Kitchen

The $250 fee was for the privilege to sit in the chefs table. I did find the fee overpriced but definitely one of the if not the nicest chefs table I've ever dined at, plus the executive chef presents each course.

The best part about the chefs table is meeting all of the kitchen staff from dishwasher to pastry chef, makes you appreciate how a well run brigade works to make your experience as memorable as possible.

HI ellenost! Went to Vegas last June and took your advice on e by Jose Andres and Joel Robuchon; although, we also ate at Guy Savoy, Aburiya Raku, and Twist, I felt e and JB were just a notch above the other 3.

I am planning a solo trip to NY in mid-May for about a week, and I would really appreciate 3 recommendations. I will also be dining solo and my budget is around $200 tops for a meal. I also plan to stay by Greenwich Village.

thanks

ps. there was no way of sending private messages in Chow, if you would like to respond by email lsdc86@gmail.com

Just got back from a 5 night 6 day culinary trip to Las Vegas and my Gf and I who are both chefs definitely had a very memorable experience.

Day 1
After only getting a couple hours of sleep the night before for our 7:30 am flight out of calgary, we landed in Vegas at 2:30pm with a stopover in San Francisco. We were very tired at this point with myself even more with only 2 hrs of sleep.

We get to the palazzo at around 3:30pm and the hotel is beautiful, check in was fast and easy and we got an upgrade to a 43rd floor suite with a view just by asking, no $20 trick needed. By the way palazzo and Venetian has a smell that I did not like and gave me a headache, Aria had the nicest smell out of all hotels we checked out, a nice vanilla smell.

We had a 5:30 reso for Guy Savoy so after we unpacked we started to get ready. We start heading to Caesars at 4:45 and I wore a suit and my lady wore a dress. This was a mistake as I was soaked in my own sweat after walking a block lol.

We head up to the 2nd floor of the Augustus tower to Guy Savoy and was immediately greeted by a beautiful hostess named Ilona, this was also the same woman that I kept contact with when I planned the chefs table with a custom 14 course menu based on the inspiration/innovation menu.

After a quick walk thru of the restaurant we were shown to our table in the kitchen. We were greeted by the chef Mathieu Chartron, the GM Alain Alpe, sommelier Phil Park and our server David.

The sommelier brought over the vey huge wine list which comes with its own stand but we rejected as we already knew what to order, a bottle of egly-ouriet rose.

After the chef presented us with our own personalized menus, the meal slowly started.

Canapés
Foie Gras club sandwich on metal toothpicks(foie in between brioche with a hint of vinegar and salt, very tasty and lots of foie flavor, the vinegar and the salt was a great balance of flavors)

Parmesan waffle (very cheesy and just ok)

Beef tar tar slider on metal toothpicks (by far the best slider I have ever had)

Bread cart
Simply amazing to look at lots of choices and the bread boy offered a bread for each course but we declined due to the number of dishes we have coming. We opted to just get a sampling of each bread and the ones we tried were very good and fresh but not heated up like Robuchon, butter was just Ok the butter at Twist by Pierre Gagnaire was the best butter we have ever tried.

Amuse bouche
Famous artichoke and truffle soup with mushroom and truffle brioche (soup was surprisingly light and the brioche was good)

1st course
“Concassé” of Oysters, Seaweed, Lemon Granité for GF (her favourite course)

"Peas all around" for myself (very good and very refreshing)

2nd course
Santa Barbara Spot Prawn “Caught” in Sweet and Sour Fishnet
(I didnt like this as much as my GF but I'm not a fan of prawns, nice presentation though)

3rd course
White Asparagus and Caviar, Smoked Sabayon for GF (she thought this was excellent and very cool presentation with the sabayon in an uncracked egg shell)

"colors of caviar" for myself (very interesting and tasty but you have to like caviar to enjoy)

4th course
“Marinated-Grilled” Hamachi,
Aged Sherry Vinegar, Radish Gelée, Eggplant Purée (GF liked it but I didnt, too tart for my taste and the fish had a weird texture, very beautiful plating)

5th course
Salmon Iceberg - slices of salmon cold seared on dry ice with bok choy and chervil gelee and citrus then topped off with very hot vegetable stock flavoured with lemongrass to slightly cook the salmon. Chef said the dry ice was used just to change the texture of the fish. (very good and amazing presentation)

