Vegas Baby! Palazzo and Joel Robuchon - November 12, 2010

I just went to Vegas back in August, but I don't get tired of it.  There's too much to eat. :)  This time, I was there for a special occasion...getting together with the girlfriends to celebrate my friend Karen's 40th birthday!  40 is the new 30.  Or we can think of it as celebrating the 11th anniversary of Karen's 29th birthday.  ;)  Karen, Jennifer, Melissa, and I flew from Sactown.  My cousin Sheri was flying in from San Fran. (She and Karen hit it off so well at the Castello di Amorosa dinner back in September that she wanted to come celebrate too!)  Rachel was already in Vegas with her family and staying at the Paris hotel.  We had planned the itinerary starting almost two months prior:

• Friday night:  indulge ourselves with dinner at Joel Robuchon
• Saturday day:  take workout classes from 8am-noon and relax at the Canyon Ranch spa in the Palazzo
• Saturday night:  dine at Wolfgang Puck's CUT steakhouse, watch Le Reve and have drinks at the Wynn
• Sunday:  shop until we drop

I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to go because of busy days and nights in the lab, but things were under control by the time the trip arrived.  The girls were definitely looking forward to getting away. (some traveling without kids or car seats!)

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, no stress...Karen even did her nails leisurely while we were waiting at the gate.  The flight was non-eventful, the taxi line was long but moved quickly, and we headed over to the Palazzo.  I got a great deal through Priceline for 2 rooms for the 5 of us...$130/night plus tax!  The going rate was around $300 or so a night.  I like to reference BetterBidding to get an idea of how low I can bid.  One of the catches of using Priceline is that the room is guaranteed for only double occupancy, which means you could be assigned a king-bedded room.  I read online that if you called the hotel to request 2 queen beds, that they would charge extra.  I chanced not calling in, as I found out that most of the suites at the Palazzo had a queen sofa sleeper, so worst case, someone would be sleeping on that.  I also read that the front desk people usually ask if you wanted a king or 2 queens and did not charge extra if you wanted the queens, so I was banking on that too.

As Sheri was flying in 3 hours later and not joining us for dinner, I put one of the reservations in her name so she could check in and go to sleep.  When we arrived at the Palazzo, I just had Jennifer accompany me to the front desk since the room was technically "double occupancy".  Also, if the front desk person saw two ladies checking in, maybe s/he would offer the 2 queens.  Which did happen...the guy at the front desk told us that we were assigned a king bed, but would we like to have 2 queens?  Jennifer immediately piped in that "yes, it would be more comfortable".  She knew what to do. :)  Then I wanted to try getting connecting rooms with Sheri.  The guy typed a bunch on the keyboard, and I was losing hope that there would be any availability.  Then he said that there was one pair of connecting rooms left and that we got them, as long as there weren't a lot of people checking in before Sheri arrived.  Score!  I texted Sheri with our room number for reference so she'd know she was next door.  We got two keys (we are "double occupancy", right?), found Karen and Melissa, and headed up to the room to change into our dinner clothes.

I would have expected the room to not be facing the Strip, as I paid such a rock bottom price.  But nooooo.  We got the highest floor you can get for regular suites, plus it was a Strip view!  I've never stayed at the Venetian or Palazzo, so I was looking forward to it.  The bathroom was huge, and there was a bedroom area, along with a sunken living room area with big windows overlooking the Strip.  The sofa looked pretty worn down though, probably lots of people crashing on it.  I still prefer the Encore room from last August.

 
We get all prettied up and head down to the porte cochere to await our golden limousine at 9pm.  Joel Robuchon offers its diners free pick-up and drop-off limo service; just call them to set up the time once you have a reservation.  It definitely heightens the experience.  (though we probably paid for it via the menu prices)  The reviews I read on Yelp said that the limo was usually on time or early, however, we didn't see it.  Then Karen got a call at 9:10; it was the limo driver, asking where we were.  We said we were outside.  But we still didn't see the limo.  Karen asked the valet if there was a different porte cochere...yup.  :(  We were to have met the limo at the lower level and we were standing in the upper level.  Keep this in mind if any of you are staying at the Palazzo.  The upper level is used only for drop-offs to the Palazzo.  We found the limo and rode over to the restaurant, which was located at the MGM Grand Hotel.  However, as restaurant guests, we were dropped off at the exclusive entrance of the Mansion, which was where the high rollers stay.  The Mansion's courtyard was so beautiful, with a fountain in the middle and manicured grounds.  We were led through the Mansion corridors, then into the MGM casino to the restaurant itself.

