From Vegas with love: Part Done

Our final meal in Vegas was our Valentine's Day celebration. As our destination, we chose Circo, a sister restaurant to Le Cirque in the Bellagio. So for our last evening, we got dolled up and made our way through the casino to the beautiful, serene dining room, which looked out onto the dancing fountains. The fountains went off a couple of times during the dinner, delighting me every time. What can I say? Simple tastes and all that...

The service at Circo was old-fashioned but kind and solicitous. We started with the copious bread basket, which came with olive oil packed with parmesan cheese (delishhhhh). I tried a piece of focaccia first, which was alarmingly and mysteriously hard. My second choice, a slice of olive bread, was much more successful.

Bread, a mixed bag

Extra bonus in the olive oil

Our entrees came quite promptly. AV chose the "Mama Egi's ravioli," with a filling of sheep's milk ricotta, spinach, and swiss chard and a sage-butter sauce. It was truly special-- one bite, which AV graciously shared with me, revealed that the dish was warm and filling, savory and hearty all at once.

A perfect choice

My choice was the spring salad, with a crostino of aged ricotta rather than the suggested gorgonzola. There was fresh apple and some caramelized walnuts and a truly tangy champagne vinaigrette. I took a bite and noted that the lettuce was surprisingly flavorful-- when was the last time you had lettuce with actual flavor? The portion was generous as well.

Special salad

Nothing on the dessert menu captivated (don't worry, we had gelato later, obvi), so we settled for a coffee and a tea. The drinks came with tiny complimentary biscotti, chocolate and pistachio. A nice little ending to the meal.

Cute! And sweet!

And so there you have it-- our vacation in food. I miss Vegas. I miss vacation. Circo was an appropriately special way to end a great vacation, another recommended destination if you're looking for some great Italian in the city of sin.

From Vegas with love: Part 5

We had one more fancy "special" dinner coming up on our Vegas trip, but in the meantime there were some snacks. So a report on the various little bits that populated the next day or so:

More gelato. This time it was in the middle of the day, from the in-house Bellagio Patisserie, and it was peanut brittle flavor (incredible) with more coconut sorbet. I pretty much never eat ice cream in the middle of the day. Maybe I should more often?

From Jean-Philippe Patisserie... smooth and creamy as ever

For breakfast the next day, AV got a cinnamon roll from Palio cafe, one of the quick eats destinations in the Bellagio. It was huge and, curiously, iced on the bottom of the roll. Enticing and promising-looking, it was appropriately cinnamony but disappointingly dry. Nothing gooey and sticky here-- just a bland pastry.

Mmmm, frosted

Dryness revealed

Fortunately, however, we made up for that lackluster food experience later in the day by making a second journey to In-N-Out burger. After journeying to Fremont Street (uh, skippable), we hailed a cab, found the nearest In-N-Out, and got AV a cheeseburger animal style and an order of fries. I had a couple of fries as they were scarfed in the cab, and they were delicious.

Sweet, sweet fries

It was just enough to tide us over until that evening... report to come!

From Vegas with love: Part 4

On Tuesday, we ventured to the Grand Canyon, with a minor detour to In-n-Out burger. When we got home, AV collapsed for a nap, while I moped around, insanely exhausted but unable to sleep. Finally I woke AV up in an agitated state, insisting that I was losing it and needed real food (after eating approximately 100 carby snacks in the car during the day). Still battling the fog of sleep, AV handled my agitation admirably and brought us downstairs to Noodles for some food.

Noodles is the Bellagio's dim sum bar. Let me say this up front: yes, Vegas is an expensive town. It's especially expensive if you're staying at an expensive hotel. Most of the time, I was in vacation-spending mode and thus wasn't too bothered by the prices. However, at Noodles I was. Here's why:

The dishes we got were as follows: One chicken pad thai, which was pretty standard. And one side order of baby bok choy in garlic sauce, pretty mediocre (for the record, I had wanted dumplings but they didn't have veggie-only dumplings, they only had pork-and-veggie dumplings. I had misread that when scoping out the menu). Together, without tax and tip, those dishes cost $30. With tax and tip, it was closer to $40.

Read that again. Almost $40 for one noodle dish and one veggie side, which in Manhattan (one of the most expensive cities in the world) would have set us back less than $15. We both felt a little bit ripped off.

Spun gold? No, noodles

Precious vegetables

So, of course, we placated ourselves with gelato. The Bellagio is crawling with gelato, available in three separate locations, to my count. I had gelato pretty much every single day. Their gelato wasn't the best I've ever had, but the portions were huge and it was tasty. This time around, AV went with Oreo; I chose half Snickers, half coconut sorbet, packed full of shards of coconut. And, tummy packed with gelato, I went to sleep. I believe it was 7:30PM.

