Except for the pics of this piece of fabulous animal flesh. My apologies to the vegetarians.
Forgive the picture quality, it was an iPhone in a dimly lit restaurant. But it could be the best steak I've ever eaten.
Before we went, I picked up a couple gift certificates from Restaurant.com to use. Mandalay Bay has a lot of their restaurants listed, and I got one for StripSteak.
You might have heard that Vegas is a new food mecca. All the celebrity chefs are opening restaurants there, and all the one's I've visited have not dissapointed. So, when we go to Vegas, the Hubs and I always joke that we put more planning into where we're going to eat than anything else. I did lots and lots of research on Yelp before deciding on this one.
The thing on the yelp reviews that caught my attention was the "amuse bouche" of duck fat fries. I put "amuse bouche" in parenthesis because (according to the official definition on wikipedia) its traditionally a single bite. And these were a pretty hefty portion for FREE. Yes, free. Like the basket of bread some places bring you before your meal. StripSteak brings you a tray of duck fat fries. That's how they roll. There were 3 cups of fries with different seasonings and three dipping sauces. We couldn't pick a favorite between the black truffle oil-sprinkled fries with black truffle oil aioli or the parsley fries with the ginger ketchup. Both were mind-blowingly good. (Hello--I could totally make ginger ketchup, I think. I need to try.)
We also ordered some drinks. I had a dry red and Jeremy had Fat Tire IPA, I think, while waiting for the rest of the order. I'm kinda a traditionalist when it comes to ordering steak at a restaurant. Probably 99% of the time, I get a wedge salad and creamed spinach with my steak, which I almost always order NY Strip and medium rare. I don't deviate. So this time, I did get a wedge salad, with was fabulous, as far as wedge salads go, but fellow yelpers reported StripSteak's bacon creamed spinach as "meh." I got goat cheese artichoke hearts instead, and they were very good, but I would probably say they were nothing special above goat cheese and artichoke hearts. Jeremy got as his side the truffle mac and cheese. Yelpers proclaimed this as the best thing on the menu, and it definitely was in the running. It. Was. Unbelievable. I wanted to swim in it. Seriously. It was all white cheese, I'm not really sure what kind. But I did detect finely shredded parmesean on top. Which was fabulous with the nuttiness of the truffles. If you ever go there, do not bother getting any other side. And, the a la carte sides are quite generous. One would have easily been enough to share for two.
On to the steaks. Our waitress told us that the steaks were poached in butter for a bit before being grilled. What? I'm sorry. I don't think I heard you right. Poached in butter??? These steaks were so juicy and I'm guessing the butter helped with the ever slightest brown crust on the outside of the steak while the inside was heavenly. I just hate to guess my saturated fat intake for the meal. But hey, it's vacation, right? They didn't have a NY Strip, but they did have a Kansas City Strip. I can't find any discernable difference between the two online or otherwise. Maybe it just depends what coast you're on when you order it... I don't know how a more done steak would have fared with the butter poaching. I presume it would have helped a well-done (shudder) steak remain more juicy and tender. But the Hubs and I both got our medium rare.
Previously, while on our honeymoon in Vegas a few years back, I thought I'd had my best meal in my life at Emeril's Delmonico Steakhouse. The honeymoon is a happy blur, but the memory that petite filet with blue crab hollandise risotto will always remain with me. I'm afraid, though, that I might have topped that meal with this one though. It was so delicious I would even consider going back there sometime, which I am usually against. There are just too many great restaurants in Vegas to repeat one. This one could be worth it, though.
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