Talk about arid, colorless and void. For years, the Las Vegas dining scene was a bad joke of all-you-can-eat buffets, cheap steaks and rubber-chicken banquets.

But now that this once-and-future gambling mecca is also the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country (with a population exceeding 1 million) and a major convention destination, true fine dining has finally emerged.

Wolfgang Puck led the pack when he opened a satellite of Spago, his benchmark Los Angeles restaurant, in the Forum Shops at Caesar's. Jean-Louis Palladin (formerly at the Watergate Hotel in Washington) opened Napa, a cutting-edge eatery in the Rio, and proved Vegas was ready for world-class restaurants.

Meanwhile, the town awaits the imminent arrival of Charles Palmer (the chef from Aureole in New York) at Mandalay Bay and Joachim Splichal (Patina in L.A.) at the Venetian.

But for now, everyone's talking about Bellagio and its boggling lineup of restaurants. I managed to hit most of them during a recent visit and, with a couple of exceptions, found them worthy of their reputations.

Picasso

With so many superstar restaurants from which to choose at Bellagio, the showcase eatery better have something remarkable to offer. Picasso, in fact, has two: an astonishing collection of original Picassos on the walls (valued at $37 million) and the talents of resident chef Julian Serrano, lured from Masa's, San Francisco's top-rated venue for fine dining.

Serrano is Spanish, but his style of cooking is haute French with a California palate. Time and again, he takes a classical dish and gives it a subtle New World tweak.

The brief menu offers a choice of a four-course prix-fixe menu with choices ($65) or a set six-course degustation menu ($87.50) with wine pairings offered for a $57.50 surcharge. Try the degustation if only to splurge on the fascinating wines, precision-matched to Serrano's recipes.

A super-crisp Prager riesling from the Wachau region in Austria makes an ideal foil for the subtly dynamic but rich flavors of the first course, a warm lobster salad with saffron-poached potatoes in truffle vinaigrette.

Next comes one perfect scallop -- jiggly and sweet on a cushion of potato mousseline and a pool of satiny veal jus. A glass of Domaine Schlumberger Pinot Gris provides another spot-on match, fuller-bodied and with a rounder flavor as lingering and gentle as the food.

A crisp-edged slab of seared foie gras with lavishly truffled Madeira sauce is high-test luxury on the plate, with an elegant botrytised late-harvest Chappelet Chenin Blanc served alongside.

Truffles reappear in the sauce for an exceptionally tender loin of lamb, crusted with tiny bits of cumin and caraway seed and served with a Bruno Clair Marsannay, a medium-bodied Burgundy with all sorts of spicy nuances integrated into the fruit.

A stunning trio of molded apple, quince and pear sorbets takes these flavors to the nth degree and identifies each by a sheer crisp made from the dried fruit. Is there better sorbet on the planet?

All around me, guests are moaning in delight. Gloria and Jack Sisk of Beverly Hills, Calif., claim Picasso served the best meal they've ever eaten in Las Vegas. And they've been coming here five or six times a year since they first saw Danny Thomas at the Flamingo in 1939.

Olives

This franchise of Todd and Olivia English's Boston favorite looks nothing like the original. Whereas the Boston restaurant is tucked snugly into a converted townhouse, this spot opens wide onto the Via Bellagio shopping arcade and has a shiny mosaic floor that glints like a million diamonds in the sunlight pouring through the windows. Just as glittery is the food, which to my taste gives the most gustatory bang for your buck of all the Bellagio restaurants. I'm in love with the flatbreads, which are big, misshapen ovals of crackery-chewy pizza dough baked with inspired toppings, such as balsamic-fig jam, prosciutto and Gorgonzola on a rosemary crust.

At Olives, you want to splurge on the oddities because you sense they'll work. And then you're rewarded with perfectly tender chargrilled squid and octopus, outfitted with chickpeas and tomato bits in a garlic-parsley vinaigrette. Or you may luck into a pearl couscous carbonara tossed with creamed spinach, bacon and the barest whiff of white truffle oil.

