I was pretty much full for four days straight in Las Vegas; I hit an In-n-Out on the way to the hotel, ended up hungry that afternoon because I had an early lunch and a late dinner, and wasn’t hungry again until I landed at Newark on Friday morning. I’d say that’s a successful trip. I’ll start with breakfast.
Breakfast
I would say that if you don’t mind dropping a little coin and getting a little fat at breakfast, you must hit Café Bouchon in the Venetian. Granted, Jeff Erickson of Rotowire and I were in the mood to try everything, so we might have ordered too much, but everything looked so damn good. The key was the $12 plate of four pastries of your choice; we went with the two pastries of the day, the baked apple croissant and the chocolate-almond croissant, and two off the menu, the lemon-currant scone and the sticky pecan roll. This came first, and I had a sugar high going before the rest of the food came, mostly because once I started eating the pastries I couldn’t stop. The apple croissant had been split the long way, topped with crumbs, and baked until the crumbs browned. The chocolate almond croissant was messy, as good chocolate desserts usually are, with dark chocolate and sliced almonds that were falling out of and off the pastry. Those were the two best pastries of the four, although the scone and sticky bun were good. The scone had a perfect balance of sweetness and lemon flavor, but the sticky bun … well, I’m not sure how you complain about a sticky bun being sticky, but there you go. For the meal, I ordered a bowl of yogurt with honey and strawberries, which was huge but otherwise unremarkable (I’m just a big yogurt eater), and the “French toast” which was more like a bread pudding, served as a ring-molded tower with sliced apples and the maple syrup already incorporated. The toast was soggy – not moist but firm, like in a bread pudding, but just plain soggy. I left most of it and went back to the pastries. Jeff ordered the sourdough waffles with bananas, about which he raved; I hate sourdough waffles and pancakes, so there was no point in filching a bite off his plate. Besides, I’d rather do that to Sheehan because he gets more annoyed it about it.
Update, 2012: I revisited Bouchon in April and had their version of chicken and waffles, roasted chicken with hunter’s sauce and a savory, ultra-crisp waffle, that, while not traditional, was probably the best chicken and waffles dish I’ve ever had.
I went to breakfast at Payard Bistro over at Caesar’s twice. The first time, I inadvertently stopped at the café outside the restaurant, thinking that was all there was; the chocolate croissant was fine, but probably made the day before, and the yogurt/granola parfait featured fresh berries but the “granola” was obviously a bar that had been broken up into pieces. The second time I actually found the restaurant, which is just a single room cordoned off from the main restaurant, and it wins huge points for the setup: It’s a circle with the cooking station in the center, so no matter where you sit, you can see something that the chef is doing. Their menu wasn’t that well tailored to me, with a lot of dishes that included cheese and/or ham (I hate American ham), so I went with the three eggs and potatoes. The eggs, scrambled, were light and fluffy, cooked just to the point of “done” and then stopped on a dime, so they weren’t runny but weren’t dry; they could have used some more seasoning, and they weren’t the best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had, but they were done perfectly, if that makes any sense. The potatoes were ridiculous: fingerlings, halved, cooked in butter until brown, with salt and some herbs. They’re called “pommes rissolet,” a typo for “rissolé,” which means browned in butter (or another animal fat) until browned, and for potatoes can also imply that they were blanched before browning. Of course, all of this wasn’t cheap – about $22, including an expensive pot of tea, before tax and tip. For the same price, you could go to Bouchon, have the four-pastry selection, yogurt, and tea, and be much more satisfied.
Dinner/lunch
The one meal for which I didn’t leave the hotel was lunch, since I didn’t think I could sacrifice that much time in the middle of the day. I went to the Bellagio’s buffet twice, having heard from several people that it was the best buffet on the Strip, and it was actually quite good. The oak-roasted salmon is addictive – perfectly cooked, with a strong, almost smoky flavor of oak. The soy-chili marinated flank steak, duck legs in peanut sauce, and large pastry selection were other highlights; the vegetables were mostly mediocre, the St. Louis ribs were a little boring, and the stir-fried bok choy was very bitter. I stayed away from the sushi bar – no way it’s good, even if it’s fresh – and took the bartender’s (good) recommendations for dessert: chocolate-raspberry mousse and the chocolate-chocolate chip cookies.
I was dying to hit Firefly, a tapas bar on Paradise just off the Strip, after hearing about it on Food Network a few years ago, and liked it enough to go twice. (For research purposes, of course.) The first trip was with Alex Speier of WEEI.com, probably a more adventurous eater than I am, which makes him a good dining partner for (wait for it) research purposes. Anyway, despite some below-average dishes, the food was, on the whole, incredible. If you go there knowing what to order, you should do extremely well, and the prices are very reasonable for the strip. I can’t think of a better way to do this than with bullet points:
- Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with almonds: The one dish I ordered twice. The perfect marriage of sweet, salty, smoky, and tart (from the red wine reduction). They’re like candy. Only bacon-ier.
