Encore 3/9-3/12, lots of dining and viva elvis

3/9
We fly in direct from DC Dulles and landed 1035 am local time. Our room was ready so we checked right in. This was our 6th time staying at Encore so we decided not to wait for a south strip view...seen it before. 28th floor is where we were put. Rom was clean and up to the usual WynnCore standards. Dropped off luggage and headed to Peppermill for a quick lunch. That place is always great for this type of a meal. After lunch headed back to the hotel and took a good 3 hour nap. We woke up, got ready and headed over to Lotus of Siam for dinner. If you love Thai food and love a great wine list this is your place. I havent been back since they expanded. The food was great as always, had shrimp tempura, crispy duck curry and pad thai. the prices are still very reasonable and the quality is still very good. Had 2 great rieslings as well. probably the best list of rielsing i have seen yet anywhere. cabbed it downtown after dinner and just strolled Freemont for a few hours. The usual crazyness was going on and even pretty good for a Wed. night. played some blackjack switch and VP without any excitement. From there went to Fireside lounge at Peppermill for a few cocktails. At around 2 am Penn from Penn & Teller walked in. never knew that he wears his hair down and not in the trademark ponytail. stayed here until about 330 then walked back to Encore. The streets were quiet, almost too quiet.

3/10
walked down to Aria to pick up show tix for the following night. During the walk back we strolled into Bills to check a few songs from Big Elvis. something i do every trip. then back at Encore stooped in Wazuzu for a small lunch. their drunken noodels are my favorite. At 630 we got picked up outside by the gold limo from MGM. We were dining at Joel Robuchon. the limo drops you off at the Mansion entrance. The girl who greeted us walked us thru it and explained how it is an invite only area of the hotel. and is 5k/night. very nice. it was like a private villa complex. from there we walked out into the casino and into the resteruant. we did the 16 course tasting menu. something we have thought about doing for a few years now. i wont go into great detail about each dish but if anyone wants i did take pics of every plate. the expereince was great. very pricey but if your a foodie u may want to do this someday. after dinner we needed to walk and digest so after strolling around MGM for about an hour we cabbed it back to Encore and has a few cocktails in the Eastsides Lounge while watching the dueling piano show. early night because eating dinner took a lot of life out of us.

3/11
walked around the shops at palazzo and venetian during the day. stopped in sushi samba for a light lunch which was good. we went to Cosmopolitan at 5 the try a few places to eat before our 930 show. first we has 2 dishes at Jaleo. Very good and it was hard to stop there. after this we wnet to Scarpetta. even better. duck and fois gra ravioli may have been one of the best dishes i had all trip. then spent some time in the chandelier bar. this is an awesome place. a 3 story, 5 level bard encased in a crystal chandeleier. from here we walked to aria and saw viva elvis. i read many mix reviews on this board about it. i surpassed my expectations. not your traditional CDS show. more singing and dancing than u get in KA but overall I thought it was a great experience. after the show we went back to Cosmo at the chandelier bar and hung out there for another 2 hours. from there we cabbed it back to Wynn and played in the casino some. Around 3 am we walked into Surrender nightclub to check it out. Had 1 drink and just people watched in there. nice place but we arent much into clubs. at 3 am u can just walk on in so we did.

3/12
slept in of course and spent the afternoon walking back up the strip because for some reason i like to gamble at Riveria. played there for a few hours then back to Encore. Dinner was at Carnevino in the palazzo. may have had the best steak in my life here. we had the porterhouse for 2. this may have even edged out joel robucon in terms of overall "best meal". like i said if anyone wants more details on exactly what we ate and what wines we had i can get u that info. im a sommelier by trade so that part of our vacations are always the biggest attraction for us. we had a 6 am flight in the morning and losing an hour to daylight savings made us call it quits after 1 final drink back at Encore. Overall as far as gaming i do most of my playing at the sportsbook. I play a lot of nba and college basketball. was way ahead there. on the floor games not so much. had probably my worse performance on VP i ever have had and roulette and the dice werent kind either. overall i was maybe slightly down. great trip!

 

Great trip report. I loved reading about the restaurants you tried.

 

Wow great report and dining choices. I spent more time eating than gambling. Lotus of Siam was great. You liked Carnevino more than Robuchon? Most people prefer Robuchon, never been to either but I want to try.

 

its not so much that i enjoyed carnevino over robucon, but i guess the overall experience was slightly better. they were completely different as far as style of dining. at robucon i liked every course except 1 with about 4 of them totally being mind blowing good. the service at carnevino seemed much more inviting and relaxed but still was exceptional. in the future im more likely to return to carnevino. our total bill there was around 500 while the robucon tasting menu is 385 per person. after wine the total was about 1200.

 

Great report RVA. Thanks for posting. Loved reading about all the great restaurants – you sure do know how to eat!

 

Thanks for the TR and comments about your dining experiences.

We're seriously considering dining at Joel Robuchon in May, for the whole experience: limo, a view of the Mansion, and the fabulous food.

Did you do the wine pairing with the tasting menu, or did you go with your own experience as a sommelier and select the wine?

 

Thanks for the report

It seems that the Cosmo is just the place to be.

 

i actually went into the dinner with thinking we would have no wine and let the food be the star. of course this was difficult for me to do. i knew the wine pairing would be too much for my wife to handle. they pair a wine with every 2 dishes. we decided on a riesling from austria which went slowly through the meal and a glass of red for the main entree. that glass was 2001 chateau musar. ive never seen this wine offered by the glass before so i had to have it.

 

Great report enjoyed it and if you are looking for people who are interested in details or food pics, count me as one of them, as those sound like some nice experiences. Carnevino has gotten some fantastic reviews, glad to hear another positive review of it.

 

I know that I love reading the details of meals, and seeing the pics of plates. If you don't want to share them here, you might think of a new thread just for that. That way, if people aren't into that, they can just skip that thread.

Thanks for sharing your report.

 

Wait...You are allowed to walk into nightclubs after three am? Explain? *confused* Which ones if you are? I'm not a big clubber, I just want to see whats inside.

 

it was Surrender at Encore..we did it out of curiosity..my wife and i arent big club goers either..there was no line..the door was open..we asked and just walked on in...

 

Enjoyed reading your trip report, sounds like we like a lot of the same restaurants. I've eaten at most of the steak restaurants on the strip and up until recently my current favorite was Cut until we ate at Carnevino a few months ago where like you I decided I had one of the best steaks of my life, though it as the filet and not the porterhouse.

I'm with PrnsessMoi, I love to read the food descriptions and see the food porn.