6th course
Foie-Gras “Bitter Infusion” for GF- a tea pot with beets, tea and other aromatics was brewed in front of us 10 min before the dish was served. Then the tea was poured over a generous slice of nicely seared foie gras. (she thought this was just ok and actually preferred my foie dish)

Seared Dices of Foie Gras with Horseradish,“Braised-Grilled” Celery Stalk Serpentines, Potato Chips Bouillon for my self (very delicious and the broth actually smelled and tasted like potato chips, very very rich)

7th course
Lobster Bordelaise, Raw and Cooked Hearts of Palm - one claw and half a tail, lobster slightly over cooked to my liking but the bordelaise was outstanding. We were getting full at this point but good nonetheless.

8th course
Crispy Veal Sweetbreads, Morels and Asparagus- very rich dish but my favorite, GF did not like it as much but maybe due more to the fact she was getting full. It taste like crispy chicken nuggets lol.

9th course
Guinea Hen “en Cocotte”, Basmati Rice and Albufera Jus
Bird cooked in pigs bladder ( we substituted the wagyu course for this one as we heard the presentation was amazing, unfortunately they didn't have any pigs bladder in house and had to use a Dutch oven. This was the most moist bird I have ever had but the flavors were just ok, lots of foie and truffle flavors, very very rich in fact it was so rich that my GF joked about almost throwing up. We were absolutely stuffed at this point good thing it was the last savory course, we couldn't even finish the dish)

10th course
Fine cheeses - they roll along a cart full of French cheeses, we asked for a sample of each even though we were stuffed. The ones I remember the most was the delicious compte and a super stinky soft cow cheese. They also offered compotes, jams and honey with the cheeses.

11th course
"sunny side up" looks like a sunny side up egg but is actually Greek yogurt as the white and mango as the yolk served with a thin slice of brioche, very good and very cool.

12th course
"exotic" a play on the colors of caviar, avocado and pineapple caviar(excellent dessert, we both loved it)

13th course
"Chocolate" a quenelle of very rich and dark chocolate sorbet, very good.

14th course
Mignardises cart - all the petit fours we tried were delicious and they refill it for each table. Simply amazing presentation.

Every dish was made a la minute besides the guinea hen which was very nice.

GF got coffee and I got English breakfast tea to end the meal.

Bill was $1200 including a $250 fee for chefs table. Tasting menu was $350pp and the bottle of egly-ouriet was $180. With tip our total came to $1450 by far the most expensive meal we have ever had an almost double what we paid at Twist, Robuchon and e by Jose. We both felt though that chefs table at Guy Savoy was the most unique and best dining experience we have ever had with e by Jose a close second.

After taking pictures with the chef and thanking and shaking the hands of everyone in the kitchen and front of house, we were given a bag with 2 individual blueberry cakes and some candy with our personalized menus signed by the chef.

We had the blue man group show to catch at 10 pm so we left around 9:30, I'd say 4 hrs was a very comfortable pace. Halfway through the show I was falling asleep, no fault of the show we  were just very full and tired. Very good, interesting and fun show. IMO This show is more suited for a younger crowd as its a very loud and interactive show, the older couple who sat beside us who seemed to be in their 50s or 60s were not enjoying themselves at all. After the show we were very tired so we went back to the palazzo and got ready for bed at around 12:30am

Actually I remember the host saying the regular pairing is the spanish pairing, drinks exclusive only to Spain and the premium one is the global pairing.

Nothing much I'm guessing just more expensive drinks but probably same amount of pairings. They give a drink pairing per 3-4 courses.

It was $195pp and we shared a regular alcoholic pairing and a non alcoholic pairing. We also got 4 bottles of inedit beer to take home and our total was $857, they automatically add a 20% gratuity on the bill with an option to tip more.

The regular alcoholic pairing was $130 and the premium is $300, the non alcoholic pairing im not sure how much I'm guessing $60. They were very generous in the alcoholic pairing, we shared and they just kept topping us off, we were tipsy by the end.

Jose andres was also at the restaurant and we got him right on time to get a picture before he left for the airport.

I don't remember having foie gras at e, but the foie at GS was outstanding.

Had e by Jose tonight and it was absolutely amazing!!!

