Back in Vegas again for another Muse concert! And for my birthday! Yes!
Mr. Monkey's father got us another free suite, this time at THEhotel, which was perfect because the Muse concert was at the adjoining Mandalay Bay, and we had another $50 restaurant.com gift certificate for a Mandalay Bay restaurant. Hooray for convenience and discounts! The living room was perfect for entertaining our pals, the Oros and the Vegases, before and after dinner and the Muse concert.
The bedroom was spacious and comfortable. Can you spot me?
The bathroom wasn't too shabby either. A flat-screen TV is always a good thing.
Mr. Monkey loved the complimentary bath salts. Shh. Don't tell him I wrote that.
miX sits atop THEhotel. If you haven't been, you absolutely must go sample Chef Alain Ducasse's brainchild. Las Vegas is a lot closer than Paris after all.
I really liked the design. Stunning.
You'd think that a restaurant that provides a pad of paper and pencil would be quite food-blogger-friendly. But, despite its stark white interior, miX is sort of horrific for food photography because of its dreadfully dim lighting. Boo hoo for me.
Assorted complimentary bread. See that brown square closest to you? That's some awesome house-made peanut butter. Swell stuff.
Japanese sea bream sashimi, corn emulsion, and popcorn ($18). This wasn't my favorite, but it was an interesting effort. I'm not sure I've ever had sea bream before. It was a little on the chewy side. I did enjoy the dots of corn emulsion.
Tender potato gnocchi, pumpkin, and crispy bacon ($26). Man, oh, man. Li'l nuggets of heaven on a plate. Like happy dough pillows.
Roasted Maine lobster "au curry," coconut basmati rice ($54). Superfreakingdelicious. YOU MUST GET THIS. YES, I AM SHOUTING. The combination of flavors and textures knocked my socks off. It's not often that you have lobster prepared so creatively. This was my favorite dish of the night.
Beef Rossini ($75). Decadent with a capital "D" -- one of the biggest pieces of seared foie gras I've ever seen perched on prime filet mignon swimming in a luxurious black truffle reduction, accompanied by the creamiest, most buttery mashed potatoes ever. Rich, rich, rich, rich. Jealous? You should be. Superb.
miX Dessert Tray ($20).
Very pretty but not as tasty as I'd hoped. Sad.
Complimentary madeleines and chocolate. Now this mignardise was something. Blew our "real" dessert out of the water. Glad we ended with these warm sweet goodies.
I'm definitely visiting miX in the future and doing the tasting menu.
Why didn't we do the tasting this time?
Because of time constraints due to this.
Like our trip last weekend, our December trip to Vegas was planned around Muse. In December, Muse headlined Holiday Havoc '09 at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. We had to sit through some crappy bands, but even a truncated Muse set is worth that.