(Note: I stole pictures from Jennifer's blog)

(Jen, I took this picture!!! :P (inside joke))

Our table wasn't ready yet; the hostess explained that the check had already been given to the current diners, but they weren't yet ready to pay and leave.  We waited in the bar area where there were plush black velvet sofas to lounge on.  The dessert cart was parked nearby, which was torturous as we were getting hungry.

Eventually we were seated in the elegant dining room; we had already decided to order two of the 16-course degustations and 2 of the smaller prix-fixe meals, and planned to split everything amongst ourselves.

The dinner started with selections from the bread cart.  So good!  You got to pick what breads you wanted, and they were taken to the kitchen for reheating and returned to the table.  There were a lot of choices, including cheesy breads, herbed breads, along with sourdough and crusty loaves.  My favorite was the soft "milk bread". (squarish bread, upper left of the plate)  The other two selections were a round saffron bread and a comte cheese bread.  The butter was shaved from a huge block.  I wasn't impressed with the butter as it was cold (I like softened butter) and it needed a tad more salt.

Following was an amuse-bouche of caviar on top of crab salad.  Very tasty...love the caviar.

I had ordered a 2-course meal that included an appetizer and a main entree.  The bread cart, amuse-bouche, tea, and dessert cart are included in all meals.  My appetizer was a salmon tartare with caviar, which was very delicious.

I shared Karen's 16-course degustation, which continued with a trio of mushroom delights, fried frog leg and fried watercress.  I have no idea how the chef fried a delicate watercress leaf, but it was very light and airy, amazingly intact.  I would've thought the leaf would wilt.

Next was a trio of seafood bites: roasted lobster on cauliflower with green curry, sea urchin flan, and truffle langoustine ravioli with chopped cabbage.

The chestnut soup came next, with an interesting foam topping.

My dinner entree came, which was duck breast and fois gras.  This was so good.  I was sad that I had to cut it into 4 pieces to share with the rest of the table.  I could've inhaled the whole thing.

I forgot what this was...it may have been Jennifer's entree

Bone marrow with vegetable ragout

Sea bass with lemongrass emulsion

Sauteed veal chop with pesto pasta

Vegetables...they were so good!

Following were the desserts:

Pineapple and (hard) meringue

I forgot what this was, but I think it was fruit-based, and was Jennifer's dessert choice

Coffee ice cream with dark chocolate ganache and Tahitian vanilla

Since it was Karen's birthday, the restaurant sent out a special cake for her.  Unfortunately it was also partly meringue, and it was the hard kind.  Not a fan of that.

The desserts weren't done yet...remember the cart?  We got to choose all sorts of petit fours and gourmandises/mignardises of all different flavors.  We were so full by then.  Then after we were done with our meal, the chef sent out another plate of petit fours!  So much food. 

We were each presented with a parting gift: a bar of Joel Robuchon dark chocolate...yum. 

Karen and Melissa also got a copy of the 16-course degustation menu.  The bill was the most I've ever seen for 4 people.  It could've easily been the cost of three 10-person banquet-style set menus at an expensive Chinese restaurant.  It didn't help that "tap water" wasn't served, and every bottle of Evian we went through cost $10 each!  But most of the food tasted good and innovative.  I'm glad I got to try out the top rated restaurant in Las Vegas (according to Yelp).  I would return, but definitely stick with the smaller prix-fixe menus and load up on the bread and dessert carts, as well as take advantage of the limo ride.  Speaking of taking advantage, the limo was stocked with cute little bottles of Fiji water, so we cleaned them out on the ride back. ;)  It was really late by then, around 1:30am.  Sheri was sleeping so soundly that she claimed she didn't hear us come in or heard the loud banter in the adjoining room.  By the time we went to bed, I doubted that anyone would wake up to go to the fitness classes starting at 8am...find out in my next blog entry!