Steak+Flying Angels=Dinner at Circus Circus

Pat and I have been trying to visit some of the different casinos we haven't been in on the strip yet.  So yesterday we went to dinner at The Steakhouse in Circus Circus.

Circus Circus is one of the older casinos in town.  When you walk into The Steakhouse you go down a short hallway that takes you into the restuarant and away from the noise of the casino.  It's nice and often rare to get away from the humming, buzzing, and ringing of the slot machines so we appreciated how quiet the restaurant was.

The Steakhouse is 32 years old this year.  Inside it's lights are dimmed and there are big booths and tables, which are nicely spread out unlike so many of the newer restaurants where I often find myself listening to the people next to us(don't judge there are some really interesting conversations and when your table is literally 12 inches away from theirs it's hard not to).  Sitting in The Steakhouse it was easy to imagine the old days of Vegas and people sitting in booths and making deals in hushed whispers.  It was definitely cool and a side of Vegas I often don't think about.

As I mentioned The Steakhouse turns 32 this month and for the month of June they have a special going on:  their petite filet mignon dinner for only $32.  The dinner includes a salad or their black bean soup(Pat and I both choose the salad), their petite filet mignon, choice of potato, vegetable of the day.

As I said Pat and I both started with a salad.  It was a very large salad and was sorta deconstructed.  They had the lettuce and then all around the outside the various components clumped together:  croutons, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, onions, ect.  I got the ranch dressing but Pat made the better choice with the blue cheese as not only did the salad have blue cheese dressing on it, it also had a huge handful of chunks of blue cheese.

The petite filet was delicious.  They dry age their beef.  You actually get to pass by their aging room as you sit down in the restaurant.  On the way to the table we also passed by the grill, which is located in the center of the restaurant and not out in the back kitchen.  The filet had the perfect charred crust on the outside but was still perfectly medium rare on the inside.  And it just melted in your mouth.  Not a single piece was tough at all.  It was so good.  It had been a while since Pat and I had had steaks and these did not disappoint.  Paired with the steak we both choose the garlic mashed potatoes.  They were good.  A little lumpy giving them that great body.  They had a nice garlic flavor and I was happy I had choose them over the baked potato.  The vegetable of the day was asparagus.  It really was the only thing throughout the meal that Pat and I thought could have been a little better.  They were slightly on the limp side but it didn't really bother us as the steaks were so good.

We also got dessert.  They wheel a dessert cart over to go over the selections.  We couldn't decide between the creme brulee and the cheesecake so we got both to share.  The cheesecake was by far the better choice.  The creme brulee was sold as a real vanilla bean creme brulee but when it arrived it was missing that real vanilla flavor.  It was there but it was subtle and didn't pack the punch Pat and I were expecting.  The caramelized sugar on top seemed a bit grainy too.  I couldn't decide if they just didn't burn it enough or of they didn't put enough sugar on in the first place.  I also wasn't a huge fan of the consistency of the custard.  It was smooth but really thick.  It also seemed to me to have an almost egg-y flavor to it.  Everything the creme brulee lacked the cheesecake more than made up for.  It was rich and dense and had that spot on traditional cheesecake taste and consistency.  Pat and I remarked how so often restaurants try to doctor up their cheesecakes.  They make them different flavors.  They put fancy combinations and toppings.  You can get any kind of cheesecake today(we even have restaurants devoted to cheesecakes) but it seems hard to find a cheesecake that is simple but so delicious.  This cheesecake did was that.  It did have a cherry sauce on top of it.  Usually those types of sauces taste fake to me but this one didn't.  So in the future I would skip the creme brulee and just go for the cheesecake.

