Vegas Eats Part Deux

Monday:

Monday we took a stroll from THEhotel down the strip all the way down to Caesar's Palace. We must have walked for 2 hours, but it was much needed exercise, as our day of eating was just beginning.
We met Crystal's brother, Kevin, and his fiance', Stacey, for lunch at Yellowfin in Bellagio for some sushi that everyone seemed to be craving. Unfortunately for us, Yellowfin was not open for lunch. So, after trying 2 more closed sushi places, we decided on Joe's stone crab for lunch. Now, Joe's is one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago and is actually where Crystal and I ate the night we got engaged. Steaks are out of this world and seafood is top notch. Maybe it was due to it being lunch vs. dinner or maybe just the location in Caesars, but did not see how the Vegas version stacked up to the Chicago edition of Joe's. Stacey had the crab legs, I had the ahi tuna sandwich and the rest got the beef tenderloin sandwich. Everything was good, no complaints, but just did not do it for me the way it does in Chicago. Not a bad Monday lunch though, I must admit. On the positive side, it did have a great location for people watching, which is quite enjoyable in Vegas.

Sunday night took Crystal and I to the Venetian Hotel for Phantom of the Opera and dinner at Bouchon Bistro. Of course, we decided that food would be a good option before the show, because god forbid we were the slightest bit hungry during the 1.5 hr show. So, we stopped into Delmonico, Emeril Lagasse's steakhouse. Sitting at the bar, we enjoyed some Creole boiled shrimp cocktail and a heirloom and mozzerella salad. Both were good and hit the spot. Nothing overly special about them, but could tell it was high quality food that was seasoned very well. Would go back for sure.

After the show, we headed up to the Venezia tower for our 9:15 reservation at Bouchon.

Bouchon was very much a french bistro and really looked the part:

Overall, the meal had some highlights, but may have been slightly overrated in our opinion. I think seeing Thomas Keller's name had built up such anticipation for us, that it would have been difficult for any restaurant to meet our expectations. However, there were some definite bright spots of the meal.

One was the uniqueness of the meal, they put warm house made bread directly on the table, served it with warm pistachios (outstanding, I am going to microwave all pistachios from now on...j/k) and dijon mustard. The waiter was also a trip, I ended up really liking him, mainly because of his wine and dessert recommendations, but he definitely had a lot of bravado. He recommended, actually just brought, a tasty Oregon Pinot Noir called Patricia Green to pair with our meal, after he noticed me struggling over their mainly French wine list. He also brought us a dessert that was not on the menu named after the restaurant. It was corked shaped mini-brownies (Bouchon means cork in French, I learned), topped with banana ice cream, caramelized bananas and crumbled cookie. It was gone in about 5 seconds, really good. Will have to get the profiteroles next time.

The other highlights were my duck confit and Crystal's scallop entree. Her scallops were cooked as perfectly as a scallop can be cooked and was served with mushrooms and fennel. My duck confit was really tasty, just pure duck fat flavor. It could have been a bit rich or salty for some people, but it hit the spot for me. Duck confit is a dish that has intrigued me for awhile now, since seeing how it is made on tv and how long it takes to make it (weeks). This was my first true experience with it, but pretty certain it was not my last.

Overall, the trip was an exhausting long weekend filled with great food and company, lots of drinks, bad luck at the tables and plenty of people watching.

Cannot wait to go back.