By Mike, on September 3rd, 2010 Do you remember the look on Ralphie’s face when he woke up on Christmas morning, looked out the window to see the freshly fallen snow, just realizing that Christmas Day had arrived and his Official Red Ryder Carbine Action 200 Shot Range Model Air Rifle may have been waiting for him downstairs? That was the look on my face when the invite came across my Twitter screen to check out the Restaurant Week event at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, “Tease in the Kitchen.” Joël Robuchon quality food, a non-stop pour of bubbles, and hot burlesque dancers shaking their tits and ass right in front of your face. Are you kidding me? Santa Claus ain’t got that in his sack!
One of the appetizers passed was something on L’Atelier’s regular menu, a langoustine wrapped in a (I think) rice paper wrapper that was so impossibly thin that you could see the basil leaf delicately laid atop the crustacean. To say this was perfect is an understatement. People work all their lives and never even come close to executing food at this level of quality. It was truly something special. The only way this plate of food could be marred is if some jackass with an iPhone tried to take a picture while stumbling to the left after about 5 too many flutes of champagne, thus making Le Langoustine from L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 Le Langoustine From L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon —–
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
MGM Grand Resort & Casino
3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 891-7358
http://www.mgmgrand.com/restaurants/atelier-joel-robuchon-french-restaurant.aspx
Follow L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon on Twitter at @RobuchonLV
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
 Everyday You Vote, A Kitten Grows Its Wings. Please vote once a day from now through 09/30/10 so I can be famous. Thanks!
By Mike, on August 27th, 2010 When a restaurant first opens up, many times they don’t know quite who they are and will tweak through trial and error until they become the being they were intended to be. It’s especially the dishes that go through this metamorphosis. Maybe it’s a simple thing like the burger needs to be constructed in a different way so the bottom toast round isn’t a hot and soggy mess while the top remains dry and the whole thing needs more salt (ahem, did you hear that good people of Republic?). But then there are the times where items are exactly where they need to be right out of the gate, and it’s our perception needs that needs to be changed to truly see the beauty of what lies before us. This is especially prevalent when a man takes such a horrible photograph, with a light-challenged iPhone, of delicious chicken breast, carrot and Buffalo sauce wrapped in a perfectly fried wonton wrapper all dotted with some creamy Maytag; thus making the Buffalo Chicken Bites from the brand spanking new Republic Kitchen & Bar this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 Buffalo Chicken Bites from Republic Kitchen & Bar —–
Republic Kitchen & Bar
9470 S. Eastern Ave.
Henderson, NV 89074
(702) 463-3500
http://www.republickitchenandbar.com
Follow Republic Kitchen & Bar on Twitter at @republickitchen
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
We're climbing the charts but still WAY behind! Your vote is needed! You can vote once per day from now through 09/30/10! Thanks!
By Mike, on August 21st, 2010 Trevi is one of those kind of restaurants in Las Vegas that are always busy, yet I’ll always walk past on my way to see if Ermenegildo Zegna has started a Big and Tall line or if Agent Provocateur is looking to hire a Panty Consultant. I never imagined myself sitting down at a place like Trevi. However, when a place like Trevi has a sign out front advertising half-priced booze and a $6 Bar Snack Menu (Sunday – Friday from 2pm-6pm!), it’s enough to grab my attention and sit down with The Wife to enjoy some discount cocktails. While the Frozen Lemon Sorbettini was a premium booze slurpee and while the Tiramisu Martini made me tingle with delight; it was the lowly lit, lusciously soft buns, flavorful moist meatballs and tastefully simple red sauce on the Meatball Sliders from Trevi in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace to be this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 Meatball Sliders from Trevi —–
Trevi
The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace
3500 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 735-4663
http://www.trevi-italian.com
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
With Your Help I Can Get Published! You Can Vote Once Per Day From Now Through 09/30/10!
By Mike, on August 13th, 2010 Now before you all start scratching your head wondering where in the hell Bottega is, (must be some ghost restaurant in Lake Las Vegas) Behold! You are now in the middle of witnessing a Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food first; a dish from a restaurant outside the confines of the Las Vegas Valley! Exciting, isn’t it?
While you will hear much more about this dish and others from The Wife and I’s Great California Road Trip, this dish deserves multiple mentions. I never order octopus as it is usually tasteless and rubbery. For most of my life (all of it up until August 6, 2010), I’ve held a steadfast position that the octopus was an animal that should be left alone and not eaten. In fact, we didn’t order the octopus at Bottega, but our outstanding server, Andrew, who we gave the reigns on what we were to eat that night, ordered it for us. And I’m glad he did.
While the iPhone guided us with every twist and turn on our over 1,500 mile journey throughout the Golden State, told us when the Muni was going to pick us up to take us to more tasty food and let us see every menu we could possibly want to see, not even the iPhone could capture the hours upon hours of marinating, braising and grilling that had to take place to make this cephalopod one of the most significant food experiences I’ve had in recent memory. Because no one frame could possibly capture the exquisite significance of this dish, the Wood Grilled Octopus from Michael Chiarello’s Bottega in Yountville, CA is this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 Wood Grilled Octopus from Bottega in Yountville, CA —–
Bottega
6525 Washington St.
Yountville, CA 94599
(707) 945-1050
http://www.BottegaNapaValley.com
Follow Chef Michael Chiarello on Twitter at @chefchiarello
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
You can vote once per day from now until 09/30/10! Thanks for your help!
By Mike, on July 30th, 2010 For the first time in The Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food history, we have a picture not because the iPhone shit the bed or my lacking skills in photography gave the impression that I had a grand mal seizure at the time of the snap, but this particular week has come about because it’s a picture of the wrong food item entirely!
