Retreating in Las Vegas

As part of our yearly ritual, we spent the last weekend in Las Vegas. As much as this 9th trip to Las Vegas was part our summer tradition, it took quite a different turn from our previous trips.

Firstly, walking the Strip, late night partying, Cirque du Soleil shows-- been there, done that. This time, we spent most of our time relaxing in the hotel and vegetating by the pool.

Secondly, we usually stay at different hotels during each visit to Sin City. Last year, we loved the Encore so much that we promised to return there on our next trip. And we did. Most of our time last weekend were spent on the grounds of the Encore and the Wynn. The Encore itself is such a gorgeous hotel and the added benefit of being a hotel guest at the Encore or the Wynn which allows access and use of amenities at either hotel is a fantastic selling point. Both towers are connected to each other and Steve Wynn must have envisioned to build a city within a city when the place was constructed. Even if you don't want to try your luck at the casino table, it is hard to stay away from the luxurious pool and world class restaurants on the hotel grounds.

This trip where we almost "did nothing" was one of our most relaxing moments, ever. Now we just wished we could live that fantasy life in Las Vegas just a little longer.

For a detailed review of the Encore, read the original review here.

Wing Lei at the Wynn, Las Vegas

Wing Lei's dining room is beautiful and ornate it's difficult not to fall in love with this place. One side of the room overlooks a well manicured garden with 100-year-old pomegranate trees complete with lights illuminating the garden in the evening. On the other side of the room is a ceiling-to-floor mirror panel that creates an illusion of the room size.







Currently the first and only Chinese restaurant in the United States to receive a Michelin Star, Wing Lei is headed by Executive Chef Ming Yu. Just recently, T and I were lamenting that Chinese cuisine has fallen more and more into the stereotype of being a greasy and cheap takeout type of food. Maybe it's the Chinese takeout food places that are popping up all over America that creates the impression that Chinese food is all about its low prices with portions large enough that leftovers can be a substantial meal in itself for next day's lunch, never mind so much about the quality. This is not the reality of Chinese food, or at least not the reality of Chinese food we grew up with in Asia. For every burger diner places, there is a high end steakhouse where people are willing to splurge. The reality is the same for Chinese cuisine; there are refined ways of preparing them. Chinese food does not only belong in a white takeout box. It also belongs in a high end restaurant.

Wing Lei is a high end Chinese restaurant that is very similar to  what you can find in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia from atmosphere to pricing. In fact, it is not uncommon to find Chinese restaurants like these in a slightly higher price range in Asia. Wing Lei reminded us a lot of the very good Chinese restaurants we've been to in several parts of Asia and we were impressed as to how close Wing Lei tries to execute this concept. The cuisine at Wing Lei is French-influenced Shanghai, with a mix of Cantonese and Szechwan.


 


Wing Lei offers a 6-course Imperial Peking Duck Tasting Menu which was what we went with. They also have a good variety of ala carte items and a separate menu which they say has the more traditional Chinese dishes. We are great fans of Peking duck and could not have said no to the Imperial Peking Duck Tasting Menu. We had just flew in to Las Vegas that same night, checked in at the Encore where we stayed, and headed straight to Wing Lei at the Wynn for our 9:00pm dinner reservation. Never mind about the time zone change where it was 11:00pm central time back in Chicago, we would had have to stomach some Peking duck anyway at that time of night. We were in Las Vegas after all, where the time of night or day does not matter. Activities go on.

At the beginning of the first course, the duck is brought to the table on a cart. Done table side, the server then carves the skin along with some of the meat before placing each carved skin and meat on top of a flat steamed bun garnished with thin strips of scallions and cucumber, served with hoisin sauce. The steamed buns were incredibly soft and light to bite. Each of us got two sets of buns and although on an ordinary night we would have been able to devour more than that, the portion for the first course was just right seeing that we had more duck coming our way in the next few courses.

