Viva Las Vegas
Laura and I spent New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas this year, rockin’ with the Goo Goo Dolls at the House of Blues and eating some good food. We go to Vegas a couple of times a year since it’s a short flight on Southwest, and for a few days we are transported from our real life of work, bills, school and hockey games to one of decadent pleasures! We have a routine: stay out late, sleep in late, eat dim sum around 2pm, go shopping, drink some, eat some, see a show or concert, have a great dinner, wander, see another show, and get in very late (or very early depending on your viewpoint). It’s what we do – while we’re not much for gambling, we are way big on eating and drinking. Over the year’s we’ve eaten at a lot of good restaurants in Vegas: Areole, Picasso, Valentino’s, etc. This year, we’ve added some more, including Michael Mina’s StripSteak, which served us the best pieces of beef we’ve ever eaten!
We stayed at the Venetian, which is home to many good restaurants and has probably the most impressive interior of any of the Vegas Strip hotels. On the second level of the hotel, called the canal level, is a version of a Venice canal system, complete with gondolas that ply the canals with singing gondoliers at the helm. There are many competent restaurants on the canal level, including Zeffrino’s, Canaletto, Wolfgang Puck’s Spago, and others. On the casino level, in addition to Valentino’s, there is Aquanox, which has stupendilicious seafood appetizers, plus a Mario Batali steak house B&B Ristorante and another half dozen lesser knowns. For this New Year’s Eve, however, we were off to big and better things on the culinary front!
We kicked off our New Year’s trip with dinner at L’atelier de Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand. This is the Vegas version of the same restaurant in Paris where we ate last November, and while really pricey, the food is absolutely out of this world. It’s so hard to describe the dishes at Robuchon and do them justice. How do you adequately describe a soft boiled egg, with a chervil emulsion in a cream sauce served in a martini glass? Robuchon specializes in meticulously prepared small plates, which are often only a single serving. But that single serving is one you will remember!
Okada is a Japanese restaurant at the Wynn Hotel, serving incredible food, including sushi and sashimi along with a wide selection of hot dishes and soups. The saki list is a mile long and since I’m not even close to being an expert, I folded and just ordered what the waiter suggested. The ceviche, sashimi, lobster miso soup, and paper wrapped sea bass were all wonderful. In fact, I’ve gone to considerable effort to replicate the sea bass at home. Here’s what I do: Marinate the fish (sea bass or salmon) in soy sauce, rice wine and miso paste for about 30 minutes. Then, wrap the fish in parchment paper with a sliver of lemon and a few cilantro leaves. Place in a 350F oven for 10 minutes and be prepared for a little Okada fish heaven at your own table!
Our big disappointment was Alize in the Palms Hotel. We have heard a lot about how the Palms hotel is so awesome and all of the celebrities want to stay there. We don’t know why. Picture a casino in Jackpot, Nevada and you’ve pretty much nailed the décor and ambiance of the Palms. It’s a casino put together on a budget with a mall-style food court. At least they had built-in movie theaters so we watched Will Smith kick butt on some vampires in “I am Legend” rather than suck down another crappy margarita in a crappy little bar with crappy service. Sadly, we ultimately had an even bigger disappointment with the so-called five-star dining experience at Alize.
We arrive at the top floor of the Palms and are ushered in to Alize. I immediately sense trouble since the maitre’d has that “we are more important than you” thing going. But, we are seated at a window looking out over the Strip. That’s pretty cool! The sommelier arrives and announces that they have the best collection of wines in Vegas with over 9000 bottles, and hands me the wine list. I scan it. Hmmmm. Nothing under $400. Wait! On the next page there is a Kathleen Kennedy for which I paid $70 at a tasting in Los Gatos a few months ago. $350! What?! I quickly calculate the average price of wine on a few pages of the wine list … over a $1000/bottle AVERAGE per page, with ridiculous mark-ups on common wines. Screw these guys. I ordered a glass of pinot for $15 bucks. We ordered some appetizers, including foie gras, duck confit and Anjou pear salad. They were ok, not great. I ordered the risotto with mushrooms, which came overcooked and way, way over-salted. I choked down a few bites and began to fidget. Meanwhile, Laura was picking at her chicken with a similar level of enthusiasm. I started wishing I hadn’t ordered the grand marnier soufflé for dessert. We finished up with tea and a cold and bitter espresso. Where’s Gordon Ramsey?! Bottom line: Yuck.