- Boquerones: Spanish white anchovies, served as canapés on long pieces of toast with roasted red pepper and yellow peppers. They’re nothing like the anchovies you might find on a pizza or in a tin at the supermarket; they’re fresh and soft and just a little bit salty, and since they’re fish, you can pretend that the dish constitutes health food.
- Artichoke toasts: Same idea, but with a piece of artichoke heart sitting on a toast on a thin layer of “aïoli” (which has become a fancypants synonym for “mayonnaise”), sliced roasted red pepper, and chiffonade of basil. Again, completely fresh, and easy to inhale.
- Crispy duck rolls with cherry hoisin: I didn’t care for these, but Alex did. The roll’s exterior was greasy, and the hoisin was too sweet/tangy and overwhelmed the flavor of the duck.
- Pork empanada: Fried, rather than baked, which was a disappointment, because in a tapas bar I expect things to lean more towards the Spanish style. The inside was mushy, the outside was greasy, and the empanada was doused in “aïoli.” I didn’t even eat half of it.
- Patatas bravas: Now this was a good use of aioli, both in application and in the light hand used to apply it. Small red potatoes roasted in olive oil and tossed with rosemary, finished with a little bit of a spicy mayonnaise.
- Chicken and chorizo stuffed mushrooms: Nothing special – small creminis stuffed with a tiny amount of chorizo – if there was chicken in there, it was hidden by the sausage – and served with some sort of cheese melted to the bottom of the dish. I’m not sure what the point of the cheese was.
- Chocolate tres leches cake: An afterthought order that was the star of the show. It’s not a traditional tres leches cake, with a cream or custard filling or some sort of frosting; instead, you get two wedges of a strong cocoa-flavored cake, doused in a mixture of what I assume is three milks (condensed, evaporated, and milk or cream), although the sauce was thinner than I expected, and I doubt it was soaked for the full three hours given the firmness of the cake. It was amazing, with the vanilla/nutmeg flavor of the sauce doing just enough to cut the potential harshness of the cocoa, everything working together to give this chocolate-eggnog flavor that defies prose description. I had to stop eating it only because I was fit to burst.
Alex and I also ventured out to Lotus of Siam, considered one of the best Thai restaurants in the country, a little further off the Strip on Sahara. Neither of us felt qualified to comment on whether it really is one of the best, but it was very good and the service was outstanding. At the server’s suggestion, we started with a Yum Nuah salad, with sliced flank steak and vegetables over mixed greens with a spicy lime-chili dressing. This was about the limit of my spice tolerance, although it was delicious, and I’m pretty sure Alex was mocking me under his breath. I ordered Khao Soi, a northern Thai dish of egg noodles, beef, red onion, and picked vegetables, served – or, more accurately, drowned – in a faintly sweet curry and coconut cream sauce. The flavors mixed well, with the intense tartness of the pickled vegetables helping to offset the sweetness of the sauce, but I could have done with a little less liquid at the bottom of the bowl. I have no idea what Alex ordered – something else I found too hot that he found a little mild. Like Firefly, Lotus was affordable, more evidence that the key to surviving Vegas financially is to eat off the Strip when you can.
I did have one bad meal, at an apparently once-renowned restaurant called Pamplemousse. The interior screamed “faded glamour” – a stupid art-school idea – and the impression was only cemented by the waiter’s comment that a certain menu item was “Mr. Sinatra’s favorite.” (I pointed out that if I were as young as I look, that comment would have meant nothing to me.) A reader had pointed me to the restaurant, raving about the duck, so I ordered it, a roast duck breast with duck confit and roasted potatoes. The owner took my order, since the waiter was nowhere to be found in the empty dining room, and we chatted about where’s from (Aix-en-Provence). Because two large parties had cancelled, the owner left the restaurant shortly after taking my order, and about ten minutes later, the waiter comes to me and asks if I had heard the specials. I said yes, but I had ordered the duck, at which point he informed me that they were out of the duck – making it clear that he knew all along that I had ordered the duck, but was playing some sort of waiter game. This started a downhill spiral; I ordered the fish special, a pan-seared escolar that had no taste and was almost certainly frozen at some point, served with a small dome of white rice that tasted like it came right out of one of those horrid boil-in-bag packages. And it took at least a half an hour from the re-order to delivery, and at that it only arrived after I asked the waiter for an ETA on the meal. The meal also started with a crudité bucket with a nice mustard vinaigrette, but some the vegetables were obviously not fresh and had been cut hours, if not a full day, prior to serving. I imagine once upon a time this was a great restaurant, but the food world has passed it by.
