When The Mixx was planning its opening, I was one of those people who was insanely interested in going to try it. Learning that Chef Bryan Ogden was going to return to Las Vegas and make an innovative new restaurant off the strip got my culinary juices going. Describing itself as a “premiere dining destination for locals,” this huge endeavor boasted that they would have amazing DJs from all around the world, and a menu to match this mix.
However, the restaurant that among other things, promised that you’d be able to “see the chef and interact with the chef” soon lost their chef and entire culinary team almost instantly after opening. Chef Ogden and owner JP Teresi did not get along well according to staff who said they were at each other’s throats constantly, with Teresi often second guessing how things should be cooked and pretending to play chef.
I had wanted to try the restaurant a while back, but I almost never try a new restaurant until a few months after opening. Now with the Chef gone, I wish I would have tried it as it was supposed to have been.
When you go in there, you notice that the restaurant is huge, and made to seem even bigger by the fact it’s virtual empty.
The three times I stopped by to look over it, there wasn’t a single person anywhere to be seen. When myself and my guest dined there, there was two people at the bar and another person eating in the dining room– and the place almost echoed with the pain of previous diners.
The menu makes almost no sense to anyone who has no idea what they are doing, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that the barely dressed waitresses didn’t even attempt to explain the menu. Our waitress, wearing a strip-club inspired bustier wasn’t familiar with the menu at all, and seemed almost confused what the mix-and-match menu was about. She didn’t even try to explain it but instead threw our menus down in front of us with a tennis-like grunt.
From what I could understand, with the “Fresh Market Menu” you could somehow create your own dishes using ingredients, and then tell the Chef to mix them all up in a sauce use the Mongolian grille in the middle of the restaurant, and hope for the best.
She also started our dinner with bringing us a set of completely dirty plates, which should have made us want to leave instantly.
I decided to try a bunch of the appetizers, which unlike the strange “do you own” part of the menu, looked pretty good.
It was at that point that John Curtas, the famed Las Vegas food reviewer noticed that I was at The Mixx, and sent me the following message: “Run!”
We tried the Mini Advocado Burgers, the Mac and Cheese Gratin, Chicken Lettuce Wrap, the Ahi Tuna Tartare and the Truffle Fries at first.
The mini-Burgers (aka sliders) were overcooked, and used what seemed to be cold store bought buns that were ripped apart straight out of the bag. Not a good sign for a restaurant that was attempting to have a “high-class” cuisine, when it’s obvious they were buying their bread from the local Albertson’s.
The Asian inspired Ahi Tuna Tartare wasn’t horrible, and definitely the best part of the Appetizers, but at the same time, with the strip-worthy price of $16, it should have been a lot better and more unique. At least the fish seemed somewhat fresh.
I am not sure what they were trying to do with the truffle-fries to be absolutely honest. They were shoe-string potato fries that were almost inedible from whatever rancid oil was used to fry it, and then dosed with what I can only assume was the salty tears of whatever cook was forced to pretend to be a trained chef.
Of course, they were cold from the start, as shoe-string fries aren’t very good at keeping warmth in a huge frozen empty establishment as this. We found the fries strange, because in the pictures in previous reviews, they weren’t shoe-string sized and actually looked better.
My son wanted the Mac N’ Cheese, and immediately told us that it “tasted like poo.” I assumed he just didn’t like the cauliflower and smoked bacon, so I tried it myself, to almost correct him that it tasted like S$&t. It was absolutely horrifyingly nasty, and the cauliflower cheese mix seemed perhaps to have come from the throwup of dog that ate too much Velveeta.
The Chicken Lettuce wraps were presented with some sort of lettuce that may have been found in the dumpster or just had wilted out of shame. The cremini mushrooms mixed with pickled fresno chiles just didn’t seem to mix well, although drowning them with Hoisin sauce to put them out their misery made us all happy.
At that point we took John Curtas’ advice and decided it would be the best idea to leave. Even though were were only one of two parties in the entire restaurant, it took forever to get our check, and didn’t help that when it was being presented, our waitress’ breasts decided to release themselves from their bondage and require her to adjust them back into place. My girlfriend got pretty upset as I started to chuckle at this slip.
If The Mixx would like to become a strip-club, they might actually do better.
However, as a restaurant, they are lacking in every way possible – including expensive price points that are barely inedible off the strip. It could be one of the worst conceived restaurants I’ve seen in a long time, and I highly doubt will be around much longer. I assume the staff has given up already, and that’s why the service is horrible. As one of the waitresses at another establishment told us, she’s never actually seen more than few people in there, and that the staff of TheMixx regularly eats next door at the Cheesecake Factory.