 

The second course was the Peking Duck Salad constructed and presented in a more contemporary way. Encased in a pastry ring were romaine lettuce, chopped duck meat, endive, slice of mandarin orange, and cherry tomato mixed citrus vinaigrette dressing. The generous amount of duck meat, sliced into bite sizes, were tender in texture.

The third course was a lighter dish that came in form of duck wonton in broth. The highlight of this dish was definitely the wonton wrapper used for the duck wonton. The wonton wrappers were very delicate, smooth, thin, and almost fragile. Generally, the quality of wonton wrappers is judged by its thinness and is deemed superior over the thicker unrefined ones.

The wok-fried duck meat and pan-seared yee mee noodles with duck meat were brought simultaneously to the table as the fourth and fifth courses. Served family style, both dishes were meant to be shared. The wok-fried duck meat was accompanied by shitake mushrooms, red peppers, and zucchini; the duck noodle dish had accompaniments as one would expect such as bean sprouts and scallions. Halfway through these courses our stomachs started to fill up and although we finished the plate of noodles, we were successful in only eating half the portion of the wok-fried duck meat. Had I not started to feel full, I am sure I would have enjoyed more the wok-fried duck meat.

We stayed true to our Southeast Asian roots by requesting from the server if they had any freshly sliced chilli peppers and to which he responded, I will get the kitchen to prepare some for you. He came back with a generous amount of sliced Thai birds eye chilli and reminded us several times that these were really spicy. Yes, we love our food spicy, we told him.

Dinner ended with the last and sixth course which was dessert that was by no means a traditional Chinese dessert but reflected Wing Lei's versatility of constructing a Western-style dessert. Mango sorbet and banana cream sat atop short bread. Complementing the dessert was the tangy salsa made up of kiwi fruit, strawberry, and mango.





Wing Lei achieves to cater to both discerning traditional Chinese taste buds as well as Western palates without the need to compromise the taste and quality of food either way its prepared. Its versatility to cater to either types of palate and the ability to execute it well is probably one of its great strengths as reflected in the range of diverse population of diners in the dining room. We saw a table of Mandarin-speaking Chinese who ordered the traditional delicacy of birds nest soup. The table next to us was an Italian couple who ordered the Peking duck tasting menu. Another table comprising of Middle Easterners ordered a variety of stir-fried dishes served family style. Wing Lei got its food execution right and it's not difficult to see it as a fine addition to the rest of the fine dining restaurants at the Wynn.

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Wing Lei at the Wynn
3131 Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Accolades
2011 AAA Four Diamond Award of Excellence
2010 AAA Four Diamond Award of Excellence
2009 1-Michelin Star
2009 AAA Four Diamond Award of Excellence
2008 1-Michelin Star
2008 AAA Four Diamond Award of Excellence

Encore Las Vegas

We are back from Las Vegas, for the 8th time. As always vacations are never long enough and no matter how many times we have been to Sin City there can never be enough days for us there and this time was no exception. This trip, however, stood out among our previous trips there and it was largely due to our incredible stay at the Encore. After having stayed at many different hotels on the strip and with many hotels to compare with, it is difficult not to talk about our experiences at the Encore.

Encore is the place to be at right now in Las Vegas. It is the ultimate lap of luxury for anyone who is looking for this type of experience. Encore was originally planned as an expansion of the Wynn but plans for Encore became so incredible that Encore became its own full scale resort, hotel, and casino. It is often said that Steve Wynn, the ever industrious owner and casino developer, made sure that the mistakes learned from the luxury Wynn resort were not repeated at the new Encore. One cannot talk about Encore without also talking about the Wynn since hotel guests from both hotels have full access to amenities on either hotel. Encore and Wynn are adjacent to each other and easily connected through the luxury shopping esplanade.

 

Mosaic nature patterns are part of the common theme as can be seen throughout Encore and Wynn. The design theme at Encore specifically includes very strong red colors reflected almost throughout the resort: red chandeliers at the casino, red patterned walls at the registration desks, and red themed restaurants and bars.

