I have been so remiss in my postings! We've eaten out quite a bit in the past several weeks, but the first thing I have to chat about is my and M's outing to Nobu in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV.
First of all, the joyous occasion that brought us to the city of sin was B and G's wedding. They've purchased a home, birthed a baby (the sublime Baby Q), and are now making it official. We went to the Graceland Wedding Chapel in the old downtown area, and it was a fantastic time.
I know I need to get down to the business of dining, but I must say that it was spectacular to see the L.A. contingent, T-Bird from NYC, the VV's, as well as the local boy D. Everyone was looking truly fantastic and the love was very much in the air! I could go on and on, but suffice it so say that we had an amazing time at the ceremony, at The Venetian (I love Prosecco!!!), and afterwards at T-Bird's high-roller suite.
But I must tend to the business at hand. We were also able to squeeze in a lovely dinner for two at Nobu that weekend. Once we got past the wifebeater-wearing, backwards-hat sporting rookies in the casino, we were able to sit down to a fantastically civilized dinner. We totally went overboard and went for the chef's tasting menu. One option was around $100. The other was around $150. While we were deciding, we ordered the edamame and a great white from Irpina, Italy that we had while we were there this summer (I still haven't had a chance to recount the details of that trip). Eventually, we decided on the lesser of the two "evils" and went with the slightly more modest option in tasting menus.
Now comes the remembering part... The funny thing is that I knew I wouldn't get around to blogging about this right away, and I remember telling M that we had to remember everything so I could do so. We were repeating the dishes and the sequence as if we were freshmen remembering a locker combination. Unfortunately, we stopped chanting it about two weeks ago, and this is the best I can do.
We started with four oysters on the half shell. I think they were kumamoto. Each was dressed differently. One had some tropical fruit thing. One was salsa-y. I can't remember the other two except to say that they were all fantastic. Then we had the "live" octopus, which is not nearly as grisly as it sounds. It just means really fresh, like lobsters in their tanks at a seafood resident. Very chewy, but I liked it. The spicy cucumber slices were great with it, as well as the bit of cilantro(?) and hot sauce. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Then there was this seared tuna salad that was fantastic. Great dressing, just great all around. I think it was then that we had the miso soup. I love miso, and this was excellent. A nice break, to tell you the truth.
Then came the apex of the meal, as far as M and I were concerned: this crazy cooked cod dish with this perfect sweetish sauce around it. (I peeked at the menu items posted on their site and I think it is the broiled cod with miso). We were moaning through the whole thing. It was a fantastic balance of quality and freshness coupled with a decadent richness. I guess it's a signature dish for them, but all I know is that it was unbelievable.
Somewhere in there was a fatty tuna experience that I enjoyed more than M. I think I got into it so much because our friend C is a fatty tuna maniac and I had that hovering in the back of my mind. The regular part of the tasting menu then concluded with some classic nigiri tuna which was quite good, but almost anti-climactic after all the other stuff. Dessert was a green tea ice cream thing. I also liked that better than M did, but I really like green tea in general.
All in all it was fantastic. The only down side was the price tag. Two tasting menus and two bottles of the Irpina white (with a meal that long, you can't expect us to have just one!). Pretty serious damage, but I think we kind of knew that going in. Oh well, sometimes you just have to go big and not let the numbers grind you down.
E.O.D. Bathroom Rating: In spite of the many hours spent at Nobu, I didn't use the facilities. I can comment, however, on the cool tree motif they had going in the main dining room, and the super cool wall of black river rocks embedded in the wall by the sushi bar. Really well done.