A couple other notes about The Steakhouse and Circus Circus.  The Steakhouse was a really good steakhouse but it's a steakhouse.  The menu had steak, lobster, steak, a fish fillet, steak, a chicken breast, and steak(get my drift).  It's not new fusion type food.  It's an old school steakhouse.  Delicious but if steak isn't your thing I might think twice before going.  Pat and I were also definitely overdressed.  We could have went in jeans.  We didn't.  I wore a skirt and nice shoes and felt a little too fancy for both the restaurant and Circus Circus in general.  Circus Circus is attached to the Adventuredome and thus has a large draw of families with kids.  If you go to Circus Circus be sure to go up to the Midway on the second level.  I've never been to a circus so I can't say if it's just like a circus midway but it was very reminiscent of the boardwalk to this Jersey girl.  In the center of the midway is a stage with seating on one side where you can sit and watch free Circus acts. Pat and I saw the Flying Angels.  There were four trapeze artists and they were amazing.  I'm not sure you could pay me enough to do the tricks they were doing while flying through the air....especially over top of a safety net that looked only slightly more secure than being jiffy rigged.  But it held all four when they bounced down on it at the end of their act.  So I guess looks can be deceiving. 

All in all we liked The Steakhouse and Circus Circus(and I left $2 up from when we started....how much more of a win can you get!) and we both agreed we would happily go back if we were in a steak mood in the future.

St Germain+French Food=One of my Favorite Vegas Eats

A couple months ago Pat and I had lunch on a Sunday afternoon on the strip.  We went to the Paris casino and ate at this place called Mon Ami Gabi.  While there we were trying to decide on a cocktail and we saw this drink called a St. Germain Spritzer.  So we asked about it.  The waitress was like "oh my gosh that's so delicious and my favorite drink here.  It's really refreshing" so we decided to try it.  And she was right.  It's so delicious.  And refreshing.  St Germain is an elderflower liquor.  They mix roughly 3 parts sparkling wine with 2 parts club soda and 1 part St Germain.  And serve it in a glass with a lemon twist.  Actually they make it by the carafe rather than the glass.  We got a large carafe, which we were told probably had around 4 glasses in it...but really it was more like 6.  So ever since we went I've been wanting to go back and get another round of St. Germain.

So we did lunch there today.  Of course we started with the St. Germain Spritzer.  They quickly also brought us a loaf of bread.  You know that delicious hard crusty outside but soft chewy inside bread and a thing of butter.  I don't know if it was the bread or the butter but something had a hint of garlic to it and it was delicious.  We decided to try the smoked salmon appetizer.  It came with brioche toast points, smoked salmon, capers, onions, and creme fraiche.  It was good and light and a nice start to the meal.

For our lunch I had the mushroom and chicken crepe.  The crepe was paper thin and slightly crispy on the edges.  The chicken inside was moist and the mushrooms were cooked perfectly.  They were dark and earthy.  There was also some kale inside and out of the crepe along with some melted brie cheese.  I love brie.  I truly truly do.  The crepe was paired with a small frisee salad.  It was a great combination between the rich crepe and the lightly dressed salad.  Pat ordered the croque monsieur, which he actually turned into a croque madam when the waitress asked if he would like to put a runny egg on top of it.  I tasted his sandwich and it too was good.  Although we both agreed I was the winner of the better lunch.  His egg was probably slightly overcooked as well.  It was still a runny yolk but probably could have been a little more runny although we decided for Pat slightly overcooked is much better than slightly undercooked...which I can see although I've eaten my fair share of slightly undercooked eggs and I'm still here to talk about it.

We did order dessert.  Pat at first said he didn't want any and to order whatever I wanted but upon a little pressing he told me which ones he would actually help me eat(and by that I mean take two bites and then tell me he liked it but was really full).  We went with the blueberry crepe.  Inside were fresh blueberries and whipped cream.  Outside were macerated berries.  And the whole thing was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and candied lemon peel and a couple tiny tiny mint leaves.   It was a good dessert.  Not too sweet and hence Pat ate more than his usual two bites.  He actually ate his fair share of it.

We highly recommend Mon Ami Gabi.  I'm sure we will be back again.  And with the plethora of restaurants in Vegas the fact that we will return shows you how much we like their food(and St Germain...don't forget about the St. Germain).  It does get crowded at dinner.  We really enjoy going at around 2pm.  It's not very crowded and we have gotten to sit in the sunporch area, which is really nice.  It's so bright and airy in that part that it feels like you are sitting outside without really sitting outside in the 100+ degrees with brutal sun beating down on you.  And an added bonus is the restaurant sits right across from the Bellagio fountains so you can enjoy the show while you are eating.

