ZeroHour

Hi all,

I'll be in LV for a weekend in mid-April and have a dinner reservation there for me and the girlfriend.

From what I'm reading so far, the place is supposed to be awesome, albeit very expensive. Can anyone who's been there share their experiences, please?

Thanks,
Phil

Nanook

I haven't been there, but would love to hear about your experience when you get back. Bon appetit!

ZeroHour

Sounds good - I'm there next Wednesday, will post about it when I get back on Sunday. Surprised to see that noone's been there, every major reviewer (Las Vegas Review Journal, Forbes, etc) seem to sing it praises ... I'm hoping it'll be good!

Phil

brendamc

Do a search on Chowhound.com. It gets very mixed reviews there, but the review I read in the LA Times made me want to hop on a plane that second...

ZeroHour

Only found four search results there (I searched for "robuchon mansion"), none are very helpful. Ah well, I guess I'll tell you guys how it went after my dinner there next week.

Phil

ZeroHour

Hi all,

I didn't really get any reviews from someone who's been there when I posted this a couple of weeks ago, so I went ahead and visited it myself - here're my impressions:

I stayed at the SkyLofts at MGM during my 4-day trip to Vegas - I won't elaborate on SkyLofts themselves, as recently there's been a flurry of posts about them as it stands, but all I have to stay SkyLofts are fantastic, I loved them and will definitely be back.

I went to Joel Robuchon at the Mansion on Wednesday (April 12) with two people for dinner - reservations for us were made by SkyLofts concierge. First impressions when we walked in there - a fairly small dining room that looked like it would seat 40-50 people at the most, very nicely decorated with black and light purple colors (seats and tables are black) everywhere and a gorgeous crystal chandelier in the center of the dining room. There's also what they call a small "french garden" outside of a room - it looks like a small patio (but inside) that seats about 10 people or so with a big green wall and some flowers ... looked pretty nice, but I liked the main dining room better.

When we got there the place was literally empty - there was one other couple and that's it. They gave us a table, asked me if I like it (to which I replied 'yes') and the dinner started.
Food-wise, they had two tasting menus - one is 9 courses, the other one is 16. One person in my party opted for the 9-course tasting menu (as 16 was deemed to be too much food ) and me and my girlfriend have inquired about the a la carte menu and were promptly handed one (they don't say anywhere that they actually have a la carte menus, but they do). This is where the fun part began - I have dined at some really nice/expensive restaurants both in USA and Europe, but this tops them all, price-wise - there're about 4 appetizers with the cheapest one being ~ $90 USD and the most expensive one being ~ $145 which was a boiled egg with Iranian osetra caviar, some spices and something else. Both me and the girlfriend tried this and it was exceptional!

For the main course, we had a French hen (for 2) with foie gras and other goodies (~ $165). The hen was good, but the foie gras was absolutely heavenly - not sure how they cook it there, but it was the best one I've ever tried. Our other companion had the 9-courses tasting menu and loved it as well.

They have an excellent wine list with many good choices ... We opted for a bottle of 1990 Louis Roderer. As well, at the beginning and throughout the meal they brought over a bread cart with at least 10-15 freshly baked breads that were quite good (if you go there, try the bacon-filled bread). At the end of the meal, they brought out the dessert cart ... hard to describe it, but it had a LOT of really amazing pastry, chocolates, etc. - probably the best part of the meal and I don't even really like chocolate very much.

So that's about it ... the place is great, excellent service, very quiet, wonderful French food and ammmmazing desserts. The only thing to beware is that it is VERY expensive - the total bill with tips and champagne came to ~ $1400. Overall, I would highly recommend it!

Phil

jmd001

For those with a taste for Joel Robuchon, but not the budget for the Mansion, take a look at Post #68 under this thread for my somewhat shorter (but equally enthusiastic) review of L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon (next door to the Mansion).

kingalien

Was at Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand located right next to the KA Theater. The restaurant opened at 5:30 and our reservations were for the same time. We made our reservations over 2 months ago. We were greeted and seated promptly. Two menus were available, a six course dinner for $225 and a 16 course tasting menu for $360.

We had reserved the 16 course menu when reservations were made so the wait staff introduced themselves and asked if there was anyone in the party with any food allergies they should be aware of (there were not). Soon after the dinner started and the first six courses were served quite rapidly and we were glad as we had a show starting at 8:00 pm. Then the courses slowed and you could tell the kitchen was having a hard time catching up especially since the restaurant started getting more patrons. By no means was the wait very long between courses but after the speed and efficiency of the first six courses, the rest of the dinner felt much slower and we finished the dinner at 8:10. The wait staff was terrific, very professional and engaging.

