Vegas Part 2

The other restaurant I went to while in Vegas a few weeks ago was L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, which I had not originally planned to go to, but was easily talked into after I won all my bets on the Super Bowl and could cover (most) of my Guy Savoy check. L'Atelier looks more like a sushi bar when you walk in, with a few tables, but most of the seats at the bar that is all black with hi-chairs. I had the discovery menu, which is nine dishes, most of them sublime or at least very very good. In fact, I was more impressed with this menu than I was with Guy Savoy. The pork belly is not on the discovery menu, but Scott had it and kindly let me try it -- it is pure heaven. The one off note perhaps were the oysters, that had too much lemon juice and vinegar. The oysters have a sublime sweetness that stands best on its own.

But the other dishes were wonderful, including an asparagus soup, smoked salmon, and two desserts. Well worth a visit, and (relatively) reasonable price ($120 for the discovery menu) for Vegas. One interesting note is that the seats at the bar give a full view of the kitchen. We watched the executive chef carefully dissect what looked like a sausage with no casing, and then proceed to eat the whole thing. When we asked him what it was, he said "an experiment that I'm still working on," but he declined to tell us any specifics.