Todd English's Olives

Lunch: Open daily, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Dinner: Open daily, 5 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Bar: Open daily, 3 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

More info: Situated along the bustling promenade of Via Bellagio, Todd English's Olives offers guests a picturesque view of the lake from an outdoor dining patio.

What with the new hotel tower and the ambitious Sensi restaurant, the hot new steak house FIX and the perennial AAA Five Diamond Award-winning restaurants Picasso and Le Cirque, it would be easy to overlook Todd English's Olives at Bellagio.

That would be a mistake. The restaurant is better than ever. That's thanks to a terrific new menu from peripatetic superstar chef Todd English and a more masculine look designed by Jeffrey Beers that features a long bar topped with beige granite, pillars covered in braided leather, onyx-colored tables complemented by chairs upholstered in burnt orange velvet and candle trees, which cast the room in a soft, relaxing light.

The menu at Olives always has been vaguely Mediterranean. English gets his dark good looks from his mother, who is Italian, and also a large part of his cooking philosophy from Italy, where he honed his craft. Starters such as lamb ribs slow-braised on creamed corn in a rich lamb reduction and grilled squid and octopus in a vinaigrette of chick pea, toasted garlic, tomatoes and parsley could come right from a trattoria on the Adriatic coast.

Don't miss one of the restaurant's traditional wood-oven flatbreads with imaginative toppings. There are also pastas and little dumplings of goat cheese in black-olive-flavored wrapping. Just as good are the butternut squash tortelli and entrées as diverse as cold-water halibut on a silky white-bean purée and a New England-inspired (the original Olives is in Boston) whole Maine lobster on cheddar-cheese potatoes, crackling from a Ritz cracker crust. Olives' vanilla-bean soufflé, for dessert, is so good it should be outlawed.