Dinner last night was at Bacio, the new Italian restaurant in the Tropicana. It is located up the circular escalators at the beginning of that long hallway that led to the back towers. The hallway itself just has Bacio and the steakhouse on this end. The long hallway that was once overrun with kiosks is now a nice clean pleasant stroll over the half completed pool area. There is one small bar at the far end of the hall out front of where the buffet was. Now that it's clean and nice, it's not far and makes for a pleasant stroll. Bacio is a very casual cafe style setting with about 10 tables inside and about 10 more out by the walkway. They are only open for dinner.

The menu is somewhat small as they concentrate on being good with what they do rather than appeal to everyone with everything. The tables and chairs are pretty basic with red tablecloths. There were 2 specials running. On Tues and Wed when the steakhouse across the walkway is closed, they try to have a beef option. And they are running a special on AYCE pasta. You pick the pasta, you pick the sauce, for $15.99. Add meat for $5. I was kinda thinking just spaghetti and meatballs when I walked up to the place, until I saw several other dinners that all looked good too. There menu is online at the Trop website.

Each table gets cut cibatta bread and hot marinara sauce which was pretty good. I started with a caesar salad that was fresh cold and crisp. It was pretty good. Then I had a chicken parmesan. It was a delicious double breast fried crispy on the outside and hot and juicy inside, with a thin layer of tomato sauce and two slices of real cheese. It came on the plate with a side of linguini and one of DAGs favorites..brocolini.

For such a small place, the waiters and beverage people didn't seem to get in the way, nor did it seem noisy or unorganized. Service was very friendly and attentive.

The chicken parm was $17 and the salad was $7. I would not hesitate to eat there again nor would I drive far out of my way to get there. It would be a good choice if you were in the area and NYNY seemed too busy and MGM seemed too pricey. On a busy night, I would guess reservations would be needed. For a 5-6pm walkup on a Tuesday night, it was no problem.

I am not a good judge of Italian food, but I do like to cook and I know the difference between fresh and canned stuff. This food seemed to be fresh.

It seems just a little odd that the Tropicana would only have Italian and Steakhouse for fine dining in their new theme. That seems very old school, which I like. I don't think that I am the target demographic for the new Tropicana. There is a sandwich shop downstairs though.

Thanks, JMT, Have you heard if the Trop buffet will reopen. On the few occasions that I've stayed in the Trop, we always ate in the buffet because their pasta bar was exceptional.

The Trop always had (as far as I can remember) two fine dining spots in the two small locations you mentioned which I understand were very good but a bit pricey, So they each suffered a bit due to the fact that the buffet was just a few steps further down that hallway.

And back then that buffet was always crowded and you had to wait, so that little bar did a great business with those buffet diners.

A while back, what is now Bacio used to be a rather expensive French restaurant but I forgot its name. Do you remember?

Not sure about this either but those two locations never did belong to the Trop, but they were leased to independent restauranteers (spelling?) who attempted to make a success out of those two rather small spaces.

I believe it was a similar situation for the dinning spot downstairs which I always disliked due to the low ceiling.

BTW, that long hallway over the pool area looks great right now but I wonder if they will reinstall those crappy little kiosks once again?

Afternoon pool parties are big in LV right now and the Trop has a very nice area to promote a major pool event each summer weekend and compete against the likes of Hard Rock, MGM, Tao, the Wynn, the Palms and many others.

I hope that they are very successful.

skinny broccoli yum my fav!!

In this day and age, a 20 table resturant seems really small! I still reserve my judgement on the trop untilll it gets futher along with the re-do!

There was an article in the RJ today that said that the Trop lost almost $10 mil. I think it said the steakhouse would be re-branded, the Italian place expanded, and 3 more restaurants added by December.

As for 20 tables, yep, it seems small. It might be a bad time of the financial situation to judge how many tables to have. I know they stagger days off with the steak house which might help keep both busy. The Orleans has been staggering days off between Canal St and Prime Rib loft for a long time.

Since we're talking tables, the RJ also said that the Trop would do a big increase in it's gaming table count and keep the slot count about the same.

I dined at Bacio in the Tropicana on Thursday. It's been about 2 years since my last visit. Since then, Chef Carla Pellegrino has taken over and overhauled the menu. Chef Carla used to run Raos at Caesars. They have expanded somewhat, adding a few more tables. It's still not a large joint by any means and I still suggest reservations. I did not describe the place well in my first post and it hasn't changed much at all. The place is white. Very white. Everything is clean and white. It's a pretty nice place. The bread service has changed. Now there are assorted bread choices, a small cup of oil and vinegar, and olives.

I had researched Chef Carla before and I know that she is part Brazilian and part Italian, and is sometimes nicknamed Britalia. She has lived and learned to cook in both countries. She is sort of a local favorite but has not reached celebrity status because she is not an attention whore. She is happy in her element of cooking, shopping for food, and helping guests. She is often heard singing in the kitchen while cooking. In addition to running Bacio, she also has a restaurant in Henderson called Bratalian. Both of her restaurants are Naples type Italian but they say you can detect some small Brazillian and Portugese influences through the peppers, spices, and some of her techniques. I browsed the menu before I left home and was very confused over what I would select as most of it sounded good.

When I was walked into the main dining room to be seated, I saw Carla sitting at a table having an appetizer with a guest. She is a hottie. And it's nice to know the main chef was in the house, as opposed to all the celeb chefs that have restaurants here and you never see them. When the waiter talked about the special for the evening, it made menu selection easy because I knew it was at least approved by Carla, if not selected by her.

It was two little double cut veal chops, panko breaded, fried, and served with a nice flavorful veal reduction. It came with 3 small steamed carrots, and roasted fingerling potatoes. The meal was $42. Dinner was amazing. I wish I could describe it better. Everything was spot on perfect. Service was good.

I will be back.