Botero sits on one prime piece of real estate. Aptly located right off the Encore Esplanade, between Encore and Wynn and next to XS -- the newest nightclub by nightlife impresario Victor Drai, who also co-owns Tryst, the sophisticated nightclub at Wynn Las Vegas -- Botero stands on its own. The esplanade where the restaurant’s located is home to some of the nearly a dozen luxury boutiques that are part of Encore’s shopping offerings, including, for instance, Hermes, which sits directly opposite Botero. The entryway to the restaurant is fanciful, covered by a three-dimensional, semicircular white tufted leather canopy with the word “Botero” emblazoned on it in brass-colored back-lit letters. The entryway is framed by a dark wood that’s decorated by a set of cream-colored draperies with fringed edges. The glass doorway, meanwhile, is exquisitely decorated by a thin, textured interlocking abstract pattern in the glass. From the outside of the door you can see directly into the lounge and further into the main area of the restaurant. The revolving doorway, a touch to the whimsy that is Botero, screams fun and exciting, not stuffy or stodgy. Once you enter, let the fun begin.

When you make your way through the doorway you’ll find yourself immediately in the bar/lounge area. Toward the left are plush dark wood and white leather chairs, plus a dark brown sofa with white trim where you can sit and watch all the action at the bar, in the restaurant, on the terrace or on the esplanade, where shoppers continually pass by with their packages. White is accented by brilliant bold colors throughout the lounge and complemented by chocolate brown in the main dining area. Nowhere is the white more striking than in the white mosaic tile floors, which have large, sweeping floral patterns on them in greens, blues, reds and sunset tones. Large palm trees decorate the lounge and one in particular sits in the left corner, where the restaurant’s windows to the outside begin. Those windows -- large floor-to-ceiling windows -- offer a view of the shopping esplanade as well as the pool area. The view inside, meanwhile, includes plenty of décor, such as a large glass vase that sits on the low, oval-shaped table along with candles, or several sea urchin-like glass structures that are lit from within and strategically placed throughout the lounge, drawing your eye downward toward the restaurant’s main room. Lighting, provided by free-standing lanterns, makes seeing the views inside and out easier, including the view to the right, where the bar is located. This bar is highly unusual in its creation, as it has a highly polished dark top with many white accents, from the tufted leather base and the white armless chairs to the white shelving behind and above it. The bar is semicircular and seats about eight. It’s also framed by a dropped portion of the ceiling that follows the curve of the bar above it. This is made from tufted white leather and flows from the floor of one end, around the ceiling and down to the floor of the next. It’s paired with fanciful pendant lights that hang from bronze chains and end with long, thin filaments. Four of these are placed around the bar, two to the right of the white shelving and two to the left of it. The bottom shelves hold liquor for drinking while the higher ones -- near the base of a Botero painting called Circus Woman with Tiger, which resides over the bar -- are filled with colorful bottles of decorative translucent liquid that accents the white around it. Look again and you’ll see that there’s a white shelf at a 90-degree angle to the other shelves, parallel to the wall and directly above your head. This is the “antigravity shelf.” It’s playful, fun and whimsical, just like the rest of the restaurant.