I am a huge foodie. I purposely seek places to dine at based on ratings on the internet. If a place has really good ratings, of course that will peak my interest and I will soon pay the restaurant a visit. Most people that I know go to Vegas for the nightclubs, booze, partying, and the gambling. I go to Vegas primarily for the food. I refuse to eat at fast food chains in Vegas because guess what? I can have that same exact food when I get home. I want to try food that I can’t get anywhere else besides Vegas.
In Sacramento, there are good places to eat, but no restaurants have been awarded any Michelin stars. For those who are unfamiliar with the Michelin rating system, Andre and Edouard Michelin (yes, the same Michelin as the tire manufacturer), started publishing guides that awarded stars to fine dining restaurants starting in the 1920s. The rating goes from 1-3 stars. One star means that the restaurant is good. Two star means that the cooking is excellent and the restaurant is worth paying a visit. Three stars means that the restaurant is so good that you should plan your trip around just eating there. These Michelin reviewers are kept anonymous and they are sent to the restaurants to rate them. Restaurants can earn extra stars if they haven’t already been awarded three stars and they can also lose stars. For those who work in retail, it’s basically the same thing as having a secret shopper come into your work place and rate the establishment.
Las Vegas is home to many Michelin star restaurants, but there is only one that has been awarded three stars and that is the Joel Robuchon restaurant located inside of the MGM Grand hotel. I have tried twice now to make reservations for this restaurant and have been unsuccessful. This place is always booked! I have been to Picasso which is a Chef Julian Serrano 2 Michelin star restaurant located inside of the Bellagio, but have yet to experience a 3 Michelin star restaurant. Bloody hell! This time around, I decided to make reservations for Guy Savoy in Vegas which has been awarded just 2 Michelin stars. Being a huge foodie and a big fan of Chef Gordon Ramsay, I had to pay a visit to Guy Savoy. You see, Gordon Ramsay trained under the French Chef Guy Savoy! Having already been to Gordon Ramsay’s Steak inside of Paris in Vegas, I was curious to try Guy Savoy’s food and see if there were any similarities.
Making reservations to Guy Savoy was fairly easy. I just logged into my Open Table account and made reservations. This restaurant does require that you make a deposit so for those flakers out there, there are consequences if you decide to not show up.
On the night of the reservation, I had high expectations, but I did not expect to be treated like a queen for the night. Guy Savoy blew Picasso out of the water! I think they definitely deserve their third star. Our dinner service started at 1915. We were immediately seated inside a room that was fairly private without having to request for it. Outside our window, we could see the Eiffel tower of the Paris hotel right across the street which made it feel like we were really dining in Europe.
Next, a woman offered to check my coat in and I kindly refused. She then brought out a little stool for me to place my purse on so that my purse would not be touching the ground. What?!? Who does that? That was awesome!
We ordered wine while looking over the menu even though I had already had my mind made up as to which menu we were going to go with even before we had arrived in Vegas. Our waiters were amazing. Our glasses were never empty. They kept coming by and filling up our glasses. You could also tell that everyone was on the same page and worked well as a team because it didn’t matter which table you were responsible for. Everyone took care of everyone’s customers.
There were different menus we could’ve chosen, but I went with the prix fixe Innovation-Inspiration Menu which was $375 per person. For those who are unfamiliar with prix fixe menus, this means that you pay a fixed price for your dinner and the meal usually consists of multiple courses. Everyone dining at your table must agree to ordering the same menu otherwise it will not work when it comes to having multiple courses. I know that not everyone cares to experience good food and have other priorities on where they would rather spend their money so before you do fine dining, make sure your date knows what he/she is getting into! I work hard for my money and I like spending it on food so I thought this menu was worth it and my Boo absolutely enjoyed it as well. If you ever get the chance to eat at a Michelin star restaurant, I highly recommend it. The Innovation-Inspiration Menu is a 14-course meal that lasts anywhere from 3-4 hours. If you plan on dining at any fine restaurants, make sure you empty out your bowels first and don’t plan on attending any shows afterwards otherwise I can guarantee that you will miss them.
Our waiters brought us two different “snacks” from the chef. One looked like waffles with cheese on it. I wish I would’ve thought to take a picture before stuffing it in my mouth. That was really unlike me since I always have to take a picture of everything I eat.
Our main waiter was this awesome French guy named Adrien who was so knowledgeable. He spoke with an accent and it reminded me a lot of the talking candle from Beauty and the Beast. Now I have that “Be Our Guest” song stuck in my head.
The meal started off with the first course which was the Amuse Bouche – Lobster “Candy”, Seaweed Granité. The dish looked too pretty to eat. I soon learned that a lot of Guy Savoy’s dishes have some Asian influences because there were a lot of lemon grass, rice, and ginger ingredients used.
After the first course, the waiter rolled this humongous bread cart! This bread cart had the most unusual breads on it. It had bread that had bacon on the inside, bread that had lemon flavors to it, and etc. Having read on Yelp ahead of the time, I knew not to be too greedy and try all of the breads because after all, we had 13 courses left to go! I didn’t want to be too stuffed to enjoy the rest of the meal. Adrien was able to recommend which breads went best with which courses. I’ve heard of pairing wines with your meals, but never pairing bread with your meals!
The second course was caviar with frozen cauliflower mousse. Once again, the dish looked too cute to eat, but it was really good! I really appreciated the fine details that were put into the dish. It was basically art.
