Foodie Finders NYC on the road to Las Vegas: Day 1

Hello foodies! Sorry I haven't posted in the last few day but I do have an excuse. I was in Las Vegas! The Foodie Finders NYC Crew and got last minute plane tickets to Las Vegas. We just got back and I never had a chance to post anything actually from Las Vegas. I had the most AMAZING food filled trip. I got to meet amazing chefs and I got to eat at delicious restaurants. I am so glad to share them with you. I was in Vegas for five days so the next five posts will be about one of my five days in Las Vegas. When our flight landed, the Foodie Finders NYC Crew and I were famished so we headed over to Hubert Keller's Burger Bar. It was so great. Here is my review.

Burger Bar          3930 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV, 89119 (Mandalay Bay)

If you are looking for the BEST burger place in the world, do your taste buds a favor and head over to chef Hubert Keller's Burger Bar. At Burger Bar you can either create your own burger or order a burger of the menu. I made my own burger and I highly recommend to make your own burger. You chose your meat, your bun and your toppings. The possibilities are endless with toppings from chopped jalapeno and fried eggs to 1/3 oz. of shaved black truffle and pan-seared foie gras. Also the sweet potato fries are super good. The onion rings and the beer battered pickles are good too. I got chipotle aioli on the side with my burger and I loved dipping my sweet potato fries in it. No matter what burger you get you will love it because the burgers are just so good itself. Also the milkshakes are amazing. My personal favorite would be the Nutella. If your in Vegas, Burger Bar is great for lunch, dinner or just for a quick burger to get you through the day.

• Great burgers
• Has an ideal burger place feel with a smell that will make your mouth water
• Delicious milk shakes
• Good service
• Yummy sweet potato fries
• Wide selection of toppings for creating your own burger
•  Recommend:

1. Creating your own burger
2. Sweet Potato fries
3. Beer battered pickles
4. Nutella Milk Shake

• Wouldn't Order Again:

1. Fat fries

After Burger Bar we ran over to chef Rick Moonen's RM Seafood because we coordinated with Rick's assistant, Melissa, to meet Rick since we heard he was in town when making our reservations for two days from this day I am telling you all about. Melissa was a ton of help and really nice. We would of met Rick the night we were at his restaurant but he was leaving before our reservations. I was so excited to meet Rick Moonen. When Rick came out I expected him to be busy just say hi and than go but he was the exact opposite. We spoke for a while and than he brought me into his kitchen. First of all his restaurant was huge with two floors. He also had two kitchens, one upstairs, one downstairs. He brought us through both kitchens and took the time to explain everything (while we were with Rick, Mike Minor, the executive chef at Border Grill, walked in to ask him a question. It was very cool). I saw the sushi bar and the downstairs kitchen. Then he took me upstairs to the more fine dining area. The kitchen was nice and he explained everything upstairs. While we were upstairs his pastry chef walks over to him and says he needs Rick for a second to try something and Rick took me with him. It was the dessert for the New Years Eve tasting menu. After Rick tried it he had me try it and it was spectacular. It was a semi-freddo with mandarin's on one side and there was a chocolate cake with a mandarin zabaglione. It was really good and Rick said he was the first one to try it so I was the second person to try that dessert. He than showed us around the rest of the restaurant. It is a beautiful dining room and the private rooms are very nice too. Rick spent so much time with us and was really a lot of fun. You could really tell he is passionate about what he does. I was probably with him for a half hour maybe even more. It was such an experience and I loved every bit of it.
So for dinner we went to chef Emeril Lagasse's Table 10. I have to say I was quite disappointed. I expected Emeril's to be great but it just really was not to good. I really love Emeril and enjoy watching him on television but all the restaurant had was his name on it. I do hope to return to another one of his restaurants because I am not completely turned off from his restaurants but he needs to work hard to redeem it. Here is my review.


Table 10                    3327 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, NV, 89109 (The Palazzo)

Not my first choice to eat in Las Vegas. Table 10, in my opinion, was not very good because of the service and the food was just not fresh. It was all just okay. Appetizers included the Cilantro & Chorizo Sausage Pizza, Cornmeal Fried Alaskan Dover Sole Taco, and we got a side of Truffle Mac-n-Cheese that we shared for the table. For entrees there were no stand outs. I got the Pancetta wrapped Rosemary Skewered Baja Shrimp. I found that it wasn't very good and also hard to eat off the rosemary skewer. The rest of my party felt the same.  I really would not recommend Table 10.  If you are looking for a Emeril Lagasse restaurant, all I could say is try a different one. I hope that my next Emeril Lagasse experience will be enough to make me forget about this one.

• Service wasn't good
• Food wasn't as fresh as you'd expect
• Recommend:

1. Nothing

• Wouldn't order again:

1. Cilantro & Chorizo Sausage Pizza
2. Cornmeal Fried Alaskan Dover Sole Taco
3. Truffle Mac-n-Cheese
4. Pancetta wrapped Rosemary Skewered Baja Shrimp 

So concludes my first day of my foodie field trip to Las Vegas. I hope this helps some of you. Also the first survey has come to an end which means there is a new survey up now. The survey is about your favorite competitive food show. Put your votes in soon. The survey closes on February 8th at 11:59 P.M. Check back soon for more of my food field trip to Las Vegas.

-Mike