Coconut on top

Oreo, with authentic gelato paddle spoons

From Vegas with love: Part 3

AV's birthday was the weekend we left for Vegas, so we postponed our "official" birthday dinner celebration until we had arrived. Monday night, then, we set off to a surprise location in MGM Grand to celebrate.

Our destination: Fiamma. There used to be a highly acclaimed outpost of Fiamma in Manhattan, but it closed within the last year or so. Nonetheless, I applied the restaurant's reputation for stellar Italian food to the Vegas version, and I wasn't disappointed.

The restaurant itself is pure Vegas-- all dark colors and decorative, swooping fixtures. Sexy and smoky and intriguing, even early in the evening. We started with drinks, a glass of bubbly for me and a stiff cocktail for AV. Celebration commence!

We started with bread. Each table got its own fresh-baked loaf, presented on a minimalist wooden plank. It was the kind of bread with which you just want to stuff your face endlessly-- warm and carby, soft in the middle with a yielding crust. The olive oil was peppery and herbal. We ate and ate.

Yes please.

We only interrupted our carb consumption to transition to the entrees. AV went with the spaghetti with kobe meatballs and San Marzano pomodoro sauce. It's important to note that AV comes from one of those blessed backgrounds wherein he has fond memories of his parents' cooking-- specifically, his dad's homemade meatballs. While no meatballs could ever top Dad's version, he conceded that Fiamma's were "special." Topped with plenty of freshly greated parm, how could anyone go wrong?

That's'a meatball

My choice was the burrata. It came in a small dish on a bed of tomato sauce and pesto. Strangely, the tomato/pesto mixture tasted off-- metallic and weird. But the cheese itself was spectacular, soft and yielding and impossibly creamy. I ate the cheese and the crostino and left the rest.

Good cheese

Dessert time! AV almost skipped dessert but at the last minute was seduced by the tavoletta di cioccolatto, a triple chocolate cake . I'm glad he went for it, since it gave the restaurant a chance to inscribe the requisite birthday message and provide his candle. Phew. My head was a little fuzzy from the champagne, but I recall that my tastes of this dessert were intensely chocolatey and delicious.

Birthday cake!

My choice was the tartufo, with dolce di latte gelato, caramelized hazelnuts, and chocolate sauce. I pretty much dove face-first into this dessert, which was absolutely decadent with the blanket of chocolate sauce poured over the ice cream at the table. The chocolate thickened a bit after sitting on the cold gelato, kind of like Magic Shell. Om nom nom nom.

There's gelato under there

We were both stuffed, but we finished the evening with two complimentary rum caramel chocolates. These were surprising little buggers, with a strong hit of rum at the end. But, of course, delicious.

Boozy!

So there you have it, a successful birthday dinner on the books. It's worth noting that unlike many of Vegas's top restaurants, Fiamma allows a la carte ordering rather than boxing you in to a prix fixe menu, which I value quite a bit. I'd definitely recommend Fiamma if you're looking for a classy Italian Vegas splurge.

From Vegas with love: Part 2

So I mentioned that our first meal in Vegas was a scrumptious lunch at Mon Ami Gabi. It was so good that the next morning, after waking up at 3:30AM (yes, really) and hitting the gym right when it opened at 6AM-- typical Vegas behavior-- we dashed across the street once again for breakfast at the French bistro.

Service-- and the overall experience-- was markedly worse this time around. It took a good twenty minutes or so to get tap water; my tea order came much later, at the same time as all the food. When I tried to order just a side of cheese with my tea (yes, I know this is weird; see also: jet-lagged stomach; 3:30AM wake-up time), our waiter actively made fun of me. And not in an endearing way, let's just say.

Nonetheless, we did end up getting the food we wanted, eventually. AV went with a Western omelette. Oh wait, what I mean is, he attempted to order a Western omelette to the incredulous derision of our waiter. Finally it was settled that a Western omelette wasn't a possibility, but our benevolent waiter COULD provide a ham & cheese omelette with the addition of peppers. Spectacular. The omelette came with hash browns and thick slices of toasted bread. No butter or jam, of course; that had to be wildly flagged down later.

Omelette of scorn

You'll be happy to know that the waiter ultimately did grant me my cheese. It was thick-cut cheddar, slightly sweaty from having sat under the heat lamps. It was crowned with four sprigs of random garnish (watercress?). They charged us $1.50. What can I say?

