Day 2 in Las Vegas

So, the 10th of July was our first real day this year in Las Vegas and our real anniversary.  Ten years ago from that day, we were married at 2pm on a hot summer day.  The wedding was at St. Raymond's, downtown in St. Louis, but then our photos with the wedding party, were at the Botanical Garden, in the heat and sun.  I think it got to 100 degrees or so that day and while my wife was in multiple layers with her dress, myself and my groomsmen were also in multiple layers of shirts, vests and jackets.  Now, just like 10 years ago, we are spending the time in Las Vegas, also in 100 degree plus weather.

For the day, we went over to the Planet Hollywood Casino and mall.  We had to drop off a refill inventory or my jewelry to be sold at Club Tattoo in the Miracle Mile shops and while in there, we stopped for lunch at a place called the Earl of Sandwich.  I've never eaten there, but the food seemed very familiar.

My sandwich was a toasted BLT with avocado.  It was nice, silky, fatty and salty.  It was warm and crunchy and herby.  It had all of the good parts of the pieces like the crispy and saltiness of the bacon, the fatty and creamy-ness of the avocado and the juiciness.  I'd give the place and their sandwich a 3 out of 5 stars.  It was good, almost very good, but not awesome good.

For our night out to celebrate, we happened upon the best kept secret in Las Vegas.  Hidden inside of the Cosmopolitan is an experience called Rose.Rabbit.Lie.  RRL, is a complete experience.  Upon entry, you are brought past the host station to a room with 4 doors.  The room is void of design or interest and these 4 large doors look imposing.  The host picks a door and opens it and you enter a themed room.  We sat in The Music Room, and it was a room with a large piano, bar and few booths lining the wall.  The walls are made of frosted glass windows and helped divide the room and keep it separate but when there is a small show, in each of these four rooms, the windows retract all of the way down into a half wall and allow the patrons in each room to see through and access the others.

So, we sat down at a booth/table and were greeted by our server, Patrick.  We had no complaints with our server at all.  Patrick was nice, just the right amount of talkative (not too much and not too little).  He was very knowledgeable about everything on the menu, everything about the venue and even the drinks.  It was like getting a dining room manager as a server.  Everything that had to deal with Patrick and our service there was perfect.  He is why I would give him a 5 out of 5 stars for his service and friendly demeanor just made us so happy.

So, with Patrick's help and recommendations we ordered our dishes and it started with the first one: "Heavenly Eggs".  This was a single egg dish, so we ordered two.  This had an egg custard in the bottom and then the truffles and sauce on top.  A single scoop of this dish, was filled with this warm feeling of the truffles, with a creaminess of the smoothest ice cream and the sweetness of the best dessert, while still being savory.  Each bite felt like a warm hug with a loved one.  They were awesome and they made me want to make a whole night of eating these and only these.  I'd give a 5 out of 5 on these.

So, our next dish was a Curry spiced carrot dish.  These perfectly cooked carrots and tomatoes were just perfectly spiced, like a curry or Middle eastern flavored spiced sauce, with perfectly cooked vegetables.  The sauce was the real star and this was an easy 4 out of 5 stars.

This was the "Orange Fennel salad".  This salad, resembled a cole slaw recipe, or at least reminded me of one.  It was shown with shaved fennel and had orange slices on top. My wife loved this and I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.  It was just the right amount of strong and subtle flavors to work well with each other.

Next we had ordered these "Herb Brioche rolls", which as you can see, came heavily herbed with rosemary and thyme and a sweet butter.  These were hot, almost flaky and moist at the same time and very delicious.  As a "carbs" person, these were a great addition to our meal.  I'd give them a 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Next came the pork dish, which was perfectly rich and fat on fat pork.  The dish had a simple sauce, and some vegetables around it and was not a really salty dish, yet I felt that there was too much fat and needed some acid to break it up.  I'd still give it a 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.

