Like Tapas? Try Julian Serrano at the Aria in Las Vegas!

Back in July, I wrote about a local Tapas restaurant near where my husband and I live that we really enjoyed.

But last week, when my husband and I took a quick jaunt to Las Vegas, we ate at an AMAZING Tapas restaurant in the Aria hotel called Julian Serrano. It was seriously delicious and it is a good thing we live across the country from there or else we'd be gaining a ton of weight monthly eating there.

Of course we looked at the menu before heading to Las Vegas, and we already knew we would be ordering my husbands favorite, which is Brava Potatoes, served with a spicy tomato and alioli sauce. It was a tad TOO spicy for me but overall, delicious. My husband loved it.


We also knew we'd be getting one of my favorites, traditional Spanish chicken croquetas. There was a béchamel in the croquettes which made them very creamy. They were delicious, but the ones I had while in Barcelona weren't AS creamy and I liked them a little better that way. I am such a croquette fan.


The last thing we KNEW we would order when at the restaurant was another favorite we discovered in Spain - Churros!! MMM...Churros served with chocolate. The difference between the thick chocolate that came with these churros and the chocolate served in Spain, is that this restaurant makes it spicy by adding paprika into the chocolate. It's not super spicy, or else I wouldn't be able to eat it, but it is enough to warm your throat. It was pretty good! Also, the churros here came lightly dusted with powdered sugar while the churros in Spain are coated with regular thick sugar granules. But we ate every last bite of these churros.


We needed some other plates to share, so we also ordered a Spanish tortilla, which was potatoes, eggs and onions. It was more potato to me than any egg, so I asked my husband to try it since he hates eggs and of course he swore it was too eggy (it wasn't). And once again, this plate did not disappoint.


We also ordered the Grilled Angus Flat Iron Steak which came with Japanese eggplant and a mushroom demi. This was one of our favorites for the night - seriously tasty and probably one of our top recommendations for anyone going to eat here.


Lastly, in addition to our churros with dessert, we ordered something called buñuelos, which are Spanish doughnuts served with a butterscotch caramel sauce. OMG, these were SO FRIGGIN GOOD. We were so full, but managed to also eat every single little doughnut. We couldn't leave anything behind!


The website suggests reservations, which we made, but we were seeing a 7:00 p.m. show at the Aria so we were eating relatively early. We made reservations for 5:30 p.m., but showed up around 5:00 p.m. on a Tuesday night and they had plenty of room to accommodate us early. More people came the longer we sat there and we left a little after 6:00 p.m. The service was fantastic - our waitress was so nice and answered every question we had and even just talked to us about our experiences in Spain a little.

The prices are definitely reasonable, unless you are like the table of 4 business colleagues next to us who ordered at least 20 or more plates. I kid you not...my husband and I were cracking up because they just kept bringing out more and more. And at one point, one man asked "is this it?" and another man answered, "let's get through this and then we'll see!" HAHAH! I wish I was dining on their tab!

It's also casual since the restaurant is open to the lobby of the hotel. We had a fantastic time and hope that whenever we get back to Las Vegas, it is still there. In the meantime, anyone in the Vegas area or visiting the city of sin should definitely check it out.

Enjoy!