Las Vegas: Bouchon revisit, Studio B buffet

Wow, 2009 was a really shitty blogging year for me. I'm sorry, y'all. We'll see how I do in 2010.

Lots of really great things happened during the holiday rush... we went to the Sam Adams Utopias dinner, had a fun Thanksgiving with friends, traveled for almost every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, traveled some more for the holidays, and came home to... wisdom teeth extraction.

Yikes. Let's just say my first brush with anesthesia was uneventful. I was having an IV jammed into my hand, grimacing as the nurses tried to distract me by asking about my hobbies. The first thing that came to mind was cooking. I was talking about cooking and baking when I looked straight ahead and ostensibly blinked. Ostensibly. I happened to be looking out a window and closed my eyes... what seemed like a blink later, I opened them and realized the clouds were different. And the IV was gone. And the surgeon and one of the nurses were gone. Just one nurse. And D. Hey D.!

My literal first post-surgery words were, "Holy crap, it's done?!?!"

I was, as D. put it, way too gabby for someone who was just anesthetized. Gabby... and loopy. I stood up way too abruptly, waved way too gaily at the office staff on my way out, and yapped for a good 10 minutes about how surreal it all was. I might have drooled a little, too.

Anyway, that was a week ago and I think I might be one of the lucky few that have had a really uneventful wisdom teeth removal. Worst of the pain on the 3rd day, swelling that dissipated easily, and the ugliest part has been the blasted antibiotics. They're wreaking havoc with my GI tract. I'll leave it at that.

Since I've been eating lots of jello, soup, porridge, and other soft and semi-soft foods, let's look back to more glorious meals.

After Thanksgiving, our friends D.B and D.D. were headed to Vegas to run in the Las Vegas Rock-n-Roll Marathon. Good friends that they are, they invited us along and hooked us up with comped rooms. We were there for roughly 36 hours, but we ate like kings.

D.B. wanted to try the buffet at the M Casino and Resort. Top Chef fans should be pretty familiar with this place. I thought the buffet was pretty awesome. For one thing, it wasn't crowded.

Gorgeous gingerbread village... speaking of, Kim and Brett made an awesome gingerbread house. Check out her slideshow of the process.

 

The picture's a little blurry, but it's oxtail soup with a 5-spice broth. It's a bold move to include something like this in a buffet, where it may or may not appeal to a lot of palates. It was well-executed, with the oxtail perfectly cooked and the vegetables very tender. The broth was a little heavy with 5-spice, but it was flavorful.

All you can eat gelato... sigh.

Round one of my dessert course. The macarons were insanely perfect. I would have paid just for a buffet of macarons. The buffet will run about $25/person and it's a large and clean buffet with a great selection of food. Booze is also free, which is very nice, but don't expect a wide selection of wine and beer.

That night, while D.B. and D.D. rested up for the marathon, D. and I went back to our usual favorite: Bouchon. What do I order after a filling lunch? Duck confit followed by a gigantic ribeye on the bone. As our server put it, "Now, that's what a lady orders!"

He was teasing, but the duck confit was all business. Rich, moist, cooked in its own fat business. Oh, duck confit... how do I love thee...

Apologies for the grainy picture, but D. and I had just bought iPhones and we went nuts using them the first couple of weeks.

I've always ordered the daily special, which has been pork on my last two visits. This time it was beef and it seemed like it was prepared in a rush. For one thing, the ribeye was a little too rare. I like rare, but this almost mooed at me. The roasted parsnips were bland and the truffle risotto was blasting with butter. Some may argue that there's no such thing as too much truffle, but yes, this was a smidge too much. Additionally, I question the decision to pair a strong truffle risotto with more... fungus. I didn't know the type, but the roasted parsnips were served alongside lightly cooked mushrooms. They were clustered, like enokitakes, but the head looked a little like a straw mushroom. It had a fairly strong taste and, along with the truffle risotto, was a little too much.

It was a great pre-holiday trip. Thanks again to D.B. and D.D. for the invite!

Studio B Buffet

12300 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Henderson, NV 89044

Bouchon

3355 Las Vegas Blvd S

Las Vegas, NV 89109

The Buffet at the Wynn

I've enjoyed Vegas buffets my entire life. What I love most is that the standards keep getting higher and higher, with each new casino trying to out-do the previous one. When the buffets went upscale, I was willing to pay for it. Maybe I'm a sucker, but for what they're putting out nowadays, the $40 price tag is still quite decent. Plus, buffets indulge my indecisiveness and gluttony.

My current favorite is The Buffet at Wynn. Guess they couldn't come up with anything more creative for a name.

The dishes tend to run a bit on the higher-end side, with offerings such as New Zealand rack of lamb and quail. My first plate started with shrimp cocktail, which was filled with gorgeous, perfectly-poached shrimp and tart cocktail sauce. No smelly and/or scrawny shrimp from this pile. They have an Indian food area, so I picked up some basmati rice with golden raisins and almonds. The aforementioned quail is to the right. It was a bit dry, but I love quail. It has a mild gaminess that makes it a bit more musky than dark meat on a chicken. The middle was a slice of lamb tenderloin, which was quite good. I don't know where they found the corn, but it was very sweet. Can't wait until summer when we have piles of corn at the farmer's market.

To the left of the corn cob is one of the best items at the buffet. It's pastrami swordfish and it was very well-executed. The tougher sportfish was tenderized by the preparation and still retained the deep and pungent flavor typical of swordfish. Above it is grilled sole, which paled in comparison. At the top of the plate was a spicy salmon handroll (fresh, but boring), a small baguette (too tough), seaweed salad (good), and edamame (good palate cleanser).