 

Rabbit is a funny thing because as a chef, you don't want to lose the game flavor and you don't want to elevate it to make it inedible.  This rabbit dish called "Rabbit Fricassee", had just the right amount of everything.  It was a perfect balance.  You knew you were eating rabbit, but it didn't taste to strong like rabbit.  It was very mild and tender.  There were rose petals, greens, carrots and it reminded me of a dish I had seen elsewhere.  It looks like the thing to do with animals, when cooked and prepared and plated, is to present them with things that they belong with.  Not suggesting a natural environment or surroundings, but in the case of the rabbit here, presenting and cooking it with rose petals or carrots, which it could have eaten when alive, seems like a good idea.  This was very good and I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.   

Now for desert, we did something different.  By the end of all of these dishes, I was getting full and didn't really want to get a dessert at all.  But, when you are in Vegas, celebrating your anniversary and you are there to do it right and do it big, then go big.  We picked the largest item on the desert menu, something so large that it normally would be ideal for many people to share, but the idea was so interesting that we couldn't back down.  It was the "chocolate Terrarium".  

This is what our server Patrick brought to our table.  This was huge, with this glass dome probably standing at least 18 inches high.  The plate or dish was at least 14 inches in diameter.  As you can see from the picture, there was some branches of  lavender, a single edible rose and some smaller plant fronds.  A single candle sat inside the dome as well.  Now, when the dome was lifted, this is how we had it in front of us:

So, where do I begin?  We removed the plant material and took a closer look at the 'dirt'.  Those solid looking parts were giant pieces of chocolate cookie.  There was large chunks of chocolate brownie underneath a crumbled chocolate cake, as dirt.  The white parts were actually ice cream and marshmallow creme.  It was just crazy, the amount of chocolate and hidden things we found as we dug deeper in this dish.  This is the ultimate desert experience and I recommend this to everyone.  This received a 5 out of 5 stars as well.

Now, over the course of eating, there are small shows that take place in each room, as I had mentioned.  We sat a juggler doing a balance act as well, an aerialist, a singer and many other acts, in the dining area.  When we had finished, we watched a show in the 4th room, which has a larger stage and then after the show, it turns into a nightclub with perhaps the best MC I have seen and heard anywhere and a great DJ.

It is called Rose.Rabbit.Lie. and if you are looking for something romantic or to impress or just have an awesome time in Las Vegas, check them out. 

http://roserabbitlie.com/#/about

           

St. Louis has nothing to worry about.

The other night, my wife and I had a free night in downtown Austin, Texas and decided that a night out, at one of the trendy and local, seasonal, farm to table restaurants may do the trick.  This restaurant, Parkside, has won awards and attention for their raw bar and oysters as well as their use of sustainable and seasonal foods.   Not for their other foods.  Now, when my wife and I stood there, waiting 10 minutes past out 8:00 reservation, we wondered if it could be as good as other great restaurants in this same category: like Farmhaus.  The answer is 'no'.

The interior of Parkside reminds me a lot of Taste.  It is dark, the lights are high up and everything has dark wood colored tones.  The hostess staff are dressed in black.  There was seating near the bar and more seating in a separate dining room behind the bar in the next room.  What was odd about our wait, was that they seated several people who just walked in and asked for a seat, before us.  So, right off the bat, reservations here mean nothing.  After being sat at a table/booth combo, we were greeted by our waiter who was not very friendly or knowledgable.  He didn't know what the different selections of oysters had in them, where they were from, or even where they were from.  It was odd since this place is famous for their oyster selection.  As we looked at the menu, we noticed that the food was priced a bit high, which would be alright if the food came in reasonable sized portions and were great, but neither was the case at Parkside.  We ordered some drinks, he left and returned with them and then without saying a word, left.  We didn't see him come back to our table for 10 minutes.  Our waiter seemed too occupied with the large table of 8 people next to us, which was odd since they were more than 6 and had an automatic 18% tip added in and would make sense that the guy should work on the tip that wasn't automatic.

