really great TR Clayton. Thanks for the pics.

Dude! While you were eating at Jaleo we were inside é by José Andrés with a bunch of our mutual friends, wish we knew you were there!

é was without a doubt one of the best dining experiences of my life. 8 people, $250 a head w/gratuity included for a 20 course meal & pairing - for dining at this caliber, its one of the best priced opportunities I have come across.

Kevin's blog (link below) was pretty similar to our tasting, except we had an extra course, we upgraded our coffee to the 15 minute flaming rum & they gave us complimentary cava while waiting at the bar for the room to be ready. The best dishes were the Jose' Taco & Artichoke w/Caviar, the Secreto of Iberico Pork, the Apples & Red Wine "Fredy Giradet", and the Ajo Blanco.

http://www.kevineats.com/2011/01/e-b...-vegas-nv.html

Chef Edward told us that the menu will be changing in two weeks, my girlfriend and I are already making plans to come back.

here is last nights menu (before we deviated slightly with some special requests) -




Once we lost of the lightweights (I'm look at you ZJ and Deeb) we went over to the Freakin Frog after the dinner for an insane tasting of rare scotches and whiskeys. I didnt try these, but the image really sums up our evening well - http://yfrog.com/z/h328icwj

really looking forward to doing this again, a night I will not forget!

for me to be called a lightweight its been a good day.


The meal was pretty amazing at e and the best part was not feeling overlyfull but being so content with everything I ate. I can see why one guy did the dinner twice in a night I might be down for that soon

RM Upstairs

Cliffs:
Atmosphere: A
Service: A+
Food: A+

Price: ~$400 including tip for 2 people

Okay, so I had high expectations coming in. Jimmy put this one as his favorite dining experience ever, and coming fresh off Napa Valley I was curious to see how it stacked up.

I gotta say, the food was excellent, the ambiance was superb, and the service was perfect. You really couldn't ask for a better meal for an intimate atmosphere, and myself and the ladyfriend were quite pleased. For $200 per person we got a meal that was up there with French Laundry in terms of the dishes and the service. For Vegas eating thus far this is at the top for me AINEC.

So color me shocked that the place was so damn empty! I guess an empty dining area makes the top-notch service a lot easier =)

We made the reservation at 10:15 so we could eat right after "The Lion King", and once we walked in we thought the place might be closed. There were some staff members wiping down some tables, but there was no hostess to be found. I saw the kitchen bustling in the back of the restaurant though, so we waited patiently.

Jimmy's friend, the manager, walks up sorta shocked. Evidently the hostess told him we canceled earlier! Whups. Well, we didn't cancel, and we were led to our table.

We chose a booth and got to sit on the same side, which made plating for our servers easiest. Our main server did a superb job on everything the job entailed, which is why I'm annoyed I forgot his name (blame the wine). He was in his late 20's/early 30's and asian. He was very helpful with all the dish descriptions, paced everything perfectly, and had a bunch of random surprises for us in store.

So anyways, onto the dishes. Taking pictures of the place wouldn't do justice as the place is more dimly lit. Just see it for yourself.



Our pre-amusee, champagne on the house. Was great. The lady learned that she enjoys champagne. This set the foundation for a good dining experience =)



We managed to butcher this picture, but it's the bread with spread. It was a ciabatta roll and the spread tasted like hummus. The tin can was decorated in rm seafood fashion.



This was a bite of salmon with a mini crouton and a mini craime freche. I say "was" because we ate it so fast we forgot to take a picture. Doh!



The oyster with granitee. The granitee is basically a lemon kool-aid slushie which added a mild citrus kick. Both myself and the lady do not enjoy brine, so we both had difficulty with this dish. That said, you come to a restaurant like this to try new things, and while we didn't like the oyster it was a worthwhile challenge.



Marinated California Octopus, sweet peppers, black tomato, edamame falafel. Octopus was cooked perfectly and far less rubbery than traditional octopus. Falafel was a sophisticated edemame-flavored hushpuppy. The sauce was tomato based with squid ink, lol! Superb dish.



The worlds only sustainable caviar with various egg mixtures and creme fraiche in a waffle. Caviar was delicious, and the egg whipped mixes were great complements. First I started by combining stuff on my caviar spoon, but at the end I was just carving out the waffle and eating it in fourths =) excellent dish obviously.



Artichoke and black truffle soup with a slow cooked egg (and the crispy things are jerusalem artichoke). The darker spot is where honey cotton candy went in to sweeten it. A video from Jimmy's meal showing the cotton candy is here. This dish was incredibly unique and absurdly rich. You had to sip this once a minute otherwise you were going to get instantaneous food coma. The avacado, the truffle, the egg all together, it gave a new kind of flavor I hadn't experience before. But I couldn't finish it, it was just that rich. hehe.



Cobia, black olive, pomegranate, cauiliflower. Running out of words. The glass of alsace riesling I got certainly helped.



