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Wing Lei (Wynn) – Ultra-formal and likely to be the most expensive Chinese food you’ll ever eat outside Asia, this lavishly-designed restaurant is dark with sunset tones, and presents itself as overpoweringly serious. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the restaurant lives up to its aspirations.

There are two tastings menus – one based on Peking duck, the other a more elaborate chef-driven offering – and from what I’ve seen, the real attention and invention in the kitchen is directed towards the latter. The rest of the menu is surprisingly familiar…potstickers, short ribs, Kung Pao chicken, etc….though everything is of much higher quality than the generalized Chinese takeout it might evoke for most. Certainly, the prices won’t remind anyone of the corner MSG counter.

My shrimp toasts are, by far, the best I’ve tasted, and I believe that goes for my dining companions’ appetizers as well (including a meltingly succulent plate of scallops with vegetables), but one questions whether they’re elevated enough in quality to justify the prices. That concern lingers alongside the larger main courses, though again there is no questioning the superior excellence of otherwise basic preparations (almost all of which will be familiar to frequent consumers of Chinese food). The only misstep is in my dish, a tea-smoked duck that is overly-smoked and tastes of nothing other than bitter tea; the meat is dry and as tough as jerky. The presentation includes terrific noodles and a broth that is by turns both too sweet and over-steeped. It’s highly disappointing, and I leave a large portion of it untouched.

Service is haphazard, and certainly not what it needs to be as a restaurant of this alleged quality. Our wine order is misheard, presented improperly, and in the end we have to do most of the pouring ourselves…which isn’t a big deal, but something that shouldn’t happen at these prices. Plates (and flatware, and sometimes glasses) are cleared before everyone is finished with a course, and given the family-style nature of much of this dining, there isn’t even close to enough room on the table; side tables for overflow would be welcome, they would require much more service attention than the restaurant currently provides. Worst of all, we have to leave the table and chase down a gathering of chatting waiters when the second stage of the wait for the check becomes an drawn-out ordeal straight out of a Michelin three-star; all other attempts at getting their attention (including arm-waving) fail, and we conclude that they’ve simply forgotten about us. (If we were smart, we probably could have just walked out.)

The wine list is quite good, with reasonable (for the Strip, which means they’re large) markups and a good selection of the sorts of wines that go with this cuisine: white and red Burgundies, rieslings from all over, etc. And, of course, the Name bottles necessary for Vegas high rollers are in abundance as well.

Ultimately, while the food (except for my duck) is very, very good, I don’t feel the restaurant gives value commensurate with either its reputation or its expense. It has been given an ultra-luxurious location in one of the most high-end casinos, and there’s much to like (much of it what’s on the plate), but it needs a lot more refinement to live up to its potential. (5/07)