The first thing I did when I found out that I was going to Vegas for the hockey game was to make a reservation at Bouchon at the Venetian. And this was almost six months ago!

Just like many other food lovers in the country, I’ve been mesmerized by Thomas Keller’s award-winning French masterpiece for many years now, often visiting a local bookstore to just get the glimpse of his beautiful cookbook, The French Laundry, also the name of his restaurant in Younville in Napa Valley. Both the restaurant and the cookbook are out of my reach budget-wise (although I did get the cookbook from a former colleague couple years ago when she found an extra one floating around from the business meeting she held at The French Laundry – and the book was autographed by Keller himself) but when I learned that he has a more casual bistro in Vegas, I just had to pick up that phone to secure my spot in this gastronomic heaven!

And what a dining experience it was. I don’t know how to properly explain the flavors my mouth experienced that night expect to say that it was highly sophisticated and perhaps calming.  The food reminded me of French women – that they may not necessarily be mind-blowingly gorgeous, but their perfection and precise attention to detail make them simply divine and absolutely beautiful. The swirl of dressing and sweet syrup on the beet salad was like the casual but well-placed Hermes scarves on their beautiful, long neck, and the way the steak was cooked was like feeling their soft scent of the perfume in the air. Not in-your-face like the big breasted and flashy women with a bottle of cologne splashed on their plastic bodies … but like classy, svelte, intelligent ladies you would see strolling down the streets of Saint-Germain Des Pres.

Salade de Betteraves et Poires, marinated beet and poached pear salad with tossed hazelnuts, green mache and champagne vinaigrette ($12.50)

Soupe a L’Oignon, classic French onion soup ($9.75)

Macaron au Gratin ($7.50)

Steake Frites, pan-seared prime flatiron served with maitre’d hotel butter and French fries ($36.50)

Saumon Poele, saute Scottish salmon with a cassoulet of pole beans and marinated tomatoes with whole grain mustard sauce.

Wonderful things do come to those who wait.

Bouchon
Ａt the Venetian, Las Vegas, NV
★★★★★