Last night, Theodora and I decided to trade in our dancing shoes for a more relaxed evening involving wine and wonderful conversation. We were able to snag a table at Julian Serrano for 8pm, early enough to make a reasonable bedtime but late enough to enjoy the people watching.

Located in Aria Hotel and Resort, the restaurant was open and very bright, the perfect spot for a relaxing evening.

The tapas style restaurant’s menu was a bit overwhelming and everything sounded amazing. We made our choice a bit simpler by trusting the waiter’s opinion and making sure we chose a dish from each section, ranging from verduras to carne.

Our first choice, the drink selection, was definitely the easiest as we were both craving wine after many nights of vodka and seltzer.

Our dishes came out as they were ready, so we were able to take our time and enjoy each dish without worrying that other dishes would get cold.

Our tapa choices, from top to bottom and left to right were as follows:

• Pan con manchengo: The simplest dish of the evening was also one of the most delicious. The toasted bread was topped with a simple tomato and garlic chutney before the manchengo cheese was placed on top.
• Grilled Sea Scallops: This dish was the least memorable, lacking seasoning and flavor. But, the scallop itself was very fresh and cooked perfectly.
• Ahi Tuna: This dish was delicious and the Asian flavors offset the rest of the tapas flavors perfectly. The tuna was served in two ways, tartare and in a roll form. The light wasabi foam was definitely one of my favorite parts of the dish.
• Grilled Calamari: The whole calamari was grilled perfectly and deliciously seasoned with lemon and garlic.
• Sauteed spinach: I can’t wait to recreate this dish at home. The spinach was accompanied by raisins, pine nuts, and pears before a drizzle of vinaigrette. It was warm and delicious and the spinach wasn’t completely sautéed by instead lightly wilted. 
• Flank steak: This was one of the dishes our waiter highly recommended and it didn’t disappoint. The steak was quickly seared and paired with Japanese eggplant between each piece.

As we finished our last dish, we realized we weren’t full and ordered two more tapas, truffle and mixed mushroom risotto and truffle salmon. Clearly dancing through the nights, raising our glasses, and laughing burned lots of calories and boosted our metabolisms this weekend.

Both were very rich and we were only able to eat a few bites.

We enjoyed one final toast to the wonderful weekend before heading back to our hotel.

While Theodora was at the ATM I decided to use my last dollar bill in the Irishman slot machine. I finally had luck and won!

As soon as I won the $10 I cashed out which allowed me to leave Las Vegas $6 richer than I came. Maybe next time I’ll have more luck.

I’m not in route to Savannah for my mom’s 60th birthday tomorrow! Hopefully all my connections are smooth and I’m able to catch up on sleep. I definitely think a 4.5 hour nap will occur on my first leg to Charlotte!

See you in Savannah!