text: This restaurant actually serves a very useful purpose in the hierarchy of restaurants at the Bellagio Where do you take someone if you do not want to spend the money on a Prime Le Cirque or Picasso and are perfectly satisfied into tricking your guest into thinking they had a great meal I think I and the gentleman sitting next to me with a young lady who definitely was not his daughter would agree Michael Mina At Michael Mina you can toss around words like foie gras truffles lobster and market price and actually come out devoid of any semblance of a positive culinary experiencennTo be fair the dinner started well enough with the Hudson Valley Foie Gras appetizera bigger piece of foie gras than I expected that was cooked just right and combined nicely with the pear and medjool dates From there however things took a turn for worst The truffles in the Truffle Risotto MP at did not add anything to the dish and the risotto itself did not have much or any depth of flavor to it The chestnut sauce at the bottom was okay but not enough to revive you from death by blandness Perhaps the only saving grace is that you can say Hey these are like the truffles I see on Anthony Bourdain or other food shows Hence my hypothesis on Michael Mina was bornnnBut any hypothesis needs testing before becoming a theory Enter the Michael Mina signature Lobster Pot Pie MP at lobster and vegetables cooked inside a crust which is then opened and rearranged into the shape of a lobster on your plate Indeed either the lobster or market price tag proved too much for the aforementioned young lady to resist While intriguing in name the only thing I gathered from tasting this dish is that pot pieing is one of the worst ways one can prepare a lobster The meat ended up tough and rubbery and all traces of the delicate sweetness of the lobster were fully eradicatednnThe Dessert Sampler was slightly better but not by much The Mascarpone Cheesecake was very good but the intense tartness of the Passion Fruit Panna Cotta was difficult to bear The Root Beer Float much like the Lobster Pot Pie proved to be more an interesting name rather than a particularly good dessert but at least the accompanying chocolate chip cookies were better than averagennThe restaurant duecor was not anything special though it was a bonus to be able to see some of the preparation and staging in the open kitchen Service was solid perhaps more casual then the other Bellagio fine dining establishments but I thought that fit the mood of the restaurant along with the clientele