VEGAS RECAP

J and I took a little mini vacation to Vegas (our favorite!) from Saturday - Tuesday and stayed at the Bellagio. It was my first time staying at the Bellagio and it was just as fabulous as I expected. J's been to Vegas several times and this was our third visit together, my third visit total. We always go all out on the restaurants and try new places here because we love to eat. :) And being pregnant this time, I was looking forward to the food more than anything else.

View of the fountains from our room. They were gorgeous and I never got sick of watching them with the music they were choreographed to. 

On Saturday we had reservations at Carnevino and J knew the menu inside out from looking online and at yelp reviews for weeks before we got there. He already knew that he was ordering the nine month aged steak, but we left the rest of the plates up in the air to decide when we got there. I wore my one and only maternity dress so that I could stuff myself silly and still be comfortable for the show we were seeing after. We saw the comedian Ralphie May, and he was hilarious. It was raunchy, but really funny. 

This appetizer, the Stracciatella, was probably the best thing I ate on the trip. It was amazing. Moscato poached pairs, prosciutto, walnuts, aged balsamic, and the best pile of fresh mozzarella cheese I've ever had is hiding underneath that stack of pears and prosciutto. It was fantastic, out of this world, no words are good enough to describe this dish. I wish I could eat this every single day for lunch. It was perfect! 

This dish is not on the menu, but it was the wagu beef cheek ravioli w/ 25 year aged balsamic vinegar. The balsamic vinegar was on a couple of the dishes and it was so good. I wish I could've brought a bottle home. The ravioli was different and fantastic, but I probably wouldn't order it again. The beef cheeks were pureed, which was a really strange texture, but the flavor was awesome.

This was probably my second favorite dish - the Carbonara. It almost had an asian flavor to it, and it was fantastic. The bacon was thick and crunchy and the brussel sprout leaves were perfect. I love pasta and carbonara is one of my favorites. I'm so glad we ordered this. 

This was a nine month dry aged reserva KC Strip cooked medium rare. I didn't get a picture before it was cut because they come and carve it table-side. It was so different than any other steak I've ever had, and the nine-month dry age on it was the reason we (J) chose this restaurant. It had such an earthy, different flavor. The texture was a little different than a regular steak, but it was still a meaty flavor. I'm happy to say I've tried this, but it wasn't my favorite. 

Mash potatoes with a poached egg from a super chicken and bacon. They break the egg table side and stir it into the potatoes. The egg takes the mash potatoes to another level and it was so incredible. 

On Sunday J watched/bet on football all day while I shopped. We had lunch at Gordon Ramsay's BURGR at Planet Hollywood. When J originally told me he wanted to eat here, I wasn't too excited because I thought a burger wasn't going to be that special or different. I was wrong. It was a burger on steroids - so incredibly good and I'm glad I gave it a chance. 

Gordon Ramsay is one of my favorites chefs. I love Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Master Chef, and right now Master Chef Junior is my favorite show on TV. Last time we were in Vegas we ate at his restaurant Steak, and it's probably one of my favorite meals I've had to this day. He's the best and I love his shows and restaurants!

At BURGR we split the Hell's Kitchen burger, the truffle fries, and the creme brûlée oreo shake. I was in heaven. The burger was amazing with jalapeño, roasted red peppers, asadero cheese, avocado, and a jalapeño aioli. I don't know what exactly was so good about it, but I've a lot of burgers in my day and this is now my favorite. 

Every time we go to Vegas, we go downtown and do one night on Freemont Street. It is so weird on Freemont, but I always see the strangest things, and there's so much to do. We read about this fondue restaurant, F. Pigalle, that opened up a couple weeks before our trip and we knew we had to try it. I have actually been to the original restaurant that inspired this one in Paris, France and can say that F. Pigalle in Vegas blows that place out of the water. ;) The food was better! I'm not sure if this is the exact one that F. Pigalle was inspired by, but here is the Yelp page for the one I dined at...I think - it was about 10 years ago and I drank a lot of the wine.

There are only four things on the menu: Cheese Fondue, Shrimp Fondue, Steak Fondue and Chocolate fondue. We had all but the shrimp. 

 Sides for the steak fondue. The sauces were horseradish, steak or teriyaki sauce, aioli, chimichuri. The horseradish was my favorite and my second favorite was the chimichuri. OMG, so good. I loved the flavor of the steak - it was awesome. 

Just like the original fondue restaurant I went to in Paris, F. Pigalle serves (unlimited) wine out of baby bottles. The wine comes with the meal, you don't have to pay for it, and you can have as much as you can drink. You can sit there until 4am and drink wine out of baby bottles if you want. :) I obviously wasn't drinking wine but the server was so excited when I asked for my sprite in a baby bottle too so I could join in on the fun my hubs was having drinking out of a bottle.

I'm not positive and I'm no historian, but I believe during the Napoleon era there was a tax put on wine glasses in France. As part of the rebellion against the tax, some places served wine out of baby bottles instead of wine glasses. So the baby bottles at F. Pigalle are an ode to that era. Super cool!

Chocolate fondue - my heart!! So incredibly good with the rice crispy treats and the strawberries. 

Sprite and chocolate fondue - what more could a pregnant lady ask for at 11:30pm on a Sunday in downtown Vegas?! If you go to Vegas and are looking for a party spot, please please please visit F. Pigalle on Freemont Street. I'm hoping that next time we visit Vegas we stay downtown near Freemont and do one night on the strip instead of vice versa.

We stopped for a quick snack on Monday at a restaurant called Trevi at the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace while we were shopping. We just wanted something quick and easy and pretty much everything (except the Cheesecake Factory) was Italian. We split the mussels and they were unexpectedly awesome. Mussels are usually served in a white wine sauce so I loved that these were in a red sauce. I don't know why I was so surprised, but they really were great. 

I didn't get any pictures of our dinner on Monday night, but we ate at Lupo at Mandalay Bay. It's a Wolfgang Puck restaurant and we just kind of wandered into it while hanging out at the Mandalay Bay Casino. It was great and the best thing we ate at Lupo was a parmesan cream soup. The service was great, and so were the calamari and meat + cheese plate. 

My husband wanted to eat at Rx Boiler Room, a Rick Moon restaurant, but we had been at the casino forever, it was really late, and I was on the verge of a meltdown because I was starving. I was craving pizza and something "normal" to eat and didn't want anything too fancy or fussy. So the Italian restaurant won and my pizza was great. Don't mess with a pregnant girl when she's hungry.

The Jean Phillipe Patisserie was a little cafe spot in the Bellagio that was to die for! This was our breakfast before our flight out on Tuesday. I had the pistachio gelato (I'm a pistachio gelato snob, btw) the previous day and I was craving it for breakfast. This was our second breakfast at this place while we stayed here. The first time we had a ham and cheese croissant and a raspberry jelly donut that were both out of this world. I think my husband said the ham + cheese croissant was one of the best things we ate while there and I can attest that it was fantastic. This croque monsieur was basically the same as the croissant, however it had a bachemal sauce and it was SOOOO good.

We grabbed these chocolates from the Patisserie and enjoyed them from the comfort of our sofa at home. I love vacation, but there is nothing like the feeling of coming home. The plaid one in the top row is my favorite. It was a chocolate waffle praline chocolate. SO good. They're all good. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah