Anniversary in Vegas

What is about sweltering hot weather that appeals so much to my wife and I? Let’s see, we got married during the summer in the San Gabriel Valley on what ended up being the hottest day in recorded Los Angeles history. We then later honeymooned in Morocco for two weeks--where I don’t think the temperature ever dipped below 95°F night or day. And so what better way to celebrate our anniversary than with a mid-week trip to another hot climate destination--Las Vegas.

Being the early risers we are, we packed up and left our west side dwelling around 7am, and after a few stops in Baker and Primm, we arrived at our hotel, aptly named THEHotel, just after 2pm on a 112°F afternoon. First order of business: EAT!

Of course I had every eating arrangement well planned in advance, including having multiple reservations at different restaurants at the same time just in case our plans got sidetracked. I know my readers have done the same ;). Not to worry though, because I made sure to cancel my reservations for when plan A fell into place. OpenTable on the iPhone makes that too easy.

We’re both famished from the long drive and so we head over to RM Seafood. Located near the entrance of the Mandalay Place Shops, RM Seafood is the creation of chef Rick Moonen who was a finalist during last season’s Top Chef Masters. My wife goes for the daily special of pan-fried swordfish while I opted for this lobster roll:


The lobster is both plentiful and flavorful with the tangy dill sauce adding a wonderfully creamy contrast to each bite. And instead of your typical Hoagie roll, RM Seafood uses a thick piece of toasted and heavily buttered white bread which was split open like a book. The house-made chips were addicting and seasoned nicely. This easily held me over until our dinner at Fluer De Lys, a Michelin star restaurant helmed by another Top Chef Master’s finalist, Hubert Keller.

We each settle on the 4-course Elegance Tasting and we picked different dishes for each course, thus providing 8 different dishes to try and each dish was generously portioned. In summary, the food was amazing as was the service. Below is my 3rd course--braised short rib with root vegetable puree and a Guiness reduction.



Fleur De Lys serves an amazing bread selection of Challah, focaccia, honey wheat, and pretzel. I gave in to the carb temptation and downed 6 pieces of bread, as well as my 4 course degustation and about half of my wife’s. Needless to say I had to be fork-lifted out of the restaurant.

The next morning arrives and we’re off to check out the newly-opened City Center complex. City Center’s beautiful architecture with gleaming new walls of steel and glass do little to distract me from my breakfast destination, MOzen, nestled inside the Mandarin Oriental hotel. The early reviews of MOzen are off the charts, and after our incredible breakfast of pulled pork and crab cakes, I’m proclaiming MOzen to be a closet Michelin star restaurant.






My dish of pulled pork with poached eggs over home-made biscuit and a maple BBQ sauce was quite possibly one of the best breakfast dishes I’ve ever had. The service was as if we had our own butler peeking from the kitchen. Our "butler" kept refilling my $8 Illy coffee at just the moment where I finished my last sip, and my plate was cleared as soon as I placed my utensils on the plate.

With breakfast out of the way it’s time to satisfy our post-breakfast dessert fix. We walk across from Mandarin Oriental to Amore Patisserie, located near the entrance of City Center. After sampling generous portions of the different gelato flavors, I go all-in for a two scoops of pistachio and stracciatella shoved inside a cone with dark chocolate and coconut.






Meanwhile my wife goes with her usual of red velvet cupcake, though this one was a bit smaller than your Sprinkles variety. Both desserts were very good but this place wasn’t cheap; I think the damage was $15 for both items.

After a full day of lounging in and around the Mandalay Bay pools--which would easily make it to Travel Channel’s Top 10 places to see train wrecks--our appetite is back and so we’re off to an early dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab in the Forum Shops. Years ago we went to Joe's Stone Crab in Chicago and absolutely loved it, especially the desserts and the ambitious cuts of beef. This place isn’t exactly Twist or Joel Robuchon, but the food at Joe’s Stone Crab is of extremely high quality and the restaurant itself is just so comforting and uncomplicated.







Joe’s Stone Crab is famous for, well, stone crabs. We order a pile of select crab claws served chilled with a savory butter dipping sauce. I was worried that the recent BP disaster would hamper the quality and availability of these Gulf region delicacies, but fortunately for stone crab seekers that hasn’t been the case.




For my entree I selected the 16-oz bone-in prime dry-aged filet, medium rare of course. Joe’s Stone Crab signature teaks are on par with the likes of Fleming’s and Ruth’s Chris though with prices to match. It’s cooked ever so perfectly with a solid layer of deep red running throughout the steak’s thickness. I’m eating this, chewing away at the meltingly tender beef, while at the same time wondering just how the hell this massive cut of bovine was cooked with a solid charred crust on the outside and yet remain so uniformly red on the inside. This signature filet is $46 and it’s a bargain at that price.



For dessert we opt for this chunk of Boston cream pie. It’s good, though not as memorable as the one we had in Chicago. Another layer of custard filling would have done wonders to help the overall moistness. After our 2-hour dinner we walk over to the Mirage hotel to see the Beatles LOVE Cirque Du Soleil performance. The Thursday 9:30pm showing was completely filled; check out the madness after the show as we exited the theater:



After the show we head back to our hotel and of course my appetite is calling, again. All the foodie restaurants in our hotel were closed for the night, but that really didn’t matter because I was distracted by a walk-up bar in the casino named Evening Call. I don’t know what the Las Vegas city symbol looks like, but I’m guessing it contains one of those yard-long slush drinks because every time I visit this town, I see people bearing these iconic drinks in the streets and in the casinos. Evening Call was serving up slush drinks and so I do my honor to the city and order this watermelon slush with Citron vodka:



I paid the one dollar up-charge for an extra shot and I noticed that the server didn’t measure the shots, rather he simply filled the entire bottom quarter of that hourglass with vodka. Oh baby!

My wife takes a few sips but I made sure to pound this $15 drink before night’s end. So how did I sleep that night? Ugh don’t remind me.

The next morning arrives, eventually, and despite the wayward sluggishness in my step, I’m up early and yearning for some artery-clogging breakfast before our drive back to LA. We venture over to THECafe, conveniently located in the lobby of THEHotel. THECafe serves a gauntlet of breakfast treats but I narrow in on a 4-egg omelet with ham and Gruyere. My better half orders salmon with cream cheese and a bagel, which was served “constructed” because the salmon was wrapped around the cream cheese. It reminded me of a Philly sushi roll, not that I’d ever order one :). We also split a pecan sticky bun which helped ensure our stuffed status.





And with that our Vegas anniversary trip is complete. We’re already planning for our big 5-year deal for next year and of course our ideas include some hot desert destinations (huh? middle-east?) Well, you’ll find out in about a year from now.

RM Seafood
3950 Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89119

Fleur De Lys
3950 Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89119

MOzen
4882 Frank Sinatra Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89119

Joe's Stone Crab
3500 Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Evening Call
3950 Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89119

THECafe
3950 Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89119