Resorts World restaurant from famed NYC chef rebrands as Aqua Seafood
The roe is getting a rebrand.
Caviar Bar in Resorts World Las Vegas, the restaurant owned by celebrated chef Shaun Hergatt, who has received five Michelin stars during his career, is relaunching Tuesday as Aqua Seafood & Caviar Restaurant. Caviar Bar opened in December 2021, about five months after the property opened.
Business operators (and sisters) Suzanne and Karina Slinin are joining Hergatt in the new venture, which he described as “more than just a name change. It’s about evolving and improving our offerings to create lifetime memories for our guests.”
Caviar, dinner and bar menus
The caviar menu at Aqua features nutty buttery Kaluga, Osetra (known for its large pearls), Golden Kaluga and Golden Osetra, all from Caspy, a purveyor of caviar sourced from sustainable farms worldwide. There are also Caspy Special Reserve selections of Kaluga and Golden Osetra. The roe is served with classic adjutants: housemade blini, crème fraîche, chives.
On the dinner menu are lettuce cups filled with king crab, a brioche roll stuffed with Maine Lobster, oysters dabbed with caviar, salmon tartare crowned with a quail egg, and ocean trout paired with trout roe. Among the entrées: Alaskan black cod, lobster spaghetti pomodoro and a lush uni saffron risotto.
The cocktail hour bar menu offers a flight of caviar and chi-chi bites like Kaluga blini, spicy toro with crisp rice, and a high-low can-can of Champagne and French fries. A handful of classic cocktails, house wines and beer round out the options.
From Australia and beyond
Aqua is the latest project in Hergatt’s global career.
He first gained wider notice as chef de cuisine of The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, Sydney, in his native Australia. Later, he was chef de cuisine of Atelier in the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South in Manhattan, when the restaurant received three stars from The New York Times and a James Beard Award nomination for Best New Restaurant.
After a stint as executive chef at The Setai, in Miami, he returned to New York City to open SHO Shaun Hergatt, which received two Michelin stars. Later, Hergatt was executive chef and partner at Juni in New York, which received another star. Both restaurants are closed.
Two more Michelin stars followed, one each in 2020 and 2021, at Vestry in downtown Manhattan, which is still open. REN, a wood-fire grill restaurant that is Hergatt’s most recent project prior to Aqua, debuted in Brooklyn in 2022.
Visit aqualv.com.
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram and @ItsJLW on X.