With more than 15 years in Las Vegas, Michelin award-winning chef Michael Mina’s eponymous restaurant continues to blossom and excite just as do the famed botanical gardens that sit mere feet from its front doors. The Bellagio restaurant is an intimate setting, swathed in beige and white textiles with warm wood accents and views through floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the manicured grounds.

Start off your dining experience with the Bellagio cocktail. Although not on the menu, the special-request libation is a sweet mix of Alizé red passion, red passion fruit purée and champagne, served martini style.

At Michael Mina, the menu is dotted with the chef’s career hits, showcasing his prowess for flavor-filled land and sea options. Each dish takes the guest on a journey, making Mina not just a place to dine but rather an experience in eating. And where the restaurant stands out among its peers in fine dining are the vegetarian options—an abundance of dishes given proper creative culinary attention.

Begin with a longtime fan favorite, the domestic caviar parfait. Your fork easily slides through light layers of alderwood-smoked salmon, shallot potato cake, crème fraîche and caviar, in an interplay of crispy and velvety textures with a slightly salted and sweet finish. The heirloom beet salad is as flavorful as it is colorful, with red and yellow beets, sliced kumquat and crunchy pistachio granola, all tossed in a light vinaigrette.

The tuna tartare plate, another Mina trademark, gets mixed tableside. Fresh ahi tuna sashimi is flown in daily from Hawaii and combined with Asian pear, garlic, habanero jalapeño, pine nuts and quail egg yolk; sesame oil infused with ancho chile, mint, salt and pepper gives the starter a slight heat while enhancing the tuna.

For your entrée, miso-glazed Chilean sea bass, topped with a spoonful of trout roe, elevates traditional Asian flavors, with the caramelized sweetness of the marinade enveloping the fish. A shrimp and scallop dumpling, bok choy radish and shiitake mushroom are served alongside the flaky and tender sea bass.

One of Mina’s most treasured dishes, the signature lobster pot pie, cooked in its own individual pan, draws attention as it's wheeled from the kitchen and plated tableside. The pastry-shell top is cut and removed, unveiling nearly two pounds of Maine lobster steamed in a black truffle brandy cream sauce.

If you are in the mood for steak, the American wagyu ribeye, seared in a pinot noir reduction, is sliced into melt-in-your-mouth strips and topped with Hudson Valley foie gras. Whipped truffle potatoes, royal trumpet mushrooms and Italian arugula complement the ribeye, which is sourced from Snake River Farms in Idaho.

For the vegetarian, the tasting menu presents a Japanese-inspired dish combining grilled and phyllo-crusted tofu, sugar snap peas, radish, Hawaiian hearts of palm, bok choy and maitake tempura served with a ponzu dipping sauce, resulting in a crisp bite with lemony pops of flavor.

A hearty artichoke tortellini pours a heavenly white garlic cream over artichoke hearts, black truffles and black trumpet mushrooms, with the lemon zest giving the dish great piquancy.

For a trip back to childhood try Mina’s classic, old-fashioned root beer float for dessert, made with sassafras ice cream, root beer sorbet and IBC root beer with a chocolate straw and fresh-baked chocolate chip-pecan cookie.

Just as the botanical gardens’ beautiful scenery attracts visitors, so, too, does the cuisine at Michael Mina, a culinary attraction that continues to grow.

Bellagio 5:30-10 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 5:30-10:15 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 702.693.8865