This is how you do a pop up – Alinea at the Bellagio

I have been to so many disappointing pop ups and special dinner events that I have gone from excited to book right away to skeptical. Either the service is poor, or the food is disappointing, or some combination of the two or three or more. Because of this, I went into the Alinea pop up at the Bellagio in Vegas with low expectations. We arrived on time and waited a bit to be seated. Already I was second guessing my decision to come. Would this foreshadow a kitchen or floor team that was disorganized or falling behind? We’d soon fine out. We were shown into the dining room (which is at the Michael Mina), and shown to a nice booth table. I started to relax.

Just as an aside for readers not familiar, Alinea is a highly acclaimed restaurant in Chicago that held three Michelin stars from 2011 to 2024. In 2025, it was downgraded to 2 stars.

Back to the meal. From this point on, service was as one would expect from a 3 star restaurant (I know it now only has 2 but in my mind, its still 3). The first amuse brought to us started with a postcard of a Chicago hot dog on the front, and signed on the back by the chef Grant Achatz. Although the chef had already gone back to Chicago, this was a nice touch unlike my experience at Noma where the chef didn’t even greet guests despite a couple of requests.

The “dog” was in the form of a cube that tasted like all the elements of a proper Chicago Dog including tomato, pepper and green relish. It was a playful way to begin the meal, demonstrating the abilities of the kitchen to extract flavors and present them in a fun way, while representing the city of the restaurant. Some may find it gimmicky, but I enjoyed it.

Next, osetra caviar (I should note that I also had the wine pairing which I have no complaints about, I got the standard one with prices increasing significantly if you move to the 2nd or 3rd tiers). This was served in a dish that was supposed to mimick the texture of caviar.

The third amuse was heavenly. It was a charred Arctic char with maple syrup and smoke. It was like eating fish candy. The top was nicely caramelized and the body was slightly cooked and each bite was luscious.

Following this, was another playful ode to Chicago. A bite of king crab but with flavors of Chicago style popcorn (caramel and cheese) coming through.

The last amuse was impressive because they switched flavors and really showed a range of cooking and understanding of flavors from around the world. This was a cauliflower garam masala and it was really well executed.

Next came a transition which I always love in long tasting menus. We were moved to another room where they set up a new atmosphere, made a cocktail with a historical based shaker machine, and then this:

Inside the “cone” was a piece of prawn tempura on a stick. It was smoked in the cone, and the bite was mind blowing. Perfectly crisp, perfectly seasoned, a hit of smoke scent and umami from the prawn. The perfect bite. I wish I had more. We were then lead back to our seat for a small bite before the main dishes.

This dish was both fun and delicious. You pull the pin which drops the potato and truffle into the soup and then slurp it like an oyster. The first main course demonstrated to me again the wide range of knowledge of the kitchen. We were now in Asia with flavors and scents of coconut and lemongrass. It was kind of like a fish curry and it was so well executed for a second I thought I was on the streets of Thailand having an amazing curry.

The first meat dish was pigeon. This was probably the first average to just good dish of the night. I think after all the intense flavors and create presentations previous to this point, this dish was “just” reminiscent of a well executed French classic dish.

Then we went back to flavor explosions with a final amuse before the last main which was appropriately described as a black truffle explosion. If you’ve ever had a Jolly Rancher with the liquid in the center that explodes when you bite it and fills your mouth with flavor, this was what it was like to eat this, except my mouth was filled with 10x umami from the truffle and parm.

The final dish was wagyu. It was good, and better than the squab, but my thoughts on it would be smilar.

It came with the side above which I don’t remember what it was.

Dessert was next and this was something I was REALLY looking forward to. If you are a fan of Alinea or have seen some of the shows it has been featured in, they always show the dessert spread across the table….and here it was:

There was one final dessert but I will leave it out of this blog so that you can have a surprise to look forward to.

Overall, this was a 9.99/10 meal. The staff were amazing. There were so many of them; some from Chicago, some from the pop up, and some from Michael Mina, but ALL were obviously well trained and very very friendly. We enjoyed chatting with them and having each dish explained. The food was beyond my expectations. I actually considered going back a few days after. I would recommend you go there before the pop up ends (May 31, 2026).