On our way home from a week in Utah with the in-laws, we stopped to celebrate Bebe E’s birthday at Hell’s Kitchen in Las Vegas. Some may question the logic in taking a one year old to a fancy restaurant, but the reality is, Mama and Daddy love to eat good food, and love to celebrate, and Daddy loves all things Gordon Ramsay.
We made a 1:45 reservation and arrived by 1:20. We were seated by 1:30, with a high chair and a safe space to store the stroller (always helpful when dining out with baby!)
We had scoured the menu the night before, and had a plan, to share the Steak Tartare, the Lobster Risotto, and the Sticky Toffee Pudding. Upon arrival, though, we decided some vegetables would also be a good idea, and easy to share with baby, so we added the Heirloom Tomato salad to our initial order.
While baby munched on some baby snacks, Mom and Dad ordered two delightful cocktails: the Forbidden Fruit and the Note from Gordon.
Forbidden Fruit was a pear vodka based cocktail, enhanced with raspberry syrup, lemon juice, and italicus bergamotto citrus liquer. It was delicious and very sweet, going down almost like a dessert cocktail.
Meanwhile, Note from Gordon was a gin based cocktail, shaken with green tea, lemongrass, peach, and lemon, with a little (funny) paper note from Gordon Ramsay. I am not sure if they are all the same, but ours said, “this roll is so horrible, nicolas cage wouldn’t even accept it.” Classic Ramsay.
The steak tartare arrived promptly, with chunks of piedmontese beef, a sous vide egg yolk, dijon mustard aioli, and black truffle caviar on top. It was the best steak tartare I have had, with a delightful texture balanced out by a cracker that managed to be soft and firm at the same time–almost al dente–and the flavors danced together perfectly, between the salty tang of the caviar and the umami of the beef, and the slight sweetness with the egg yolk. It was excellent.
The first time we went to a finer Ramsay establishment, I had not really watched any of his shows. I was only there at Gordon Ramsay Steak (also in Vegas) because my husband was a fan. But last summer, when I was 9 months pregnant and there was no new television, we watched a LOT of Master Chef, and learned what Gordon values in food, presentation, and service.
This time, I was well aware of his values and preferences, and saw them executed perfectly in Hell’s Kitchen. The flavors, delivery, and more were outstanding.
After the steak tartare, the lobster risotto and heirloom tomato salad arrived. Our son LOVED the risotto, a truffle based dish with a perfectly poached lobster tail on top. (We also loved it. The texture was perfect, the risotto an excellent al dente, and the flavors again well balanced).
The heirloom tomato salad featured bright summer tomatoes of all varieties, with whipped feta, thin sliced cucumbers, pickled red onion, and garlic croutons, tossed in a fresh basil vinaigrette. It was delicious, truly the best flavors of summer packed into one salad. I had to split it with both my husband and my son, but I could have eaten a second one all by myself.
The risotto is an appetizer size, and our gourmand baby decided he wanted a lot of it, so we ended up rounding out our mains with the classic Beef Wellington, one of Gordon’s most famous dishes. It too was a master class in flavor balancing, with the sweet pastry shell, rich mushroom paste, and medium cooked steak in the middle. Served over a creamy potato puree, with glazed carrots and turnips, and drizzled with a red wine demi-glace, it was a rich, delightful main dish, and I am glad we went ahead and ordered it there.
Finally, it was time for dessert, and the famous Sticky Toffee Pudding. Because we were celebrating our son’s birthday, we got one full sized pudding for free (and ordered a second because they are delicious and we didn’t want to share one three-ways). At first, Baby wasn’t sure about this dessert (he was getting tired and probably full from all his cucumbers, feta, and risotto), but once I got a small bite in his mouth, he decided he needed MORE!
The fun thing about Sticky Toffee Pudding at a Gordon Ramsay establishment is every one serves it a little differently. At Gordon Ramsay Steak, the accompanying ice cream is a brown butter flavor, served as a stick of butter next to the toffee. At Bread Street Kitchen in London, it’s a flat rectangle drizzled in sauce with a scoop of brown butter ice cream on the side. At Gordon Ramsay Burger, there’s two interpretations: one an English Toffee Shake, with brown butter ice cream, almond toffee, and a biscoff cookie; the other, a sticky toffee pudding ice cream sandwich.
I think my favorite was this one, though, a classic serving of a giant sticky toffee pudding, drizzled in sauce, with a scoop of speculoos (biscoff cookie flavor) ice cream on top. The flavors melded together wonderfully, and we left full and happy (and ready for the rest of our long travel day home).
Hell’s Kitchen was my fifth Gordon Ramsay property to experience, and I think my favorite (though Bread Street Kitchen in London was really cool too, and in between the fast casual of Burger or Fish & Chips, and the finer dining at Steak and Hell’s Kitchen). The service was quick and excellent, they were attentive to our evolving needs dining with a one year old, and everyone was very friendly.
It might seem silly or a waste to take a small child to a nicer restaurant, but my thought was that Gordon has lots of kids, and if anyone were going to be accommodating, it would probably be one of his restaurants, and they totally were. We also really want our son to know how to both behave at and enjoy nice restaurants, and we know that starts when he is young. So thank you to the team at Hell’s Kitchen for giving our son a very memorable first birthday meal and dessert. I am sure we will be back!
travel nostalgic 