Chinese New Year celebrations will take over Las Vegas this week, with February 8 marking the beginning of the Year of the Monkey. No lunar new year kickoff would be complete without a special meal of symbolic, storytelling dishes, and Hakkasan’s Las Vegas restaurant at MGM Grand is the place to be for that.
International executive chef Ho Chee Boon’s limited-edition menu begins with a double-boiled fresh ginseng and chicken soup, followed by the diced Wagyu beef and pine nut golden cup and Hakkasan’s peerless dim sum platter. The main dishes offer wok-fried lobster in spicy truffle sauce, pipa duck, grilled Chilean sea bass with honey, dried scallop and crab meat fried rice, and a mushroom, lotus root, asparagus and lily bulb stir-fry. A festive cocktail, the 9 Hóu, has been created with nine components representing the monkey’s ninth position on the zodiac, and the golden halo dessert sweetens the deal as banana-peanut cake is topped with five-spice cream, caramel, chocolate and gold leaf. Hakkasan at MGM Grand, 702-891-7888; Monday-Wednesday, 5-11 p.m.; Thursday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-midnight. Chinese New Year menu available through February 22.