Thursday, October 8, 2009

Day 2 in Vegas

After a good nights sleep ( I must have been really needing to sleep) by the time we got out of our room it was about 11:00am.. how convenient, lunch time! I had heard that Chef Kerry Simon had a restaurant at The Palms. We caught a cab and headed over there. Simon is located at Palm Place an addition to the Palms Casino which has condos, suites and a spa. It is beautiful over there but walking through the "tube" from the casino is kind of spooky. It is quite a distance down long halls and some of it pretty dimly lit, I guess for ambiance. We and the cleaning lady were the only ones that day in any part of the tube.
Simon is a bright airy space, modern decor which over looks the pool area which is quite pretty.
Unfortunately, since it is such a long distance from the main casino, apparently it is not overly popular. This is the only restaurant on this side while the casino has at least 6 or more so why would anyone come over to this side. Our waitress said at lunch the do a pretty good business but when we were there, there was us and another table with 2 people. She also said that Sunday brunch does a good business usually and it sounds fun, it is suggested you wear you PJ's. She said dinner usually bombed which is sad since the food is very good. Simon serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and has a nice sushi bar. Today I started with a Mimosa and Charlie had his Margarita. I started with sushi, 2 pieces of Yellowtail sushi which was excellent. Very fresh fish and rice which was not too hard like some places. It was a great start. I had the Lobster Quesadilla and Charlie had the Chicken Caesar as our lunch entrees.The Lobster Quesadilla..tortilla filled with chunks of lobster, Jack Cheese, Green Chilies with sour cream, guacamole, and a chipotle (?)chili salsa
Classic Caesar with Chicken
The quesadilla was very flavorful, a huge warm soft tortilla filled with lots of cheese, lobster chunks, chilies with all the accompaniments. Charlie declared his caesar the best he's had. He said normally the grilled chicken is dry and hard but this one was cooked perfectly and was juicy and well flavored. He said it was so good, just raved about it. I would like to try this place for dinner, the menu looks good. I hope it is still here when we come back. It's a great place.part of the tube to Palm Place

After lunch we walked back to the main casino to try my luck with the slots (Charlie doesn't gamble) which of course was not so great. We cabbed our way back to the strip and went to Harrah's to buy tram tickets then went for a ride around the strip on the tram. We then got back off at Harrah's and did a walk through there then walked back to Bally's. Charlie took a nap while I headed out again to the Miracle Mile shopping mall. I thought I'd try to find my granddaughters something, but there was nothing different or unusual. I walked around a little more then headed back to rest my poor feet and rest up for dinner..this was an eating vacation.
Tonight we headed back to the Palazzo to Wolfgang Puck's Cut.




Ok, Wolfgang Puck, he has several restaurants in Vegas, this I think being his newest. It is a steak house, right up Charlie's alley. We stopped in the bar for a drink before dinner.. nice bar area, tables and also a long cushioned bench seating against one wall with tons of nice cushy pillows. We were at one end of the bench so I had a whole stack of pillows, I felt like I should just put my feet up and stretch out. We waited and waited and waited, no service. Charlie said this was OK because then we wouldn't spend so much money on drinks. This was true but ridiculous, here waiters were walking back and forth serving people who were eating dinner in the bar. One guy even said hello to us but no one came by. Finally I had Charlie go up to the bar and order a drink, not so much that I wanted one I wanted to see if they would say anything..Nope. About 5 minutes before our reservation time I went up to the front desk to let them know we were there. I asked the hostess if they didn't have bar service, told her we'd been sitting there for about 20 minutes with no service and had to finally order ourselves. She said she didn't see us come in and she was sorry and would send someone right over. Well, someone came by, she was picking up dirty glasses from other tables..came to ours picked up our glasses and as an after thought asked if we wanted another round.. just because, we said yes. Not a good start I didn't think. Shortly after that we were told our table was ready. The hostess did ask if someone came over to take drink orders. We were seated in the dining room which was elegant with beautiful lighting, contemporary, very stylish. We first were brought and amuse bouche of 2 Gougeres, little puffs of cheese.. delicious little bite. We were brought our menus and what a menu it was. Cut has a selection of beef: USDA Prime Illinois Corn fed aged 21 days, USDA Prime Nebraska corn fed aged 35 days, American Waygu/Angus "Kobe style" from Snake River Farms, Idaho, True Japanese 100% Waygu beef from Saga Prefecture, Kyushu Japan. Whew! lots of choices and that's only the beef. We were served a choice of different breads, I chose the pretzel bread which was delicious, we also started with Ahi Tuna Tartar then moved on to the main course. We were presented with a visual of the beef and showed how the marbling differed with the Japanese Waygu and the American. We decided to split the Tasting of New York Sirloin: 2oz of Japanese Waygu, 4oz of American Kobe, 4oz of USDA Prime from Nebraska. We also ordered a side of Mac and Cheese and sauteed mushrooms. Now, looking at the amount of steak it doesn't look like very much and looking at it on the plate divided between the two of us it looks like even less but the steaks were so rich that I actually gave half of my American Kobe and the USDA Prime back to Charlie after a bite. You always hear how Japanese Waygu melts in your mouth..it does.. I loved it! It was so melt in your mouth tender, so so delicious. That's not to say the other cuts weren't good, they were also amazing. Charlie liked the USDA Prime the best, he didn't like the melt in your mouth texture of the Japanese Waygu and thought the American Kobe was also too soft for his taste, though he said all of them were so good. Now, mac & cheese. so GOOD!! I love mac & cheese anyway but this was the best. Charlie doesn't normally like mac & cheese but he actually loved this one. I was so full..Good, no Great steaks, great wine, wonderful mac & cheese.. Food coma! Amuse Bouche- Gougere, a savory choux pastry with cheese

pretzel bread

the meat presentation- can you see the difference in the marbling? The left is the Japanese Waygu and the bottom, right is the American Kobe and top right is one of the USDA Prime

Ahi Tuna Tartare

the steaks: on the right Japanese Waygu, middle American Kobe and USDA Prime on leftWhole grain mustard, House made Steak sauce, Wasabi-Yuzu butter, saltMac & Cheese

Simon at Palm Place- Price $$$

Cut Steakhouse at the Palazzo-Price $$$$$ worth every penny

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I got full just reading this! Cut sounds great! Wonder if Simon had no choice about the location? There is a lady at the Sunday farmers market who sells great pretzel bread.

  © Blogger template Coozie by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP