Named after Papa, the family's endeavor at Aria Las Vegas honors his Tuscan homeland with a variety of classic Italian and Italian-American fusion dishes and old-world service.

The main dining room is gorgeous - all rich wood set off by orange and rust accents, a soaring ceiling, and an exhibition prep kitchen puts together things like salads antipasti. It's a comfortable room unless you get seated at one of the straight backed bankettes, which can be tough on those with less than perfect posture.

The menu covers all of the Italian basics - antipasti, pizza, pastas, seafood and meat entrees like Veal Piccatta - but everything is done with obvious attention to detail and enough spins on the original concept to elevate it way above your standard Olive Garden experience.

The antipasti, for example, is a build your own endeavor. Choose from a list of meats, cheeses, and vegetables to create your own appetizer platter, shareable for the whole table. If you choose to go this route do not miss the roasted rosemary ham; delightfully light shavings with a just enough of the herb to enhance the flavor of the meat without overwhelming it.

Starters include various seafood combinations (oysters, prawns, lobster), salads including a beef carpaccio over celery hearts, and traditional items such as calamari, eggplant parmigiana, and Tuscan tomato bread soup. I sampled the meatball trio - veal in a tomato and onion compote, lamb over braised lentils, and duck in wild mushrooms. I kept going back and forth between them trying to decide which I liked best and finally declared it a three-way tie.

Pizzas go way beyond the ordinary with toppings like smoked salmon and caviar, crushed Yukon gold potatoes and gorgonzola, and eggplant with fresh tomatoes.

Pasta courses run the gamut from Fettucine Alfredo with chicken or shrimp, traditional lasagna, linguine with clams, and more. The hand-rolled spaghetti in a three-meat red sauce was divine -- full, thick noodles soaking in a slightly tangy brew that could very possibly ruin you for other sauces for life.

Fish, beef, poultry, and game entrees round out the menu and if I had to pick just one I'd go for the pan-roasted beef tenderloin under gorgonzola and roasted garlic. Perfectly tender and bursting with flavor on its own, the meat was enhanced by the eye-popping zest of the cheese.

Full yet? I hope not because you must, must, must sample the dessert menu. The chocolate souffle was dreamy and the Italian style doughnut (basically a ball of fried dough that is then sugared and served with pastry cream) was heaven on a plate, but if you can only choose one go for the tiramisu trio - one traditional, one strawberry, and one chocolate-caramel. I was short on time and had to rush off but I actually considered popping the little dishes into my pocket to snack on later.

Prices are about on par with other restaurants of this style and caliber on The Strip, which is to say "not cheap." Appetizers, soups, and salads are mostly in the $14-25 range although you can go much higher with things like Osetra caviar; pizzas are $18-25; pastas come in regular or sharing sizes and go from $17 to $35; entrees are all in the $34-48 neighborhood; and desserts $12-15. With a full meal, wine, tax, and tip you are going to have a hard time getting out for significantly less than $75 per person unless you just go with one of the less expensive pasta dishes and forgo a main entree, which if you choose that spaghetti is a perfectly reasonable option.

The service was spectacular throughout the meal.

Upscale Italian restaurants are common in Vegas. Perhaps too common. I'm still aching for someone to open a red-and-white checkered table cloth joint on The Strip that serves up hearty portions for prices that won't break your budget. But if you're going to do upscale Italian, Sirio is among the best.