This groove-filled spaceship of awesome Asian cuisine inside the otherwise predictable Palazzo has got serious personality. And, as we know, personality goes a long way. Watch us explicate the merits of this well-worthy noodle joint on KLAS in his latest segment of Restaurant of the Week.

Click below to see the man, the gourmand, the myth….and a guy who talks too much with his hands….(with his second favorite food gal-Denise Valdez.)

He was once the best chef in Vegas. Back when Laurent Tourondel was top toque at Caesar’s Palace (and presiding over the last days of the Palace Court Restaurant from 1996-1998), Vegas had never seen anything like his refined take on French cuisine. Classically trained at Troisgros in Roanne, France, he also experienced immense critical success at the ill-fated Cello in New York, before devoting himself to the more prosaic concerns of building a restaurant empire.

Now he’s two days from opening a 200 seat hamburger restaurant right off the Mirage Casino-in the space formerly home to the famed white tigers of Siegfried and Roy fame - one of whom once tried to make its own burger out of Roy’s face. We’re guessing the cuisine will be a bit less refined than Tourondel’s peekytoe crab soup en gelee (Yup…Nuthin’ gets past EATingLV.com!), but from our sneak peek and taste test of yesterday, the burgers will take you straight back to the classic California Googie diner burgers of the 1950’s, albeit with substantially better beef.

Here’s a preview of the space, and a good look at what goes on in the final hours before the launch of an $8,000,000 burger joint!

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Yes, I know what you’re thinking: three whole months is an awfully long time to keep up a blog; poor John must just be exhausted; and how am I to get through the week without his witty, insightful and erudite commentaries on the Las Vegas restaurant scene? Well I really don’t know what to say other than seek professional help, take up a non-food related hobby, and holster those credit and debit cards until I get back.

The good news is that, while I’m away, I’ll be bestowing the munificence of mind and spirit that you have come to take for granted on the rest of the world, as I assume my rightful throne (for one episode at least), on the judges stand of Iron Chef America-beginning its seventh season this fall (air dates TBA).

As popular as ICA is, I must confess I remain true to the Japanese original-a show that reveled in badly- dubbed wackiness and its breathless emulsification of haute cusine into high camp.

For a blast from the past, click here to listen to my original “review” of the original Japanese Iron Chef for Nevada Public Radio.* Number Two Son of Food Man (Hugh Alexander Curtas D.O.B. 10-15-84) and the culturally babe-i-licious Ginger Bruner (D.O.B. unknown) supplied the other voices.

*Important historical footnote: Our spoof of the show aired on January 4, 2001, nine days before Saturday Night Live ran a similar (and far inferior) skit….although the mini shark’s head pizzas whipped up by Charlie Sheen looked mighty tasty.

With this week’s Food For Thought commentary, heard on News 88.9 FM KNPR-Nevada Public Radio, we bestow our last bit ‘o love on DJT. Having featured this small gem on radio, TV, and on this website, as well as talking up the cooking of Joe Isidori and David Varley to everyone from NORM! to Robin Leach, all we can do now is sit back and hope the public responds to a first-class operation that: 1) doesn’t trade off the name of an absentee, overhyped, metabolically challenged “celebrity chef;” 2) isn’t in a mega-casino that takes a Sherpa guide and GPS system to navigate; and 3) won’t murder your wallet with prix fixe menus and overpriced, big-hitter winelists.

Special added bonus: My commentary also defines the difference between an epicure, a gourmet, a gastronome, a gourmand and a glutton. Who says restaurant reviews cain’t bee edjeecaetional?

Click here to hear my review of DJT on Nevada Public Radio.

Don’t worry, we’re not going all Birkenstock on you with these last two posts. Every once in a while though, we lift our nose out of a grand cru Burgundy, after having polished off some Caspian Sea beluga, followed by Chilean sea bass and a Komodo Dragon steak, to actually pay attention to the world at large. And because of it, Eating Las Vegas is starting to strongly suspect there just might be something to this whole carbon-footprint thing.

Click here for some dire news for banana fans.

We Las Vegans don’t usually concern ourselves with the mundane and temporal; not when there are spiritual quests surrounding us like The World Series of Poker and NASCAR. And who has time for annoyances like global warming and geopolitics when the Rio Hotel just formed a partnership with Club Sapphire to bring naked mega-babes to the hotel pool?

Talk of locavores and going green might play to the crowds in San Francisco and L.A., but around here these topics get as much traction as as ban on blackjack. And just when we thought we could enjoy Rick Moonen’s sustainable fish at RM or the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market produce at Craftsteak without guilt…along comes Salon.com like some dookie in the punch bowl, ruining our gastronomic fun.

According to Roberta Kwok’s article, even San Franciscans can’t rest on their green laurels; not when the vaunted Ferry Building Farmers’ Market has been found to create as much carbon dioxide as your local Albertson’s. It’s enough to make me wanna go out and buy a Hummer.

Click here to read the complete article at Salon.com

Yellowtail, the Japanese Sushi-Fusion replacement for the (excellent) Japanese restaurant Shintaro that used to be in the space across the hall from FIX Steakhouse that used to be Sam’s American Grill beside what formerly was the LIGHT nightclub that is now The Bank nightclub at The Bellagio is supposed to open next month. Got that?

Once it opens, The Light Group-which owns all three-will complete its Bellagio trifecta, and be firmly on its way towards world domination of overpriced nightclubs and huge, boring restaurants with trendy decors.

Here’s a sneak peek….

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MAINLAND

Palazzo Resort Las Vegas

3327 Las Vegas Blvd. south, Suite 2852

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.739.6462

Any restaurant that serves luscious duck potstickers, superior ramen, pad thai to die for, and fabulous pho, is alright in our book. Mixing in a groovy decor (designed by India Mahdavi) and channeling a Mao-meets-Elvis vibe is also a real plus; as is the techno-retro soundtrack. What really caps this place though, is the fact that it’s the only restaurant in the Palazzo (other than Espressamente Illy), that mere mortals can afford.

Watch for Mainland as our Restaurant of the Week this week on KLAS TV Channel 8.

ESPRESSAMENTE ILLY

In the Palazzo Hotel Shoppes (When they add the “-pes” to the word “shop;” you know they saw you comin’)

3325 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.869.2233

Illy is one of two major coffee chains in Italy; Lavazza is the other. It makes espresso so good it will make you weep. Illy has 150 coffee bars like this one throughout Europe but this one (in the Palazzo) is the first in the United States. Others are planned for Miami and both coasts, but as with fine French food and a myriad of other happenings in the restaurant world these days….Vegas got the first one. Lucky us. No mixes, no blenders, no powders and no C/D’s for sale. ‘Nuff said.

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Hangover got you down? Too tired or lazy to read my post on Reno restaurants a few entries below this? We understand how a night of video poker, PBR and Jager shots can do that to even the most dedicated foodie. Therefore, as a public service, we hereby offer a direct audio link to my News 88.9 FM Nevada Public Radio weekly “Food For Thought” segment.

Click here to hear this week’s KNPR radio commentary.