Las Vegas Weekly

• Tweet
• 
• Print
• 

Its giant candy store sells everything from five-pound gummy bears to couture lollipops licked by the likes of Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears. It has a dessert-themed ultra-lounge and an outdoor gelato cafe serving gelato. And upstairs sits one of the newest and most popular nightclubs in Vegas: Chateau, under the same ownership.

Now that we know what the Sugar Factory is—a glitzy, glossy, candy-lacquered tourist magnet—the question is, should we eat the food? Can it possibly offer more than oversized, over-sweetened desserts?

Perhaps surprisingly, the Sugar Factory American Brasserie shows a little restraint in the right places while still dialing up the fun factor with its dishes. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s an open-air, Strip-front dining room with great people-watching opportunities.

Photo: Beverly Poppe

Try a little waffle with your chocolate sauce and custard at Sugar Factory.

Sugar Factory is open around the clock, but breakfast is a great time to be here. You can experience chocolate decadence French toast with strawberries and white chocolate custard, but you don’t have to start your day with dessert. Try the skirt steak and mushroom frittata. There are sweet and savory crêpes to choose from, too. Later in the day, decent thin-crust pizzas, angus beef or turkey sliders and classic sandwiches like a tuna melt or Monte Cristo are awfully tempting. There’s a great rendition of chicken and waffles—crunchy buttermilk fried bird with a sweet, crisp waffle, honey butter and warm maple syrup.

This is the Paris, so scattered throughout this lengthy cafe menu are several solid French-American plates: mussels mariniere, roasted chicken, a great steak frites rubbed with rosemary and garlic. I didn’t expect this at the Sugar Factory, and it’s probably the best food here.

Desserts, of course, are plentiful and occasionally outrageous. In a nutshell, they have everything. If you’re with a group, and you probably are, sample one of the fondues. You can pick extra goodies to dip in your chosen chocolate, like cheesecake chunks, peanut butter cookies or pretzels. I’m a sucker for a great milkshake, and the Cookie Jar is my favorite here: Oreos, chocolate chips and caramel sauce swirled into vanilla ice cream. Who says you can’t have a milkshake with steak frites?