At first glance, regular visitors to the Beau Rivage Resort in Biloxi might not immediately notice much different about the restaurant which sits just inside the main entrance to the resort.

But one look at the menu tells a different story.

Salt & Ivy opened inside the Beau during April, bringing a taste of Las Vegas to the Gulf Coast from its namesake inside Beau Rivage’s sister property, Aria Resort & Casino on the famed Vegas strip.

The restaurant was completely remodeled last year, even while still operating at The Atrium Cafe. The new design was done so as to create the feel of a Southern garden, according to Mary Spain, the Beau Rivage’s Regional Director for Public Relations.

Spain said the idea behind bringing the Salt & Ivy brand from Aria to the Beau was to give guests another option for casual, yet upscale dining.

“We took some of the elements of Salt & Ivy at Aria, but did them with a Southern twist,” Spain said. “It’s not fancy, but it’s upscale casual.”

While the atmosphere and dress code may be casual, the menu is anything but. With breakfast, lunch and dinner seatings, as well as a weekend brunch, the mouth-watering options are seemingly endless.

“We looked at the menu from Vegas,” said Salt & Ivy head chef Jason McWhorter, “and we knew we wanted to have specialty items for certain days, incorporate a brunch, and so we looked at a coastal menu with some favorites we had, some favorites I wanted to do.

“We started out with a huge number of items and then worked our way down, fine tuning our way down. We wanted upscale, but not too stuffy.”

Among the items McWhorter lists as signature dishes are the shrimp & grits, chicken & waffles, and the redfish Imperial. There are specialty items on different nights of the week, including a seafood platter on Tuesdays and prime rib on Fridays.

A recent sampling of the redfish proved McWhorter right — although the accompanying potatoes could have used more flavor.

Then again, ordering the redfish Imperial and complaining about the potatoes and akin to marrying Gal Gadot and complaining she can’t cook (although we understand Gal makes a mean mac & cheese).

The starter items for dinner include poached jumbo shrimp, lump crab cakes and crab & artichoke dip, made all the more outstanding by the soft, warm pita bread which accompanies it.

Among the soup & salad items are beefsteak tomatoes with shaved onions, blue cheese dressing/crumbles, and balsamic vinegar; and a seafood gumbo which would make a Louisiana grandmother proud.

The dinner entrees available include a smoked double-cut pork chop, filet mignon medallions, yellowfin tuna steak and a ribeye steak, which is cooked to perfection and not over-seasoned — an oft-repeated mistake in many restaurants.

The baked sweet potato which came with the steak was so large it may have replaced Pluto as the ninth planet in our solar system.

Pasta dishes are also available, along with additional specialties including veal Milanese, the Salt & Ivy burger, steak frites, and BBQ shrimp & grits.

The 7-item dessert menu is highlighted by New York cheesecake, key lime pie and a decadent, warm browning ala mode, which really needs no embellishment.

All of that, by the way, is just off the dinner menu. The lunch menu features traditional starters like chicken wings and bam-bam shrimp; six different salads; hot and cold sandwiches; traditional Southern entrees such as red beans & rice, fried chicken and waffles, and chicken pot pie; pizza and pasta, as well as the same dessert menu.

The lunch menu even offers three different omelets under the “Woke Up Late” section of the menu. Those omelets are also available, of course, on the breakfast menu, served from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. daily.

All of the Salt & Ivy menus, including the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. brunch on weekends, which includes bottomless mimosas, can be found on the Beau Rivage website.

The reaction to Salt & Ivy and the new menu is been overwhelmingly positive, McWhorter said.

“They love it. They love the new menu items, the elevated service,” he said. “We already had the beautiful facility ready to go and it also gives us an opportunity to expand, offer other events.”

Spain noted some of the more popular items off the Atrium Cafe menu have been moved to other food outlets within the resort, including the Reuben and steak sandwiches and the Buffalo chicken salad.

Salt & Ivy is open 7 days a week, with breakfast starting at 6 a.m., lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and dinner starting at 4 p.m. and remaining open until midnight Sunday through Thursday and until 1 a.m. on Friday/Saturday.