Who Needs God When There Is Heaven In Las Vegas

The husband and I have had a gazillion fantastic meals since we met almost ten years ago... this past weekend, our impromptu dinner at the less fancy of Joel Robuchon's restaurant was not only a big treat but we were wow'd over and over again, dish after dish! It was refreshing to be serviced by a young (not forgetting to mention, good looking lol) professional waiter who not only knew his food but also his wine very well. His recommendations were spot on and we were certainly impressed. I was certain it would be hard to get seated at a Joel Robuchon restaurant at almost 7pm in Las Vegas. Fortunately, it was still pretty quiet with only three couples seated at the bar counter and a few foursome tables taken up and we walked in with no fuss.

Below is the front view from our corner counter seats:



Our meal started with an amuse-bouche in a little shot glass filled with cucumber gelee, tarragon cream and cumin yogurt... unfortunately, we were too engrossed with the start of our dinner we forgot to take a picture of it... so this is it... or what's left of it lol! It didn't sound all that tasty but the mix of these three flavors brought out the sweetness in the cucumber. Even the king who is not a cucumber lover liked this.

We were then served our four mini loaves of bread and (unsweated) butter. Now I know it wasn't any special butter but the temperature was so perfect together with their bread I wanted to eat it all hahaha. What a bloody mountain tortoise lol! I didn't, of course :) Promptly, after we were served some very good white wine (chablis and sancerre, I had the former), the waiter - I cannot, for the love of my life remember his name right now - brought us our L'Aubergine - an eggplant cavier served with tiny slices of asparagus, radish, zuchinni... yum, very garlicky, very good! Sort of like a fancy babaganoush I suppose... just a lot better and smoother lol. Together with that, they also brought out our La jambon. La jambon is a procuitto ham dish served with toasted tomato bread on the side - I'm not at all a prociutto person so I wasn't big on this... but I still tried it. The tomato bread, much like the tomato bread we had at Cal Pep in Barcelona was extra delicious here. Not only did they just rub the juices of the tomato like they did at Cal Pep, here, they included chopped up super sweet tomatoes; and you can literally taste the fantastic flavor of the olive oil...












The next dish was La Langoustine... plainly, the langoustine lol! But this was wrapped in what seemed like a wonton skin hahaha - I'm sure it wasn't that easy... probably home made skin of some form... fried and served with some basil pesto and a side of salad... omg, I wanted ten more of this... at this point, I wanted the meal to last forever... this was just too good to even fathom.



The next few dishes that followed, pictures just don't do them justice. I wish all of you could have been there to enjoy this awesome meal with us. Le crabe royale makes me understand how a perfectly simple dish with fresh ingredients make all the difference in the world! No need for special sauces... no need for secret ingredients. King crab and a light avocado salad between two pieces of crisp romaine burst with flavor when I bit into it. The lady who sat next to me later picked it up and ate it like a burger... which to me was quite comical... but I suppose it worked for her. All three items in this dish were seasoned seperately and yet when eaten in one mouthful (ok, not the entire thing in a mouthful, but all three things in one... oh you know what I mean!), it's a wonderful sense of perfection. Gawd, I feel like one of the idiot judges on Iron Chef lol. But I suppose I can relate more to them now... mere words just don't do it!

Les huitres, the poached baby Kussi oysters with French (Echire') butter was also a magnificent dish... it's also one of those dishes that make two greedy people sharing a dish fight lol. Five oysters, two of us... hmmm... who gets the last one? Of course, the man does. Plus at this point, I was already VERY full... but being the bottomless pitt I claim to be, I urged on and pleaded no defeat. The oysters are light despite being 'soaked' in butter, there was no strong buttery taste that I abhor in a lot of food I find here that should not contain any butter. I like butter, don't get me wrong... I just don't like my vegetables or eggs to taste even the slightest hint of butter. These oysters, however, were perfect; with a slight detection of a peppery hot aftertaste. With the accompaniment of the micro-organic chives (I believe) or greens of some sort... ahhh, just too good to even rehash this experiance! ...or not :)

Wait, we've not even gotten to our mains lol. Our final dish before the meats came was le homard. A maine lobster custard with a slight curry scent and fennel foam. The unbelieavable mix of flavors made me want to weep! ...and yet, none of it overpowering the other. ...you didn't hear me complain about the big lumps of lobster in the custard either hee hee. This meal just got more amazing with each mouthful of food!










The only dishes we didn't quite share were the mains. I picked the French-styled hanger steak topped with fried shallots, the l'onglet, was served with the restaurant's signature dish - the pommes puree (mashed potatoes sounds so lame next to pommes puree - even if you don't know how to pronounce it correctly lol). I can understand why it's the signature dish... the smoothest mashed potato you'd ever have... but here, the overpowering of butter I did not quite enjoy... of course, by now, my pants were about to burst out of my fatass! ...and yet, I persisted and ate along lol. Can you imagine just how good the food was?










The king had le runsteack; the steak tartare! I was a little apprehensive when it was served. Next to my great smelling steak, his looked a little scary. Pretty... but scary... he took a bite into it and didn't really have to force me to try it. WOW!!! I've never had raw meat before (well, I have... horse sashimi lol but that's for another blog entry another day...). This steak tartare is absolutely delicious!! A little tangy from the seasonings and marinade... sweetness from the meat itself... I certainly returned (uninvited) for a few more forkfuls of steak on the husband's plate.


We could have walked out of there and been perfectly dazed and impressed by this meal... but we could not leave without trying their dessert. Well, actually, I couldn't after hearing they had strawberry milkshake on the menu. Of course, they didn't quite say that lol... but la fraise seemed so fancy... and fancy it turned out to be! Yum... not too sweet accompanied by sweet thinly sliced fresh strawberries practically etched to the side on the inside of the bowl in a glass... I finished every bit of that milkshake. I figure I can pay for it later (physically) or just sleep it off :) ...speaking of fancy, the husband got the la framboise which came looking like a mini red ball of Edam on a plate. It was pretty plain until our server told us to take all pictures we needed before he changed it's look... and down he poured what must have been hot rasberry syrup (just a fancier name lol)... and in a blink, the entire red, white chocolate casting of the ball melted to unfold yuzu ice-cream on the insid. Double wow!!!










What a wonderful way to end an awesome evening of dining. 9/10 for L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon!! Should we try the fancy Joel Robuchon restaurant next?!