After any show or even before one, be it the NFR rodeo (a sideshow really of cowboy hats and wrinkled Wranglers), or a gig at the Orleans Showroom, you must Dine in at the classic Canal Street Restaurant on the casino floor of the Orleans hotel, a mile west of the Strip on Tropicana. (Click here for the Orleans brochure and here for the video.)
In New Orleans, Louisiana, the main thoroughfare that separates the old city of the French Quarter with the modernism of the new city is called Canal Street. Yes, it survived Katrina. It has been the major hub of New Orleans for years because it is wide and it leads directly to that other great highway - the river road we know as the Mississippi River. Canal Street is world famous, and who has not stood on its curb to watch the Mardi Gras floats float by while yelling for a string of plastic party beads from the Krewe? Canal Street is also known for its trolley car connecting point that whisks you to many of the urbane urban areas of this bayou town.
The Canal Street at the Orleans in Vegas is the hotel's signature restaurant, serving old-style Vegas cuts in reminiscent, antique-like, comfy clamshell brocaded booths that you don't see much anymore in Vegas except in the last of the casinos that haven't been imploded. The kitchy feel included soft overhead track lighting and a knock out menu with reasonable prices.
I started the evening off with Chicken Satay, which I think must originally originate as an Indonesian appetizer. The sauce and the name are distinctive from the Southeast Asian archipelago, but I could have easily gone for the Chilled Gulf Shrimp with Louisiana Cocktail Sauce, or the Oysters Rockefellers, or hmm . . . and yumm . . . the Portobello Mushrooms Marinated in Garlic and Olive Oil. I picked a salad — the Canal Street Salad — over the traditional French Onion Soup or the Lobster Bisque with Cognac. The salad was adorned with crispy Belgian Endive, cucumber and Kalamato, with sliced Spanish olives and salami, feta cheese, artichoke hearts (Jerusalem I think), with roasted peppers.
My dining companion chose the sizable eight ounce Fillet Mignon from the Broiler, but I had to have the Sea Bass Francais, after all, it sounded French and the Orleans is distinctively French, or at least the Canal Street Restaurant is. The Chilean Sea Bass came with slightly sautéed Spinach and a sweet Saffron Cream Sauce.
Asked about their wine list, I was surprised that Canal Street served a merlot varietal from the Napa Valley estate of Francis Ford Coppola — to be sure, a limited vintage, but the price was comparable to other merlots. Coppola is not only a fantastic film director and producer, but he now owns his own hotel and restaurant in the Placentia area in Belize and an ecolodge in the Peten of Guatemala. He has over the years developed a distinctive blend of wines, with his bouquet merlot the most famous, so naturally I had to order a couple of chilled glasses of the deep Burgundy-colored grape.
Other entrées at the Orleans included Marinated Chicken Breast; Chicken Parmigiana; Veal Marsala; Fillet of Red Snapper with two large shrimp; Pacific Salmon wrapped in wafer thin potatoes; Classic Shrimp Scampi; Blackened Rib Eye Steak with Plum and Barbecue Sauces; Seafood Pescatore; Fillet of Beef Medallions, topped with imported Roquefort Cheese; Beef Filet Oscar Topped with Crab Legs and White Asparagus; and Alaskan King Crag Legs (1-1/2 pounds).
Canal Street also offers a wonderful broiler for Steaks and Prime Ribs, and the cowboys and cowgirl from the National Finals Rodeo that were dining here this evening would be proud that their livelihood is well-attended with a meticulous staff; or you can also cut the flank upstairs at the Orleans famous Prime Rib Attic, rated #1 in Vegas. You don't think of a French restaurant offering steaks, especially like the Kansas City Bone-In Rib Chop or the New York Steak (also bone-in) or the huge 24 ounces of Porterhouse, but they certainly fare well along with the French cuisine at the Canal Street.
I ordered the Crème Brulée for dessert, which is sweeping the country as the dessert of choice in fine restaurants. Most Brulées are made with burnt cane sugar, and I was delighted that the Canal Street upheld this French/ Carib tradition. And then I capped off the evening with a huge cup of freshly brewed Cappuccino that arrived with a little sugar cube frozen to a swizzle stick to sweeten the coffee even more with each sip. Truly wonderful. — By Kriss Hammond, Editor, Jetsetters Magazine.