Last spot worth mentioning was Café Gelato in Belagio, where you can get a “small” gelato (bigger than my fist) for $4.75. I went with dulce de leche and chocolate; it was about average, a solid 50, but no better. The gelato was smooth but a little heavy and absolutely not traditional; the chocolate had a good, dark cocoa flavor but the dulce de leche was a little weak.
Keith, I was wondering if you have any personal rules about garlic. I was at a Christmas party yesterday hosted by a friend of mine who insists that he’s a talented cook; he comes from a long family line of chefs, which gives him a lot of tips, but that’s about it in my opinion. His personal rule happens to be “you can never have enough garlic”. It doesn’t matter what the food is: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, beef tenderloin, tilapia; if you can’t taste the garlic, not enough was added. I left the party feeling sick and I’m sure my pores wreaked of it, but he continues to rave about how good his cooking is. What are your thoughts?
Brian: Obviously I haven’t tasted your friend’s food, but his philosophy of garlic sounds awful. Garlic is an aromatic vegetable and often merely plays a complementary role, like onions. I put a clove in almost everything, but rarely use more than three in anything.
Whoa, reading this just made my gut feel fuller. I was a big fan of the buffets the last time I went to Vegas, though I was still a kid (12 I think) and I find most things to be tolerable, so that’s not saying much.
Unrelated Keith (sorry) but I was wondering if you had any tips for cooking calamari without deep-frying it. I had some awesome calamari in this Italian restaurant in Germany (yeah yeah, I know) and haven’t been able to remember how it was cooked. Thanks.
Thanks Keith, I thought so too about his philosophy. It’s just so overpowering. For as sick as it made me, I’m filling up on desserts next time. It’s tough telling someone their food sucks, especially when they think it’s good. I’m no longer taking one for the team.
In my opinion, if you feel sick by the all the garlic put into the food, then it is too much. I like to put the garlic in most of the food I cook, but there is always a way to remove the harshness of it.
I think I’m still full from Bouchon. Seriously, I skipped lunch that day and barely had anything for dinner after the drive home.
Would you only use garlic cooked? Mashed potato with a pile of garlic crushed in would be hard even for a garlic fiend like myself. I recall most of the alleged healthy qualities (artery health) come from raw, not cooked, garlic but putting raw chopped cloves on food is not good eating for me…
On Calamari as I understand it the aim is to get fresh squid not a frozen side of leather? I know in Greece or anywhere coastal I cannot help a daily plateful with squeezed lemon no matter how much a tourist I look.
aaron b – a good way is to saute it quickly in some butter and olive oil with chopped garlic and slice cherry peppers.
another option is grilling. keep the heads whole but slice lengthwise down one side and open it up like a small calamari steak. baste it with olive oil and you grill it and serve it with marinara or a spicy aioli … er… mayo.
a korean friend of mine simply boils it for a quick five count and dips them into a spicy red pepper sauce. good stuff.
I read this years ago, but I thought that the health benefits of garlic survive the heating process, but only if the garlic is peeled well before cooking (15 minutes, maybe?). The compounds in the garlic change on exposure to air.
I’ve never cooked squid at home, mostly because I only like it fried, but Alton Brown says frozen squid is fine.
Thanks for your tips guys.
Brian, I too have a friend who raves about how good of a cook he is. The lesson we should learn here is that if someone is dumb enough to brag about being a good cook — especially one who has family who cook and give “tips” — just prepare yourself for the worst.
My friend who also claims to be an excellent cook, once made chicken parmesan for a few few friends and myself. When I ate it, it tasted like someone had thinned tomato paste with cheap wine and poured it over chicken and pasta.
During dinner, the friend asked how everyone liked the meal and we all did what we thought was right: lied. He said: “You know what the secret is? You add just about a half cup of wine to the sauce and bring that to a boil before you serve it. I get all of my cooking tips from my dad who used to own his own restaurant.”
And scene.
Moral of the story: don’t listen to people who brag about cooking skills.
This should probably not come as a surprise to anyone, but Mesa Grill (Caesar’s) and Olives (Bellagio) are outstanding. Try the braised short rib at Olives, the meat just falls off the bone.
As a Vegas resident and faux foodie, kudos on getting off the Strip to hit Firefly and Lotus, two of the best we have to offer. The chefs in town are always at Firefly. I know you’re quite familiar with the basic omelet tapa, but get it next time there — quality of ingredients makes it. And you’re spot on with the dates … oh god, my mouth is convulsing from withdrawal. The depth of the menu at Lotus is what always pleases me — lots from which to choose and not get bored on repeat visits.