One of the lady's favorites: a rabbit dish with cous cous and leeks. Some pieces are like a rabbit sausage, and others are rolls that have a confit kind of feel to them. I was shocked (!!!!!) at how much I enjoyed the leeks, as I am not a veggie person. They tasted good! The leek "meat" just sorta popped out of that veggie shell, and it was great. All around solid dish, and we're hitting the home stretch now. Somewhere around this point I got a pinot from Napa.



This was the home run dish for me. Cervena venison loin, mushrooms, cipollini onion (stuffed with bacon and foie gras), pear butter. Jesus H. Christ. Not only that, the server provided a taste of some french pinot to accompany the venison, and we indulged. Clayton's getting wine-drunk tonighttttt. Somewhere around this point my head bonked onto the table in a collapse of indulgence. I'm told that Rick Moonen served this dish on Top Chef: Masters, so more inspiration to rewatch that season with the gf.



Palate cleanser before desserts - a banana ice cream with dipping dots, topped with a banana-brulee of sorts. *drool

We got 2 plates of desserts to share. First plate:



LOL.

Chocolate wafer with molten chocolate inside, accompanied with coffee creme, vanilla dippin dots, and candied nuts. The gf's favorite dessert of all time iirc, but maybe she was influenced by her wine (bwahaha).



Tropical Creme Brulee, passion fruit curd, marinated pineapple, papaya-aloe. I love me some creme brulee so no complaints here.



Our half-eaten candies

============================

There were also a couple of surprises the servers had for us, but I'm not gonna share those! See them for yourself

Meal was ~$320 + $80 tip, so 4 bills of high society for a top-notch Vegas meal. We also got a small tour of the kitchen and the architecture philosophy (yacht-inspired). They're big on using environmentally-friendly caught fish and offering a restaurant where it's easy to see the food being made. Wish I took a picture of the kitchen, oh well.

My only question is why is this place so empty? Why? WHYYY.

thats for 2 of u right? can't wait to try this one in a few weeks

ya 2 of us

é was great overall, but I have a few complaints.

First and foremost, I left hungry. I understand I eat a lot more than the average person, but for obvious reasons it leaves me a lot less satisfied.

The savory dishes were all so great, but only one true meat dish (iberico secreto) was a bit disappointing. It was the 2nd best course of the night, which made the lacking of meat more pronounced for me. The transition from that to desert was rather poor as well.

The Orange Puree La Serena had an awesome cheese that didn't pair well with the sweet orange sauce IMO. Had to eat the dish separately. Mostly to me, they had built up a meat craving, and followed that craving up with a sweet orange dish. This transition / course was the biggest failure of the night IMO.

At the start of the meal, I had requested, "no alcohol for me please".

Unfortunately I didn't realize they were going to give me a drink pairing and charge me the same amount for it. They assumed I don't drink for health reasons I guess, as they gave me drinks that emulated wines. I don't like the taste of wine, which is why I requested to not have any. A couple of drinks like virgin margarita, virgin piña colada, but mostly sparkling drinks emulating wines or ciders. By the time I realized it was a full on pairing and not a complementary drink or two, it was too late for me to bother telling them my dislikes. I ended up giving most my drinks to the rest of the guests who absolutely loved them, but it's not my thing. I think the drinks also heightened the lack of savory courses for me. It's just a disaster when the desserts start coming when you are still craving a large entree.

Interestingly in Kevin's blog, they head to Jaleo directly after for some chicken croquettes and paella, so I must not be the only one thinking there was a lack of filling food.




Overall I would highly recommend this experience. The show, presentation, staff, service, etc. were all amazing. It's really dinner + a show rather than just a dinner. Lots of gastronomic preparations that you get to watch and discuss with the chefs (liquid nitrogen, blow torches, etc.)

And the food itself was mostly amazing. We were practically moaning as we ate over half the courses. Some extremely good flavors. There were a couple courses that a couple people didn't love, but pretty much everything was a smash hit among the group collectively. The food was also served in ways that made it extremely fun / exciting to eat (unique textures, etc.)



If you have a giant appetite like myself, I'd suggest saying something. If I go again I will most likely supplement a couple items from the Jaleo menu. I imagine they would be accommodating.

Also, if you don't like wine, this experience loses A TON of it's value. IMO asking for no wine, and being served a bunch of drinks that emulate wine, and then being charged for them with no explanation or questioning of what I would like is absolutely ridiculous. Again, had I even realized they were giving me a full drink pairing early into the meal, I could have done something about it.

Gobbo has informed me the reason the leeks were so tasty was because they were stuffed with rabbit. Doh.

not being full after such an expensive meal is pretty wack!

can't believe my son eats rabbit and octopus to be perfectly honest. You guys are experiencing some amazing meals and your tr's are really interesting, especially since I know I'll never try those things- even when my son tries to make me. It's fun to read of your dining adventures though- thanks.

