Ocean One Bar & Grill

On Sunday, June 8, we went to the Miracle Mile Shops at the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.  The former Aladdin Hotel closed and re-opened as the Planet Hollywood last year and the Desert Passage Shops became the Miracle Mile Shops.  I used to live down the street from the original Miracle Mile in L.A., the stretch of Wilshire Boulevard between La Brea and Fairfax avenues.  We were curious to see the Miracle Mile Shops.  Would they have the Art Deco architecture of the original?

The Planet Hollywood is located just south of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel.  Driving south on the strip, we turned left on Paris Drive and turned right on the small street, Audrie.  We learned from experience that this street is not accessible from Flamingo Road.  When we arrived at the Miracle Mile Shops, they still looked more like Mecca than Mid-City L.A.  They and re-done the flooring, adding some tile that could be called Art Deco but the shops kept most of their Desert Passage facades.  They still have and operate the indoor Rainstorm.  The ceiling still looks like the sky and a large model ship above the Oyster Bar still has the words “Desert Passage” on it.  They replaced the Middle Eastern style benches with sleek modern ones and the bizarre-style carts are now more conventional mall carts.  They have a Trader Vic’s, a branch of the famous West L.A. bar with a Tiki theme.  In one section that includes a Daiquiri bar called Fat Tuesday, they put on a light show set to music.  A theater was showing a limited engagement touring production of High School Musical and another was a showing a variety show.

Outside one of the theaters they had a large stage set up for various entertainers.  When we walked by there were two acrobats performing impressive lifts and throws.  Their finale was to break their record of 15 revolutions of their “Human Pinwheel of Doom.”  They managed to do 18. We shopped at some of the stores such as David Z. that sells ladies’ footwear.  This is the only David Z. store outside New York.  There’s a newsstand store like the one on the real Miracle Mile, but it didn’t have the chess tables like the real one.  There’s also a La Salsa Cantina that sells “Margaritas by the yard” and the Planet Hollywood website says that a Pink’s Hot Dogs is coming later in 2008.

Like the complex overall, many of the shops are more like remixes of their Desert Passage incarnations than complete reinventions.  The Oasis Cheeseburger is now Las Vegas Cheeseburger, the Oyster Bar is still a seafood restaurant, and a restaurant formerly called Max’s that had served American food at reasonable prices and three for one cocktails is now Ocean One Bar & Grill does the same, though I overheard the waiter say their cocktail deal is now two for one.  We chose to eat at Ocean One because it was still reasonably priced and there were some things we hadn’t yet tried there.  A casino employee who was just leaving the restaurant also recommended it to us.

The hostess seated us in the “outdoor” section and the waiter came by quickly to take our orders.  We both ordered entrees with Orecchiette pasta that resembles small half-shells.  Our entrees also came quickly in wide, shallow bowls.  I had the Orecchiette with diced roasted chicken, Cremini mushrooms, and caramelized onions in a chicken broth based sauce.  All the flavors blended well.  The roasted chicken added flavor to the mushrooms and pasta and the onions were cooked such that they retained much of their flavor but it wasn’t overpowering.  I also tasted pepper that added a bit of spice.  The pasta was cooked al dente and though some of it was stacked, it was easy enough to separate and mix it with the other ingredients.  It was just enough to sate my appetite.  My wife’s pasta primavera was Orecchiette pasta mixed with spinach and parmesan cheese in a lemon sauce.  She enjoyed it.  For dessert I had caramel apple pie that I had tried previously when the restaurant was called Max’s.  It was just as good as before, containing lots of apple slices all sweetened just right.  The caramel sauce and sugar complemented rather than overpowered the apple flavor.  When the bill came they had calculated an optional 18% gratuity.

After dinner we did some more walking around the shops.  We did recon to find the buffet where we would eat breakfast the next day and left soon after.  The shops may not exactly represent Miracle Mile but at least we could still get a good meal there.