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| - Disappointing. I've been a huge fan of Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, and was excited to try out his new place in Las Vegas emphasizing seafood. Maybe it was because it was so late (9:30pm on a Friday night after a show) but the servers were definitely not on their game. Though they advertise that they take reservations until 11:00pm, there was just one other party in the restaurant.
I started out with a nice, albeit expensive glass of Schramsberg, and was greeted by a refreshing amuse consisting of a little pile of Peekytoe crab seasoned with light citrus and vinegar flavors. As an aside, I wonder what the attraction of Peekytoe crab is...it seems that it is always somewhat tough and stringy. I much prefer Maryland Blue Crab.
I started out with a Fruits de Mer with spot prawns, cockles, and oysters. The presentation was lovely but it was oversalted. Furthermore, though chilled, I didn't realize that the spot prawns would be raw...they weren't even cured by the citrus, and as a result, were unpleasantly mushy with a lingering aftertaste. The dish was garnished with two deep-fried shrimp heads, but these were lukewarm and tasted like they had been done well in advance of plating.
My wife had spiced artichokes with honey and pine nuts. Now these were delicious. The artichokes were deep-fried and seasoned with some Moroccan-inspired heat. Great dish.
I proceeded to have the Lobster tart with chorizo and trumpet mushrooms. This was again marred by oversalting and the generous chunks of lobster were a bit overdone. Conceptually, the problem I have with this dish is that there was an overwhelming amount of chorizo that had been overcooked resulting in a vinaigrette with lots of "pebbles".
Finally, I had the hamachi with braised short ribs and trumpet mushrooms. It was okay. The short ribs tasted a little on the tough and stringy side, and again seemed oversalted to me (I wonder if they had been sitting around too long out of their braising liquid through the course of the day). The fish, though nice and rare in the middle, seems to have been seared at too high a temperature so that the exterior was overdone...I've never encoutered that before!
In the meantime, my wife had the ocean trout with oysters and hijiki. The oysters were perfectly poached and remained meltingly tender albeit too salty, but the trout again tasted overdone and chewy.
We would have given a pass on the food if the service were better. It was very friendly and as a result, it was very difficult to post a negative review. But it seemed unattentive. We had a dining companion who was vegetarian but did not like beets. We made this clear to the many servers which attended us. So the amuse came with roasted beets. We pointed this out to the server. Then her next dish came with beets. We again had to point this out.
Again, this dining experience was so disappointing in view of the fact that I love Charlie Trotter's so much. For my wife's two courses and my three courses, a glass of Schramsberg and a glass of chablis, tax and tip, we paid nearly $300 (way overpriced). The place did have the air of a place doomed to impending failure wafting about.
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