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| - I had come here for my birthday dinner with a couple of my other good friends who also had their birthdays in September. The choosing of the restaurant came together after my fine dining foodie friend told me that we should try it. This was the second signature restaurant of Hubert Keller; probably the most noted French chef in America and a James Beard award winner... so we were expecting a lot to say the least.
We come to the restaurant inside the Mandalay Bay with our reservations already set, and are seated promptly with a table nearing the 12,000-bottle wine loft. This was probably the most cellars inside a restaurant that I have seen at the time. The main dining room has 30-foot ceilings with stone covered walls and embossed wood ceilings. This was going to be a long and memorable birthday dining experience.
I ordered the Roasted Organic Beets: fresh goat cheese, poached quail egg, house cured duck from the appetizers.
And the Pan Seared Duck Breast: duck confit, chestnut puree, cippolini onion, ginger gastrque. At this point, I didn't know half of what I was ordering and my foodie friend didn't really know either. And the full menu didn't have any prices on any of the items we were ordering, but we knew to expect somewhere around $80-100 per person.
So apparently my dinner was going to be four courses. Our other friend who was not really a foodie smugly ordered an 18 OZ Bone in Prime Rib Eye Steak: Creamed Spinach, Marble Potatoes, Red Wine and Shallot Reduction.
My fine dining foodie friend had decided to order the same items as myself. The Fleur also offers a "prix fixe" menu for a reasonable $55, but only offers a choice of two appetizers and two main courses, and a dessert. You also have the choice of trying Chef Keller's signature tasting menu ($140) and wine pairing ($80).
All I can really say about the food served was that it seemed barely warm and ridiculously small. Most of the food served here is tiny and doesn't have the richness or depth to constitute any major delicious flavors. My foodie friend was actually disappointed enough about the main course that he had the audacity to tell the server that we food was not up to par. I could have easily given the food itself 3 stars, not the epic 5 star 200th review I was looking to have.
And it was at that point that I did realize I may have been better off ordering from the Kobe Beef & Prime steaks menu. Fine dining can be quite the double-edged sword for that fact that you are spending so much money on so little food that is showcasing mainly culinary skill and technique. But what it all really boils down to is pretentious food and overzealous expectation. Even if the food tastes great, that moment only lasts for a few seconds on each bite. The food here is so miniscule that you could eat one plate in 4-5 bites.
However at the end of our dinner the sommelier came out and poured us some complimentary dessert wine which was pleasing surprise. He had wished all of us happy birthday and told us to enjoy the rest of our stay in Vegas. The dinner lasted at least two and a half hours, and we had left looking forward to an even more memorable night on the town.
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