On The Town: Viva Las Vegas!

I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas for work.  Interestingly enough the last time I was in Vegas was also for work (back in the days when I worked in TV for Roker) but that was probably 5 years ago and before I was seriously into food.  During the last trip I worked basically 16 hour days and I only remember eating at some random place in Caesar’s, Rainforest Cafe and Hooters.  I kid you not.  So this trip I vowed to eat better food since Vegas is, interestingly enough, a pretty big food city.  Oh, and I also met Celine Dion but that story will come at the end.

Jean Phillippe Patisserie
Bellagio Hotel
3600 Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

I’m all for pastries for breakfast so I was thrilled that there was a Jean Phillippe in my hotel (The Bellagio).  JP is part chocolate shop, part creperie, part ice cream shop and part patissierie.  In my world we call it heaven.  For breakfast one day I stopped in for a chocolate croissant and a tea.  It cost me $8 but both were pretty fantastic.  The chocolate croissant aka pain au chocolat was a bit on steroids but it was flaky and filled with chocolate goodness.  Another morning I had a “late breakfast” of gelato and sorbet from JP in the Aria hotel.  I went for pistachio gelato which was really dense, rich and filled with pistachio flavour and a scoop of mango sorbet that was so refreshing.

Wazuzu
Wynn Las Vegas/Encore Hotel
3121 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

For my first dinner in Vegas I decided to head over to the Wynn/Encore for dinner at a somewhat casual Pan-Asian restaurant.  It came on the advice of a few people that were recently in Vegas, so I thought I would give it a try.  I like to go into restaurants with an idea of what they do well so I took to Yelp to read some of the buzz.

The restaurant opens onto the casino at the Encore which is a bit weird but was surprisingly not all that distracting. One of the cool features is a giant (like probably 6-ft) crystal dragon. I ended up ordering the Salt & Pepper Prawns and the Drunken Noodles with Beef. The Prawns were fantastic! You get about 7 or 8 jumbo prawns that are lightly battered and fried. They were super sweet and succulent. And while salt & pepper doesn’t sound so exciting the prawns are served on top of a bed of sauteed hot peppers and other bits of goodness. The Drunken Noodles were also great. You get really thick noodles in a spicy/sweet sauce and filled with large slices of really tender beef. This was way too much food for one person so I had leftovers. Also note that the prices can be on the high side here. An order of vegetables can be $16+!

Joe’s Stone Crab
Forum Shops @ Caesars
3500 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

So you may remember that I visited Joe’s Stone Crab when I went to Miami for the holidays. It almost feels like cheating that I went to Joe’s while in Vegas. It was purely by accident. I was planning on having a light lunch but as I was walking through the Shops at the Forum in Caesar’s I saw Joe’s and couldn’t resist. I opted for the Fisherman’s Platter.  For $19.95 it was a great value.  I got about 8 large shrimp, a pile of calamari, 8 giant scallops AND a fillet of cod.  You can order the platter either fried or grilled. I (obviously) opted for fried.  It was WAY too much food for one person and to make it worse I also ordered hash browns and a 1/2 slice of key lime pie.  I ended up taking the leftover seafood and the pie back to the hotel.  Needless to say, I wasn’t hungry for dinner that night.

Wynn Buffet
Wynn Las Vegas
3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

A couple of people (and some additional research) said that I should check out the buffet at the Wynn hotel.  It’s often referred to as the best buffet in Vegas.  Now, don’t get it twisted, this isn’t the $9.99 type of buffet.  For lunch the buffet was $23 (dinner can be as much as $39).  I’m not a big fan of buffets.  Germs, people serving themselves, having to walk to get your food, food just sitting out etc.  Plus they always feel like a waste because I don’t eat a TON of food and never feel like I get a good feel for buffets.  But I figured when in Rome…

Even for lunch there was a really vast selection.  I could summarize everything on offer but that would take a while.  They had salads, Italian, Indian, some seafood, breakfast, Chinese, sushi, and American (among others) at different stations.  I was really craving vegetables (I know, not a great buffet pick) so I loaded up on roasted root vegetables to start and also dabbled in the dim sum and smoked salmon.  Along the way I also had flank steak, risotto and probably a dozen other foods.  Everything was fresh and didn’t feel like it had been sitting out for too long.