Had Guy Savoy, Raku, Twist, and Joel Robuchon as well

And if I had to put it in order when it comes to food,

1. E by Jose
2. Guy Savoy/Joel Robuchon (although the truffled langoustine dish at JR was probably the best dish I have ever had in my life)
3. Raku
78.Twist

Will write a detailed review when I get home tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy e because we absolutely loved it.

Had GS a couple days ago and had twist last night, GS IMO is far superior to twist. Although GS was double the price, the food and service was way better.

We had the chefs table with a custom 14 course menu and we both absolutely loved it and felt it was worth the price. Caveat the dishes are very rich towards the end of the savory courses, lots of foie, butter and caviar.

Twist on the other hand we both felt was the biggest waste of money so far in our trip. The meal cost is a little over $700 with a bottle of champagne and we opted to order a la crte as we knew the a la carte dishes would be a little more extravagant than the tasting. Each dish came with at least 2 component and my gf and I who are both chefs found the combinations not that great, fusion! More like confusion! The flavored were not great and the components did not go well with each other. Service was a step below GS. The best part of our meal were the canapés and the butter, and we also ordered 4 apps to share and 4 mains to share and 2 desserts. Nothing was mind blowing in fact we did not like anything and had to force the food down.

Go for GS or le cirque instead skip twist.

Would you recommend going a la carte, I have heard the kaiseki and omakase are wonderful but we want to be able to try as many things as possible. Ordering a la care seems more appropriate considering what we want to do.

I have reservations for both Guy Savoy (chefs table) and Twist next week, I'll let you know how it goes if you'd like?

I agree with ellenost that after seeing Guy Savoy through pictures that it looks almost boring, good thing they have a chefs table though which looks like it could be a unique experience. It is mandatory to have a chefs menu when dining at the chefs table, for $350pp you can have a custom 13-14 course menu.

Twist on the other hand has a much nicer interior IMO, and they also were very accommodating when I wanted to set up a custom menu instead of the regular 3 or 6 course tasting menu.

Le cirque gets great reviews on any food website and while we did consider le cirque we ended up choosing Twist instead because of the interesting experience and view from the 23rd floor of the mandarin hotel.

I think no matter which you choose you will be happy with your decision.

Keep in mInd though that Guy Savoy will run you between $600-$1000+ depending on which tasting you decide on.

Twist will be a lot less in the $500-$700 range

Raku for something different but make sure to make reservations.

Hi there,

Gf and I will be in Vegas in 2 weeks for 5 nights and have dInner resos for chefs table Guy Savoy, Raku, Twist, Joel Robuchon, and e by Jose in that order.

We decided that we will only have 2 meals a day breakfast/lunch and dinner. With the exception of Raku we are having tasting menus at the other 4 restaurants.

Guy Savoy and Twist were very accommodating when I wanted a customized menu and when I wanted to substitute items from the a la carte menu to the tasting.

I suggest looking at menus and see which one excites you, these places want your money and are willing to the extra mile to make you happy.

I'll report back in a few weeks on how our meals went.

I think you should do Guy Savoy, Twist, E by Jose andres, and Joel Robuchon.... In that order!

If you can't decide they are more than willing to make a custom menu for you.

I have setup a custom menu for my guest an I, the menu is based on the inspiration/innovation menu but since I wanted to try some of their classic dishes I subbed out some new dishes for a few signature dishes. Guest is having the menu as is, which is a good thing that way we can sample as many dishes as possible.

Email or call Guy Savoy and you will speak with a wonderful woman named Ilona, she was a big help. We have reservation in mid June for the chefs table.

That sounds amazing, girlfriend has a sweet tooth and she is most excited for the desserts and mignardises cart. I think we will take your advice and either get the 4 or 6 course so we can indulge on the carts.

I have read reviews online about the degustation and and people really enjoyed it with around 4 hours, with 1 review saying they spent almost 5 1/2 enjoying the degustation.

$350 for the 6-course with the supplementary charges before tax and tip is getti awfully close to $425.

I keep thinking to myself that even though the 16 course might be a lot of food, the $425 price tag seems like a bargain when you consider the extra charges.

I have also read reviews that said the prixe fixe portions and a la carte portions are pretty much the same and that it is bigger if not double the size compared to the degustation portions. Add in the fact that degustation menu is completely different than the a la carte and the prixe fixe menu, its very enticing to have.