If you have any questions at all or would like to know more details, feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer the questions. However, since I do have a lot more courses to cover from the Innovation menu, I will be moving on.
The third course was langoustine tartare, with heirloom carrot petals, and a poached-fried quail egg.
This dish was already beautiful on its own, but then the waiter came by and poured this fluid into the dish and steam was coming out of the holes of the dish.
That was some fancy stuff! The presentation was so cool! You bet I took a video of it! 😉
The fourth course was the salmon iceberg. The chef came to the table and explained how this dish was prepared. He had pieces of salmon on a huge salted rock. He said that there was no reason to season the fish because it actually absorbs the salt from the rock. Then he placed the pieces of fish onto a block of dry ice to sear it.
Next, in order to cook the salmon thoroughly, he poured this concoction all over the fish.
The fifth course consisted of sea bass, crispy scales, sauerkraut and Kusshi oyster.
The sixth course included Foie gras, pickled turnip, and bellota ham-quince infusion.
Honestly, at this point, I didn’t really know what the hell I was eating anymore, but it looked interesting and I’ve never had it before so I was going to try it!
Having a meal with this many courses can get exhausting. I needed a bathroom break at this point. I asked Adrien for directions to the bathroom. He didn’t verbally tell me where it was. Instead, he said, “Right this way” and escorted me there personally! WTH?!? Am I being punk’d? He took me to a room that had a glass door and opened it for me. I stepped inside this room that had two sinks in there. I’m thinking, um… seriously, I have to pee and there is no toilet in sight. Where is it? Two sinks is not going to solve the problem. This was when I noticed a “secret” door that pretty much blended in with the wall. I walked in there and that was when I saw the toilet. Phew! Thank God I didn’t have to take drastic measures. The bathroom was super clean and there were no paper towels in sight. There was a basket to the side of the sink with real towels to dry off my hands. After I was done, I started heading back to my seat. I am a speed walker, but before I could make it all the way, I swear, a random waiter saw me coming out of the bathroom and dashed out of nowhere to escort me back to my seat. He pulled out my chair for me and placed the napkin on my lap. Damn! I like how you guys roll, Guy Savoy! A girl could totally get used to this! 🙂
Next came the seventh course which was artichoke and black truffle soup with toasted mushroom brioche, and black truffle butter.
We had this soup with a bread that we selected from the bread cart that was recommended to us. The pairing was perfect!
The eighth course was a pan seared quail with stuffed baby turnip, and smoked sabayon. What?!? What’s sabayon? I’m not sure, but I will Wikipedia that later after I am done eating.
Sure, the portions are small for each course, but I think this is the most logical way to eat. Eat slow and in small portions. This will allow your brain to register that you just placed something inside your stomach and that you are starting to get full. This way, you will not over eat. Each dish that came out was delicious and beautiful in presentation, but we were starting to get full. We were actually counting down how many courses we had left!
The ninth course had Japanese Wagyu with sesame seed & tarragon crust, artichoke salad & barigoule, and sponge cake. Whoa, that’s a lot of ingredients and components to put together. Somehow, this mixture works well though.
The tenth course was the black truffle cromesqui. I’m not even sure how you pronounce that, but I quickly ate it without hesitation.
The eleventh course was fresh cheese and black truffle dome. Apparently, fancy chefs love using truffles in their dishes.
This dish had a very unique flavor. I’ve never had cheese before that had a foam like texture so that was something new. At this point, Boo was full and only took one bite. I’m known for having an endless pit for a stomach so I gladly ate the rest of his for him. I think he ate too much bread from the bread cart.
The twelfth course was called citrus textures. Hmmm… I love basically anything citrusy so bring it on! 🙂
This dish is very pretty in presentation and tasted great flavor wise, but I was not a fan of the texture. I don’t like crunchy foods and the lemon slice on the top was crunchy as well as the bottom part. The bottom just felt like I was eating dry raw noodles.
The thirteenth course was the mont blanc.
I’m not a big fan of desserts, but this one was actually pretty good. I didn’t like the outside white shell because it was sort of crunchy, but the inside was good!
The fourteenth and last course was the frozen lava cake!
I know, you’re probably thinking it looks like shit. That was the first thing that came to my mind. I’m possibly one of the few girls in this world who does not like chocolate. However, I had to try this dessert! Boo was having a hard time trying to crack the chocolate shell open. Since his method wasn’t working, for some reason, I decided to twist and slide the chocolate shell and the top came off. Inside was more chocolate! That’s too much chocolate! 🙁
After taking a couple bites out of the frozen lava cake, we were stuffed and ready to walk back to the Venetian where we were staying. Trust me, we needed that walk! This was when the waiter appeared once more with another cart.
Holy moly. It almost felt like going to an Asian or a Mexican Mom’s house where the whole time they’re just trying to feed you everything they have in their kitchen. Eat! Eat! Don’t get me wrong, the food was delicious, but we were full! Somehow, we were able to find room in our stomachs to select a couple of items off the cart. I went straight for the different assortments of house made sorbet.
Whew! Okay, we were done for real this time! About 4 hours had gone by while we were enjoying our meal. Sheesh! It was like a marathon.
While heading out, apparently the staff didn’t think we looked like we were about to explode because they handed us each a Guy Savoy box with a treat inside of it in case we didn’t have enough to eat.
After eating all that food, I did what was most logical and that was to relax in a large bath tub like a sloth. Hey, there’s a drought in California, but not in Sin City.
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