouse at the Palms, will be collaborating with his wife Jenna to open an as yet unnamed restaurant before the year’s end. Jenna describes the cuisine as tapas-sized and globally inspired, with ideas cribbed from their years of traveling the world. Already up and serving is super-chef Michael Mina’s Pub 1842. Typically, Mina produces A5 Japanese steak and foie gras seared tableside. Taking a different tack, his newest venture basically upgrades a steroidal sports bar with the kind of first-rate food that you rarely get to eat while surrounded by high-definition TVs. While the Yankees get throttled, we gorge on a decadent feast that includes lobster corn dogs, tempura maitake mushrooms and Peanut Butter Crunch burgers. Football Sundays will be highlighted by Mina’s idea of a tailgate party: whole pigs, brisket and chicken sausages.
Hang a left on the Strip, drive half a mile and you hit Mandalay Bay, which is bouncing back with a classic three-pronged attack: entertainment, nightlife and dining. First up, Michael Jackson ONE shows Cirque du Soleil in strong form (following a couple stumbles with a DOA Elvis show and the iffy Zarkana, both at CityCenter). Not only do we get to see mind-blowing dance numbers and acrobatics set to Jackson’s music, but the one-gloved wonder actually makes a show-stopping cameo via state-of-the art hologram technology. It’s a wonderful bit of magic from Cirque’s effects geniuses, and it really does seem as if prime-time MJ is dancing and interacting with the other performers.
As for restaurants, Mandalay works both ends of the spectrum. On the mass-market tip there’s Citizens Kitchen & Bar, which operates as a gussied-up 24-hour coffee shop and offers gut-busting experiences built around gooey appetizers (check out the giant mound of Velveeta cheese dip) and epitomized by a slider-eating challenge cum entrée that will cost you $40 and can land your photo on the restaurant’s Wall of Shame if you fail to down 24 mini-burgers in 24 minutes (finish the entrée, though, and you’re on the Wall of Fame). Keeping it classier is Kumi, an Asian-fusion eatery that comes courtesy of sushi master Akira Back, who made his bones at the excellent Yellowtail in Bellagio (where he is still the chef). The Kumi menu echoes the spirit of its forebear but also offers up terrific new dishes: scrumptious crispy rice topped with blackened tuna plus Back’s Screaming O sauce, “Octopussy” rolls, bibimbap rolls and perfectly cooked filet mignon with Japanese mushrooms.
Following dinner, it’s an easy hop over to Light, the new nightclub at Mandalay where DJs like Zedd and Nicky Romero perform against a backdrop of flashy video images while Cirque performers swoop over the crowds. We spend enough time there — slugging down drinks, elbowing onto the dance floor, and immersing ourselves in the house-music beats — that we’re more than tired as closing-time nears. Because we want to feel fit for another day of partying, we head back to MGM Grand and one of its new Stay Well rooms. A vitamin C shower, the air-purification system and a light-therapy setup all aim to leave us refreshed in the a.m.
One room-service breakfast later, we’re out of bed, in our swimsuits and ready to go hard at Mandalay’s poolside club Daylight. And that gets our south-end mojo going all over again.