My second plate was a little more reserved, because I was saving precious stomach space for dessert.

The rack of lamb was perfectly seasoned with a paprika rub. It was literally finger-lickin' good. The meat in the center is beef ribeye, which was a little overcooked. I don't normally eat crab legs, but they were there, so I decided to have a couple. They were ok. More shrimp cocktail, another hand roll, and more swordfish pastrami. The baguette carried over from the previous plate. The cheesy, crusty blob next to the ribeye is eggplant parmesan, which was decent.

The dessert spread at this buffet is amazing. I regret not taking a picture of the serving area.

To the far left is a caramel eclair, with smooth and almost salty caramel in the middle. Excellent! The creme brulee (front) was too runny, but tasted pretty good. The cup at the top contained green tea mousse with a crust of white chocolate. Very, very good. The mousse was light and flavorful. Key lime pie, which was tart and moist, is to the right of the mousse. The ice cream was great, with the coffee (lighter brown) being made in-house. I love coffee ice cream when it packs a hard punch and this did.

What a meal... if a Vegas buffet needs to be visited, it should be the Wynn's buffet.

THE BUFFET at Valley View Casino

D. wanted to head to Valley View on Friday night. He had free buffets and wanted to redeem them. D.B. joined us for the trip out. Granted, I did vow to lose weight and reduce eating out, but it's a free buffet. C'mon, I'd be crazy to say no.

Valley View's buffet has always been good, but the quality of the food has declined as the casino grew and the buffet became more popular. Our visit on Friday finds the buffet in its new permanent home. The facility is very nice, but somehow still not big enough.



I started with a few general photos, then asked if I could photograph the sushi station. The sushi, while not the highest quality, was fresh and very nicely arranged. My hopes for a photo, however, were dashed by a very skittish staffer. She literally freaked on me and ran away. Said she'd ask a supervisor and never re-emerged. Not the most professional response, but I guess they must have concerns about competitive casinos "spying" on them. Granted, if I were a spy, a direct question may not be the best way to obtain photos.

However, I do have a couple of photos. Here's a general shot of the buffet. The chocolate fountains are a nice touch.



My favorite part of the buffet is that they serve Dreyer's ice cream. None of that soft serve BS.



Since it was a bit awkward taking pictures around the buffet, I took photos of my plates. The first started with salmon nigiri, a tuna hand roll, shrimp cocktail, marshmallow-topped mashed sweet potatoes, beef and broccoli (yeah, yeah, I know), and fried rice.

The nigiri is ok, but for what it is, it's surprisingly good. The hand roll was nothing special. Let's move to the special stuff. I have a special love for roasted marshmallows. I hate them uncooked, but a little heat and yum: instant happiness. Valley View serves roasted marshmallows on mashed sweet potatoes. Perfectly done, they're very comforting and I always have to have a big heap of them.

I always have a little faux-Chinese at buffets, hence the fried rice and beef/broccoli. The b/b was serviceable and the fried rice was undercooked. How in the world is rice undercooked nowadays? Malfunctioning rice cooker?

One of the best features of The Buffet is the ubiquitous shrimp cocktail. Gorgeous, fresh, and peeled medium-sized shrimp are always used at Valley View. The shrimp is fantastic without cocktail sauce, which is my standard for good shrimp cocktail.



Plate #2 involved more nigiri and a salmon hand roll, which was the same as the tuna. There was also unagi (saltwater eel), which was ok. I tried the gnocchi, which set off alarms when I spooned it on to my plate. The gnocchi clinked as it hit the plate! True to the sound, they were rocks. Inedible.

I had a half lobster, which was done very well. Cooked to perfection, I went to town digging out every little morsel of meat. What was even better was they left the "paste" (per Mom's description), which is the dark, gooey matter that is... innards? If there was roe, they left that, too. Those two are the most flavorful parts of crustaceans, so there is no point in throwing it out. Yet, many people miss out because it looks kind of gross. Too bad.

In the middle of the plate was salmon topped with pineapple salsa. One big filet of salmon was lightly roasted, then topped with the fresh and tart salsa. D.B. really enjoyed it and I agree the fish was cooked beautifully, but I didn't care for the salsa. I thought it was too tart for salmon.



Desserts at Valley View are good. Classic, decently-made desserts that are very nice, but not overly threatening to those who don't want to go beyond basics. They've improved on their creme brulee. It was very light and bland before, but it's much more of a weighty custard now.



Despite the pallid color of the crust, it was solid all around the ramekin. I don't understand why they choose to top it with whipped cream, but it's easily removable.

D. had a chocolate sundae with a rice krispy treat, followed by strawberry angel food cake. Their angel food cake has been dry on past visits, but it's a decent dessert with the strawberries on top.





They also had chocolate crepes, but I noticed that the crepes are pre-made, and a staffer heats them up in a pool of butter beforehand. Sure, it helps with the taste, but my arteries clogged after eating it. Yes... that's granulated sugar on top. Not the best.



Dreyer's pistachio is one of my favorite ice creams, but I can't seem to find it in stores here. At best, I find it in Dreyer's spumoni, which is very good. Pistachio goes really well with chocolate.



Valley View went from very good to pretty good. Since it's free, I think it's fabulous. Would I pay for it? Probably not. The cost of the buffet has risen, but quality has dropped significantly.