Brunch at Bouchon, Las Vegas

By Lu

Bouchon, Thomas Keller's French Bistro at The Venetian

Did I hear you ask if I liked brunches? I didn't even need to answer that, right? Most of you knew that next to Afternoon Tea, Brunch is way up there on my list. Brunch is special because to me, it's just a really good meal. Brunch offers a variety of sweet and savory dishes, and there's no need to wake up super early to have it. When I think of breakfast, I think more of the cheerios and the cream of wheat. Brunch...it's a different ball game. It's an elevated breakfast mixed with some lunch items or breakfast items you can only get when you go out to eat at a restaurant or for a special occasion.

Jerry, my coworker, once told me pancakes have that special sentimental value for him. I remember his face lit up as he was telling us his childhood story about his mom making pancakes way back when in the weekend and that meant it was not an ordinary day. He said if he was sick and didn't want to go to school, his mom would make pancakes or soup. If he was well enough to eat pancakes, then he would be well enough for school. It would always be a hard dilemma deciding between pancakes and school.

Jerry just celebrated his birthday this month. I asked his teammate, Scott, who traveled together with him a lot, if he took Jerry somewhere special for his birthday dinner since they had to be away from home on his special day. Scott told me Jerry had pancakes for his birthday dinner. LOL.

Don't blame me if I also love eating special breakfast food that I usually can't get or eat every morning. Protein shakes, Greek Yogurts, or Bagels get old real fast. I never refuse a brunch invitation, ever. After a long hiatus of writing, and realizing that my last post was also about brunch, I still stand behind my love for brunch and deliver you another post about the topic. I wouldn't even apologize about it.

The last several months have been hectic and it was truly a whirlwind. If you read my post from Father's Day last year, I wrote about my second Dad, Dale Cook. Click on his name if you would like  to read that post. He loved my egg rolls and I dedicated that post to him and shared my egg roll recipe with all of you. He was really ill came January with lung cancer, and we lost him in May. The past several months have been tough and I couldn't get myself in the mood of writing about food.

However, knowing him, he knew how I love food and cooking. He wouldn't want me to stop writing for this blog and celebrate my love for cooking. In my eulogy for him, I gave him credit for starting me to cook. I said to everyone there that though my last name isn't "Cook", I was a Cook in a different way. I am a Cook.

The past weekend, I had a great trip with my friends to Las Vegas. I wasn't a big Vegas person, but I thought it would be fun to try all the restaurants there. You know all the big chefs have a restaurant or two over there. I wanted to try Jean Georges Steakhouse and L'Atalier of Joel Robuchon, but we ended up eating a lot of $100 Char Kwee Teow fried noodles and other Chinese dishes. We also had great sushi at The Blue Ribbon at The Cosmopolitan as we celebrated my friend, Evi's birthday. The only non Asian food we had in our whirl-wind Vegas weekend trip was brunch at Bouchon.

Thomas Keller is one of my culinary heroes and I know it doesn't need any explanation why he is. I'm still mad at Ri for not writing about her experience dining at The French Laundry last year. Thanks to a meal at Bouchon, I found the drive to write for this blog again. I couldn't possible go to a Thomas Keller's restaurant and not write about it.

I had all kinds of expectations and for the most part, I was happy. I didn't have that high of expectations though, realizing that most of the big chefs' restaurants in Vegas aren't exactly the same as their main flagship place.

Inside of Bouchon

Bouchon is located at The Venetian Hotel and Resorts. We were there the night before to watch "The Phantom of the Opera" and we had sampled some of the goodies from the Bouchons Bakery. We got some Macaroons and some other pastries that were pretty yummy. I thought it was better than Jean Philippe at the Aria, and it looked much better than Payard at Caesar as well. I couldn't wait to sit and eat at Bouchon, the restaurant. We got there early around 8:00 AM, and the place was pretty empty. Everyone was probably either still sleeping or too drunk to eat breakfast at 8:00 AM. It was fine by me. The restaurant had a very bistro look to it, and there were some patio seating facing a fountain. It was pretty and not overly fancy.

CK, Evi, and Nate

We were in a time constraint as my friend, CK, needed to leave for his trade show stat at 9:00 AM, and we needed time to go back and gamble some more. I won $329 the night before playing penny slots, and I was hooked and wanted to go back to the Aria resort and played my machine before leaving town.
Menu wasn't overly big and I found what I wanted to order almost right away.

We started with ordering Cappuccino and I couldn't wait for the baguette, butter, and jam. I always expected those goodies if I ate brunch at a French Bistro. Coffee came, but our Cappuccinos came as Lattes. Obviously our server didn't really pay that much attention to detail. However, I was feeling kind and I just let it go. CK, on the other hand, wanted a Cappuccino and demanded his to be changed. Relax, he didn't cause a fight with the restaurant this time.

Mhmh...Cherry Jam..

Evi ordered Salmon Fumé, which was a plate of smoked salmon with toasts, onions, tomatoes, and capers. Evi liked her plate a lot. It tasted great, but there wasn't too much cooking on that plate. Nate ordered the moules or mussels cooked in a mustard and white wine sauce. As usual, it was served with fries. I usually would order moules frites in a heartbeat; yet, since Nate ordered it, I knew I could mooch a couple mussels from him. CK ordered the Croque Madame - which was a ham and cheese in between slices of brioche bread, topped with sunny side up egg and Mornay sauce (Bechamel with added Gruyere/Swiss Cheese). I ordered the corned beef hash. I know right? So not French. However, Thomas Keller is known to be a pioneer in American cookery influenced with French technique. I thought it would be the best damn corned beef hash I would ever have.

The Smoked Salmon Plate

Going back to the bread, it was simple superb. They served the bread with homemade cherry jam, and I simply likey!! I ate the jam like there was no tomorrow. Well, literally, I wouldn't have that cherry jam tomorrow so eat I did that day.

The delicious Croque Madame..

The mussels

The best plate to me hands down was CK's Croque Madame. It tasted French and it tasted great. It was a simple ham and swiss but yum yum yum. The Mornay sauce really added that extra tang from the Swiss cheese. They knew how to make a great Croque Madame. The mussels were great too. Nate didn't like the bitterness from the mustard but I thought it tasted great. However, mussels to me aren't special occasion food. My corned beef hash was definitely delicious; however, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't minced. The corned beef were cubed and it tasted chunky to me. CK liked it though. I did too; except, I felt it could have been better.

The Corned Beef Hash with Over-easy Eggs

I also ordered some bacon and it never came. Our server wasn't the best. I was also surprised that the food came at different time. I wasn't expecting a service where all the dishes would be unveiled at the same time; however, I thought it would be somewhat together at a place that bears Thomas Keller's name.

Other than that, I thought it was a great meal. I loved it and I wanted more of the cherry jam and bread. I also realized that I like Vegas now and I really would love to go back next year and try more restaurants.

If you're in Vegas, do try Bouchon. The prices were so reasonable for a Thomas Keller's restaurant. One suggestion though if you didn't want to gain weight while in Vegas trying all these delicious food - try to walk everywhere! Between the sun and the walking, you surely wouldn't pack up the pounds. You can cool off and burn some more calories at the pool!