Time is the only thing I am really worried about. I reserved about 4 hours for our custom 16 course at Guy Savoy and I still feel that might not be enough for the reason that we are sitting at the chefs table. Interaction with the chefs and watching the magic happen can easily add time to our dinner.

It seems like everybody in Vegas has their own version of the sphere dessert(hot liquid poured on top to melt the sphere). I know for a fact that Guy Savoy and Le Cirque have different version of it on their menu.

We really want to decide in advance what kind of menu to have at Robuchon as we don't want to be spending/wasting a lot of time there deciding what to get. As much as we want to see peepshow we are willing to sacrifice being late for that show to be able to fully enjoy robuchon.

What a great dilemma to have lol

How much did the 6-course meal end up costin you with the supplementary charges?

We were really set on having the 6-course but considering we are going all out at Guy Savoy we might as well do the same at Robuchon.

3 1/2 hours might not be enough to enjoy the degustation and we do have show reservations after, so being overly stuffed is something we want to avoid.

We also do have healthy appetites but I feel if we decide on the degustation that we might not be able to fully enjoy the bread and mignardises carts. We're very open minded when it comes to food and as chefs I believe our pallets are refined enough to be able to appreciate any dish.

I'm definitely leaning towards the 6-course but girlfriend is saying that we should just decide once we are there and have seen the menu, because unlike Guy Savoy; Robuchon changes his menus often.

We have reservations for Robuchon in June and was wondering if the degustation is worth the little extra money over the 6-course prixe fixe?

Our reservation is at 5:30 but we have show resos at Planet Hollywood for 9:30, I realize that with some of the choices on the prixe fixe menu it comes with a supplementary of up to $60. With the 6-course costing $240/pp and the degustation at $425/pp, is the price difference worth it and would 3 1/2 hours be enough for us to enjoy the full degustation?

We are doing LOS for one of the lunches, we also have la cave at the Wynn for lunch as well.

Have not heard much about country club though I have heard great things about tableau.

I have no doubt that it might end up being a mistake choosing twist over le cirque, but it is LV and we are gambling on chef Ryuki of twist at the helm for his first seasonal menu. I originally had le cirque for the 3rd day instead of Raku, but after securing the chefs table and a custom menu at guy savoy, for the sake of my wallet I decided to skip le cirque.

Raku seemed like the logical choice as 3 of the five establishments are French.

After looking at pictures we also felt the atmosphere and ambiance of Twist is more suited for us(mid-20's couple)

Haha yes, I didn't even mean to have them together but they both just fell in place together.

THe combination of 3 Michelin stars and topless burlesque just seems too good to be a coincidence lol

Will definitely report back!

On the menu there is a wagyu course and as I stated before we eat and cook plenty of prime bee here in Calgary, so I asked this wonderful lady named Ilona who has been the biggest help in reserving the chefs table and making our custom menu to sub out our wagyu course with the guinea hen "en cocotte"? To share, Which is a whole bird cooked in a pigs bladder.

They are very accommodating when it comes to substitutions as she happily accepted when I asked if I could sub the sweetbreads, peas all around, foie gras-bitter infusion, and colors of caviar for the oysters, prawn in fishnet, seared foie gras cubes, and white asparagus with caviar. Only for my menu tho as the girlfriend is satisfied with the inspiration/innovation menu.

I have stumbled upon a review I believe it is by kevineats, and he reported that because it was his second time going to Guy Savoy they gladly offered him substitutions.

If our meal goes well at Savoy you should definitely go back and sub out/in the dishes that you might not like and what you liked before.

It was very hard to pass on Sage and Le Cirque because of your reports. I am guessing you had the menu elegance when you dined at Savoy which is heavy on his signature dishes.
The main reason we decided on Savoy is because of the new menu called the "inspiration/innovation" which features new and totally different dishes.

Sage was more easily replaceable than Le Cirque, we chose to do Joel Robuchon because the food and service albeit twice more expensive is on another level compared.

If not for the menu change, Le Cirque would be occupying our first night dinner but seeing as they are both French haute cuisine we had to choose one over the other. Also as chefs I believe the chefs table would be the more interesting choice.

Watching chefs of that caliber will not only be pleasing to our eyes but it should serve as an inspiration for us in regards to cooking.

