Fodor's Expert Review Balla Italian Soul

James Beard Award–winning chef Shawn McClain has long had a presence on the Strip, but he ventured north for this restaurant that draws high energy from the live-action kitchen and pasta-making window. The menu is studded with familiar dishes with creative twists, like the antipasti of beets with agrodolce, grapefruit, and toasted hazelnuts, and lamb tartare with pickled eggplant and preserved lemon. A wood fire is employed for the likes of sea bream with lemon and capers, and pork Delmonico with black garlic and pickled radicchio; pizzas and pastas round things out. A four-course tasting menu—reasonably priced compared to most on the Strip—is served family-style.