text: I cannot believe all the great reviews because I was so disappointed with this place nnMy boyfriend and I went there for our anniversary thinking the tasting menu would be worth saving up for We are fine dining lovers but also students and while I certainly realize there are much more expensive places in Vegas Sage is not cheap at for a tasting menu plus for the wine pairing It is certainly expensive enough that we expected exceptional food and wine nnUnfortunately that is not the case here Each dish was underwhelming at best and completely unfortunate at most On top of that and sadly even if they had been delicious they were so TINY it barely mattered We understand that tasting portions are supposed to be smaller and we have been to enough really high end restaurants to know but these plates seemed like a satire of the tiny plates in fancy restaurants After spending almost we left talking about ordering grilled cheese from room service later that nightnnSo details To be fair let us start with the good stuff The restaurant was pretty The waiter was attentive The busboy was actually even bettera nice guy who was totally on top of everything The bread butter and pink sea salt were all tasty The menu was creative which is the reason we chose Sage in the first place nnAndwell that is about itnnBecausethat inventive menu A mess Almost every single dish we had took what might have been a beautiful main ingredient and ruined it by throwing it entirely out of balance We started for example with lovely oysters But those oysters were drowned in a hot sauce foam that completely killed the briny goodness Too much We also had that famous fois gras brulee which was served cold on purpose but it was kind of unsettling and which they decided to throw a sweet sticky spoonful of marmalade on top of turning it cottoncandy sweet The wine pairings were no help For example yes it is common to pair rich fois with a sweet wine like a Tokaji which they did But how does that make sense when one is already dealing with a mouth full of marmalade Sweet on top of sweet on top of rich Straight up grossnnThe second course was the best only because it was okay as opposed to outright bad We had the scallops which were decent Small and not particularly exciting but okay The oxtail in the dish was superfluous but that is fine since there was barely any of it on the plate and the salted caramel reduction was again a little too sweet But it was passable The pork belly was tiny and not as succulent as pork belly usually is and the corn tortelloni was meh maybe some more pancetta and mushrooms would have made it better because they make everything better Anyway it was okay The wine pairing was also the best of the three though not excitinga domestic pinot noir for example that I could have found for a bottle at Trader JoesnnThe main course was a complete disaster The pork loin was sliced too thin and was completely dry The beef belly which I was totally excited about was a lovely juicy cut though again was absolutely minuscule Imagine the fatty end of a texasstyle bbq brisket Yum Oryum until you drown out any semblance of flavor with a bunch of hot jalepenolike peppers Then not yum Not at all Where a little heat would have been nice this was a mouth full of pepper in every bite killing all other flavor And wines that were too sweet for both all aroundnnThe very best dish we had was the chocolate and peanut butter tart at the end But who could mess up chocolate and peanut butter It was served with a Madeira wine that made me cringe My boyfriends desert was so unmemorable that I actually do not remember what it wasthough it was served with a delicious port so at least they got one wine rightnnAll in all we were completely sad that we made the choice we did I am actually a lover of food from places high and low and I am as happy getting delicious ramen from a hole in the wall as I am with a gourmet menu However when you are paying over for a meal it is fair to expect that the dishes have at the very least a nice balance of flavor These did not nnMaybe we came on a bad night But we will not find out because there is no way we are ever going there again