"20"^^ . . "Dining at such a whimsical restaurant like Jo\u00EBl Robuchon is quite the experience of a lifetime so I am happy to write this review as my 500th!\n\nFoodie/boyfriend extraordinaire surprised me with dinner at Jo\u00EBl Robochon for my birthday.\n\nChef of the Century - check.\nThree-Star Michelin - check.\nForbes Five-Star recipient - check.\nAAA Five Diamond award - check.\nWine Spectator Grand award - check.\nSign me up!\n\nMy favorite dishes from the 16 course vegetarian degustation marathon menu included:\n*Le Tofu - crispy tofu fritter, garlic and watercress puree\n*La Ch\u00E2taigne - light chestnut cream with sweet onion foam\n*La Pomme de Terre - Chef Robuchon's signature whipped potatoes - carpaccio of potatoes covered with white truffle shavings\n*Les Taglierinis - taglierinis of vegetable and pesto\n\nKeeping with my traditional Yelp review format, I've outlined what I found to be the pros and cons of my dining experience at Jo\u00EBl Robuchon, and some tips.\n\nPros:\n*Limousine picks you up and drops you off at your hotel\n*Arriving at the private entrance and the amazing walk through the MGM's super exclusive and secretive Mansion (not open to the general public and has only 22 suites) - incredible.\n*Restaurant is beautifully decorated in purple, black, white, and pink (my favorite colors), has fresh flowers throughout the restaurant, and a huge, beautiful crystal chandelier that I could stare at for hours \n*Bread cart (more like a wagon) - tons of different breads to choose from\n*Vegetarian tasting menu is available (though it's basically just a meatless version of the regular tasting menu for the same price)\n*Large (and pricey) wine selection with excellent somalies\n*Amazing presentation of the food - I love the attention to detail and creativity that goes into each dish!\n*Every single one of the savory dishes on the 16 course menu was delicious. Truly flawless.\n*If you're not daring enough to try the 16 course menu, you're able to create your own menu!\n*Huge assortment of petifores which they allow you to choose from and best of all, revisit :)\n\n\nCons:\n*They do not serve tap water here but instead have patrons pay $10 for bottled Evian. Seems kinda of tacky to nickle and dime patrons when they're dropping $1K on a meal.\n\n*Desserts - I was not a fan of any of the three desserts we were served. The L'Ananas (fresh pineapple inside a crunchy meringue, finished with an exotic mango fruit cocktail sauce) - I'm not a huge fan of fruit in dessert (uinless it's a tart) and do not like meringue. Onto the next dessert, the Le Caf\u00E9 (coffee ice cream, dark chocolate ganache and tahitian vanilla) - this was inedible, it's one of the worse desserts I've ever had. Finally, we were served a meringue layered cake that they generously served for my birthday. In sum, I'm afraid the Jo\u00EBl Robuchon's pastry chef needs to revamp his/her's menu instead of relying on their (delicious) petifores to save the day. Dessert to me is chocolate and the dark chocolate ganache in the Le Cafe was inedible.\n\n*Rushed service - our reservations were at 8:30pm and we both opted to splurge on the 16 course tasting menu and did not finish the extravaganza until 12:30am. I felt like the dishes were rushed because the employees (understandably) wanted to go home. I just wish they wouldn't offer a 16 course menu after 8pm if they can't serve it in a leisurely manner\n\n*We ordered cocktails when we sat down and never received them. Since we also ordered wine we didn't make a big deal out of it. However, they STILL charged us $64 for the two cocktails even though we never received them. When we asked them to remove the charges when we received the bill they were a little off-put that we would make such a request even though it was their errors (not bringing the drinks and then charging)\n\n*The parting gift included a copy of our 16 course menu, unfortunately they made an error and gave us two of the same menus and not the 16 course vegetarian menu which I had. However, upon calling them they graciously emailed the menu\n\n\nTips:\n*If you do order the 16 course menu, I'd recommend either fasting the day before or not finishing all your dishes because you will be stuffed to the gills after wards. In fact, I didn't eat the entire next day, I was still full!\n\n*If you can't splurge on the 16 course tasting menu they also have more affordable options which include anywhere from 2-10 item tasting menus which will put you in the more reasonable $150-$350 range\n\n*Note that many of the items you get to choose from to create your own tasting menu include supplements of $30-$80 per item (this is in addition to the base tasting menu price) - it can quickly add up\n\n\nBottom line, having flawless food compensates for the service issues and strange desserts - considering I live for desserts, I think it says a lot that I still enjoyed my dining experience here in spite of the disappointing finish. In sum, I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to dine at Jo\u00EBl Robuchon & would happily return"^^ . . "2010-10-27T00:00:00"^^ . "5"^^ . . "20"^^ . "24"^^ .