I'm less impressed with the signature cod cakes with lobster remoulade and Boston baked beans -- a heavy plateful that might stick to your ribs in snowy Beantown, but here just sticks to your arteries.

(Entrees: $19-$27.)

Le Cirque

"Have a seat," says the hostess coolly, motioning to a lounge where clearly no seat is available. Expensively turned-out people are crowding the tiny bar three deep, as they wait for a table in the restaurant.

While Picasso, with its airy spaciousness and natural wood, evinces a decidedly California sensibility, Le Cirque is New York all the way. A jewel box of rich mahogany and flouncy fabric that playfully evokes a circus big top, this satellite of the Maccioni family's classic restaurant is where Vegas bigshots go to be noticed. They wear fine clothes and order more caviar and truffles than they can finish.

Since it is past 10:30 by the time I'm seated for my 9:45 reservation, I decide on a relatively simple meal. White asparagus spears, glazed with cream and ringed with wild mushrooms, are so fibrous I can't even gnaw through one, much less cut it. And I have no opportunity to return this poor dish, since the waiter never checks on my progress and simply whisks away the full plate without question.

But a cut-up roast chicken "fermiere" with nickel-thick slices of black truffle under the skin is a beautiful bird -- hearty, refined and unbelievably flavorful. Dessert is a pulpy passion-fruit soup with sorbets served in a stunning goblet that rises higher than the crown of my head. It has remarkable purity of flavor but is so piercingly tart I can only manage a few bites.

While I can't fairly judge a restaurant after one meal, I'd be disinclined to spend hard-earned cash at Le Cirque next time. But maybe if I were lucky at the tables ...

(Entrees: $28-$80; expect to spend about $100 per person before tip.)

Osteria del Circo

This second ring of the Maccioni family circus features homey-to-trendy Tuscan food, lower prices and an even more festive decor than Le Cirque. Startling primary colors tint the ceiling and outfit the waiters. Weird orbs embedded in the mahogany walls rotate. And kinetic metal sculptures, such as a creepy monkey riding a unicycle on a high wire, constantly demand your attention. You feel like you've been set in a playpen under a mobile.

The food seems to be as uneven as that at Le Cirque, though my sense is that the homey recipes inspired by nonna Egidiana Maccioni beat the trendy stuff by a Florentine mile. Zuppa alla frantoiana, a 30-vegetable soup, looks like leftovers of leftovers reduced to a sludge. But this cannily reproduced peasant fare has a flavor so exquisite I was sad to see my mopped-clean bowl disappear.

Yet Circo prepares one of the least credible versions of gnocchi I've tried. Making these potato dumplings requires a touch that the cooks clearly don't have. Theirs are dense, gummy and arrive coated with rawish minced thyme.

This uneven meal ends with terrible coffee and a plate of pretty friandises -- chocolate truffles, fruit tartelettes and thin cookies.

Servers here keep their left hands behind their backs and generally put on tony airs. But I didn't find them particularly swift. Not only did my waitress neglect to tell me that one dish had radically changed from the menu description, she didn't check on my meal until I had given up any hope of exchanging it. And when I asked a waiter for a glass of iced tea with my lunch, he responded, "How about a bottle of wine?"

(Entrees: $16.50-$22.)

Aqua

As playful as it is sophisticated, the menu at Aqua will leave you in a fit of indecision. Should you start with the black mussel souffle or the oyster and salsify stew? Then should you move on to the lobster potpie or splurge on the roasted whole foie gras with caramelized Granny Smith apples? Maybe the best bet is to decide after they wheel over the caviar cart.

This contemporary seafood restaurant, a branch of Michael Mina's San Francisco smash hit, is serious foodie fun. At its best, the cooking stops just short of going over the top. Porcini-crusted wild turbot with truffle mashed potatoes in mushroom-red wine sauce sounds like a lot of mess for a piece of fish. It isn't. The flavors don't merely combine in your mouth, they take off in a new direction.

