went to b&b tonight. i was intrigued by the lamb tasting menu, but their policy dictating the entire table has to do the tasting menu or nobody can do it prevented me from ordering it.

i went with the artichoke salad (2nd best salad i've ever had, don't eat a crazy number of salads though). goat cheese tortelloni for 2nd course. really strong, intense flavor. super good. got rabbit for the main course!!! pretty interesting dish, it was the first time i have had it. the leg was tastier than the loin, but there wasn't a ton of meat on the leg. it tasted kind of like chicken...my favorite part was the crispy skin.

probably won't order rabbit again, but I'm really glad i tried it.

Mina's lobster pot pie recipie is the nuts whichever of his outlets sell it.

I totally agree. Yum. God, I have to get back to Vegas soon.

Haven't posted since my 1st trip to sage. Been back about 4-5 times more since then. It is now officially my favorite restaurant. I highly recommend it.

Went to 3 separate restaurants in LA with 2 Michelin stars. Urasawa was the best meal I've ever had. Melise and Providence were both excellent as well (Meliise being slightly better). I'll spare details since this is a LV thread.

Ate at Bar Charlie for my first time. Two of the three people I ate with said it was the best meal in Vegas they've ever had (third wasn't from Vegas and isn't a foodie). Personally, it's not in my top 5 meals in Vegas by any means, but I think it was a very good meal. Started off a bit slow, but when they got to the different cuts of toro (apparently back of the head counts as toro?) and then the snake river pork belly, omfg. The Pork Belly single handedly brought it from a meal I was slightly disappointed in (given high expectations - it has a Michelin star), to a meal I was very happy with.

Ate at Jean Georges steak house at Aria. Same chef as Prime. My buddy and I both agreed that the foie gras and sweetbread appetizers we got were the worst foie gras and worst sweetbreads we've ever had. Somehow, the main course was actually good enough that I'll consider returning. My ribeye ordered rare-plus was cooked perfectly and was great. Friend got the kobe tasting menu, and I personally would never order a filet, especially a kobe filet (I prefer fattier cuts of meat), but that filet was to die for. The ribeye in the kobe tasting was also excellent. It was ordered rare and came out perfectly. The bone marrow side was very good, and the brussel sprouts were excellent.

Edit: Also went to Lotus 2.0. The new room is pretty large. No more waits! Unfortunately that means Namaste will soon be out of business (which really is a tragedy because it's probably the #1 Indian restaurant in Vegas, with slow service as the only major flaw). The meal at Lotus was typical, aka phenomenal.

I actually had this exact dish at Saltwater (a Mina restaurant) at MGM in Detroit of all God forsaken places and this is one of the most delicious things I have had in a while.

lotus is same location right?

Yes. They knocked down some walls to the right and expanded.

I really disagree with this. Himalayan (now known as Mint Indian Bistro) also went through a makeover AND received a HUGE bump in service and is the best indian in town imo. Flamingo and Swenson if anyone is interested.

My wife and I had this menu Tuesday night. I also ordered the Riserva Wine Pairing with it. Think of it as an Iron Chef evening with lamb as the main ingredient. Fortunately, the dessert courses were "excepted" from must use lamb rule. It's an 8 course meal and really gives you an wide range of applications of Mario's TV themes of: 1) don't over sauce, and 2) meat as a condiment in pasta dishes. It's a eight course meal with 7 different wines $105 for the "Riserva" pairing. The pairing is a great opportunity to try a broad variety of wines at a good price when you look at the price of those 7 bottles.

None of the 8 courses really grabbed me as "out of the this world" but it was worthwhile to taste a variety of really pro level pastas in a variety of preparations. My wife has trouble talking about our favorite course, the pasta with lamb's brain "francobolli". If you weren't told it had brain in it, you wouldn't know. Very small ravioli typa pasta with the gentle "mounting" of butter lemon and sage. Very delicate and nice. Penne carbonara, a classic, was twisted by using a house made lamb belly bacon. (Mario admits he belongs to "Bacon of the Month" club!) The "weakest" course in our view was the last "main" course, smoked potato ravioli with lamb neck ragu. My wife and I agreed that the smoke was a little heavy handed on the ravioli.

The wines cost more than the meal, but when you consider I would have had to buy 7 different wines to experience the same sampler, this was a good way for me to broaden my limited experience with Italian wines. The most interesting wine was the first one, a white wine "Coenobium Suore Cistergeni "07. It was paired with a lamb stock soup. The wine was described as having "tea and smoke" notes, unusual for white wines. Yet the description was spot on, those notes led the way. It was not a perfect pairing with the soup. But it was a good "ABC" (Anything But Chardonnay) wine that was very pleasant, but a very hard to catagorize wine.

Review: Was the dinner and wine worth the $? Yes, but there are only really 3 courses I would want again and again. The lamb's brain, and the dessert courses, a perfect granita and a panna cotta. My wife, who is "so so" on panna cotta - destroyed hers and was enviously eyeing mine.