Wine Angels + Tasting Menu = Date Night

Pat and I went out to celebrate the end of the semester, a raise I got in April, and the end of a bunch of dental work I had to have done with a dinner at Aureole.  It's a restaurant owned by Charlie Palmer in Mandalay Bay.  

The decor of the place is impressive.  You start by checking in with the hostess and proceed to descend a squarish spiral staircase.  Inside the center of the staircase is an impressive wine cellar with wine angels.  They are people rigged on a fly system that "fly" to pick up the bottle of wine.  It was definitely interesting to watch.  They also have a pond with swans outside the restaurant which also provided a nice view.

Pat and I decided to do the tasting menu.  This tasting menu had it's own twist.  It was a Parallel tasting menu.  So every course was a duo.  We were wondering if any of the courses would befall the pitfall of one preparation was just hands down so much better but that didn't really happen. 

The first course was a duo of Salmon.  On one side was a salmon gravlax(a Nordic cured salmon) with blood orange on top of a bed of lentils with a pomegranate vinaigrette.  It was good.  The lentils were still a tad crunchy but it didn't really bother me so maybe that was intentional.  On the other side was a lightly smoked salmon on top of chickpea "fries".  Now they weren't really fries but more like a chickpea rectangular log with a texture similar to polenta.  I thought it was delicious and really liked that side better.  Pat thought the chickpea fries could have been crispier on the outside.

The second course was a duo of corn/fish.  On one side we had a corn soup topped with a crab salad.  It was so good.  The soup was phenomenal.  It was smooth and like eating pure corn essence.  I could have had a whole bowl of that soup and been very happy.  The other side was a snapper on top of a corn succotash.  It too was good but the soup was just so much better.

The third course was a duo of lobster.  On one side was a lobster ravioli.  It was delicious and really brought the taste of the lobster out and highlighted it unlike the other dish in this course.  It was a butter poached lobster with a wagu beef strip and a potato gratin.  The beef, while truly delicious, just overpowered the lobster.  The potato gratin though took a very close second to the corn soup base for the best component of the meal.  The menu said it was a truffle potato gratin.  I don't know that I tasted or saw the truffle part but it was delicious none-the-less. 

The fourth and final course was dessert and it was a duo of grapes.  On one side was a roasted grape and goat cheese tart.  It had roasted grapes scattered around it along with a pinenut shortbread.  It was so good.  The other side was a concord grape sorbet.  It had that same concord refreshing and sweet and tart flavor that I enjoy from a great grape pie.  Separating the two sides of the plate was a thick log of soft caramel, which was the perfect pair to the tartness of the grapes.

Overall our dinner at Aureole was very good.  BUT I probably won't ever go back and it wasn't because of the food.  There was two people in Vegas for business sitting at the table next to us(the tables are a little close so I overheard them tell the waiter).  These two people were seated before we had gotten to the restaurant.  And they ordered the same tasting menu we did.  As a matter of fact their first course came out as we were placing our order.  But then we got every single one of our remaining courses before them.  We had the same waiter, who chatted with them and I even overheard him say how he would make sure dinner was a nice paced relaxing meal.  But the waiter barely talked to us.  And unlike other tasting menus we have done where they leave the menu so you know what each course is they took the menu but then didn't explain the dishes.  We obviously paid the same for our meal as they did for those(granted they bought a bottle of wine and we only had cocktails...but still).  The other tasting menus Pat and I have done have always left us feeling like we were special.  This one did not.  There wasn't anything really wrong with the service but to see the contrast between how our two different tables were treated really annoyed me some.  So sorry Aureole but your waiter who has been doing this for 17+ years pretty much sealed the deal that I won't go back again.