Other dishes rocket right over the top. Gorgeous spot prawns are split and stuffed with crab meat, then sadly slathered in orange mousseline and cloying sweet-and-sour vinaigrette. Salmon is sweety-sweet, as well, in a mishmash of raisins, berry sauce, curry sauce and pearl couscous.

For dessert, Aqua makes a big deal of its "a la minute" ice cream service. Freshly churned ice creams are wheeled to the table and scooped onto the plate. I found them goopy and pedestrian. Much better is the updated root beer float with warm chocolate chip cookies.

(Entrees: $28-$34.)

Sam's American

With its free-form animated design and cavernous columns suggestive of a trippy grotto, Sam's American feels like "Blue Velvet" set in the Flintstones' Bedrock.

The food follows suit: It's fun, clunky and wildly eclectic -- the kind of chow that goes down easily when you've had a few too many.

I didn't care for a deadly thick carrot soup with a pumpkin custard mired in it. But I enjoyed picking at a monstrous BLT ($12) with arugula, avocado and chipotle mayo piled sky-high on country bread. A competent beef brisket sandwich ($11) heaped on challah is a like a Jewish brontosaurus burger. Other items on the wild menu include Indian-style crab cakes in carrot broth and grilled guinea hen paillard on melted foie gras mousse with watercress salad and plum-wine sauce.

Buffet

No Las Vegas hotel would be complete without a buffet, and Bellagio has one of the grandest, serving lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. At brunch ($18.50) you can count on everything from freshly tossed salads to customized omelettes, peel-and-eat shrimp and smoked fish. There are also some trendier dishes (grapefruit macerated with kaffir lime leaf) and unusual offerings for international customers (a rice gruel bar). The amazing La Brea bakery breads are in abundance, and the restaurants donate to the gourmet dessert bar. Just don't expect Southern comforts: Soupy grits and shotput biscuits disappoint.

Prime

If you find Siamese cats the most beautiful creatures in the world, you'll love Prime -- a luxurious steakhouse decorated in pale blue, chocolate brown and creamy beige. Bunched velvet curtains with embroidered valances separate the tables and lend this room a well-earned grandeur.

Though I can't fit Prime into my dining schedule, I can swing by during dinner one evening. And the food looks stunning. Wandering around the dining room, I espy an iced shellfish platter the size of a manhole cover loaded with cracked lobster, shrimp, clams and oysters. Elsewhere, there's a fat porterhouse steak and a gorgeous salad of tomato slices stacked with basil.

New York superchef Jean-Georges Vongerichten spices a standard steakhouse menu with his trademark invention. If you don't want everyday bearnaise sauce with your entree, you can get chicory, tamarind or -- excuse me? -- caper-raisin sauces.

(Entrees: $18-$54.)

When you go

All restaurants are located in Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Call 702-693-7223 for reservations unless otherwise noted.

* Aqua: Open daily for dinner 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Casual elegant attire. Reservations recommended.

* The Buffet at Bellagio: Open seven days. Breakfast: Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch: Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Dinner Monday through Thursday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m, Friday 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Casual attire.

* Le Cirque: Open for dinner daily 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Jacket and tie required. Reservations recommended by calling 702-693-8150.

* Olives: Open Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to midnight and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Casual attire. Reservations recommended for parties of six or more.

* Osteria del Circo: Open daily for lunch noon to 3 p.m. and dinner 5:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Casual elegant attire. Reservations recommended by calling 702-693-8150.

* Picasso: Serving dinner Thursday through Tuesday 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Casual elegant attire. Reservations recommended.

* Prime: Open daily for dinner 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Jacket preferred. Reservations recommended.

* Sam's American: Open daily for lunch noon to 3 p.m. and for dinner Sunday through Thursday 5:30 p.m to 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 5:30 p.m. to midnight. Casual attire. Reservations recommended for parties of six or more.