My sister asked me to find a good place to have pre-Christmas dinner with our Mom in Las Vegas and I actually found Scarpetta by searching for top rated restaurants near the strip with foie gras. Seriously. I need my foie gras.\n\nWith the recent foie gras ban in California keeping me from one of my favorite delicacies, I definitely wanted to have it if I was crossing state lines.  Scarpetta stuck out to me because it wasn't a French restaurant, but an Italian one, which is my Mom's favorite... and a great way for everyone to be happy.\n\nScarpetta was perfect. Situated in the new and beautiful Cosmopolitan hotel, it has an amazing view of the Bellagio and definitely has that upscale \"we are dining somewhere really fancy\" vibe.  The server was really enthusiastic about the dishes and described them each eloquently (I read one person's review that found this annoying, but I thought it was great!) and helped with recommendations for what to order.\n\nStarter:\n\nPOLENTA with Mushrooms. Oh. My God. To DIE FOR. Seriously.  Wow.  Best dish of the night and that's saying a lot because everything was great.\n\nMains:\n\nDuck and Foie Gras Ravioli - Obviously what I ordered and obviously I loved it.  I was also pleasantly surprised by the portion size. Usually when you order ravioli you get like, 4, and are left being hungry, but not in this case. It was a generous portion.  I would have loved there to be more foie gras but that's just being greedy.\n\nFennel Spiced Black Cod - My mom ordered this and it was probably the least interesting thing that we had, but still delicious.\n\nBlack Tonarelli - My sister ordered this and it was also amazing, al dente, just as it should be.  It took about 10 minutes to come out after the rest of the dishes and they kept apologizing profusely for it and then sent out TWO free desserts to make up for it.\n\n(FREE!) Desserts:\n\nMascarpone Cheesecake - lighter than your average cheesecake, which made me like it more.\n\nAmaedi Chocolate Cake - like a lava cake, but better.. the perfect texture / consistency with hot melted chocolate inside... served with almond ice cream...\n\nThis was one of the best Italian meals I've ever had outside of Italy,  and I've tried all of those overrated high end Italian restaurants in Los Angeles. I was expecting much less, thinking this was a bit of a tourist trap that I was buying into for the evening. It ended up being so much more. I was so pleasantly surprised and happy with the experience. Also, no BS portion sizes.. these are hearty portions and you will leave full.\n\nDefinitely one of my top (if not the top) Italian restaurants outside Italy.  I just may need to go visit the Scarpetta in LA.