Encore is on the higher side of price range, yes, but for a good reason. There's a popular school of thought when it comes to hotel choices: why pay more for a hotel if you're going to be spending most of your time outside the hotel anyway? We see a lot of basis for this school of thought but we also think it depends on the vacation destination. Hence, this school of thought might not necessarily hold true for Las Vegas, at least for us. In Las Vegas, almost all the attractions are the hotels themselves (isn't that what The Strip is known for after all: the hotel attractions) which means that we would be spending a lot of our time in the hotel: pool, meals, casino, shows, shopping, and other attractions.

We stayed at one of the Encore resort suites which was well designed, furnished, and thought out. Each room at the Encore reportedly costs more than $1 million to build and furnish so that explains why we were felt so pampered during our entire stay.

One of my favorite aspects of the design was the solid black wooden doors used for the closet, bathroom, and main suite entrance.

 

When it comes to state-of-the-art equipment and technology, Encore has got them covered. On one side of the bed is an iPod docking station.

On the other side of the bed is a control panel that allows you to automatically control the curtain drapes, bedroom light, and room privacy right from the comfort of the bed. Say goodbye to paper doorknob handles when requesting for room privacy. Requesting housekeeping to make the bed is also a button away located at the main door. And, no more flipping the light switch off and then trying to make your way back to the bed hoping not to bump into anything in the dark.





The touch screen telephone on the office desk eases the process of having to look up from a paper hotel directory for which extension to dial for the appropriate service. Customer service at a more personal level was also felt during our stay. Whenever we called up a department for any requests or questions, our call was greeted right away by name, "Hello Mr P, .....". The last time we received such personal service was when we stayed at the Four Seasons in Singapore. After our request for more toiletries, we received a courtesy call about 15 minutes later from housekeeping to check whether our toiletries had been delivered.





The fully stocked mini bar carries more than just drinks. There are a variety of nibbles consisting of caramel popcorn, cookies, chocolate, and jelly beans. Bringing technology into play again, these snacks are placed on top of a sensor plate so that if any of the packaged snack is removed for more than 60 seconds, it is considered that you really do want to munch on those nibbles and hence, the charge is placed directly to the room account. Pretty nifty, I should say.

In true Las Vegas style, apparently Encore does care whether hotel guests have forgotten to pack the more personal items with them during their trip.

The swivel 42" flat screen TV was also a nice treat as hotel guests could watch it from either the bed or the couch in the sitting area. And if we start fighting over who gets to watch the channel of his or her choice, no worries. There is another smaller 19" TV in the bathroom (remote control included!) which faces the bathtub. The dual sinks, separate shower and bathtubs are nice added touches.

Another standout is the pool area which consists of two area areas mainly differentiated by whether it is European-style or not. The European pool allows for optional topless sunbathing and only adults are allowed in that area. The European pool has a bar with several gambling tables if hotel guests wish to try their luck while outdoors. Hotel guests at Encore have access to the Wynn's pool area which also consists of a spacious resort pool and a European pool. For the really indulgent ones, cabanas can be rented as well.

With the award-winning restaurants, cafes, bars, retail stores, and casino on premise, we had never spent that much time inside a hotel until then. Encore is also home to XS Nightclub, the hottest night spot currently in Las Vegas. XS Nightclub reportedly is the most expensive nightclub to be built to date at more than $100 million and is a popular choice among celebrities. Hotel guests also get a separate line at the entrance bypassing non-hotel guests who have to wait in line to get in. It is a self-sufficient resort in itself, but yes, it would be silly not to get out of the hotel and walk The Strip when we are in Las Vegas and so that was what we did the rest of our time there.

We were so comfortable with our stay that we did not want to leave but we needed to be jolted back to reality in Chicago. It was a decadent experience that we definitely would want to experience again on our next trip out to Las Vegas. As for our usual practice of trying out a different hotel each time we are in Las Vegas, we are not so sure now if we could maintain that. Encore remains really high up on our list for an indulgent stay during our next trip out to Sin City.

Steve Wynn gets it right, again.



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Encore Las Vegas
3121 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109