First of all... Most of the places we ate were actually in our hotel complex at the Venetian. Long gone are the days when all the hotels offered were cheap buffets or diner food. We probably spent more on our meals than we usually do on food for a couple of weeks, but we acknowledged that it was going to be a splurge weekend since it was Christopher's birthday, and we went with that. Our three dinners were as follows:
Friday night: Delmonico Steakhouse (an Emeril Legasse restaurant, apparently). Overall, this was our best meal of the trip. The restaurant was a nice mix of bright and cozy (we were, luckily, tucked in a corner), and the wait staff was incredible. We shared the Caesar salad for two which is prepared at the table - but the waiter kind of stood behind me and just did the whole preparation, which was definitely a letdown considering the price and the fact that it's promoted as being done tableside. But the salad was definitely fresh and really good. Christopher had a Steak au Poivre, and I had the Filet Mignon Medallions, and we shared a twice-baked potato. The steaks - no surprise - were amazing. Perfectly cooked, and mine was just melt-in-your-mouth good. The potato... well... it left a little to be desired, and we were surprised that there wasn't a good ole steakhouse hashbrown on the menu. We didn't order dessert, but they presented Christopher with some rum raisin ice cream on a plate with a chocolate "Happy Birthday" since we had mentioned that that was why we were in Vegas. Overall for the meal - A-, mainly because I was looking forward to a showier Caesar.
Saturday night: Bouchon. I *really* wanted to like this place. We made reservations on Saturday for Saturday night and so we ended up with a 9:15 reservation (a tad late, considering we hadn't really adjusted to the timechange, yet), but we were game for it and it seemed like fun. The menu was really promising, and the restaurant - though big and open and loud - seemed rather nicely bistro-y. Unfortunately, the waiter was a little off, and Christopher's Steak Frites came out Medium Rare, instead of Medium Well. By the time it came back from the kitchen, I'd pretty much finished my Gigot d'Agneau. Christopher did enjoy it, but the flow of the evening just never quite got back to speed. We had skipped appetizers in favor of desserts, and my "Ile flottante" was incredible, but Christopher's profiteroles were a little dry and crispy - which is a little strange for a place known for its French food. Luckily, after the issues we'd been having, they did comp us our desserts and Christopher's coffee (okay... we might have mentioned his birthday...). Overall, I'd give them a B-. The food was kind of spotty, our waiter was way off his game, and the place was kind of loud (which, I realize is not really their fault, so I'm not rating them lower than that.)
Sunday Night: Canaletto in St. Mark's Square near the Grand Canal in the hotel. For me, this was the surprise. The menu looked good, but it was simple, and I think that's what won me over. We were sitting right along the "fence" so we had tourists walking by the whole time, but we could also hear the performers in the piazza and see the "sky" above us. I had a Pizza Christina, and Christopher had a Calzone. The crust on my pizza was thin and gorgeous, and I even brought the leftovers home with me - yes, HOME, to Minnesota, for lunch on Tuesday. Our waiter was incredibly attentive and we had a very nice - and fairly inexpensive - meal. Overall: A-, mainly because it wasn't actually better than Delmonico, but it was just very different.
Okay. I have to run ot pick up Christopher at the airport, so I'll have to fill you in on incidental meals later.
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