The wife and I recently went to celebrate our first anniversary. This was a great pick to mark that special occasion. The restaurant is a surprisingly small, intimate dining room with blue velvet booths (we scored one instead of a table), a stunning crystal chandelier, a nice grand piano in the corner being played throughout the evening, beautiful floral arrangements, waiters that bring food out like you've seen in the movies, about what you'd expect for what you spend there. Without going into boring details on everything, overall I would say if you can afford it and you enjoy fine cuisine, you probably can't go wrong here. If, however, you're like me and enjoy good food but aren't particularly well versed in fine French cuisine, you might want to save yourself a lot of money and go dine in one of Vegas' many other excellent restaurants that are still pricey but don't even come close to Rubochon's prices. OK, that being said, I'm going to describe each of the 16 courses I had with a brief commentary in case you're wondering what you might expect (I think they change it up nightly, so I wouldn't expect the same thing, but I'm sure it's similar).
First: L'Asperge Blanche. White asparagus "panna cotta", fresh almonds and lemon grass. Review: awesome.
Second: La Tomate. Tomato with olive oil, basil, tomato gelee, topped with mozarella. Review: best friggin' tomato you'll ever eat. They serve it like a sliced patty with the oil drenched inside of it.
Third: Le Caviar. Thin couscous and Oscetra caviar, smooth cauliflower cream, green asparagus gelee. Review: I'm not a huge fan of Caviar but this was pretty good and I'm sure it would make a Caviar connesieur blush.
Fourth: L'Euf. Egg yolk in baby spinach ravioli with morels. Review: like everything else, the portion served is tiny. This was I think a single ravioli (or maybe two) with a very exquisite sauce and interior. Of course, unlike any ravioli you've probably ever tasted and pretty awesome.
Fifth: La Saint-Jacques. Scallops royal with chive emulsion and buckwheat tuile. Review: Incredible scallops. Best I've had by far.
Sixth: Les Crustaces. Truffled langoustine ravioli with chopped cabbage, Sea urchin, potato puree with a hint of coffee, coral and ginger perfumed tea. Review: to be honest it's hard to remember each dish a week later from memory, I didn't take notes on each, although I think some people do this. The waiters didn't seem offended when I broke out the camera on a few occasions to snap pics of the entrees. If I remember correctly this was a pretty damn good ravioli.
Seventh: Les Petits Pois. Light pea veloute with mint on top of a delicate sweet onion custard. Review: This was really zippy and good. My reviews are pretty Simpleton I know but I'm really typing out the menu more for your enjoyment than thinking my reviews will leave you speechless.
Eighth: Le Thon. Smoked and seared Tuna, cauliflower, Nori and green curry. This one I remember well. Really amazing Tuna. Stunning even.
Ninth: I asked at the beginning of the meal for the Kobe beef. They said "no problem, we'll give you whatever you'd like." So, here they substituted the Veal for the Kobe beef I asked for. It was of course real Kobe beef, and it was tender as can be and rich in flavor. I won't say it was the best cut of beef I've ever had as I'm a fan of great steakhouses, but this was serious beef and I can't say anything bad about it.
Tenth: Les Pousses de Soja. Soy beans cooked risotto style with lemon zests and coriander. A very small risotto that was nice after the heavier courses and was excellent.
Eleventh: Dessert time. L'Acai. Red fruits granite, fresh raspberry and yogurt sorbet. A very pretty raspberry yogurt sorbet that was good, but not a total knockout. Beautiful presentation of course.
Twelfth: Le Caramel. Caramel cremeux infused with Arabica, chocolate rice souffle. This was awesome. Even better though, the wife doesn't like fruity desserts, so she sent hers back. They were very apologetic and were not offended in the least. Shortly after, they brought out a dessert for her that could not have been any more to her liking. It was as if they knew everything about her. They brought her a fresh strawberry (I think it might have been in a light strawberry sauce), then poured white chocolate on it at the table. The strawberry dish was swirled in cotton candy, her favorite. She was, pardon me for saying so (and sadly not a result of my doing), orgasmic. Think of the Meg Ryan scene in "When Harry met Sally." That was her eating her dessert, and that scene, aptly captured on my new Flip camcorder, was worth the price of admission alone. Thank you Joel Rubuchon for a truly amazing experience.