Restaurant bucket list

[nextguy]

My wife and I are planning a trip to Vegas at the end of March and are deciding which restaurants we should go visit. The choices are tough since there are so many great ones in Vegas now. Then she asked me a question that really got me thinking. Which restaurants are in my bucket list of must visits before I die. I thought about this for a good amount of time and noticed that I am very french heavy. This is definitely not my preferred cuisine for every day or for comfort. For that I would probably choose foods with simpler preparations and possibly more Asian inspired. My list also made think that I've associated fine dining and exclusivity with high-cost. Is this necessarily the case? Does exclusivity and excitement need to be expensive? Then again, we are talking about a bucket list. You wouldn't put an Olive Garden here would you?

In any case, here is my list ranked in order:

The French Laundry

The Fat Duck

Mugaritz

Per Se

Le Bernardin

Alinea

Joel Robuchon (I will have the opportunity to eat at the Las Vegas outpost this month)

El Bulli would have made the list in fourth place if they weren't shutting down.

So that is my list. What is on yours?

[misstenacity]

I'd put Alinea at #2.

And leave some space for A20, probably. Oh yeah, and Urasawa.

[annachan]

There are lots of places I want to try....but El Bulli is definitely on the top of my list. I read somewhere that it will be closing, but there are plans for it reopening as well. I hope it does!

[catdaddy]

If you are going to spend some big bucks on food in Las Vegas I urge you to try a high end sushi bar.

The one at Bellagio just off the casino is wonderful. Nobu at Hard Rock is wonderful.

I'm sure there are better places so have at it.

Would love to hear how your adventure works out.

Best, Ian

Edit; No Olive Garden for but perhaps a NYC dirty dog.

Edited March 12, 2010 by catdaddy (log)

[nakji]

That's an interesting question. I travel a lot, but never to visit top/famous restaurants. I'm usually travelling with others, who often have other goals for the trip.

Even though I could afford to visit "destination" restaurants, I doubt I'd feel very comfortable in one. There's only one that springs to mind that I would really, really love to go to, and that's Momofuku.