We sometimes stay at the Mandalay Bay when in Vegas because the bands at the House of Blues are good, and then we don’t have to walk far at 2 AM to crash. For several years we have passed by Red Square, which is a Russian restaurant on the ground floor of the Mandalay. It’s very near Areole, a terrific French restaurant owned by Charlie Trotter of Chicago. This year, we decided to give Red Square a “before dinner” try and dropped in for a Vodka martini or two and an assortment of caviar. We ate at the bar, which is made out of a huge block of ice, and it began to feel like we were in Siberia during the winter. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and although we don’t know how the dinners and full menu stack up, the martinis and caviar are top-notch.
Laura and I have partaken of many a steak in our culinary lifetimes, but none so good as those we consumed at Mina’s StripSteak restaurant at Mandalay Bay! We were there on New Year’s Eve, so it was a busy, happening night. A quick survey of the tables around us showed a group of young couples in full on party mode, drinking and laughing. A serious couple about our age, both on their cell phones avoiding eye contact with each other. A family of four, including two angelic children, eating quietly. And, a 75 year old man with a 20 year old hottie in a bright purple mini skirt. Only in Vegas!
We’ve been to Michael Mina’s namesake restaurant in San Francisco and to his San Jose restaurant, Arcadia. Both are top-notch, with creative offerings and take-offs on common preparations. A good example is the lobster corn dogs served at Arcadia. StripSteak on the other hand, is focused on serving the best beef anywhere, simply and perfectly. We started our meal with a half dozen oysters on the half shell and a trio of tuna tartare, proving that Mina’s can also prepare fish. Don’t miss the trio of tune if you visit Mina’s; it’s worth the stop by itself! Laura ordered the Kobe beef filet and I ordered the Angus beef filet. One hour later, as we consumed the last bite off our plate, we both concluded we had just been served the single best steak we had ever eaten in our lives. Unbelievably fabulous! I don’t know what magic is being concocted behind those kitchen doors, but if you are in Vegas, don’t waste your time with David Copperfield. Go to the magic show at Mina’s.
Bouchon is Thomas Keller’s French bistro, located in the Venezia wing of the Venetian Hotel. While we haven’t eaten at Keller’s famed French Laundry, we have been to Bouchon twice and enjoy the food and atmosphere. This trip was no different. We had a New Year’s Day brunch at Bouchon and a week later we were at Bouchon again for dinner with some colleagues during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). These guys are batting a thousand – carefully prepared French bistro food in a classy but casual atmosphere.
Bouchon has a full oyster bar, which we’ve had good experiences with, and we’ve tried the fish, beef, pork, and lamb and never been disappointed. The caviar served at Bouchon is really good, and relatively affordable for a high-end restaurant. From this trip, I most remember Bouchon for brunch on New Year’s Day. I ordered the roast chicken and waffles, which was a perfectly roasted piece of chicken served with two savory waffles and a light, savory syrup! It might not sound that good, but it was really a standout. Its amazing the dishes that are created when a chef can think differently about food as commonplace as waffles!
When we finally drag ourselves out of bed about 11 AM, and I’ve returned to the room with our morning cappuccinos from whatever café happens to be open and near the elevators, Laura and I like to kick off our day with dim sum and a bottle of Tsing Tao beer. There was a time a few years back that it seemed every hotel had a dim sum restaurant or two, and it was never a problem finding traditional dim sum service. The past two years have seen these restaurants shutting down and being replaced by steak houses. The Venetian alone has replaced two or three Asian restaurants with a seafood restaurant and two steak houses. While the new places serve good food, it’s a shame to have so little alternative to North American food in such fabulous, internationally themed hotels. I fondly remember Tsunami in the Venetian for serving terrific pan-pacific cuisine and great saki-bombs! It hurt me bad to see that it was closed.
Regardless of the limited selection, at the Venetian, Noodles of Asia is good, with great noodle soups and a pretty decent selection of appetizer sized items on the menu, although no dim sum carts. Red 8 at the Wynn has a pretty good selection of dim sum items off the menu, but again, no carts. And finally, our favorite, Noodles at the Bellagio serves really great Chinese and Malaysian dishes and sometimes has dim sum with traditional cart service. Noodles is a great place, with the walls stacked high with jars of noodles of every imaginable kind. From previous experience, the dinner service is also terrific.
At the end of the day, did we have a good time and eat good food? Heck yeah! The Goo-Goo dolls rocked! The food at Mina’s StripSteak more than made up for the disaster at Alize. Our culinary experience was well above average. And the rest of our time in Vegas? Well, that stays in Vegas …!