There was a good selection of food and as such, we both selected some appetizers.  We were told that the beef marrow dish is cooked to order and would be about 20-30 minutes and since after we waited 10 minutes for him to come back, we figured that the 20-30 minute wait wouldn't be that bad.  So, while we waited, and waited, finally our starters came out.  The first one that came out was the Kampachi, which was pieces of fish with some blood oranges and ginger for $12.  We thought it would be a good sized plate for $12.  This was it:

Was it any good?  Neh.  The blood orange segments completly ruined any good flavors from the dish.  So, would we order it again?  No.  It stands at a 2 out of 5 stars.

I'm thinking that I made a good decision and set off to accept my Potato Gnocchi with sunchoke butter, arugula and a citrus gel.  This is what I got:

Someone needs to go back to cooking school.  Gnocchi are supposed to be a little firm, a gummy, toothsom texture, like al-dente' pasta.  Guess what this was? Mushy.  They tasted like someone mashed some potatoes and then cooked them in little balls in boiling water, like you would cook spaetzle.  They were flavorless and not seasoned at all.  I tasted not even salt or pepper.  The sunchoke butter was super sweet and there were these orange segments which were tart.  The citrus gel, was a runny sauce.  If you say that something is a gel, then it better be a gel, not a runny sauce. Here's the thing, if myself or my wife can make food better than what we pay for at a restaurant, then the restaurant did a bad job on it.  This is a 2 and 1/2 out of 5 stars.  For $10, I'd say that the price was a bit high.

As we are still waiting for the marrow bones, we got one of the other starters which my wife had ordered.  She picked out the Caramelized Cauliflower with chili, calabrese and capers.  This was for $7 and we had a small plate here: 

So, we paid $7 for partially cooked cauliflower and a few capers.  What was most promanint about the dish was the large leaf of parsley there, for no reason.  A 2 out of 5 stars.

So, finally Marrow Bones comes out with an herb salad, a whole $14.50.  This is what is delivered to us:

First thing, flat leaf parsley leaves, strewn over the bones with some bony fescue, is not an herb salad.  Second thing is, that when something so rich and fatty is served, something that is tart or acidic should be served with it.  Traditionally the greens are tart or sour and there should be some vinegar; even a simple dressing that should go with this dish.  But there was none.  It was fat on burnt toast.  The fat was also quite boring.  At Truffles, a St. Louis restaurant, when we last ordered some beef marrow bones there, they cooked them, then scooped the marrow out, mixed it with herbs and spices and then placed it back in the bones for presentation.  So, they were not boring as in this place  I love my marrow, I really do, but this was just good, like a 3 out of 5 stars.  Its just that for the price, we expected a bit more time and effort.

The last dish was the real winner of the evening.  I figured that what looks like to be the strangest item on the menu, should be the best one to pick.  So, I ordered the Grilled Hill Country Rabbit with roasted carrots, green garlic spaetzle, carrot puree' crema, and red wine vinegarette for $24.  

Does it look like rabbit?  The rabbit, is in these disc shaped patties.  They had what tasted like bacon, wrapped around them and the whole thing tasted like bad tasting ham.  Really.  I know that rabbit does not taste like ham, so why did it taste like turned pork or salted and brine-marinated pork.  The meat was awful and even if they made a mistake and gave me ham, it was so salty, so terribly salt, you could kill a room full of slugs with one bite.  So, let's look for the carrots.  There is one that is bright orange, in the 6 o'clock area of the photo.  At about the 9 o'clock area are two more carrots.  These were more roasted than the other one and even worse is that the two dark roasted ones, were so burnt that there was no flesh there to eat!  The green garlic spaetzle, were the best part of this dish.  I ate every one of them and if you could take one part of this dish out and separate it, I would take those.  They alone were like a 4 out of 5 stars.  They were awesome and I really did eat every one.  It was just sad that it was so salty and I couldn't eat it.  I will say this: this is the last one.  My wife kept egging me into returning the dish, because it was so bad.  I told her it was okay, but after this, restaurants look out, I will ask to return items that are bad or suck.

My thoughts?  Parkside sucks.  Parkside is also supposed to be an award winning restaurant and award winning restaurants need to be good.  So, for St. Louis which has a number of award winning restaurants which pop up all the time, they have nothing to worry about.