3 weeks till our Vegas culinary trip and after many long nights salivating over menus I have finalized our dinner reservations.

So much for traveling the world in 5 nights, more like Paris, Paris and more Paris then Japan then Spain :)

thank you everybody for your opinions but after a few weeks of making this thread, as much as we wanted to do Le Cirque and Sage we have eliminated them from our 5 night culinary trip.

We decided that because this might be the only time we will ever go to Vegas as we are not much of gamblers or clubbing-type, that we should just go for it!

Day 1

arrive 3:30pm Palazzo

Guy Savoy 5:30 Chef's table custom menu for 2

Blue Man Group 10:00

Day 2

Joel Robuchon at the Mansion 5:30

Peepshow 9:30

-we would love to have the full on 16 course degustation but I feel 3 1/2 hours would feel a little rushed, so we might choose the 6 course prixe fixe.

Day 3

Ka 7:00

Raku Grill 9:00 will order mostly a la carte and off the daily specials menu

Day 4

Mystere 7:00

Twist by Pierre Gagnaire 9:30

-we chose Twist over Le Cirque because June 20th is the day Chef Ryuki will launch his first seasonal menu as the new Chef de Cuisine of Twist, and we are excited to see what he can do!

Day 5

e by Jose Andres 8:30 show

this definitely put us way above our planned $500 dinner/night, but in a place where money is not an issue, we might as well take the plunge and indulge.

We decided not to plan anything for breakfast or lunch as we did not want to be on schedule too much, but all I know is that lunches/breakfast will have to be more on the affordable side as to compensate for the extravagant dinners.

I'm so happy I have reservations for Le Cirque for my upcoming trip.

Going to Robuchon, Raku, Twist, "e", but most excited for Le cirque as it it the one that has steadily been improving in reviews. Been planning for this culinary trip for about a month now and Le Cirque is consistently pumping out 5-star reviews as oppose to the other four.

p.s. I'll be wearing a suit and the girlfriend will be wearing an evening dress :)

Hey everyone,

Gf and I have planned a culinary trip to Vegas for 5 nights, we have are reservation for Le Cirque, Sage, Raku, and e by Jose Andres. We need one more option in the $500 range including tips, we do not drink so that should enable us to splurge more on food.

We are both chefs who have done research on what type of food and experience we will have in Twist and Joel Robuchon. I'm leaning more towards Twist for the experimental and daring factor, while the Gf prefers to dine at JR for the upscale factor(limo ride, bread and mignardises cart).

If it makes any difference we are going to order a la carte at Twist(1 soup, 2 app, 3 mains, 1 dessert) all to share. While if we decide to do JR we are hoping to do the 4 course prix fixe menu(2 apps, 1 main, 1 dessert) we plan to choose different dishes per each course so we can try and share as many dishes as we can.

If you consider the restaurants we have resos for, none of them have the "wow" factor that Joel Robuchon provides. This is my Gf argument, but I really want to see what Twist is all about. Twist also has a new chef de cuisine as pascal Sanchez is leaving to start his own restaurant in France. I would love to see what Ryuki Kawasaki can do on his own. Ryuki has also worked for Robuchon for 4 years.

I guess we can just do a coin flip but I thought I might get some opinions first.

Ryuki Kawasaki takes over as the new chef of Twist.

http://vegas.eater.com/archives/2012/...

Anyone have info on this guy, will be dining there in about a month and a half. That should be enough time to wrinkle out all the kinks.

Interesting, I guess a list no matter how recognized should not be able to decide what is the "best". Everybody on the pelligrino committee and everyone on the web all have different opinions on what is considered best.

I will try and take each opinions with a grain of salt when it comes to restaurants because just like opinions, taste/pallete can differ from person to person.

Greats points that makes it a lot easier to understand why it was ignored. If you also factor in the cost for a meal at these places it is not very tourist friendly, let alone local friendly.

We have saved up $2500 for food alone for our 5 day Vegas culinary trip, gf and I are both chefs so we do actually have to save up for sometime in order to splurge like this. Your point about not having top end talents workin in the kitchen due to limited business is very convincing. Not a lot of people can afford to dine at these places due to Vegas mark up, and not a lot of people will think that a $500 dinner is worth saving up for.

Vegas is regarded as a culinary destination so there is business from the foodies that embark to Vegas for a culinary adventure like us.