Chef Jose Andres has three restaurants in The Cosmopolitan Hotel
in Las Vegas. We ate at two of them - Jaleo and é
- in March of 2013. We could have eaten at the third one, China Roblano, but the idea of a Spanish rendition of Chinese-Mexican fusion food was too bizarre
for me.
Two weeks later, our friends Arufa
and M reported that their meal
at China Roblano was
excellent. The
steamed BBQ pork buns there had
the fluffiest texture, and the
taco with deep-fried slow cooked beef tendon and Kumamoto oyster was
sublime. Wow, who would have thought of tendon
and oyster together in a taco? We have
missed out on that place, though
we did eat two Asian lunches between
our Spanish dinners.
* * *
Our taxi took us from the Strip and its glam to Lotus of Siam (LOS from here on) in a local area that could not be any
plainer. The driver would have missed the
restaurant if I had not spotted its name in green plastic letters bundling up
on the back wall of a dreary strip mall.
The Thai restaurant was in plain sight once the taxi pulled into the huge
and empty-looking parking lot. From the
outside LOS did not look much. It was
hard to imagine that this was one of the most popular and highly regarded eateries
of Las Vegas.
 |
| Lotus of Siam |
Even though the mall looked deserted, LOS was packed inside. We
were lucky to get a small table right away.
Soon a larger table for four opened up and our friendly waiter moved us over
without hassle in spite of people
waiting at the reception. We ordered five
items from the menu and two different glasses of German Riesling. Our waiter warned us that some of our
dishes would take a while because the kitchen was busy with making food for the
popular lunch buffet. He also made sure that we knew that the wines
were sweet.
It
did not take long for tod mun plar (deep fried fish cake) and pork satay to arrive. The fish
cakes at LOS were seasoned with curry
paste and they did not contain chopped long beans. Their texture was on the firm side. As my knowledge of Thai food was next to nothing,
I had no idea whether the LOS version
was any more traditional than the bouncy fluffy turmeric yellow ones that I had
in the past. The pork was marinated with
fresh herbs and spices, grilled and served with peanut sauce. The slightly charred meat was juicy and
tender. We liked both starters and finished
them in no time.
 |
| tod mun plar |
 |
| pork satay |
Mrs. A could not resist the classic tom yum koong soup. The watery
clear broth with shrimps and straw mushrooms was packed with flavor - sour (lime),
hot (chili), spicy (galangal), aromatic (lemon grass, kaffir lime leaf) and umami
(fish sauce, shrimp). It whetted our
appetite for what to come.
Squid sautéed in garlic, cilantro and chili pepper sauce had a
wonderful flavor. But we were disappointed
that the squid pieces were chewy. They
were not the tender Monterey Bay squids that we were used to.
 | ||
| garlic squid |
Our last dish was crispy
duck on drunken noodle. Hidden at
the bottom of the plate was a small heap of pan-fried wide flat rice noodle (why the name “drunken noodle” is
unclear to me as there is no alcohol involved in its preparation). The noodle was completely covered by duck
slices. The meat tasted like Cantonese
roasted duck, but the skin was crisp from deep frying. A liberal amount of Thai basil, chili and
salad leaves in a refreshing Thai dressing transformed the meat and noodle into
a complex and satisfying dish. The generous portion was also
filling.
 |
| crispy duck drunken noodle |
I have to mention that LOS has a superb 51-page wine list.
Its cellar has a large selection of German wine (over 150 Rieslings and
14 by the glass) as well as fine Old and New World red and white. The selection is particularly amazing for an
Asian restaurant. The wines are
very reasonable priced. If I lived in or
near Las Vegas, I would go to LOS regularly for its food and wine.
* * *
For dim sum lunch I
selected a Chinese restaurant based on reviews and photos on the online review
website Yelp! The restaurant, which will remain unnamed, was not quite half
filled when we arrived. That was not bad for a
place in a drab area away from the Strip on a weekday. The four ladies pushing dim sum carts were enthusiastic in
selling us their food. One of them even offered us a taste of
the pan fried rice noodle rolls. Unfortunately
the food and the tea were mediocre. A manager wandered around the dining room the whole time doing nothing and for sure not attending to the diners. Our anemic waiter was inattentive and
impersonal. Upon paying our bill, he just
walked
away with the money in silence without any expression. What a contrast in service between this place
and LOS. The
poor dim sum lunch was very
inexpensive; the taxi fare to the restaurant and back cost twice as much as the
lunch.
