L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon @ MGM Grand Las Vegas

This restaurant was up there on my list of places to go in Vegas...I had been to Robuchon a Galera in Macau last year and set my mind on trying all the Robuchon restaurants all over the world. L'Atelier is the more casual Restaurant of Robuchon, the fine dining one being JOEL ROBUCHON. L'Atelier is a one Star Michelin, a very casual place where people sit at the bar and watch how the food is prepared in an open kitchen .


Our reservation was for 8 pm and when we got there, the place was already practically full. As we sat down, we were served the typical bread and butter, plus a glass of champagne for me for starters. They had a winter tasting menu and a full Degustation menu, but since I had something similar to the winter tasting in Macao, I decided to just order directly from the menu. My Colleague decided on the Winter Tasting Menu.

First up for me was the Ris de Veau - Veal Sweetbreads with a type of jus and a light foam. Sweetbreads are the thymus glands and pancreas glands of lamb, beef, or pork. Typically sweetbreads are soaked in salt water, then poached in milk after which an outer membrane is removed. Once dry and chilled, they're often breaded and fried until crisp. Mine was not really crisp but more tender and moist. A very simple dish, simple presentation but very enjoyable. I enjoyed this with a glass of a Pouilly Fume from the 'wine by the glass' list.

My main course - of course Le Tartare. I had Steak Tartare in the Robuchon in Macao and wanted to compare them. I must say the one in Macao was much much better than this one. Nothing really special about the one they served me. But never the less of course I enjoyed it. I don't normally like fries with my Tartare so I asked them to serve me toasted bread with it. It went very well with the Glass of Bordeaux wine I was having.

Other dishes we had: Crispy Langostine Fritter and Cod Fillet in Pepper and Tomato Broth. I did not get to try these dishes but the cod looked very fresh and appetizing....

Over all - an enjoyable Dinner. You can't really go wrong in any Robuchon Restaurant - so far the 2 I have tried were great, although I'm looking forward to dining in the fine dining "Joel Robuchon" - either in Paris or Vegas....soon...

Robuchon a Galera, Macau

This restaurant was the first one we went to during our Hong Kong-Macau trip. I have to thank a friend, T, who told me about this restaurant during his last trip to Macau. I had planned my one day trip toMacau from Hong Kong tohave lunch in this restaurant. We took the morning ferry from HK to Macau. We got therre at around 11:30 and we took the free shuttle to Hotel Lisboa, where Robuchon is Located.



As soon as we were seated, I knew that I was going to have a great lunch. The interior was very elegant and classy. We were seatwed in a nice table by the window so I was happy that we had natural light, although the place was vey well lit. They brought us the menu which was set lunch menu. I had checked the website before going and saw that for the meat choices, they had steak Tartare, but looking at the menu they had given me, it was not here...horror.... I called the restaurant manager and asked him if it was possible for me to have the steak tarare and after checking with the Chef, he said that it was possible. At that point, I was in heaven...


They brought to our table the bread trolley with more than 30 kinds of diferent breads to choose form. We were so overwhelmed that we just askled them to prepare a basket for us. Then ordered our appetizers and our main course. I had the Lightly smoked foie gras and top of marinated mushroom with virgin olive oil and my wife had the White mushroom veloute on top of light bacon royale and parsley julienne. For the meats I had the Steak tartare specially made for me by the chef and my wife had the Hanger steak in french style with sauteed shallots and sauteed young potatoes.

All dishes were absolutely wonderful. The soup was so tasty I think it had some truffle oil. My dish was the mushroom which was very thinly cut and topped with foe. The crunchiness of the mushroom went very well with the taste of the foie gras. For our second dish, what can I say? The tartare was probably the best I've tried (I've only eaten a few but for me this was the best so far that I have tried). It was served with french fries and bread. It was not spicy at all and it had very small bits of crunchy bacon. Unlike other steak tartares I've tried, you could hardly taste the tabasco or mustard on this one, and it seemed to have some sort of cream. My wifes steak was also good and very tasty but at that point, all I could think about was the tartare...






After our main course, came the desserts (and more trolleys...) a total of 3 more trolleys were wheeled to our table. First they came with the dessert trolley. Then they came with the cheese trolley and to top it all off they came with the confectionaries trolley. At that point we did not even know what to choose so we had some few desserts and candies. They were forcing us to get more but we politely declined.




This was the first and probably the best meal we had during the trip. We had 2 other dinners (Nobu and Mortons) which I will post in a separate blog but value for money and quality, Robuchon was by far the best.