Here is a description of the dishes we had. We were not given a copy of the menu to take home (a la French Laundry in Napa Valley) so I can’t really recall all the names of each dish, therefore my humble descriptions will have to do.
1. Apple gelee in a ice cup
2. Caviar with asparagus & tuna puree & gold leaf
3. Shaved truffles w gold leaves
4. Shrimp dumpling
5. Tuna tartar with seaweed
6. Scallops with white truffles
7. Cappucino sea urchin
8. Cream of chestnut soup
9. Pumpkin gnocchi with white truffle
10. Turbot with matsutake mushroom
11. Pan seared sea bass
12. A soup-like dish that was tea with diced lobster and tomatoes
13. Kobe beef
14. French oat & barley with garlic & gold leaf
15. Cream of lychee w grapefruit gelee (first dessert)
16. Caramelized bananas on chocolate mouse with banana ice cream (second dessert)

After the second course, we were given a choice of over a dozen different breads (cheese, basil, mini baguettes, and bacon are some of the ones I recall). Some miniature desserts were also provided at the end of the dinner. The cost as stated above was $360 per person, plus tax, plus an automatic 20% gratuity (our party was seven people).

Each person was given a Joel Robuchon gift bag which was a loaf of a signature bread (I haven’t really looked to see what kind of bread it is) and a brochure listing all the MGM restaurants.

The main dining room was a small intimate setting consisting of approximately 14 tables. Even so it got fairly loud in there with the room full and everyone talking.

Conclusion: IMO there was some very good dishes but I got “truffled-out” and I’m not that impressed with gold leaves in my food and there were three dishes with it. The apple gelee was a refreshing start and really got the dinner going. The wait staff did say not to eat too much bread as in their experience by the tenth course everyone would start getting full and honestly by the 12th course we were ready to stop, but we definitely had room for the Kobe Beef.

My favorite course was the Kobe Beef, definitely from Japan. Sorry, but American Kobe Beef still does not compare. My least favorite was the Cappucino sea urchin, couldn’t quite figure out this dish. Overall, I enjoyed the dinner and I give an 8 out of 10 for food and 9 out of 10 for service. Allow about 3 hours for the dinner.

bigguyinpasadena

That is just a ridiculous price for a menu-and the inclusion of gold leaf in three courses should ban the "chef"from working in a serious kitchen ever again.
If I was spending $400 per person and the amouse bouche was some apple jelly I would be screaming at the chef.
I have had very expensive tasting menus from Le Cirque, Valentino,and others-they just cannot compare with the real 4 star places in europe(mainly because of labor cost-four star needs a huge amount of very well trained labor-training that is absent in the USA with our disdain for getting our hands dirty)and yet they charge the same price.

mbstone

We ate at the Joel Robuchon L'Atelier -- what I believe the above poster is referring to when he says "Joel Robuchon next to KA" (i.e. not "Joel Robuchon at the Mansion"). I would warn everyone AWAY from L'Atelier. Not because of the food -- the food was everything you would expect of a fancy French restaurant -- but two things ruined it for us:

1) The seating. All the seats are barstools and, unless you have a party of six or more, you will be seated at the counter. The counter at Denny's is more comfortable (in fact the whole restaurant decor reminded us of an upscale Denny's). After 3 hours I didn't notice the food for my aching back. For these prices you should be able to have a romantic dinner and look your date in the eye instead of sitting side by side. Maybe the Joel Robuchon at the Mansion is different.

2) Excruciatingly slow service (dinner took 3 hrs 20 min). Two of us ordered a seven-course $129 tasting menu (total bill $500 for 3 with wine + tip), Again, the food was to die for, but if you come hungry you will be waiting 90 minutes before you get anything to eat that's bigger than a marshmallow.

We noticed waitpeople leaving the kitchen with full plates, headed for the back of the restaurant which abuts the high limit salon, maybe there is a separate entrance or dining room for the très high rollers.

kingalien

Actually, I was at the Mansion. Robuchon at Mansion is situated between the KA theater and L'Atelier.

jmd001

1) ms. jmd001 and I liked the counter seating ... and the ability to be closer to each other, rather than facing each other with some light source and/or basket of carbs between us.

2) Our service, while not fast, was (we thought) appropriately paced.

Obviously, YMMV!

lvnvflyer

The counter seating is kind of fun; when we were there, we sat next to a very nice woman from NYC who works as an art lighter/gallery designer for wealthy people. She was by herself, and we really hit it off with her and had a great chat. On our other side were two ladies of a certain age, and their date was Sigfried....out without Roy, of course!