The piece de resistance were the desserts.  They had mini cupcakes, marshmallow lollipops, gelato, bread pudding, cookies and the list goes on and on!  The spread was gorgeous.

The one disappointment from the lunch experience was the lack of seafood.  Sure there were a few fish dishes here and there but I was looking for jumbo shrimp, crab legs and lobster, especially at the price point.  I’m assuming they have this stuff at dinner but don’t show up at lunch looking for a great seafood spread.

Bouchon
The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino
Venezia Tower-9th Floor
3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

For my last meal in Vegas I decided to check out Thomas Keller’s spot, Bouchon in The Venetian.  I’ve only been to Keller’s Bouchon Bakery in NYC and tried a few recipes from his cookbook and enjoyed them both so I thought why not check out Bouchon.

Bouchon is a French Bistro high up in The Venetian.  I’m such a sucker for French food and could probably eat at a French Bistro at least a few times a week if you let me.  Bouchon had me at hello when they brought out a fresh baguette, butter and WARM PISTACHIOS for me to snack on as I reviewed the menu.  The bread was so incredibly fresh and I had to stop myself from eating the entire loaf (I was by myself).  And let’s take a moment to discuss warm pistachios.  Why have I never had warm, plain nuts before?  Seriously.  They are amazing.

I decided to keep my order pretty simple and ordered the Steak Frites.  Steak in my mind means wine as a beverage and I discovered my new favourite type of wine, a Grenache blend.  The Steak Frites comes with an incredibly large pile of frites.  A totally intimidating pile of frites.  I felt bad leaving about 3/4 of them behind.  The steak (prime flatiron) itself was cooked perfectly and was not tough at all.  A really great meal!

Celine Dion

Ok.  So I was never a HUGE Celine fan.  I’ve always appreciated her music but was never that into her.  Until one year (maybe 3 yrs ago) I got my mom tickets for her birthday to see Celine in concert and fell in love.  She is a FANTASTIC performer.  Kind of cheesy and over the top but I can’t even be mad at her.  So from that day on I decided that Celine was kind of awesome and that I’d love to see her in Vegas.  Now when I got asked to go to Vegas for work I immediately thought that I wouldn’t see Celine because she just had twins and wouldn’t be hitting the stage.  Of course when I got to Vegas there were signs all over the airport announcing Celine’s return to Vegas in March.  March! I was just a few weeks off (pouty face).

One day I was strolling through Caesar’s and stumbled upon the Celine Dion souvenir store.  I tweeted something along the lines that that was the highlight of my day.  Later that evening I was in bed thinking about getting dinner (I was still full from Joe’s) when the news mentioned that Celine Dion would be arriving at Caesar’s in 10 minutes to begin rehearsals for her show.  I of course thought wouldn’t it be funny if I saw Celine.  Some time passed and I decided to go out for a walk to work up an appetite (this was like 30 or 45 minutes later).  Since I was staying at the Bellagio I pretty much had to pass Caesar’s whenever I went outside and that night was not different.  As soon as I approached Caesar’s I saw a huge crowd, so I joined in!  Not 2 minutes later, Celine Dion pulled up with her husband, 3 children and a host of other family members.  Turns out I had stumbled upon this huge “Welcome Home Celine” press conference!  I took a few pictures and when the excitement died down, I went inside.  Turns out Celine was walking through the casino greeting people and I ended up in her path.  I shook her hand, probably said something incoherent and the moment ended.

So that’s how I met Celine Dion.  Funny enough Celine had just flown in from taping an Oprah episode.  So shaking Celine’s hand was like shaking Oprah’s hand which makes it even more awesome.