Bouchon Bakery — Restaurant in Paradise

Bouchon Bakery is a tourist trap in the Venetian on the Vegas Strip.

I've been here twice, both times a waste of money.

During my most recent visit, I ordered a $7 ham and cheese croissant and requested it warm. Bouchon's version of "warming up" a croissant sandwich is apparently putting it in the microwave without actually turning the microwave on. Whatever treatment they gave it resulted in a "smooshy" and sad-looking croissant, but one with a decidedly cold filling. The ham was of the normal sliced deli variety. Despite being billed as containing dijon mustard, I couldn't taste any mustard. My eagerly-anticipated croissant ended up being nothing more than an unfortunate waste of emmenthaler cheese. I would have had a more satisfying croissant sandwich at Dunkin' Donuts.

I also ordered the kouign amann, which was not as bad, but also no better than the kouign amanns I get at bakery-chains in San Diego for half the price. Rather than being rich and buttery, with a cake-like consistency, Bouchon's kouign amann simply tastes and feels like a large croissant with a caramelized top (or bottom, depending on how you plate your kouign amanns).

My pastries were accompanied by a $5 iced latte that was poorly conceived and negligently put together, with my syrup of choice fully sinking to the bottom of the cup before I could even take my first sip.

Shame on you, Chef Keller. Understand that when you put your name on an establishment that serves food, your customers reasonably expect that establishment to represent your culinary ideals and perspective, regardless of whether or not you're directly overseeing the operation or engineering the menu. Your name has value, and people are willing to pay extra for that given your well-earned reputation. I have to believe that if one of your pastry chefs ever tried to serve anything of the quality I've had at Bouchon Bakery to your customers at French Laundry or Per Se, you'd fire him or her immediately for gross incompetence. Do the right thing and put this abomination of a bakery out of its misery -- your reputation...

Had an excellent meal there. The dining room is beautiful, maybe even understated for vegas in a hotel that has a fake canal. Had an extremely attentive server, who brought us glasses of wine to try before ordering a bottle, and even brought us some tomato confit (wasn't on the menu as a standalone item), and, when she saw we couldn't decide whether we should get goat cheese or blue on the endive salad, she brought both.

Onto the food: Delicious, and rich. We got both the terrine of foie gras and the pate to start. Their terrine is very mild, delicious, and the serving sizes are generous (and they even offered to bring even more bread!). The pate de campagne was very aromatic, very nicely prepared.

We followed by the beet salad with truffle and blue/goat cheese. Mostly yellow beets, extremely mild on the beet flavor, and very well balanced combination of flavors. Usually the beet overpowers.

Then came the leg of lamb (with beans, garlic, and thyme jus). The lamb was perfectly cooked, and the beans made for a perfect accompaniment (I don't even like beans).

We also got to try the Boudin Blanc (the white sausage) served with roasted french prunes and mashed potato. The prunes were easily the highlight of this dish, having some of the flavor white sausage typically lacks.

For sides, it was the brussel spouts (with bacon) - excellent, they had been big-pot blanched then charred on one side, and the bits of bacon make this side just delicious. We also got the fries, which were good, but can't say they were the best fries in the world.

Desert, the three bouchons (perfectly made brownies, moist inside and crunchy on the outside) served with a delicious cream cheese ice-cream (weird, but it totally works).

Overall, a...

I apologize in advance for the length.. Let's start with the Sunday breakfast. There were 5 girls and we didn't have to wait long. The food and mimosas were delicious. I had their American egg meal. It was a bit pricey but we knew that going in so the bill wasn't a shocker. We left full and happy.

Fast forward about 30 minutes later when I realize I left my sunglasses in the booth. These aren't some cheap sunglasses, they are prescription sunglasses so I need them to see in the hot Las Vegas sun and they were expensive. I called the restaurant and spoke with a gentleman who said he found them and would hold them for me there. Since the food was so good we decided to have breakfast there again on Tuesday before our flight home.

Let's review the food on Tuesday morning. There were 7 of us girls now and not one of us really enjoyed the food that day. I had the French Toast with bacon and it was much too sweet. And the bacon which was really good on Sunday was all fat and oily on Tuesday.

On the way out I inquired about my sunglasses and they said they don't have them. They looked in a drawer and said they weren't in and they are nowhere to be found. I was upset! I would've came straight back if I thought they wouldn't hold them for me. We also wouldn't have spent another $500 for mediocre food that day. So they told me to try lost and found. We went downstairs and they didn't have them either. They looked in their log and said that nothing had been logged. Somehow they disappeared or got tossed. With such a nice upscale place you would think this wouldn't happen. And the hostesses couldn't have cared less or been any ruder.

No, I will not be visiting this...