November 23, 2009 - Joel Robuchon

Joel Robuchon in the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, NV
http://www.mgmgrand.com/

We went to Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas as the final extravagant dinner during my birthday month. This was purposely done so that we could end this eating binge with our first Michelin three star experience. Upon arrival, we actually felt slightly scared to enter the restaurant because we instantly felt out of place. Joel Robuchon was extremely formal feeling, to the point where we actually felt like we didn't belong. But maybe that's just because there were a bunch of carts being pushed around by white gloved servers with French accents.

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We decided to go low end here by ordering the two course menu, which was an entree and dessert for $89. If we ordered the full tasting menu, it would have been $385 for 18 courses. Now we like nice expensive restaurants, but this is the same price as eating at French Laundry (which we possibly think is too expensive to eat at, although don't be surprised if you see a blog about it in the next couple years) and WD-50. What meal could possibly be that good?

We ordered our entrees and desserts, and had a conversation about whether we were allowed to take out the camera. Usually we just break it out, but it seemed like we would be looked down upon if we were the type of patrons who thought that the plating and experience were something to write about and record in an album as an experience of the world. It felt as if we were in some country club and we stood out as the new people who didn't act appropriately (do new people stand out at country clubs?). Finally this couple next to us took a picture of one of their courses (they ordered the full 18 course degustation, with a few of the supplements). Actually, it wasn't the couple, it was the trophy girlfriend. The man was mid 40's to early 50's and the woman was maybe 32 and sort of seemed hired for the weekend, or like a failed blind date. He seemed extremely uninterested in her or the food. She seemed like a spoiled little kid who had been to places like this before and every time she went she felt entitled to do as she wished. In fact, maybe for the prices we were the boring stuffy people and we should have a more care free approach to dining (and life?!). Of course, I don't really think that's our style so I'm sure that wouldn't happen.

But this is beside the point. As you can see, we did in fact end up taking pictures. The first course hat we took a picture of was the amuse bouche. This was actually quite incredible. We were served a caviar tin with lump crab in the bottom half and caviar in the top half. It must have been less than half an ounce though, because it seems prohibitively expensive to spoon out half ounces of caviar to everyone. To be fair (or critical as the case may be), the caviar was a bit mushy and seemed like it was not high quality. And I'm not an expert by any means. Every caviar experience that I've ever had has been described on this blog, so if you are a diligent reader (which basically makes you Ellie) you will know that I've had caviar somewhere between two and five times. On the plus side, I can say that we were served caviar and not standard fish roe. I don't know anything about caviar types, so it's even possible that mushy caviar with a less briny taste is actually better quality caviar. In either case, I seem to currently prefer a bit more toughness in my caviar and a briny flavor.

The bread cart came over once our caviar was finished. The bread server (I bet there is some French name for this job) named about 15 different breads, and allowed us to pick a few that we wanted. I think we each picked three. Of note were the milk bread, bacon bread, saffron bread, and olive bread. I don't remember the others. I do however clearly remember asking for a super pretty piece of bread (based on looks alone, after all, it was hard to remember all 15 bread options), only to be told that it was the display bread. Our breadster gave me a smirk which was actually less condescending than looks our waiter had given us simply for existing. Once we ordered the bread, the breadster took our bread into the kitchen to warm it. He then came out with the warmed bread and a butter wheel. This thing looked like a full cheese wheel, except it was some imported butter straight from a small village in Ireland or Scotland or something. He took a warmed serving spoon, and cut off a very large chunk of butter for each of us (Ellie caught this action as it happened, which I think is a pretty awesome picture). He then topped it off with some ground sea salt on top. This butter was amazing. It was the best butter I've ever had (sorry Butter in NYC), and unfortunately it was also one of the best things about Joel Robuchon.

So after the bread and amuse (which was a surprisingly large amount of food), our entrees came. Ellie ordered a spiny lobster with daikon radish, nori, and coral nage, which was a cream sauce. The lobster was overcooked, it was not plated beautifully (for three Michelin stars we want perfection), and the flavors sort of mingled together so that it didn't have clearly defined palate differences as the meal progressed. In fact, the sides didn't even do a sufficient job of creating a different flavor. So basically it was boring, overcooked, and ugly. Well, it would have been a steal at many restaurants, but not here.

I ordered a the seared sea bass with octopus and lemongrass emulsion (the lemongrass sold me, although I don't know why as halibut is the only white fish I like) and some vegetables. My sea bass was also slightly overcooked and my octopus was completely overcooked. I couldn't even cut it. It took about two minutes to saw through the octopus. I know it's a rubbery meat, but either cook it right or leave it off the menu. Or cut it for me in back or give me a one bite piece. But this was a strip a little larger than what you would get if you ordered tako nigiri and quite a bit more rubbery. Upon reflection, and with advice from others after telling these stories, we probably should have sent both of our meals back. But we've never done that (okay, except for the rack of ribs at Charlie's Saloon in Boston on my birthday, but that just strengthens the argument that nothing good comes from sending food back) and probably won't unless the meal is just wrong or has a band aid in it. Actually, we should have just ordered the duck and foie gras course. I don’t know what we were thinking.

A sorbet cart wheeled by after we finished our entrees. We were given the choice of three different house made sorbets. I don't remember what we picked, but the texture was more on the big chunks of icy side and less on the smooth side, and it was very soft (melty, not creamy). While that did make it feel like it was made from scratch at like 5pm that day, it also made it taste worse.

Our desserts arrived after the sorbet cart. My dessert was definitely the highlight of the night. It was also the clear frontrunner for best dessert of my entire life. Period. Done did. It was this coconut, passion fruit dessert with aloe gelee. Actually, apparently it was fresh aloe and passion fruit granite (huh?), layered over cheese cake. So apparently I thought the cheesecake was coconut. The aloe was out of this world, and certainly didn’t taste like I just licked my sunburned arm. I had no idea aloe could taste good, which made it a risky choice when I ordered it. This surpassed by most optimistic expectations. I think Ellie ordered something chocolatey and bready. I don't remember it at all.

After dessert, a mignardises cart came by. This had about 50 different chocolates, and we ended up picking about 20 of them between the two of us. The standouts were the best homemade caramel that I can remember, a yuzu truffle, a nougat thing, and a couple gelees.

Then finally we received a big box of black current and passion fruit gelees to take home. So in all we each ate an amuse, three pieces of bread, some sorbet, and a bunch of truffles, plus a box of candy for the road. Oh yeah, we also ate the entree and dessert that we ordered. So the meal ended up being filling enough and it was fun to experience a three star restaurant, but ultimately it was a big disappointment. We were expecting to have the best meal of our lives, and came out angry, sugared up, and ultimately eating the best dessert of our lives. We will not return.