Las Vegas: Bouchon, Part Deux

D. and I went to Vegas for the weekend of New Year's Day and decided we would dine at Bouchon again. With all of the dining options in Vegas, we could have tried tons of new places, but we wanted to revisit the restaurant where we celebrated our engagement. Sentimental? Sure, but let us not forget that the food was excellent.

The ambiance was perfect, service was excellent, and the food was great. I'd have to say it wasn't as memorable as last time, but it was still incredible. We started with the beignets de brandade de morue, which were fried balls (beignets) of a puree of salt cod, salt, and milk (brandade). Each beignet was served on a little piece of tomato confit and topped with crispy fried sage. Fried fish will never be better than this.

We knew our meal would be heavy, so we ordered frisee aux lardons et oeuf poche, or a salad of frisee, bacon pieces, and a poached egg.

This was simple, but extremely flavorful. Topped with a bacon sherry vinaigrette and a slice of toasted brioche, it was a perfect combination of hearty and refreshing. I've been meaning to duplicate this at home, but haven't had a chance to. If you don't like vegetables, pieces of bacon and a dressing made of bacon fat should help them go down easily.

For entrees, we both admit to wanting to duplicate our previous experience. D. had the steak frites again, which came with an enormous pile of perfectly fried frites. I ordered the special, which was a lot like my entree from the first visit. Beautifully braised pork shank on top of chard, butternut squash puree, and fried polenta sticks.

The pork was falling off the bone and very rich, but the whole dish lacked depth. Not a lot of strong flavors outside of the meat itself. It could have been a seasoning issue.

I had a massive craving for chocolate that night, so we ordered chocolate mousse. It arrived with a side of "cats' tongues", crisp butter cookies that paired perfectly with the mousse. At $8, I thought it was really overpriced, but that became even more obvious when I realized that the recipes for the mousse and the cookies were available in the Bouchon cookbook. A month later, I made a huge bowl of the mousse for less than $8.

Overall, a good visit. We'd definitely visit again... although we might diversify from pork and beef.

Bouchon
Venetian Resort, Venezia Tower Ste 10101
3355 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109