In the heart of the District in Resorts World Las Vegas lies Aqua, an intimate seafood-forward restaurant from celebrated chef Shaun Hergatt. Once you’re seated in Aqua’s elegant environs, with high ceilings and a striking black-and-gold design, peruse the menu—you’ll immediately notice a focus on caviar.
And that’s by design. Aqua first started life as Caviar Bar, a favorite among visitors, serving high-end cocktails and a dinner menu with an excellent caviar selection. When Caviar Bar transformed into Aqua in late 2023, adding more space and enclosing the previously open restaurant, it was no surprise that the love of caviar remained and seafood continued as a focus on the menu.
That’s partly because Australian-born Hergatt grew up in Cairns, a tropical area that’s considered the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, with extensive farming and ocean fishing. “I think that it was such a great environment to be able to be creative,” Hergatt said in an interview with Las Vegas Magazine. Today, it’s a perfect space to indulge in a drink and light bites before attending a show in the theater, or as a destination in itself. (Hergatt has also helmed respected restaurants in New York and Miami.)
Photo by: Anthony Mair
Once in, get a cocktail, with such offerings as the Calamansi Club, with Tito’s vodka, raspberry, calamansi, elderflower and egg white, or the Zombie Reviver, with a blend of rums, lychee, pineapple, honey and absinthe. The are a few low- or zero-proof cocktails and beers as well: The Lunch Meeting, concocted with low-ABV gin, spiced pear and lime; the Brilliant Disguise, made with Lyre’s amaretti liqueur, lemon, honey and egg; a Stiegl grapefruit Radler, just 2.25 ABV; or a nonalcoholic Heineken.
Aqua serves seafood in many forms, including three varieties of oysters (kumamoto, shigoku and kushi), littleneck clams, king crab, Maine lobster and shrimp and lobster cocktails. Baked and dressed oysters Rockefeller and oysters Kilpatrick (a traditional Australian appetizer, here with smoked bacon and barbecue sauce), clams casino and clams cacio e pepe round out that area of the menu. There’s a section for crudo and caviar featuring steak tartare with caviar, tuna tartare, shrimp toast with caviar, avocado roll with wild shrimp and more.
Entrées include crispy fried chicken, Chilean sea bass, wagyu filet and coconut shrimp, but to really go all out, try one of the signature dishes. Chef Shaun’s sashimi plate features hamachi, big eye tuna, salmon, uni and bluefin toro. The Ocean Harvest is bounteous, with shrimp cocktail, king crab legs, an assortment of sashimi, Maine lobster, oysters and clams. For a fuller caviar experience, order a selection of Caspy caviar, available in a variety of types and prices, with homemade blinis. Yes, you do need to share!
Resorts World Las Vegas. 702.676.7936. rwlasvegas.com
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