Umami Goes Vegas (2010): Day 1: Bouchon

Thomas Keller's Bouchon is just about Umami's favorite restaurant in Vegas. It's French bistro food, so it's accessible in a way that other high powered  restaurant fare is not. Consider their roast chicken, "Poulet Rôti." It's a perfectly roasted chicken (look at the color on that skin!), with fennel bulbs, mission figs, sunchokes & chicken jus.  Nothing really fancy about the dish, just excellence!  Hawaii diners, though, will note the lack of a starch with the dish (Umama certainly did), but, this being a French bistro, there is always bread!

Speaking of which, this is the bread . . . wonderfully crusty with a little crock of butter and roasted pistachios. 

Umami finally got to try absinthe!  He had never tried it before, but fortunately had a very helpful waiter, who asked if Umami had tried ouzo or sambuca (Umami has), since absinthe has a similar strong anise flavor.  The little carafe on the left is plain water.  The metal bowl has ice and a sugar cube, and holes in the bottom to allow the chilled sugar water to mix with the absinthe in the glass.

When the sugar water hits the absinthe, certain botanicals (such as the anise, fennel, star anise) that are not water soluble come out of solution and make the absinthe cloudy. Some absinthes are green (hence the nickname, "la fée verte" (the Green Fairy)).

The anise flavor is almost brutally strong, but Umami liked it that way and therefore didn't dilute it very much.  Actually, he only used enough water at a time to chill the drink.

As an apertif, absinthe is also supposed to be an appetite stimulant.  In that respect, it certainly worked!

This is Umami's main course, Top Sirloin Steak on Black Wild Rice, Sweet Corn, infused with Lobster jus and pieces of Lobster Meat. The steak was perfectly cooked (of course), but the real star of this dish was the wild rice/corn/lobster combination. There's the slight nuttiness and crunch of the wild rice, the sweetness of the corn and lobster; it was an excellent combination, and one that Umami had never tried before. So good, it may be the best thing ever!  Not a regular menu item, which is maybe just as well, because if it were, Umami would order it every time!

Gnocchi with olives, tomatoes, and herbs.  Again, very simple, but beautifully executed.  A little salty from the olives, and very rich, but Umami was still good to go from the absinthe and so managed to finish a good amount of this dish too!

Lemon tart ("Tarte au Citron").  Incredibly zesty and light, basically an intense lemon custard.   Also in the picture, a profiterole, which comes with a little boat of chocolate sauce (not to be confused with hot fudge sauce).

Finally, bouchons ("corks" because they look like corks) with two ice creams and a raspberry sorbet.    The bouchons smell like brownies and taste like chocolate cake, so a combination of the best of both desserts.  The ice creams were okay, one was peanut butter, the other non-memorable.  But that raspberry sorbet was awesome, full of raspberry flavor, and surprisingly creamy, it was more like an ultrasmooth ice cream.

There are certainly cheaper places to eat, but what's the fun in that?  You go to Vegas to live a little and that includes splurging on a meal you're not going to eat everyday.  And Bouchon is fine place to splurge!

Bouchon
The Venetian Resort-Hotel-CasinoVenezia Tower (to the right as you face the registration desk)
3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.414.6200
Reservations can also be made online through OPEN TABLE.