My wife and I dine at Bouchon regularly (we live in Las Vegas) and consider it to be one of Las Vegas's better French restaurants (not that we have that many). The service has always been top notch and every meal has been excellent. Never to heavy or too light, and I always feel I come away feeling full, but never bloated. I highly recommend the roasted pork, sweatbreads or the steamed mussels.

Don't expect any thing like the French Laundry because it does not come any where close. What a surprise, the service is extremely poor and the food was mediocre at best. It was a big disappointment for both my wife and myself. Do yourself a favor and eat somewhere else, there are way too many good places to eat without having to subject yourself to such a disappointment while in Vegas!

We expected the perfection of The French Laundry or Per Se, but instead had a typical Las Vegas dining experience. Had we expected a typical dining experience we would have been just fine. As it was, a series of sevice errors left us purplexed that this could be a Thomas Keller restaurant.

First, the decor. Stunning and elegant, just as you would expect from a high end restuarant in vegas, where interior design gets to shine. (One weird thing, for a restuarant in a casino town--there is a horseshoe painted on the wall as part of the decor but it is hung upside down, which any superstitious person would tell you allows the luck to "run out.")

We had a reservation, so we went to the front of the line. That's when the night turned down an odd path. I was called by a couple of different names (only one of which was mine), the hostess asked four times if someone would take us to our table, but no one seemed to be paying attention to seating people. Once we got to the table, as the seater pulled the table away from the wall to allow my wife to squeeze in (yes, squeeze - they are close!), the candle and condiments on the table crashed to the floor. They were apologetic (note: we heard a LOT of apologies throughout our 90 minute dinner), cleaned up the mess on the floor, but said nothing about the candle wax all over my wife's shoes.

Our waitress came over, gave us the menu (brown ink on brown paper - innovative design, but you should see everyone holding theirs up to the candle to try to read it once the sun went down...I was surprised we did not see one burst into flames). She took our orders, made some great drink recommendations, but then remembered only half of what we told her. She came back twice to check on our drink orders, and then ended up not even entering one of them, so we had to call her back half way through the entree to get our wine. Apologies all around for that.

And every time the assistant came by with bread or water there were more apologies. "Sorry for stepping on your shoes - it will never happen again." "Sorry for not coming sooner with the water - I will do better next time." "Sorry I took so long with the bread, I could not find one that was even a little bit warm." We appreciated the attention to details but the apologies only made the lapses more apparent.

The food? Excellent. Everything from the appetizer (pate) through the dinner (fish) to the excellent dessert.

As a capper to the service end of the evening, we paid our check and wandered out. No one said good-bye, no one even seemed to notice that customers were leaving.

What to make of it all? If this was just another restaurant I would have been OK with things. The level of service was typical of vegas, we found. But that Thomas Keller name...was conclusion should I draw....I leave that up to you, good reader.

P.S. If it was not so darn hot, it would have be very pleasant to sit out in the garden. The Venetian Hotel (and the Venetzia Tower, where the restaurant is located) is gorgeous.

We had the luxury of dining at Bouchon on 5/16/05. We had a res and were seated immediately upon checking in. The waiter was at our table momentarily w/a wine list and our drink requests. He was very knowledgeable about the entrees and wine selections. He was able to explain what Bistro cooking is and how each entree was prepared (brining, marinating, etc.) Hubby and friend had the lamb shank and said it was excellent. I had the poulet roti(roasted chicken) and it was very flavorful and moist. Friend had the roast pork and it was very tender, fell apart and tasted somewhat like pot roast. Hubby and I had the asparagus soup and it came in a large bowl. It was very good. Friends had the duck appetizer and the cheese w/honey and apples. They both said they were excellent. The french bread was in the shape of a vine and very good. We were too full for dessert. Our bill w/ wine was $400 for 4 people. Take out the wine bill and the food came to $275. The food and the service were excellent.