Las Vegas Fine Dining Thread
12-21-2013
, 08:46 PM
12-22-2013
, 04:22 PM
Thu nite at Joel Robuchon. Hadn't been there since shortly after it opened. Was in town for a week and seemed like a good place to take the new girlfriend who is a very good chef herself. And any excuse to eat at JR is a good one. I dine at L'Atelier every March but obviously that is quite a different experience.
The room is spectacular as ever. Lots of purple, and I got the identical seat that I had back in ~2007. We started with some Veuve and decided to order the 16-course Degustation menu - how can you not? At $425 it is a bargain imho [esp for Vegas] for a true 3* dining experience.
Besides I was up about 750 on NFL and 575 on craps at this point.
The bread cart is justly legendary, I still dream about it since the first trip [not a joke]. The cheese puffs are heaven. The bacon roll, you name it. So so good.
There are only 12 tables, but we might have been the only non-Asians in there, which I found interesting. Guess some noobs are spending more time with their family the week before Xmas.
1st course - beet gazpacho, I don't like beet but this was pure delicious.
Next was the carpaccio of foie gras and potatoes with parmesan and white truffle. Lots of white truffle this meal.
Then came the first 'trio,' which they were not doing the first time I dined at JR. Our waiter - who was amazing, funny, had worked there for years - explained since the meals took so long they added these to speed them up slightly.
It was lemon scallops with turnip, veloute of daikon, and caviar on fennel cream. Pretty incredible.
Around here we spoke with the master sommelier, who recommended a Chablis for the next couple courses so needless to say we took his advice. Perfect choice.
Next was the Uni on mashed potatoes, fennel and anise. Uni is not my favorite, but the combo of flavors was pretty mind-blowing. I ate all of it. We were trying to pace ourselves but JR does a great job of sizing the dishes expertly, even though we wondered how many dishes were left. [7!]
At this point the high/low comedy of the evening occurred: two of the busmen were walking by and one of them saw my date and muttered, 'Jesus!' [presumably at her outfit]. Her head snapped around and they made eye contact. He immediately dropped his head and quickly shuffled away. It was pretty hilarious, +1 to Herve Leger I guess. The rest of the service was impeccable as you'd expect.
Next came one of their famous dishes, the spiny lobster roasted in shellfish jus with bell peppers, and a lemongrass emulsion. Probably my favorite. We asked the waiter if JR was a member of the Illuminati and he replied that he was a Freemason in high-standing. Seriously.
The sommelier came back and suggested a red or white burgundy for the next courses, my girlfriend accepted on the red and I passed since I would be driving up the Strip after dinner before further drinks. She hadn't seen the Strip yet at night and was amazed like we all are the first time visiting.
Pan-fried sea bass with five spices and verjus sauce. Outstanding.
Grilled beef rib-eye, black olive and bone marrow condiment. My other favorite dish. You've never had beef that tastes like this. OMG. I was stuffed at this point but could have eaten another one of these [this and the sea bass both quite small].
Next was supposed to be the cheese plate which didn't come out, probably because we told the waiter how stuffed we were. Totally fine with me.
First desert was a fresh papaya coulis on guava mousse and black fruits sorbet. Incredibly delicious! Definitely a new fave of mine.
Final course was a Chuao chocolate sphere filled with orange caramel cream. A little too rich for me at this point of the night, ate about half of it. Also because I knew the 'Seductive Sweets' cart was arriving.
We were so full we both wanted only one tiny petits-four, but we got a plate with 5 or 6 of them because our waiter wasn't having any of that. The pistacho macaron and the caramel butter logs are insanely great. The arm candy loved the tiny lemon merengue tart. They must have like 50 amazing tasting things on that cart.
So so full. Glad we didn't get Madelines like my first trip, there was no way no matter how good they are. Plus they hand you the little bag with the menu, booklet, and a whole cake to take home with you.
Definitely worth every penny, clocked in just over 3.5 hours.
Had a nice drive up the Strip, didn't go the full distance, then ended up having drinks at the Sky Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental. Get the lemongrass mojito.