Justin- what do you drink with your meals? Please don't say pop(soda for non-midwesterners).

yw gobbomom!

stealing this from RM Upstairs twitter, good pic of the dining room. booths to the right is where we ate. similar amount of dining guests

I tweeted pictures of all our courses at e on @jonaguiar

For reference i eat what i would consider "a lot" and e was the only meal i ate the entire day, i wasn't hungry again until 4-5 hrs later, and i loved the entire meal and personally didn't experience a single "miss" on the entire menu

also re justins complaint about the drink pairing, i'm not sure thats standard for them and i think TT had sometihng to do with that, I was driving back to LA that night so i couldn't drink and had the same drinks and thought most of them were amazing. I think it's a HUGE plus that they offer this for those of us with non drinking friends who miss out on pairings.

That was my fault, I was asked what the non-drinkers would like, after it was suggested I requested that they bring out a non-alcohol pairing hours before the meal even started. I told Anthony (the Capitan) that our group is a bunch of adventurous eaters and they should feel free to bring it on, we can handle nearly anything, but told him that you and Jon weren't drinking (and I can't eat Strawberries). We didn't get the chance to speak before hand, if I would have realized I would have requested that your meal remain pair-free so you could wing it as the meal progressed.

Are we sure they charged us the same amount for the virgin drinks as the alcohol pairing? The total with the extra 5% tip was 266/head after tax, and thats also after the $40 15 minute flaming rum coffee drink which we added, the cava in the pirro (spelling) which must be around $40 as well. The total meal per person should be 250 pre-tax with the wine pairing or $150 without wine pairing, hence I think your drinks were included in the $150 price. They also gave us a complimentary round of cava to start, and I think my pineapple upside-down drink was comped too. The total with tip was $2129 for the meal, since my calculations above estimate the bill to have been $2162 I am positive your's and Jon's drinks were included with the base meal or comped. For what it's worth, next time I eat there (thinking of taking Carol back in 3 weeks) I plan on ordering the virgin option with my meal. Although the wine and beer pairings were amazing, I was blown away by everything they brought out for you two - the pineapple drink was one of the best 'tastes' of the evening IMO.

Really had a great time, looking forward to the next time we do this, or maybe even at Saam during the WSOP?


The meal is pure grazing, almost everything is light and airy, there are very few heavy courses. I wasn't hungry after the meal, but I did have plenty of room for more drinks. I suck at it but my goal usually is to never feel stuffed after a meal, I think the chefs nailed the sweet spot... after the salted foie gras I think a meaty course would have been too much. But I do agree with Justin that the timing of the Orange Puree La Serena was odd, but I disagree about the pairing - it was heavenly to me!


PS: Anyone who wants to see FatalError's pictures from the meal, you can also check out hastag #ébyjosēandrēs on twitter.

they are both so yummy, I'd be shocked if he didn't eat rabbit or octopus!

Just water 95%+ of the time. Occasionally some juice with breakfast.

I'm gonna add to my prior post by saying I do try the various "new" things(to me) that Jimmy wants me to try and they're good. Example: the spinach at Naked Fish. Who knew spinach was so good, hunh? But for someone who hates runny egg yolk, how does it taste in these dishes, like the soup? Does it take on a different flavor, or does your palate just evolve over time that it's more accepting?

What was the texture of the octopus like? Someone?

TT: he's come a long way, believe me.

Justin: I think water is the best with any meal. Wine is fun if a person likes to drink alcohol, but nothing brings out the pureness of a meal like water.

Wow, didn't expect it to be that big, considered their offering.

How do they handle situations where there is so little traffic? Send 90% of staff home? If that's the case are they get paid anyway? (excuse my ignorance, I have no clue how that's handled in the US)

excellent TRs in this thread recently.

Clayton: were you and your gf the only people there? also, how did you bring up the kitchen tour? i'd love to see behind the scenes but don't really know how to go about that sort of thing. going in a week and can't wait.

when we arrived there was one other party of 2. rm seafood (the casual restaurant downstairs) was packed.

gobbo said he went on tuesday at 7 and it was packed, then friday at 9 and it was a ghost town. very strange indeed.

i just brought it up when we got the check and it was closing time. you can see the entire kitchen through a window so it's not like we're being invasive.

that is a noble quest but too lofty a goal for myself

Mandalay Bay, convention business. That would explain the turnout on a Tuesday night instead of a Friday.

so maybe this is common knowledge but when I got the chicken and waffles at bouchon, the chicken was the best chicken I've ever had. standard.

Oh hi,

I'm going to be in Vegas in May for the North American 8 ball Championships. My girlfriend is making her first trip to vegas. I'd like to do a cirque du soleil/fine dinning evening. What do you suggest for a good restaurant then cirque combo perferable in the same hotel. Rough budget for the meal bill would be 300-500 (neither of us drink wine). Any help would be awesome. Thank you!!

for 300-500 I can't imagine not eating at Picasso and seeing O. But I don't live in Vegas, so, maybe there's a better option.

I concur. Next time try the ham steak, might be even better than the C&W... its really close, both are outstanding.