I’d suggest a foray into Mexican here next time; there’s quality throughout the city, especially downtown. Fairly close to the Strip is Tamales Dona Maria. Very straightforward with four different tamal choices (and a full menu occasionally worth mentioning otherwise), but so, so good and cheap. El Sombrero is a total hole in the wall and one of the oldest restaurants in Vegas (circa 1950’s.) Solid, from salsa to flan.
FWIW (likely not much,) exec chef at Craftsteak is a friend and I passed on your short rib props from a while back. It’s really amazing how the quality of both high-end and mid-range restaurants here has exploded in the last 15 years.
Adam: Still the best short rib I’ve ever had. And there was this moist banana cake … amazing. See if you can get your friend drunk enough to give you that recipe.
I admit I avoided Mexican because I couldn’t tell which was legit and which was shlock. Everything I saw (“Cozymel”) looked like it was aimed directly at tourists and drunks.
Cory: Olives in Boston was probably the best restaurant in town around 1999-2001, maybe a little longer, but the quality of the cooking has gone south in the last few years. I haven’t been in two and a half years, with no immediate plans to go back.
Keith,
Ever tried Pigalle in the South End on Charles St? I went a couple of weeks ago, and it was quite good, if a bit pricey.
Aaron B, I just have to know, the resturant wasn’t in a little town called Giebelstadt was it?
Jeff,
It was a hole-in-the-wall sort of place in Nuremberg. I still don’t know how that calamari tasted so good.
Keith – finally made it into the Frontier tonight (I travel to ABQ often) and found it to be pretty good. I’d be interested in other recommendations of placed to eat in ABQ. My favorite still though might be Golden Crown.
Sorry to be off topic
Keith, just wondering what you thought of AB’s books. I’m getting I’m Just Here For The Food and his kitchen-ware guide from my library.
Thanks.
Aw, mean. I’m big on family-style eating.
For breakfast, I lean savory over sweet, although I’m happy to have both. Sounds like Bouchon was a mecca for the latter.
To the guy who knows the chef at Craftsteak, please pass along my kudos. Went there Thursday and shared the Kobe menu for two, with the usual fantastic assortment of appetizers, sides and desserts. It was my fourth or fifth trip there, and I’ve yet to have anything less than a sublime experience. It’s better in a larger group–as mentioned, I *love* plate-sharing–because it gets even a picky, conservative eater like myself a shot at trying things he’d never order.
I keep landing the same waiter, Kevin, who adds a lot to the experience. He’s taken care of me and my friends four times in four years, to wonderful results.
Anyway, that’s my favorite place in Las Vegas.
As another Vegas local and faux foodie (hope you don’t mind my stealing your line, Adam), next time you’re in town, if you’re willing to go off strip, definitely try Todd’s Unique Dining in Henderson. A small place in a strip mall on Sunet, Todd’s is outstanding — creative, impeccably prepared and reasonably priced. Todd Clore, the owner/chef, was the Exec Chef at Ballys back in the heyday of the Sterling Brunch.
To the Craft lovers — I’m having dinner at the guy’s house Saturday, so kudos will be passed and dessert recipes forcibly extracted (after we eat, of course.) He’s a fairly big guy, though, so someone might need to send for the Giambi bros. from Body English for an assist.
Jeff: Steal away, and Todd’s is a fine suggestion, though I feel like it stands out more to us Vegas folks than it would to others because of the rare high quality and intimate atmosphere at non-Strip prices. Can’t say there’s one top dish I’d recommend, but the fish dishes are consistently strong.
And Keith, you say “tourists and drunks” like there’s a line to be drawn among Strip wanderers. That’s one challenging deck of cards to cut. Good choice avoiding Cozymel and the rest of its ilk in that center. If you happen to be wandering around there and can’t stand to look at another bacon-wrapped date, that’s the heartland of Indian food in Vegas — try Gandhi.
Absolutely love the Bellagio buffet, one of my fav Vegas eats. Also if you’re looking for Mexican try Lindo Michoacan on Desert Inn and Topaz it’s top shelf.
Was just in Las Vegas for a week and I went the buffet route (trying to save money, had a buffet around 3 every day and snacks we brought from home for filler). Tried the buffets at Excalibur, MGM Grand, Mirage, Bellagio, and Treasure Island. You heard right, Bellagio was far and away the best buffet. Prime rib was excellent, and I agree about the flank steak, I went back several times for more. Of the 5 buffets I tried, I would say the Bellagio would be the only one that could make it as a legit restaurant, the others were “All You Can Eat Buffet” quality food, if that makes sense.
Going to be in Vegas next week and have enough pull to get the boss to likely buy us dinner at a restaurant of our choice so long as it isn’t absurdly expensive. Would you recommend Firefly? Or something else?
Yes, definitely. I didn’t find it to be that expensive – you’re not paying the premium for being on the Strip.