These New Eateries Dish Up Hip Design Along With Hot Meals

LAS VEGAS: olio! 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S.; (702) 891-7775
The MGM Grand’s newest resident, the vast, multitiered olio!, brings nightclub dazzle to Italian dining. Instead of red-checkered tablecloths, designer Jeffrey Beers dreamed up undulating ceilings, dining rooms of different hues, a massive 8-foot-high fireplace, and the world’s longest antipasto bar. Make a meal of it, but don’t skip dessert. Space-age-suited servers scoop 21 frosty flavors from the showcase “frozen gelato wall.”

MIAMI: Suva, 801 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach; (305) 925-0050
It’s been a long time since anyone called pupu platters cool. But the South Seas-themed Suva, from the creators of China Grill, pulls it off. As a partner, actress Marisa Tomei lends marquee status to Suva, named for the Fijian capital where chef Robert Oliver grew up. Palm fronds and oversize tribal masks peer through white gauze drapes as patrons sip exotic cocktails with their Fijian seafood stew.

LOS ANGELES: Balboa, 8462 W. Sunset Blvd.; (323) 654-4600
Trust the folks behind L.A.’s trendy Sushi Roku restaurants to lead the hip parade with their new Balboa in the Hollywood-fashioned Grafton on sunset hotel. The contemporary supper club serves straightforward surf-and-turf with creamed spinach or Caesar salad on the side. A neomodernist sensibility pervades the interior, which resembles a neutral-toned ’60s rec room offset by ruby-red pendant lamps. —