Here's another example: when I heard there was a restaurant opening in Las Vegas that took chocolate and turned it into a full on meal, I put it at the top of my list of eateries to review. Screw fine French cuisine, this place has onion rings with chocolate dipping sauce.

Max Brenner was established back in the 1990s with a mysterious "bald man" as the titular chocolate czar of the establishment. In reality there is no Max Brenner - it was an amalgam of the names of the two founders but it's still a good gimmick so they keep using it.

The restaurant is located in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace and has several dining areas - a casual (and loud) patio in the mall, a clubby, all-wood dining room on the main floor, and another space on the second floor. There's a big bar, a gift shop, and more for you to explore.

Yes, they have lots and lots of chocolate and chocolate related items, but they also have other food as well. In fact the menus states boldly "First food, then chocolate." I'm not sure I can subscribe to that statement since I've always believed that dinner is just a social obligation that must be meat before one can get to dessert, but I'm willing to go with it.

There is no overarching theme to the menu - it's a little bit of everything. Appetizers include hummas and pita chips, chicken wings with bleu cheese, Thai style chicken satays, and mac and cheese. We'll call it Continental.

We started with their chicken, bacon, and cheddar rolls - skewered chunks of tender white meat wrapped in bacon and cheese and baked then served with a maple and buttermilk glaze. You can get four pieces or twelve and we immediately regretted that we only ordered four - they were that good.

A selection of flat bread pizzas includes a concoction with bacon, pepperoni, chorizo, salami, peppers, garlic, and onions, which seemed just crazy enough to work. And it did, with meaty precision. These could be shared as appetizers but they are huge so be forewarned.

Salads (Greek, Southwestern, Asian, and South of the Border - yep, Continental is the word we'll keep using), burgers and sandwiches (turkey, chicken, club, B.A.L.T., and salmon among others), and a few entrees including roasted chicken, fish tacos, salm, steak, and a couple of pastas. We sampled their sliders and it was a fine choice although next time we may go for one of the big boy burgers.

Chocolate makes its appearance here and there. Their waffle fries are dusted in chili and cocoa powder and their onion rings come with a chocolate ranch dipping sauce. The fries were great although I had a hard time really picking out the cocoa flavor. The onion rings were good by themselves but I had a hard time with the chocolate/ranch dressing combo - it seemed like a bastardization of two really great things.

They also offer breakfast (eggs with chocolate? hmmmm) and brunch.

Don't miss the drink menu, which is almost epic in its construction. They have various hot chocolate, frappes, milkshakes, smoothies, and more many of which can be spiked with various forms of alcohol. Plus their specialty cocktails run the gamut from chocolate and dessert style drinks to martinis, mojitos, and margaritas. I sampled their Berry Lovely - chambord, fresh raspberry sauce, and white chocolate served chilled. And by sampled I mean practically guzzled to the point that I may have embarrassed myself.

Let's see, what am I missing? Hmmm.. oh right! They have dessert. A lot of it. Huge amounts of it. The dessert menu is 10 pages long. Waffles, crepes, s'mores, chocolate pizza (looks like a pizza but made of chocolate), cookies, tiramisu, apple-caramel crisp, cakes, cheesecakes, milkshakes, chocolate fondue (with everything from profiteroles to banana chocolate fudge "eggrolls" for dipping), and ice cream in sandwich, popsicle, and sundae forms. It was almost paralyzing in its scope, but we managed to find the strength to order the melting chocolate truffle heart cake and shake - a dense chocolate cake with either melted raspberry, chocolate, or caramel filling (we went with caramel) plus a side of vanilla bourbon ice cream and a mini chocolate shake.

I currently circulating a petition to have it nominated for a MacArthur Genius grant.

What price divinity? It ain't cheap. I suppose you could probably do a couple of appetizers and a dessert and get out of there for less than $25 but most people with a starter, a main, a dessert, maybe a drink, tax, and tip are going to be in the $40-50 territory easily. The food is good - don't get me wrong - but I can think of several places that have better for less.

Except for the dessert part... that's totally worth whatever they are going to charge.