Last week I was in Las Vegas, staying at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel for 4 nights and had a chance to eat at some great restaurants.
Saturday night I went to Fleming's Steakhouse with my uncle. It's off the strip in Summerlin, which is close to where he lives. For a chain restaurant, this place was really nice. The steaks were delicious and the service was unmatched. The atmosphere was beautiful and gave the space a warm, cozy feeling.
We started with the Lobster and Vegetable Tempura with red jalapeno pepper and soy-ginger sauces, Jumbo Lumo Crab Cakes with roasted red pepper and lime butter sauce and the Wicked Cajun BBQ Shrimp marinated with a flair of garlic and spices. All were quite good. I thought the shrimp dish was a bit disappointing. It came with 4 medium size shrimp swimming in a gratin dish of a creamy sauce. If I had known about the sauce, I would not have ordered it.
We all got steaks, a Filet Mignon (Main), Prime Ribeye and Prime Bone-In Ribeye. The steaks were perfectly seasoned and cooked to perfection. We ordered the string beans and mushrooms as the sides. These were perfect accoutrements to the steaks.
They have a large wine list with over a 100 wines by the glass. We stayed clear of dessert because we were so full, but the choices looked good.
Sunday I was lucky enough to have dinner with my other Uncle who, surprisingly, was in town for vacation! We went to Texas de Brazil, a chain Brazilian steakhouse. All in all, it's a decent place, but just be prepared to overeat. There is so much food and the meats are really delicious. You can't have a bad meal here. Needless to say, I fell into a meat coma as soon as I got home.
Monday was Valentines Day and I was lucky enough to spend it with my honey. We went to Nobu at the Hard Rock hotel. Nobu has been around for years and you know what to expect when you dine there. Of course, we had the Miso Black Cod, which was divine. Tons of rolls and sashimi. We were dissappointed with the lobster ceviche, which we were obsessed with at the Nobu in San Diego. The menu is a little different, but we were expecting a similar taste. Oh well. We have the recipe at home, so we'll make it one night for ourselves. The sake was delicious, we had the Nobu TK40, sweet and very refreshing. Very easy to drink. If you are in NY, Crush Wine sells it and has free delivery to all five boroughs.
Tuesday was quite a night. I had a 9:30pm reservation at STK in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Needless to say, this was the worst restaurant experience I've ever had. These were the most pretentious, obnoxious, rude and unprofessional people. I don't mind waiting 15 minutes for a reservation, but we didn't sit down until 10:45pm. No one at the host desk apologized, offered us a round of drinks, nothing. They just ignored us. When we finally sat down, the woman who sat us didn't even apologize. We had a very nice waiter who was apologetic even though it wasn't his fault. He got the "manager" for us and some guy named Josh came over, apologized and offered to "take care of us" during our dining experience. That never happened. Honestly, I don't want to waste anymore time writing about this place.
Wednesday was such a pleasant night. It was my last night in Vegas and I was going to one of my favorite places, Blue Ribbon Sushi, also located at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. They have one in Brooklyn and Manhattan, so I was very excited to try this one out. The service was top notch, the waiter was as nice as can be, handsome as well. As for the food, I had the Negamaki which just melted in your mouth, it was so delicious. The sashimi was great, as was the spicy lobster and Blue Ribbon roll. The Kanpachi Usuzukuri, which is sliced amberjack with yuzu pepper, was pefect. The yuzu pepper had the right amount of heat and the citrusy soy sauce it came with was divine. The end all was the Oxtail Fried Rice with daikon, shitake and bone marrow. It was perfectly cooked, almost creamy with the bone marrow.