Even with a whole host of interesting flavors to choose from, The Wife ordered what I wanted to order, the Red Velvet Cake, so I felt it necessary to put my journalistic curiosity beyond my personal craving and got a half banana / half coconut, of course with the thought that I was going to get a taste of The Wife’s Red Velvet Cake. As I paid the low-low price of $4 total for both snowcones, I looked over at The Wife, who already looked like Hannibal Lecter after a midnight snack with the red syrup all over her face. Since The Wife dove on her treat like a Bishop on an Altar Boy before I could snap the pic and now only have my inferior, yet still quite delicious Banana/Coconut as a substitute for the subject at hand; the Red Velvet Cake Snowcone from the Purple Penguin is this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 This may comes as a surprise, but the Red Velvet Cake looks like this, but Red —–
Purple Penguin
1500 W. Horizon Ridge Pkwy.
(parking lot on corner of Horizon Ridge & Arroyo Grande)
Henderson, NV 89012
(702) 400-3652
http://purplepenguinsnow.com
Follow Purple Penguin on Twitter at @PurplePenguinLV
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
By Mike, on July 24th, 2010 Do you know how to start a psychological complex that would have given Sigmund Freud a 4-tissue cleanup level change of shorts? Open a burger joint down the hall from your Daddy who already happens to have what is usually regarded as the best burger in Las Vegas. This is what Bryan Ogden, son of Bradley, decided to do, though I’m pleased to report he’s holding his own. However, further adding to this complex is when shitty pictures of his food start floating around the internet, such as this example which offers absolutely no scale to the manly-sized burger the younger Ogden puts out. No…The Son didn’t suffer from a case of shrinkage, he suffered from my bad photography, and now we all suffer with The Munch Burger from Munchbar at Caesars Palace as this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 The Munch Burger from Munchbar: Objects Are Bigger Than They Appear —–
Munchbar
Caesars Palace
3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
http://www.munchgroup.com/concepts.php
Follow Munchbar on Twitter at @Munchbar_LV
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
By Mike, on July 16th, 2010 I can tell you from personal experience; being young, successful, good looking and landing a smoking hot Wife attracts the haters like a Tea Party attracts the inbred. This is the only reason why I can imagine so many people hating on Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace. I’ve now visited Bobby’s Vegas outpost about 5 times, and each time have found what I’ve had to eat to be thoughtfully put in balance and skillfully well-executed. This misdirected hating is a curse which I, too, live everyday because this shit ain’t airbrushed. However, neither is this dreadful picture of the Tiger Shrimp + Roasted Garlic Corn Tamale from Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace, this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 Tiger Shrimp + Roasted Garlic Corn Tamale from Mesa Grill —–
Mesa Grill
Caesars Palace
3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(877) 346-4642
http://www.mesagrill.com/lasvegas/index.php
Follow Bobby Flay on Twitter at @bflay
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
By Mike, on July 9th, 2010 You know how I know The Wife loves me? She took me out to a 3 hour lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in town for my birthday. There’s no better way to ease into old age than a long, slow graze. Small plate after small plate, pintxo after pintxo and pitcher after pitcher (whoops) of the best Red Sangria in town, an event of such epic proportions is usually celebrated by song and sculpture. I think this fine dish came in a wee bit after pitcher #1 was drained, thus taking responsibility away from the iPhone and putting full blame on my intoxicated hand. While there may be no song, and there may be no sculpture, there is this blurry picture of the Beef and Cheese from Julian Serrano at the Aria resort, this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 Beef and Cheese from Julian Serrano —–
Julian Serrano
Aria Resort & Casino
3730 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(877) 230-2742
http://www.arialasvegas.com/dining/julian-serrano.aspx
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
By Mike, on July 2nd, 2010 Well, I started this week off gushing about Wazuzu, I might as well end it the same way. These little Dim Sum delights of fabulous shrimp and pork dumpling love made my heart flutter like Bella’s when she eats a bowl of Count Chocula. Yes, that’s the second Twilight reference I’ve made today in as many posts, and no that is not to be construed that I make comparisons of The Wife to pork and shrimp. Caught in the middle of this love triangle is the iPhone, who apparently only sees things in a blur, and thus making the Shu Mai from Wazuzu at the Encore resort this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 Shu Mai from Wazuzu —–
Wazuzu
Encore at Wynn Las Vegas
3121 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 248-DINE (3463)
http://www.encorelasvegas.com/index.cfm#/dining/wazuzu/
Follow Wazuzu on Twitter at @WazuzuLV (not used that much)
Follow Chef Jet Tila on Twitter at @jettila
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
By Mike, on June 25th, 2010 Is there anything more beautiful than deep fried nuggets of pork skin with sautéed onion and a mojo of citrus and garlic? Ok, maybe there’s one thing, but, the crispy, chewy, fatty, porky goodness of a chicharrón is pretty damn good. In yet another injustice to food porn, the iPhone failed miserably in capturing the motorboat-worthy bowl of Chicharrónes from the Havana Grill, this week’s Weekly Bad Picture of Good Food.
 Chicharrónes from Havana Grill —–
Havana Grill
8878 S. Eastern Ave. #100
Las Vegas, NV 89123
(702) 932-9310
http://havanagrillcuban.com/
—–
Mike Dobranski is a professional musician, amateur blogger, eater of good food, poker junkie, master of the inappropriate comment and bad husband to a wonderful wife.
Follow Mike and Tasting Las Vegas on Twitter at @TastingLasVegas
|
You Can Vote Once Per Day!
Visit Tasting Las Vegas: The Store!
|
Recent Comments