If it’s a careful calculation, it comes as no surprise. Primrose is the ideal restaurant to launch the Monte Carlo’s transition into the new dual resort concept of Park MGM and The NoMad Hotel, a perfectly delicious way to introduce what comes next on the Las Vegas Strip. Before you even get to your table, it’s clear Primrose is unlike any other restaurant in the city. Modeled after a French country home and designed by Martin Brudnizki, there’s a multitude of relaxing spaces to explore besides the expansive dining room, including a handsome bar, a cookbook-filled lounge known as the drawing room, and a bountiful garden patio sure to become one of the Strip’s most sought-after brunch destinations. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Primrose allows its diners to define their own experience.
The simple, straightforward cuisine at Primrose favors subtle French and Mediterranean influences. At breakfast, which quickly became a popular mealtime at the new restaurant, you can start your day with a carefully crafted granola of puffed buckwheat, sunflower and pumpkin seeds and oats topped with local honey and fresh berries; a classic eggs Benedict on brioche with jambon de Paris or butter-poached lobster; or sumptuous suckling pig and potato hash. Lunchtime brings tempting options including a signature Niçoise salad with seared tuna and pickled red onions or a grilled chicken and avocado club sandwich with bacon and crispy chicken skins.
The dinner menu allows even more flexibility, where carefully constructed flavor combinations in vegetable dishes star right alongside simply grilled fish and meats. Start with garden fries, fried pickled dill beans served with hot peppers and a piquant sauce gribiche, a mozzarella croquette with crispy basil and tomato sauce, paper-thin slices of raw salmon dressed with Indian spices with green tomatoes and shaved celery, or fried chicken tenders embedded with herbs de Provence. If you’re eating clean, organic chicken, Mediterranean sea bass, king salmon or filet mignon are grilled to perfection with olive oil and sea salt.
If you want to let the kitchen’s creativity wow you, consider seafood bouillabaisse loaded with loup de mer, octopus, mussels and clams and served with citrusy rouille and toasty sourdough bread. For a more decadent option, the Primrose short rib steak is magnificently marbled, poached in beef fat for two days before a turn on the grill and served with potato puree, grilled butter lettuce and savory jus.
The vegetable sides are a must; order as many as will fit on your table, particularly the farmhouse pickles, the briny artichokes and olives, the buttery grilled avocado and the umami-laden, charcoal-roasted eggplant. Dessert is equally necessary. It’s difficult to choose between fresh beignets with lemon curd and cream or an upgraded banana split with milk gelato and caramelized bananas, but we recommend the sour green apple granite with fluffy almond cream. It’s a delicate, delightful dish that will catch you off-guard, not unlike this charming new restaurant. If this is the future of dining on the Strip, we’re all in.
Monte Carlo, 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Sun.-Thurs., 7 a.m.-midnight Fri.-Sat. 702.730.6600