Vacation + Old Friend = Erie Eats

At the end of May I went on a much needed vacation.  I was burnt out from the end of the semester and definitely needed a recharge before the summer session started in June.  So I hoped on a plane, flew across the country and went to Erie, PA.  I used to live and teach in Erie and ever since then Lake Erie is the place that I find my center.

While in Erie I had dinner with a former colleague from when I taught at Gannon University(hi Elisa!).  She suggested we have dinner at 1201 Kitchen.  She also told me she follows our blog!  Personally knowing someone who reads it made me want to go home and try harder to keep it updated(so I'm going to try and try not to let the craziness of the semester get in the way of keeping it updated).

So back to 1201 Kitchen.  We walked in and Elisa asked if we could sit downstairs in the kitchen.  While they were checking with the chef to make sure it was ok we both ordered a spring shower at the bar.  I don't remember exactly what was in it but I know it had some type of grape liqueur as well as some other citrus-y flavors.  It was refreshing and had a grapefruit like taste despite it having no grapefruit in it.  Soon the maitre d came and told us we were all set to sit downstairs and led us to our seats.  When we went down a steep flight of stairs that opened up into a room that was next to the kitchen.  There was a long bar that sat facing the final prep area for the chef and we took a seat directly across from where Chef Dan.  It was so cool to be able to watch as he finished all the dishes. Chef Dan is really personable too.  I highly recommend sitting in the kitchen if you can.

We started with appetizers.  Elisa had the crispy pork belly pancake and I had the seared scallops.  Elisa's was very good and mine was amazing.  It is hard  to cook a scallop perfectly. This scallop was perfect.  It was beautifully browned on the top and had that melt in your mouth texture to it.  It was served on top of a bed of roasted chickpeas, which were warm and also beautifully browned.  All together it was a delicious dish that I knew would be the start to a great meal.  For our second course we both ordered the tangerine and goat cheese frito.  It had roasted shallots, tangerine, watercress, sunflower and the best crispy outside warm and gooey cheesy goat cheese inside.  It was a perfectly balanced salad. I made sure to try and eat all the elements together and it all had a great harmony to it.  We then moved onto our main entrees.  Elisa had the Lake Erie Walleye, which she said was really good.  I had the smoked brisket enchiladas.  They were delicious.  It was a plate of enchiladas on top of a bean salad.  Inside the enchiladas was a deliciously smoked brisket.  I'm pretty picky on my brisket after mine and Pat's multiple trips to Texas so you know if I thought it was good it was good.  On top of it all was a rich complex mole sauce and then a runny yolk egg.  It was delicious.  And HUGE!  I couldn't finish it all.  Hopefully Chef Dan didn't take my half finished plate personally.  Then came dessert.  We both choose the special Key Lime dessert they had.  It was so good.  It was a deconstructed Key Lime pie.  There were the graham cracker crumbles and a delicious key lime gelato or ice cream.  It was so good and the perfect ending to a great night of catching up and conversation.

I highly recommend 1201 Kitchen.  Not only did all the food taste good...it easily rivaled food I've had at higher end restaurants in Vegas every plate also came out beautifully.  They were artfully arranged.  Chef Dan truly has a flare and a passion that easily shines through in his plates. 

While in Erie I visited another one of my favorite places from when I lived there The Brick House.  It's a small coffee house in a...wait for it...a brick house!  I love their many flavored lattes.  Try one of my favorites:  a Haystack(coconut and caramel), a Green Penguin(chocolate and white chocolate and mint), or an Almond Roca Mocha(Almond, chocolate).  While there be sure to also try their Brick House Cookie.  It's like an oatmeal cookie base but instead of oatmeal they put coconut, macademia nuts, and chocolate chips.  Eating it while slightly warm is the best so leave it in your car in the sun for a short bit...or ask them to warm it up.  I've even started bringing them back to my secretary to repay her for all the annoying student problems I send her way.  And actually I haven't ever met a baked good from the Brick House I didn't enjoy.  Another one of my favs is their banana muffins...they have this wonderful cake like light texture....it's probably a good thing I don't live near the Brick House anymore.

