No Such Thing As A Salt-Free Diet Here

We had walked past Emeril's a gazillion times in the last three stays this summer at the Signature at the MGM Grand. I can't say we have ever questioned ourselves about wanting to eat there. I mean... we have had the best in New Orleans! ...and Emeril Lagasse, to us, is more of an entertainer then a chef. But on our last day, our casino host invited us to have a meal within the MGM compound. The budget, $50 per person. Not bad for lunch. So we decided why not give Emeril's New Orleans Fish House a try... after all, we've just about tried every restaurant at the MGM and was running out of new places to try!

While everything was tasty, I have to preface by saying that almost everything I had was waaay too salty for my liking! Even the rosemary bread - though good, the salt factor spoiled it for me...

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised by how the dishes were overly 'seasoned'. I mean, have you seen the amount of salt Emeril 'bams' his bloody way through his shows? Apparently, the chef that day was also doing his take on his boss's style. I like Emeril - as a tv entertainer behind his fancy little kitchen in the studio... studio in the kitchen? Anywayz, he makes people laugh and unlike Bobby Flay, I don't find him sickening and/or annoying. But I honestly don't see him as a chef. I mean, how many gazillion dishes can you put the same bloody seasoning on?!










To start, I had the shrimp remoulade salad - nothing special. I wish they'd given me some extra remoulade sauce on the side... it was barely enough to taste - however, the little I tasted, it made me want some more - the one bloody thing they don't give me more of is the sauce I want - of course! It was good but it could have been far better. The king had the blue crab and bell pepper fondue - he loved it and said it was very well executed, whatever that means. Think he's also been watching too much Top Chef :) We got the seafood gumbo to share - yes we were being complete pigs! Shit, we were being comped $100 by the casino for our meal so don't think we were going to be coy and not take full advantage of it :) ...surprisingly, the gumbo was very tasty! I've had my share of bad gumbo (even in New Orleans!) so I must say, I was nicely impressed.
For entrees, we had the seafood pan roast with jambalaya and the fish special of the day; striped bass with corn macque choux. Both the jambalaya and the corn macque choux were absolutely delicious! As for the the fish in both dishes, they were omg way too salty! ...so was the butter sauce on the pan roast. Insane! Nice thing was, when I brought it up to our second waiter, he was very good about it and actually offered to get the kitchen to redo my dish. No, I didn't let them - after all, by that time, I had enough food in me to last me another week!

Our first waiter (unlike our second one) was the most depressing looking service person on the job. When he was serving us and telling us the specials, he never once smiled nor looked like he wanted to be there... but when he was either standing with his other colleagues chatting away or when he was standing by himself talking (to himself) - I kid you not - he looked like he'd taken some serious happy pills! It was quite funny - especially when it looked like he was at a stand-up comedy routine all by himself. Yes he was laughing! Ok, I was obviously a little too distracted by this guy...

Three stars (our of five)! If it wasn't for the saltiness of the food, I would have given it at least a 1/2 more star... the weird waiter didn't bother me too much. It was just funny to me. Will I go back to Emeril's? Sure... especially if the casino would like to pay our way again. Our tab that day (before tipping) came up to a whole dollar over the $100 comped :D Hey, we're pros at this by now :)