Every resort in Las Vegas has a good Italian restaurant. But some have a REALLY good Italian restaurant, like Fresco Italiano at Westgate Las Vegas. This welcoming space features a patio area outside the main dining room, which spotlights a vintage espresso machine and a “window” looking over the Italian countryside. A welcoming bar and lounge provides a great stopping point on that “patio,” and before you are seated, we recommend stopping there for a drink.
Westgate beverage development manager Yelena Anter has created cocktail menus and special drinks for all of Westgate’s restaurants, and the delights in the Fresco Italiano bar reflect her creativity. On the specialty cocktail menu, the peach bellini represents Milan, with Ketel One Botanicals peach orange vodka, white peach, prosecco and a scoop of vanilla gelato. It’s like the most upscale version of an ice cream soda you can imagine, and it’s perfect to tickle your taste buds before dinner or to sip on afterwards as a dessert. But the beverage choices are wide, with takes on margaritas, spritzes, sangria and affogatos, an enormous selection of wines, both by the bottle and by the glass, and imported and craft beers.
Order your antipasti and salads first, with a bruschetta burrata board featuring marinated tomatoes, vincotto (an Italian condiment), basil pesto, ciabatta crostino and fig preserves. Add on prosciutto di Parma and sopressata if you choose. The caprese includes beefsteak tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, radicchio and arugula, plus a cherry vinaigrette balsamic reduction, while the Caesar salad adds baby kale to the traditional romaine, with Parmesan crisp, focaccia croutons and Caesar dressing, of course. And although you can order pizza as a main dish, the Calabrese pizza makes an excellent appetizer, with fennel sausage, meatballs, pepperoni, tomato sauce and mozzarella.
Pasta entrées include fettucine Alfredo, spaghetti pomodoro, penne pesto with blistered tomatoes, broccolini and basil pesto, with the option to add shrimp, chicken or wild mushrooms. If you order the short rib pappardelle, the fragrance is gonna knock your socks off. Melted tomatoes, rosemary, pecorino Romano and slow-braised short rib combine for a dish that is sure to satisfy.
Fresco Italiano also has a selection of classic Italian dishes on the menu with shrimp scampi, chicken Parmesan, lasagna, grilled salmon and an 18-ounce bone-in ribeye. Chicken Marsala is a favorite of many, with chicken in a rich, rich sauce of roasted mushrooms, cipollini onions and Florio Marsala, a fortified wine from Florio, the world’s oldest Marsala producer, founded in 1833 in Sicily.
Desserts at Fresco Italiano are worth saving room for, from blueberry panna cotta to the affogato with vanilla gelato, espresso and Nutella ganache. After-dinner drinks include everything from amaro to dessert wines and specialty cocktails like the Italian Russian with Grey Goose Berry Rouge vodka, amaretto and Mr. Black coffee liqueur.
The espresso martini and tiramisu combination provides the best of both worlds, with a kick from both the espresso-infused ladyfingers in the tiramisu and the Absolut Vanilla vodka, Mr Black coffee liqueur and espresso in the martini. If you’re heading to a show or want to fuel a night of play, it’s perfect.
Westgate Las Vegas. 702.732.5276 or westgateresorts.com
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