And if your from out of town and looking for a place to stay check out my favorite bed and breakfast:  Light on the Lake Bed and Breakfast.  It's not right in Erie but in North East.  But it is literally right on the Lake.  I try and get the Lakefront Room and hope it is a good temperature to leave the door slightly open so I can fall asleep to the sounds of the Lake.  Dennis and Marcia are two of the nicest people.  If you go there tell them Jen from Vegas sent you.  And seriously what more do I have to say when this is the view you get there:

Birthday+Fountains=Eiffel Tower Dinner

Last year for our anniversary Pat's Dad and Kate gave us a gift certificate to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in the Paris casino.  So Pat and I decided to take a staycation on the strip and use the gift certificate for dinner on my birthday.  It was such a nice experience and we truly appreciate the generosity.

The restaurant is located in the actual Eiffel Tower that sits on top of the casino.  You take an elevator from inside the casino up to the restaurant.  The restaurant is a square where all the tables face out towards the windows.  On two of the sides you get a great view of the strip and the fountains of Bellagio.  We got lucky to have a seat directly across from the fountains.  As a matter of fact we probably had the second best seat in the house.  The table next to us on the right is the famous corner table shown in a lot of the advertisements for the restaurants...you can even reserve the table for special occasions for a mere couple hundred dollars...so our table was spectacular and we got to enjoy the fountain show many times over the course of our dinner.

Now onto the food(and I will admit this blog entry has been sitting half written for months.  We went in Oct and it's now May. So when I say it was delicious and go on about the courses we remember you know they were good).  We did the tasting menu and added souffles for dessert(which they ask about before you even order so they have time to make them).  The first course was a seared sea scallop with roasted onion and capers and a garlic mousseline.  It was very good.  I am a sucker for a perfectly cooked sea scallop.    The second course was probably hands down the best bite of food Pat and I have had in Vegas.  It was a seared New York State fois gras.  I had never had fois gras before.  I wasn't sure I would like it and I wasn't sure that morally I would want to eat it but it was delicious.  So delicious.  It was smooth and rich both in a fatty rich way and well balanced perfectly seared way.  It was good.  And I would eat it again.  The third course was a sea bass with celery root puree and roasted brussel sprouts.  It too was good.  Pat wasn't the biggest fan of the brussel sprouts but brussel sprouts are one of my favorite vegetables so I thought this course was delicious.  The fourth and final savory course was a sauteed veal medallion on top of a fava bean mousseline with mushrooms.  It too was delicious.  I can't think of anything that we didn't like about the meal.

Then came my favorite part:  dessert!  The wait staff had casually asked us if we were celebrating anything earlier in our meal and we had said it was my birthday so while waiting for or dessert they actually brought a plate with Happy Birthday written in chocolate and a tiny shooter of chocolate mousse.  It was good.  I'm not always a chocolate mousse person but this was out of this world.  It was light and airy and just perfect.  Then came our souffles.  Pat ordered the pistachio one and I ordered the caramel one.  Pat's was better.  Hands down.  Mine was delicious don't get me wrong but his was uber delicious(is that even a way to describe something?).  Both souffles were light and airy.  They came to the table and the waiter took a spoon and made a small hole in the souffle and added a sauce.  It was delicious.  The best dessert(even my caramel one) that we have had in Vegas. 

We highly recommend the Eiffel Tower Restaurant.  As a matter of fact we got another gift card for our anniversary this year(Thank you again!) and can't wait to go back.  With an abundance of deliciousness in Vegas you know it was a really really good meal if we can't want to go back.  And if you decide to go make sure to make a reservation because I would not have wanted to wait in the crowd of people who didn't have reservations.

UNLV + Forte = Chef Artist Dinner Number 1

Pat and I went to a chef artist dinner at UNLV.  Pat had seen in the daily UNLV bulletin information about their hospitality and culinary programs holding this dinner.  What they do is bring in a famous/thriving chef, have them work with the students, and together they cook and serve the dinner.  The students were the hosts, chefs, and servers.  It was a cool experience and we are going back for their second one in a couple of weeks.  It was a little weird in that it seemed that we were the only ones who were not affiliated with the hospitality program. We were seated at a table with the dean of the school and some people from the UNLV foundation. It was a good group who made us feel welcomed and kept conversation up with us.

