Bouchon Bistro (lunch)

Bryan goes to Vegas several times a year. I guess when you're in the tech industry, Vegas is a popular location for conferences. Whenever he goes, he always stays at the Venetian. Why?

"I come down the elevator and Bouchon is right there. Every morning, I get a pastry and cappuccino for breakfast."

And this is a guy who usually never eats breakfeast!

Alas, this post is not about those pastries, as much as we all love them. I've written about them plenty on this site. You can go here, here, or even here (geez, it really seems like I've visited every single Bouchon Bakery in the world  . . . )

Nor is it about the lovely dinner that the bistro offers (which I already talked about earlier this year here).

Instead, we visited Bouchon twice this trip in the middle of the day - once for lunch and once for brunch. Clearly, the convenience of having the bistro right down the hall (yes, it was even closer than the bakery was to our hotel room), was yet another reason to stay at the Venetian.
QUICK LUNCH

Our first visit was a quick lunch the day I arrived in Las Vegas. Prices were surprisingly reasonable considering we were on the Strip. For example, the beautiful oven-roasted turkey sandwich shown below was only $12. It came with a pickle and house-made potato chips, which were delicious.
Not bad at all for a simple but delicious sandwich made with Bouchon bakery challah (yum!) and fresh oven roasted turkey.

I had already eaten on the airplane, so I just enjoyed a simple plate of butter cookies along with a cappuccino. These cookies keep really well, so I took half of them home and snacked on them in the hotel whenever I got a bit hungry.

BRUNCH

Bouchon French Toast 
Bread pudding style with warm layers of brioche, custard & apples. Served with maple syrup $12.00 

We next stopped by for brunch our last day in the city. Because we were staying in the Venetian (on the 10th floor no less - same floor as Bouchon!), it was way too convenient to just walk down the hall for some scrumptious brunch.

I love bread pudding, so I went with the Bouchon French Toast (which, the server warned me again, was more like bread pudding than traditional French toast). Unfortunately, I was really not a huge fan of this "French toast." Yes, it was like bread pudding, but the ratio of apples to bread was about 1:1, which, in my mind, made the whole thing way too sweet. It tasted more like dessert than breakfast. I think (sadly) I left about half of it on the plate. Those of you with a sweet tooth may still love this. I just couldn't eat much of it at all.

Chicken & Waffles 
Roasted chicken, bacon and chive waffle, Tahitian vanilla bean butter, sauce chasseur $25.00

I was curious how the king of fried chicken (I still have yet to try Thomas Keller's famous Ad Hoc fried chicken!) would make this well-known Southern dish. Imagine our surprise when we found out that the Bouchon chicken and waffles are actually made with roasted chicken!

To his credit, the chicken was perfectly cooked.  It was succulent, juicy, yet flavorful and slightly crispy on the outside. The savory waffles were fantastic - buttery, airy, with the perfect, crispy edges. The meal was delicious, though we both agreed it wasn't the best chicken and waffles we'd ever had. At the end of the day, it was good, but we both agreed the dish inherently tastes better with fried chicken!

Overall, Bouchon is a perfectly fine place to enjoy lunch or brunch. Most of their offerings are solid and made with excellent ingredients. I wouldn't say every single dish will blow you away, but most are pretty good if you happen to be close by (ahem, like down the hall) and don't feel like walking too far in the heat!

This is part 1 of a larger Series The Vegas Anniversary. Other posts in this series:
Bouchon Bistro (lunch)
Aureole
Lee's Sandwiches

Bouchon Bistro
3355 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109