Two Hands in Vegas - Craftsteak and Bouchon

About four in the morning; several hours enjoying; about my favorite activities; high limit steak; low limit poker. Now, stomach grumbled. Agita. Did I eat too much beef. Ok, not so much beef but beef fat. Too much Vegas? Craftsteak Vegas’s. Too rich. Too delicious. Nah.

About four in the afternoon; a few hours not enjoyed; least favorite activity; high limit waits; low limit potatoes. Now, stomach grumbled. Agita. This was Bouchon. Of frozen french fries and half-sized décor? Too rich? Too delicious? Not this round.

Two restaurants attracted. Two chefs attracted. One jives the perfection. One jives the craft. Both known for sourcing. Collechio copied his New York. Keller copied his Napa copy. Craftsteak attracked steak; Craftsteak attracked steak sides. Bouchon attracked fantasy French. Bouchon attracted fantasy French bistro.

I expected a very good meal at Craftsteak. Steak translates. Steak travels. Taste steak. Kobe tasting. For three. Three begins: kobe beef tartare, raw yolk mixed in for maximum bacterial value, heavy with anchovy and an odd spice I can not quite place; mixed green salad, of high quality greens highly damaged from overdressing; nice sized shrimps, fatty heads-on, grilled to the tee. Truth be told. A slow way to start. Or the calm before the storm. Kobe three way: a skirt, a flatiron, a ribeye. Each panned in copper. Each darkly black over, each vividly red under. Each herbed, thyme, parsley or, rosemar. While I missed a defining crust, the Vegas flavor, the Vegas fat of these steaks won. With steaks: mix of mushrooms, believe it or not, nearly as good as steaks, yes that good; butter bound with yukon gold (mash) to balance the lipids, and asparagus—the last good but not nearly as good as what is at my farmer’s markets. After steaks: six scoops, ice cream and sorbets; cliché melting chocolate cake, still delicious; very light cheese cake with raspberries, unbelievebly light bread pudding with vanilla custard (thruth be told, this may have been my favorite dish of the night); oh and some fruit, macerated citrus that refreshed between bites.

As I say, overall, a full house. Quads? That would have been this: I loved, loved the desserts, but in my opinion, I would have reversed the order. The first courses were quite thin, restrained, austere. I actually worried a bit. I understand the need for caution in anticipation of all that Kobe beef, but I would have preferred more calories upfront and then a slightly more modest dessert even as I loved, loved the last course. Also, a non-tasting menu taster had ordered the shrimps, so it would have been nice to give us something other. As to those non-tasters, they loved their bisque. I did not try. They loved the grilled fillet. That I did try, and found it nicely un-mushy. I was surprised how big Craftsteak is. You zig and zag a couple of times to enter a dark room, as your eyes adjust you realize it is quite vast. The waiter was young but knowagable. His answers along the way make me believe he passed some written test. Since a full house wins nearly every time, I’d eagerly return.

Bouchon. Maybe again for a raw bar snack. For two, we ordered the petite plateau: oysters (hammas, miyagi, malpeque); mussels, clams (forgot); a split of lobster, and a brace of cold shrimp. Funny, Bouchon started so well then dropped so fast. From there it was a roast chicken and fries. Bouchon. Bistro. Roast chicken and fries. Benchmarks. My expectation for Bouchon was not French Laundry. I did not expect his perfection, his luxury. I did expect something Disney-esque, a reality more real. Truth be told, I expected a really good roast chicken, a surely above average fry. Instead, the chicken was boring, banal. Dedicated to eating local, I eat enough farm-fresh, organic, free range chickens to know quality chickens. I recognized some here, but nothing was done with it. Not crisp. Not herbed. Not kissed by fire. No golden jus for sure. On the side a pile of…fries, skinny fries with skin on, how clever. A bluff. I call. Bouchon shows frozen. Astonshished, Thomas Keller would put this little effort into a bistro classic. My friend fared better by straying; cap of prime ribeye more trendy than bouchon with a small b. But interesting in texture, although a shallot pan sauce was hardly up to the level of cooking I expected (either).

As I say, overall, this was a small wired pair that did not fill on the flop. Throw it away. Besides annoying the hell out of me with the fries, Bouchon had a few other flaws. They catch ‘em young in Vegas. Bouchon’s was even more jejune than Craft, without the book smarts. Still, it was hardly his fault that the wait between course lasted nearly a half-hour each, well he could have kept on selling me the decent draft beer and pumping the bill, but he did not do that. Tihany designed décor underbudgeted. What struck me about the room was how incomplete it was. At the lowest level, the floor, gorgeous blue tile, then nice table and decorative wine glasses but as you expanded in space, over twenty feet, you lost details, it seemed cheap. It reminded me, most of all, of a movie set, missing depth, missing dimension. Bet that small pair at the raw bar but if anyone calls with the suggestion of dinner, muck.

Craftsteak is in the MGM Grand
Bouchon is in the Venentian
Both take a good deal of effort to find.

Well, it sounds as though the Vegas Bouchon hasn't changed much over the years. It was actually the first Keller restaurant I went to, and it was long enough ago that I don't remember what I had, but I remember quite clearly that I was markedly underwhelmed. I don't know the history of the restaurant or exactly what Kelller's involvement was (or wasn't) in its development, but it's too bad that such an incredible chef is associated with so mediocre an establishment.