 This dinner the students collaborated with chef Nina Manchev of Forte.  Forte classifies itself as an European tapas Bar and Bistro.   It's been on many of the top restaurants in Vegas lists.  

 It was a buffet station meal that was delicious.  There was a charcuterie and cheese board, which I feel has become a very in thing recently. The meats were hand made at the restaurant.  The other tapas they served were:  Gambas Al Ajillo:  Sauteed shrimp with garlic, white wine, and Spanish olive oil.  There shrimp, which were cooked perfectly, had really good flavor and texture.  There were two different types of stuffed peppers.  One was stuffed with feta and egg and the other as stuffed with pork.  Both were delicious although I think the pork one was better.   There was a cheese egg bread called Adjarski Khachapurri.  The bread was formed into a flat boat shape with slightly raised sides and a cheese was put in the middle. There was then an egg cracked on top and it was baked like a pizza.  It was very good.  I felt it suffered some from being on the buffet. I would like to go try it at the restaurant, where I think the egg would be runny and the bread not as hard and then I think it would be amazing.  There was also a Shopska Salad which had tomatoes, cucmbers, green onions, roasted red peppers and Bulgarian feta.  It too was delicious.  I'm a huge fan of feta so it's a little hard to go wrong.  There was also a beef and lamb confit and a beef stroganoff.  Both were good.

The absolute best part of the meal was dessert.  There were two of them(a chef after my own stomach):  baklava and biscuit cake.  I love baklava and Forte's baklava was no exception.  I saw biscuit cake and was like I wonder what that is.  It looked nothing like what I had thought biscuit cake might be in my head.  So biscuit cake is basically like a tiramisu but better and I love tiramisu.  It was a light cake layered with crumbled honey biscuits, marscapone, rum laced expresso, and a rich chocolate.  It was so good.  I don't even have words for it.  It all melded together.  I am usually really quick to pick out rum and stuff from my desserts and it was all mixed together and so smooth.  It really was good.  I would definitely order it again.  

Overall it was a great meal and a really cool idea.  The students did a great job of doing all the work.  We are excited for the next one. 

Birthday+Kingman, AZ=Rum Tasting

Well this is the first in a bunch of blogs to "hopefully" be posted in the next couple days.  Many of these I wrote while flying in October and November but I didn't have time to post them.  So enjoy!

Pat and I went to Kingman, AZ for his birthday to go to another event at the Desert Diamond Distillery.  They were doing a rum tasting. John, the owner, made a selection of different age rums for us to try.  It was so interesting to see how the rums changed with their ages.  You could taste how they smoothed out and then how they picked up the subtleties of the wood they were being aged in.  It was a small intimate gathering.  There were five or six couples which lent itself well to crowding around the bar john had set up in the distillery.  We also go to hear the story of how the bar in the entry room of the distillery was an antique he bought for a steal.  If your in Kingman stop by and ask about it.  It's a story I can't do justice to here.

We of course picked up some more of our favorite rum while we were there.  It really is a delicious rum.  This time we bought a dark rum and a white rum.   I cannot stress how important it is to support these small local businesses.  Desert Diamond Distillery is a rare find.  John is crafting rum that is amazing.  You don't think of rum as a sipping drink but this sure it.  It's quickly become one of Pat's favorites...I still haven't gotten into the sipping alcoholic drinks.  I need the fruity, you can't tell this is alcohol variety but I will take Pat's word for it that this is delicious sipping rum.  If you are ever in Kingman be sure to go visit.

Speaking of local Kingman hotspots.  We ate breakfast the next morning at Ma and Pa's Hot Rod Cafe it was a good breakfast.  Pat and I each had omelets, which were very good.  It wasn't amazing food but it was good food that wasn't trying to pretend to be something it wasn't.  It was a great place for breakfast and you won't be disappointed by it.