About the Town 09-28-08

SushiSamba also offers a unique family-style brunch featuring entrees that combine traditional breakfast dishes with a decidedly Latin influence.

There’s king crab, ahi tuna, yellowtail, eel and salmon. Avocado is an intimate friend. Add ginger slices, Wasabi paste and soy sauce, and you feel like a veritable sultan of sushi. Add Latin dancers and you have SushiSamba, a fusion of exotic cultures that delight both palate and eye. Geishas and South American Samba? Only in America.

Like another chamber in a spiraling nautilus shell, Sugarcane the Ultra-Lounge is SushiSamba’s flashy older sister. The vibrant, orange nightclub, intimate though loud, features provocative female dancers, video screens, a comparatively large dance floor and a friendly bar staff that can take any order in stride. Feel like a vodka/cranberry with green olives? These folks won’t blink an eye.

The drinks are potent, too. A muddled strawberry concoction tastes like a liquid fruit salad, until you try to down too many. A blueberry creation is even stronger and could get you dancing even if you’re shy.

The well stocked bar in both the restaurant and nightclub features more than just twists of lemon and lime. Large watermelon, mango, and green apple slices also adorn drinks, which are as dressed up as the clientele. It’s like having Carmen Miranda in a glass, all her rhythmic undulations intact.

Sugarcane’s space is resplendent in gold and chocolate-brown leather, bamboo, wood, and smoked and frosted acrylic. The courteous staff is well versed in cocktail components as well as the restaurant’s offerings.

Plentiful appetizers made their way out of the kitchen into eager hands. The skewered sea bass was like heaven on a stick. Mini-tuna burgers were succulently addictive. Mussels were filled with a chopped tomato stuffing and the hot seafood bisque, served in tall, narrow shot glasses, was a rich, velvety mouthful of creamy goodness.

There was vegetarian sushi, like a tiny vegetable garden wrapped in rice, and scallops on the half shell; skewered chicken, and pork belly, the meat complemented by an equally sized portion of pork fat. Somewhere, Emeril would be proud.

Open seven days a week, the two rooms (restaurant and Ultra-Lounge) jam concurrently beginning at 5 p.m. and together hold a 400 person capacity. Dress is casual but can range all the way to elegant. A 21+ clientele is preferred, but the restaurant can and does accommodate families. There’s no lack of music, percussion, whistle-blowing (with a real whistle) and gyrating, sequined hips in this orange venue where east meets west, exchanges a kiss, and sits down to dinner together.

For further information:

SushiSamba/Sugarcane

The Palazzo Las Vegas Resort Hotel

3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, Nevada 89109(702) 607-0700

Hours:

Lunch: Monday – Saturday (11:30 am – 4 pm); Dinner: Sunday – Wednesday (5 pm – 1 am), Thursday (5 pm - 2 am), Friday – Saturday (5 pm – 3 am); SambaBrunch: Sunday (10 am – 4 pm)