In short, I agree... the Vegas Bouchon is one to pass on.

four friends and i were in vegas this past weekend and we chose craftsteak for our splurge meal.

now, at least a couple of these guys are non-foodies who don't make a lot of money, and one was down a good bit on the craps tables, so i wasn't expecting them to opt in for the kobe tasting menu.

but, after a little fast talking, we all agreed that at $115/person for three plentiful courses, the tasting menu was a much better deal than doing everything a la carte.

and what followed was one of the better meals i've ever had in my life. and i've eaten and worked in michelin starred restaurants in europe and some very high-end places here in the US.

after our server explained how the tasting menu meant that everything came out on large platters family style, so we'd all be able to try lots of different things, and that we'd be getting a hunk of every kobe steak they had on the menu, we all thought it sounded great, ordered a bottle of Tor cabernet from california (i'd never heard of it, but my friend who was in from manhattan raved about it), and got ready for the food.

after good thick-crusted chewy italian-style bread, our first courses arrived; perfectly sliced prosciutto (i think san danielle), kobe beef tartare with garlic crostini, grilled head-on shrimp as described above, sliced avocado with shaved red onions and vinaigrette, and The Best Tomatoes that i have ever put in my mouth.

i mean, these tomatoes were mind-blowingly good. an assortment of heirlooms sliced and/or halved, and drizzled with a little olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper, and a bit of fresh basil. i'm not going to go crazy trying to come up with adjectives to describe these freakin' tomatoes. suffice to say that they were damn, damn good.

this was a fun group of people to eat this meal with--i'm a chef and try to be as knowledgeable about food as possible, and two of my friends work in industries where they wine and dine clients and so are also quite familiar with high quality dining. the other two are more regular guy-types who were somewhat out of their element, but open to trying something that they wouldn't see everyday.

to eat these tomatoes and know what i was eating, and then to give them to my friend who doesn't even know what the term 'heirloom' refers to and watch him eat this little baby brandywine that just exploded with sugary sweetness when you bit into it was educational for me. fancy restaurants sometimes require the diner to possess a certain level of sophistication in order to 'get it'.

this one didn't. we all got it. anyone with tastebuds would've.

ok, on to the kobe.

we were served five different cuts of kobe beef seared and sliced and served in individual staub cast iron pans; a filet, a rib-eye, a ny strip, a flat iron steak, and a skirt.

the server explained that the default was med. rare and we didn't change it. the meat was served very simply, well-seasoned with salt and pepper, some had a bit of fresh herb--rosemary or thyme--and it was seared to a dark crusty exterior and properly cooked and rested before being sliced, so the interior was simply perfect. bright, bright pink, even red, but not at all raw.

the ribeye and the skirt were by far the best two cuts. rich, tender, melting, with a wonderful charred fatty flavor. this was also some of the freshest beef i've ever tasted. the ny was also really, really good. it reminded me of toro tuna, how the fat was layered into the meat. the filet was very tender, but, i thought, a bit bland, although i ate some of it right after eating some of the skirt, which is a cut that just fairly bursts with beefy flavor, so i think i may not have done it justice. should've started with the filet.

this is the kind of steak that makes it hard to eat steak anywhere else. knowing that steak can taste like this stuff will make it hard to order or cook steak for myself ever again. seriously. i was just downright blown away. again, i don't possess the adjectives to effectively relay my impressions. we all simply loved it.

the sides were very good as well. grilled aspargus, served simply tossed with butter and salt and pepper, green beans blanched, buttered, and almonded, pommes puree, as VI noted, were in the classic robuchon style with 'just enough potato to hold the butter together' (and seasoned correctly), buttery corn kernels popping with sweet freshness, and hen of the woods mushrooms pan seared.

the desserts were nearly identical to what VI described above, and were perhaps the only slight disappointment of the meal. but by that time we were so overwhelmingly impressed, and already stuffed, that it didn't matter. six scoops of ice cream/sorbet, two very creamy pucks of ny-style cheese cake, two melting chocolate cakes, and some sort of freshly-baked pull-apart brioche sticky bun thing with a caramel dipping sauce that the food runner called 'monkey bread'. interesting.

the best of the desserts was a fresh peach, sliced thinly. all summer i've bought peaches only to be disappointed by how hard they've all been. little did i know that i just had go to vegas and spend $200 on dinner to get a good peach. i knew they must still be growing peaches and allowing them to properly ripen--it's just that restaurants are getting all the good ones.

we had little shortbreads and white chocolate fudge squares for the miniardises, the wine my friend chose was a perfect accompanyment to the rich, rich beef, and we all ordered goofy stuff like frangelico and cuarenta y tres and sat there recounting what was certainly one of the better meals of my life.

i was very impressed by the steak, as i expected to be, but what most impressed me was the quality of the produce. craftsteak could easily order their produce from sysco and people would still pony up the big bucks for the kobe. the fact that they don't speaks volumes about them and what they're doing there.

i highly, highly recommend it.

re Craftsteak.

I took a business party of eight there two years ago. The sommelier staff was notably good. After consultation and a discussion wherein price counted, we were steered to an old vines grenache from Spain about $42 on the list. It was a bottle totally worthwhile drinking--full, slightly spicy, just what it should be to the nth degree. So with a little effort, the astronomical high-roller winelist can be easily navigated. (The dialogue is always the same: first, I read the list like an old man checking the morning stock market reports. Then, I ask to see the sommelier. When she comes over, I tell her what wines I enjoy, and what my price range is. Then I start asking about bottles on the list. Often, she responds with a 'reach' bottle, slightly beyond the target price range. This is almost always a terrific suggestion--as every wine list has sleepers in terms of value.)

As for the food, +1 re above with regards to the beef. Sides and apps all very high quality ingredients for what when in road warrior mode we refer to as a 'burnt meat joint'. i.e. a steak place is usually a safe bet. That said, the beef is what its all about. The rest can be had better elsewhere. Did not try dessert.

Would return in a heartbeat for a business dinner. Not so sure I would choose it for my wife and myself, she gets bored with mass quantities of beef.