I would look at a different tasting menu @ B&B favorably because it does offer a broad food experience that is difficult to reproduce in other more traditional restaurant settings.

My sample size isn't large, but I actually thought the Lobster Pot Pie at Michael Mina's (Bellagio) was quite a bit better than at Nobhill (MGM). A friend that had eaten at those two plus some place in Atlantic City (neverbeen so I can't recall) shares this opinion.

It's too far in the past for me to recall the justification. Anyone else find this to be the case?

I don't understand how that relates to my point.

People only ate at Namaste when the wait at Lotus was too long. Now there are no waits at Lotus.

I was disagreeing with you saying it was 'probably the best indian place in vegas.' I took too big a quote, sorry.

Oh. Himalayan is good, but I think Namaste is better, but of course we've had this convo before. Best okra I've ever had at Namaste (not that it's served many places).

So it appears that me, Scott Seiver, Dave Williams, and my brother Ben were the last 4 people to ever eat at Bar Charlie?!

We at their Saturday night, and I believe it was only open Fridays and Saturdays, and we were definitely the last party to leave that night.

I think I know why they closed. We ordered the 14 course tasting. As we were getting towards the end, and they announced how many desserts were coming, Stickler Dave (as he shall now be called) informed them that the # of courses only added up to 13. They put together another savory course last minute. Who would have thought that would be the course that broke their budget and closed their doors forever.

Apparently at 5pm yesterday, the entire staff was informed the were closing forever after that night. Pretty sick to not even have a days notice.

Ouch, staff relations ftl @ Bar Charlie.

Just got back from Vegas. Some restaurant thoughts:

Sage: my second trip there. Entree was not as impressive as the first time (veal cheek this time, Iberico ham the last time) but the entrees were really astounding. Tried the oysters, foie gras creme brulee, sweetbreads and tartare. None of them disappointed, and I thought the oyster in particular was absolutely perfect.

Craftsteak: my first "official" trip there (first time doesn't count, I had the flu). Underwhelmed. Didn't try the wagyu, just stuck with the plain old ribeye, but I just didn't think it was all that good. I've had plenty of better steaks in Vegas. The apps and sides were also pedestrian. Caesar salad might have been a perfect caesar, but it was still just a caesar salad. Whoever said their yukon gold puree is so awesome is clearly high. It's just ordinary mashed potatoes just like the ordinary asparagus, brussels sprouts, etc.

American Fish: Great, great meal. Didn't expect this. Starting with bartenders who know how to make an old-fashioned (rare these days), and great food top to bottom. For apps we had tuna tartare, diver scallops & foie gras, and something else (don't remember). My entree was the striped bass, which was cooked perfectly and very tasty. As for sides, the horseradish whipped potatoes were astounding- as much horseradish as potatoes (and everything's better with horseradish).

Julian Serrano: Had 9 different plates here and none of them disappointed. My favorite was without a doubt the stuffed piquant peppers.

Wendy's at the airport: Bacon deluxe and fries. Perfect way to end a week in Vegas? Yeah, probably not.

Not to highjack this great thread or attack somebody personally, but the love for foie gras here disgusts me.

I don't want to start a discussion about cruelty to animals, but since I know people that stopped eating foie gras after hearing how goose/ducks are force-feeded, I thought I'd mention it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras_controversy

Sorry for the interuption, def. gonna try Sage the next time i'm in Vegas.

[QUOTE=madlex;17608956]Not to highjack this great thread or attack somebody personally, but the love for foie gras here disgusts me /QUOTE]

You're not alone...I object to it as well...it's like forcing Dr Ballard down your dogs throat...wtf

And, no, its not the same as cows at a feed lot. Anyway...enough hijack...I need to go club some more seals...

Dan Barber's Suprising Foie Gras Parable at Ted.com

ON my way back home from Vegas I had wolfgang puck in the Denver airport. The wood fired pizza + salad was frigging delish. Must not be too surprising for u guys to hear this from me since I'm probably the only wolfgang fan in this thread.

I enjoyed the link...nice to see that someone is not abusing his geese ... I enjoyed the idea of ethics in food...

Really liked the Dan Barber link, thanks for sharing Justin.

What gets me about some anti-foie people is preaching about humane treatment of animals and then eating Tyson chicken every week.

I'd bet dollars to donuts that most of the anti-foie people wouldn't go near a Tyson chicken, it's all free-range/organic for them. They don't sell Tyson at Whole Foods, after all. Hell, California even passed a "save the chickens" proposition two years ago that forbids keeping chickens in small cages.

True that most don't and I wasn't talking about them.

Torturing a goose is not a good reflection on our society. Its a small deal in the grand scheme of things, but I`m sure if I force fed your dog like that I would be in jail.