One of the best - and most expensive -meals I've ever participated in was our big dinner at Japonais at The Mirage in Las Vegas at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. The bill came to around $2000 and it surprised my boss, Daniel, so much that all he could do was laugh when he was presented the bill. He continued to make jokes about it all during the show.
On the final day of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, Dominic Baker from Focal Loudspeakers announced to us that he'd like to take us out for dinner that evening. He said, "Let's go to that place that you guys all talked about last year. The place that had the sushi and Kobe beef."
I said to Dominic, "Are you sure? That was two large bills for the dinner last year."
He kind of shrugged and said, "Sure? Why not?"
I love the European manufacturers we work with.
Japonais' Las Vegas location is the third to open since the original location opened in Chicago in 2002. Japonais specializes in contemporary Japanese cuisine. Their locations are very chic and contemporary in look and design. The Las Vegas location is a pretty cool place. To check out our visit to Japonais in 2008, click here.
We began to pack up our demo products around 1 p.m., hoping to be packed up and the gear transported to the warehouse to be shipped out by around 6 p.m. The plan worked pretty well, considering one of my colleagues, John, was in bed with a monster cold. And the fact that I had also caught a monster cold that morning and was fading fast during the day. By the time we got the rental truck back to Penske and we got back to the hotel to clean up, it was around 7:00 p.m. I was absolutely beat, so much to the point that I was seriously contemplating not going out to dinner. But it was Japonais - one of the most exquisite places I've ever eaten.
John stayed in bed and nine of us went to The Mirage for dinner. We got right in at 7:30, the restaurant was far from full on a Sunday night. We sat at a large, rectangular table in the middle part of the restaurant. Right off the bat, drinks and appetizers - including loads of sushi - were ordered. My colleague, Ian, picked out a couple great bottles of Italian wine - a red one and a white one. We were tired, hungry and thankful we'd survived another show.
One of the appetizers I ordered was "The Rock". They bring out a heated stone (to about 500 F) along with thin slices of tender New York strip steak meat. You put the meat on the stone for however long you want it to cook and then eat it like that. About 15 seconds a side was almost too done for this steak. But it was just as wonderful as I remember.
Another appetizer I ordered was the Smoked Kobe beef. It was slices of smoked American-raised Kobe beef served on a skewer with a ginger wasabi sauce. Oh, man! I remembered how great it was the first time I had it. I had to have it again. And it certainly didn't disappoint the second time around.
Oh, and the Kobe beef carpaccio. That was the highlight. Thinly-sliced very rare pieces of Kobe beef. I had a couple of those slices and they literally melted in my mouth. The taste sensation was just unbelievable.
And I ordered a number of different types of sushi items as appetizers, as well. By the time it came to ordering up a main entree, I was literally full. But I wanted to try something on the menu - the Japonais Tuna Steak. It's a cut of sushi grade tuna, grilled to a perfect medium rare and served over a roasted potato puree mixed with scalliions, tempura maitake mushrooms with a wasabi glaze. It sounded heavenly.
Dominic Baker and my colleague, Ian, went with the American-raised Kobe beef rib-eye - at $72 bucks a pop. It's similar to the smoked Kobe beef entry, but in a full 10 oz. rib-eye. Dominic said, "I don't care if it's American-raised Kobe beef. It still has to be better than anything we get in Europe."
Well, my tuna steak was just excellent. It wasn't a large tuna filet, so I was able to eat most of it on the already full stomach that I had. It was just fantastic. The tuna had some fat to it, so the flavor was just exquisite. Oh, man! My stomach is doing jumping jacks just thinking about how great that tuna steak was.
But the Kobe beef rib-eye was the highlight at the table. From Dominic's first bite, he was in heaven. He said, "This may cost me $2000 bucks for this meal, but this alone is worth it." He offered me a bite of his steak - cooked rare in the fine European tradition. I quickly took him up on his offer. I have to say that it was very, very good. The taste of the meat was just outstanding, but the texture of meat was unbelievable. Like the Kobe beef carpaccio, it literally melted in my mouth. Both Dominic and Ian were using steak knives, but both said they probably didn't need to.
Between all the food, the wine and the growing intense cold in my system, I started to fade pretty quickly. I had an early morning flight back home and I needed to get back to The Hilton to finish packing and to get some rest. My boss, Daniel, could tell I wasn't feeling the best. He said, "Why don't you take a cab back to the hotel? Don't worry about having to stick around if you're not feeling well."
I took him up on that offer and one of our guys from Montreal who came to help out at the show this year, Michael, left with me as he said he was starting to fade, as well. We thanked Dominic profusely for his hospitality and for picking out such a great restaurant.
On the cab ride back to the hotel, Michael (who wasn't with us in Las Vegas last year) said, "Oh, man. When everyone came back from the show last year and kept talking about this Japonais place, I thought, 'Man, what a time to miss out on a show.' I'm glad I got to experience it this year. That may have been one of the finest meals I've ever had."
Michael's right on - Japonais is one of the nicest places I've ever eaten at and both times were definitely Top 10 meals in my life.
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