The next morning won another $810 at craps [hit 3 hard 10s on point] so the meal ended up being 'free.' God, I love Vega$.
The room is spectacular as ever. Lots of purple, and I got the identical seat that I had back in ~2007. We started with some Veuve and decided to order the 16-course Degustation menu - how can you not? At $425 it is a bargain imho [esp for Vegas] for a true 3* dining experience.
Besides I was up about 750 on NFL and 575 on craps at this point.
The bread cart is justly legendary, I still dream about it since the first trip [not a joke]. The cheese puffs are heaven. The bacon roll, you name it. So so good.
There are only 12 tables, but we might have been the only non-Asians in there, which I found interesting. Guess some noobs are spending more time with their family the week before Xmas.
1st course - beet gazpacho, I don't like beet but this was pure delicious.
Next was the carpaccio of foie gras and potatoes with parmesan and white truffle. Lots of white truffle this meal.
Then came the first 'trio,' which they were not doing the first time I dined at JR. Our waiter - who was amazing, funny, had worked there for years - explained since the meals took so long they added these to speed them up slightly.
It was lemon scallops with turnip, veloute of daikon, and caviar on fennel cream. Pretty incredible.
Around here we spoke with the master sommelier, who recommended a Chablis for the next couple courses so needless to say we took his advice. Perfect choice.
Next was the Uni on mashed potatoes, fennel and anise. Uni is not my favorite, but the combo of flavors was pretty mind-blowing. I ate all of it. We were trying to pace ourselves but JR does a great job of sizing the dishes expertly, even though we wondered how many dishes were left. [7!]
At this point the high/low comedy of the evening occurred: two of the busmen were walking by and one of them saw my date and muttered, 'Jesus!' [presumably at her outfit]. Her head snapped around and they made eye contact. He immediately dropped his head and quickly shuffled away. It was pretty hilarious, +1 to Herve Leger I guess. The rest of the service was impeccable as you'd expect.
Next came one of their famous dishes, the spiny lobster roasted in shellfish jus with bell peppers, and a lemongrass emulsion. Probably my favorite. We asked the waiter if JR was a member of the Illuminati and he replied that he was a Freemason in high-standing. Seriously.
The sommelier came back and suggested a red or white burgundy for the next courses, my girlfriend accepted on the red and I passed since I would be driving up the Strip after dinner before further drinks. She hadn't seen the Strip yet at night and was amazed like we all are the first time visiting.
Pan-fried sea bass with five spices and verjus sauce. Outstanding.
Grilled beef rib-eye, black olive and bone marrow condiment. My other favorite dish. You've never had beef that tastes like this. OMG. I was stuffed at this point but could have eaten another one of these [this and the sea bass both quite small].
Next was supposed to be the cheese plate which didn't come out, probably because we told the waiter how stuffed we were. Totally fine with me.
First desert was a fresh papaya coulis on guava mousse and black fruits sorbet. Incredibly delicious! Definitely a new fave of mine.
Final course was a Chuao chocolate sphere filled with orange caramel cream. A little too rich for me at this point of the night, ate about half of it. Also because I knew the 'Seductive Sweets' cart was arriving.
We were so full we both wanted only one tiny petits-four, but we got a plate with 5 or 6 of them because our waiter wasn't having any of that. The pistacho macaron and the caramel butter logs are insanely great. The arm candy loved the tiny lemon merengue tart. They must have like 50 amazing tasting things on that cart.
So so full. Glad we didn't get Madelines like my first trip, there was no way no matter how good they are. Plus they hand you the little bag with the menu, booklet, and a whole cake to take home with you.
Definitely worth every penny, clocked in just over 3.5 hours.
Had a nice drive up the Strip, didn't go the full distance, then ended up having drinks at the Sky Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental. Get the lemongrass mojito.
The next morning won another $810 at craps [hit 3 hard 10s on point] so the meal ended up being 'free.' God, I love Vega$.
Last edited by NajdorfDefense; 12-22-2013 at 04:30 PM.
12-22-2013
, 10:06 PM
bread cart -- 
dessert cart -
red wine --
dessert cart -
red wine --
12-24-2013
, 05:46 PM
