Pat and
I went to see the Book of Mormon at the Smith Center for the Performing
Arts. I really like the Smith
Center. In the midst of a town full of
shows it's nice to have a true performing arts center. The center is relatively new and has just
celebrated it's one millionth visitor.
In April I saw the world premier of The Tempest, whose magic was done by
Teller(of Penn and Teller-he also co-directed the show), with some of
colleagues and we had dinner at Mundo, a chic Latin restaurant. I thought the food was really good. It's in the Las Vegas Design Center across
the street from the Smith Center and so I suggested to Pat we have dinner there
before the Book of Mormon.
So I
either just happened to hit on a good entree the last time I was there or Pat
and I both happened to pick so-so entrees this time. I'm going with the former as we had more
things than the last time I was there.
When I went with my coworkers I had the shrimp tamale. Tamales have become a relatively new food
find for me. I think I wrote about them
before but when Pat and I were in Arizona or New Mexico we had an amazing
tamale and our prior notions of tamales completely vanished. So I try and be somewhat adventurous and try
them now when I see them out. The tamale
at Mundo was really good. It had good
flavor. The shrimp was well cooked. It
had a nice sprinkling of queso fresco and was in a red chile brandy sauce. Both of my coworkers had the filet mignon
chile relleno. It woo was good. The steak was tender and it had good flavor,
but had I thought about it I should have known from that dish that maybe Mundo
was not as great as I thought it was based on my dish. The filet mignon in their dishes had been
cubed up and cooked and was definitely cooked at least medium but tending more
to the medium well side(who DOES THAT to filet????). But my brain didn't
register that and so I took Pat there going on and on about how good the food was.
My meal
with Pat started with each of us ordering one of our favorite refreshing
drinks: a mojito. We like mojitos for their crispness and balance. Especially their balance. The mint and lime are usually perfect
partners. This was not the case in this
mojito though. We couldn't put our finger on what was out of whack with it but
something definitely was. Pair of not
balanced mojitos with the just ok salsa from the chips and salsa and I began to
think that maybe my glowing review was a little off.
For our
main entrees I decided to go for the seabass.
It was served cooked in a paper pouch.
Now most restaurants I have been too when they cook food in a pouch they
slit or cut the pouch and present it so it looks nice and is easy to get at the
food. Mundo chooses to not open the
pouch for you. But I also didn't have a
sharp knife to slit through the pouch either.
So here I am unwrapping this pouch and now there is a huge amount of
paper extending way over the edges of the plate. Not a great start. The description of the seabass stated it was
served with traditional vegetables. I
think they maybe need to rethink their wording a bit. Inside the paper was one small Yukon gold
potato cut in half with one half on either side of the sea bass. On top of the seabass was a paper thin slice
of tomato and a couple paper thin slices of jalapeño. That's not what I would call "served
with traditional vegetables" but then again I'm not Latin so maybe it is. The seabass was cooked to a good
temperature. And it wasn't bad it just
wasn't great either. Pat had the sarape de pollo. It was
chicken breast pounded super thin and topped with black beans, manchego cheese,
mint chimichurri, guacamole, and pico de gallo.
With all that stuff on top of the chicken one would think it would have
packed a flavor punch but it didn't. Pats official take on the food was it was
ok.
We had a
lot of time to kill so we ordered dessert hoping that the promise of
traditional made from scratch at the restaurant flan would at least redeem the
dinner. Sadly it didn't. And it is sad because it totally could
have. The flan itself was a great
texture. The exact consistency and
creaminess you expect from a good flan.
Unfortunately it was hard to determine if it had that rich caramel taste
because the entire top was covered with a macerated berry purée of some sort
and then topped with whipped cream. Just
not necessary on flan.
So if
your going to the Smith center or find yourself out that way in Las Vegas do
yourself a favor and don't be allured by chic Latin restaurant. If you are
going to the smith center Pat and I highly recommend the Mezzanine lounge right
outside of Reynolds Hall. They have all
sorts of appetizers and light fare as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic
drinks. And for a small up charge they
will even give you your drink in a theater cup you can bring into the
theater. The last show we had seen at
the Smith Center we just had some appetizers there before the show. It was a much more satisfying experience than
our dinner at Mundo
