Pisces Makes a Splash at Wynn With Rare Lobster, Chocolate Fish, and a View

Chocolate fish dessert at Pisces. | Steve Legato Blue lobsters and dry-aged branzino anchor this Mediterranean stunner in the former Lakeside space One of the most stunning restaurant spaces on the Las Vegas Strip reopens on Saturday, May 10, with a new name, a new menu, and an elegant redesign. When Pisces takes over the former Lakeside location at Wynn Las Vegas, its window-lined dining room will still overlook the Lake of Dreams — complete with its animatronic birds and singing frog — while chef Martin Heierling’s menu will feature specialty oils from Greece, pasta from Tuscany, refined Mediterranean seafood like grilled dry-aged branzino and rare blue lobsters, and whimsical dessert shaped like fish. Chef Heierling, who previously created Sensi at the Bellagio and opened Silk Road at Vdara, is intentional about his sourcing. Take, for instance, the blue lobsters, a rare type of lobster with a genetic mutation that makes its skin thicker, its flesh more firm and sweet, and its shell a vibrant blue. Heierling is serving it two ways — as a chilled tail in a green pepper chimichurri-style sauce with green apple, and as a preparation of the knuckles and claws in spicy pepper sauce and plated within the shell. “It’s a statement on our menu,” says Heierling. “It is a delicacy, and I think it’s something that I really believe people will take to.” Brandon Barre Raw bar at Pisces. Brandon Barre Pisces. A display at the front of the restaurant will present whole fish for customers to select, like branzino, dorado, Dover sole, and — when availability allows — bluefin tuna. Heierling says dorado and branzino will get a three- or four-day dry-aging treatment for the fish to reduce its water content and take on an improved texture and enhanced flavor. Whole fish will be completely deboned before cooking, but served dramatically with a head-on and tail-on presentation. Other menu highlights include a salt-baked loup de mer, grilled lamb chops, and glimmering seafood platters. Pisces makes its pasta in-house, with the exception of a spaghetti that Heierling imports from Tuscany’s Martelli family, which has been making pasta for 100 years. The spaghetti, which is made with flour from heirloom grains, will be combined with whole Czech lobster and a fragrant sauce of tomatoes, fennel, and aromatics like basil, thyme, and chile. Heierling finishes the lobster spaghettini with limited reserve olive oils. Chef Heierling is also excited about Pisces’s bread service, which features laminated sourdough sfogliato bread. “Think about a croissant,” he says. “It has this crunchy outside texture, then the soft center that’s laminated and layered, but it has a sour flavor.” He serves the bread with Greek feta dip and roasted eggplant dip for spreading and dunking. Steve Legato Paella at Pisces. Steve Legato Lobster spaghettini at Pisces. Pisces doesn’t just replace Lakeside’s Pacific and Hawaiian seafood with Mediterranean flavors — it also reimagines the space itself. The once-glossy orange interiors have given way to deep navy tones, glittering Italian stone mosaics, and a striking dual-level bar with expanded seating where guests can order from the full menu. Lakeside closed last year to make way for Michelin-starred chef Fabio Trabocchi’s Fiola Mare — a move that ultimately fell through. With Pisces, Wynn retains a signature seafood restaurant at the lakefront. “Over the last 10 years, seafood has risen in popularity tremendously, particularly like whole grilled fish and simply prepared seafood,” says Heierling. “And that’s really what we’re embracing here.” Wynn’s master mixologist Mariena Mercer Boarini created the restaurant’s cocktails, which include a yogurt-washed punch and spritzes. The resort’s executive pastry chef Jennifer Yee developed a fish-shaped dessert that melts and gives way to a chocolate center, an olive oil cake, and a meringue that is cracked tableside to reveal a Basque-style cheesecake with Harry’s Berries strawberries. “We look forward to having the opportunity to feature some Greek influence in the Mediterranean, a lot of Spanish items, and we import our flour from Italy,” says Heierling. “Our menu has a point of view but it’s all very recognizable.” Pisces will be open nightly. The bar opens at 4:30 p.m., and dinner starts at 5 p.m. Reservations are open online. Eric Jamison/ Wynn Las Vegas Wynn Lake of Dreams.