Hard earned cheese

Most importantly, we were fed and ready to take on the town, so we paid and split. Our recommendation? Hit up Mon Ami Gabi at lunch or later. The food is good; if you go strategically, you'll have service to match.

From Vegas with love: Part .5

We returned home from Vegas last Friday, insanely jet-lagged but otherwise intact. Aren't you dying to know what we ate while we were there? Of course you are. So back to the beginning...

Our plane got in around noon on Superbowl Sunday, so after we checked in and scoped out the Bellagio sports book (goes without saying: I lost every bet I made. Damn Colts), we went in search of lunch. Or maybe it was dinner? See also: jet lag.

Regardless, we ended up scarfing a wonderful lunch at Mon Ami Gabi, at the Paris hotel. It was delicious and just what we both wanted-- burgers and salad and delicious fresh, warm French bread-- but I had forgotten my camera. Wah-wahh.

Fast forward to later that afternoon, when we decided we wanted dinner. Around halftime, we ventured forth from the hotel to find a meal, and perhaps a TV. We ended up deep within the Crystals mall, part of the new crazy City Center complex. (A photo of City Center follows, just in case.) We were both so hungry, we didn't really care where we ended up, so we parked our butts at Brasserie Puck, one of Wolfgang's newest Vegas outposts. We sat in the bar area, which had a sick clear flatscreen TV hanging from the ceiling.

Crazy architectural angles

Our server was clearly bummed about working during the Superbowl, and as such he compensated by being incredibly obnoxious. After desperately trying to upsell us on "specialty cocktails," he revisited our table so many times we were convinced that if we only gave him the slightest encouragement, he would have pulled up a chair and joined our party. But more importantly, our food: after placing our order, a cheerful runner brought bread. This was spectacular bread-- warm, and clearly just-baked warm just from the oven, not re-heated warm. There was butter and chicken liver mousse. We ate the butter.

Deeeeeeelish

Then the real food: AV chose an organic mesclun salad and a pizza margherita. He scarfed the greens, claiming if there were a greens-eating contest he could eat about two dozen of those plates. And then he set on the pizza, which I tried as well. The crust was whisper thin and cracker crisp, the most barely-there crust you could imagine. It made the pizza light but overall more like a tomato cracker than a pizza. Especially since the mozzarella was pooled rather than scattered-- as AV put it, there was about one delicious bite per piece. Oh well.

Greens & parm

Can you spot the six delicious bites?

I chose a roasted beet salad with candied walnuts and fromage blanc. This plate was beautifully presented, with all different colors of beets decorating the plate. The little dollops of fromage blanc were the texture of mayonnaise but had the mild flavor of cheese. The only part of the salad I didn't like too much were the stealth sections of grapefruit hiding among the leaves.

Like something out of Willy Wonka

Overall, Brasserie Puck satisfied our hunger, but the only truly standout part of the meal was the bread. A good introduction to the Vegas food scene, it primed our palates for the delicious meals to come...

Brasserie Puck
Crystals at CityCenter
3720 Las Vegas Blvd. South #240
702-238-1000

From Vegas, with love: Part I

This week, AV and I are in Vegas, and naturally there is much to relate on the food front. Approximately a million posts will be coming when I return home, but in the meantime, one quick dispatch from today's activities.

We've been extraordinarily jet-lagged, so after being awake for approximately three hours already, we showed up at the rental car place before it opened at 8AM to collect our car. And then we set off into the wilds of Nevada and Arizona, nimbly crossing the Hoover Dam, to seek our fortunes at the Grand Canyon. Midway through our drive to the South Rim I had a revelation, changed our course, and a mere three hours after we left Vegas, we arrived at the West Rim of the Canyon. Needless to say, it was incredible. A bit of photographic proof of our presence:

Colorado River and Canyon

Despite certain nameless naysayers among the crowds at home, who claimed a day trip to the Canyon couldn't be done with finesse, we were back in Vegas by 4PM after an entirely satisfactory exploration of the GC. Quite enough time to stop for a burger at In-N-Out in Henderson, don't you think? We do. Behold, a cheeseburger animal style, which AV devoured in approximately four seconds after having pretty much nothing but granola bars and animal crackers all day:

Animal style = sauces and mushrooms and onions, or something.

Oh, and a bit of the decor for those of us (me) who are (were) curious as to what at In-N-Out looks like.

Where the magic happens

The menu

So there you have it. Car dropped off, back in our hotel room by 4:30. In yo' face, Grand Canyon-- consider yourself conquered. In our faces, In-N-Out, consider yourself vicariously visited by me through AV's highly enjoyable experience.