Waldorf Astoria Tea

In the world of Vegas, you can do it cheap or you can do it high dollar. 

Since I'm not much of a gambler, my high dollar items went to food.

We booked afternoon tea at the Waldorf, mainly because it has a beautiful view of the strip.

Tea: a hug in a cup.  Tres' beau!

As indicated, they change their menu according to season. 

Pretty much standard fare you get at most tea sets, and of course pages upon pages of tea to choose from.

Each guest can choose their own tea and you get a matching set of Wedgewood China for your tea as a set.

Wish it was a prettier day, but it was highly overcasted - still a good view of the strip. 

Our server brought over the presentation. 

You have your savories: Curry Chicken up front which is my first time ever to have turmeric bread, it was pretty neutral to support the curry chicken.  Back is Truffle Croque, which has a brioche bread with truffle cream cheese. Then we have Porchetta, which was in multigrain bread (not my fav) but the pork slices with the relish mustard mayo was unique.  Lastly, the Egg Gourgere, which is the first time I have it in this presentation format in a choux puff, pretty delicious. 

Sandwiches next to the pretty china.

Second course are the scones, how can you have tea and not have scones?!  One was plain butter scones the other was raspberry scones.  They come with Devonshire Cream, Lemon Curd, and House-made berry jam.  I love doing Devonshire Cream with the curd or with the berry jam.  It's just softens the combo.  And they are still nice and warm too.

Last course: desserts.  They have Berry Cheesecake - very pretty presentation.  Hazelnut Salted Caramel Tart, delicious not too sweet.  Lemon Macaron, and Chocolate Cream puff in the back.  

I won't lie, by this point, I was taking little bits instead of eating them whole.  Just alot of food here.

Overall, it's a fancy experience, great for a girls lunch.  Don't expect too much, the space is small, there's only 2 main servers that serves the area.  

One more fancy tea pic.  

You definitely need to book a reservation here in advance.  There are 3 seatings each weekend-day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and do expect to spend about 2 hours to enjoy your tea.  They do have Children's Tea, which is about half the cost of an adult set.  Of course on the adult set, you can add enhancements such as bubblies or wine. 

Waldorf is situated in the back between casinos, so if you're all dolled up, don't be afraid to take a cab over rather than walk.  That said, there are no gambling in the hotel, so it's very straight forward.  Their lobby is on the 3rd floor, and then you take the next set of elevator to the top floor where the restaurants and bar are located.

In terms of dress code, nothing explicit noted but as all tea goes, nothing shabby.  This is a good dress up occasions; we did ourselves and as did other tables.  The view is really incredible, my phone camera does not do it justice, and why not enjoy a hug in a cup here?!

Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas

3752 S. Las Vegas Blvd

23rd Floor

Las Vegas, NV 89158

702-590-8888

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/laswdwa-waldorf-astoria-las-vegas/dining/tea-lounge/

 

Dominique Ansel

 Coworker of mine was telling me that Dominque Ansel has a shop in Vegas.

It is inside Ceasar's gambling floor.

Of course, they have miles and miles of baked goods on display.

Such a chic bag for our togo orders. 

Totally by accident that they come out so pretty.  I think they were trying to squeeze 3 Cronuts into a tiny box.  Each month, they have a flavor for cronuts. 

In case you don't know what Cronut is, it is a combo of Croissant and Donuts, which is why there's so many layers like a croissant.  Each month he rolls out a flavor.  This month's flavor is mango.

I will say that I like the layers but did not care for the flavor but it is nice and yummy.  Funny thing is that we all took off the top fondant layer, just a bit much for breakfast.

The other thing we got was DKA, which is Dominque's Kouign Amann.  It's definitely a favorite amongst our group.  It's nice and crispy and flakey on the outside.  It's soft and chewy on the inside.  It's messy but delicious, goes super well with a cup of black coffee.  

I got an order of quiche thinking those would be small, not knowing.  But it's very delicious, nicely baked and has different layers to it, very nice.  It also comes with a salad, but between the pastry and the quiche, that was a bit much.

Just one more picture of the pastries before you go.

By the way, you can see that they're in a corner, and if you're staying at Caesar, it's right by one of the tower's elevators.  And that white thing is a 'milk bottle shaped robot'.  It has a robotic arm, so when you order a Cookie Shot, it will grab a chocolate chip cookie shot glass, fill it with milk and dispense it to you. We already have so much food, didn't have enough room in the tummy to have that too.  Maybe next time!

Dominque Ansel 

inside Caesar's Palace

3570 S. Las Vegas Blvd

Las Vegas, NV 89109

https://www.caesars.com/caesars-palace/restaurants/dominique-ansel 

Milk Bar

Milk Bar is pretty much my must-stop dessert shop.

Created by Christina Tosi - you can now find Milk Bar dessert almost at any grocery stores.  

Of course, I really just came for this: the Crack Bar.

Oh, sorry, the authority said you cannot call it that anymore. 

It's really a brown sugar oatmeal bar.  You can actually can make it yourself.  They offer you the recipe for you to try yourself here. 

Another one I tried was the Blueberry & Cream Cookie.

They call this a muffin cookie, because it's true.  You can taste the blueberry like you do in a muffin.  There's chocolate chip, dried blueberry in a sugar cookie.  It's nice and chewy.  It's not crunchy and you really should have a cup of coffee to go with this.

Milk Bar

inside Cosmopolitan hotel

3708 S. Las Vegas Blvd

2nd Floor off of the Chandelier Bar (next to Momofuku)

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702-698-2662

https://milkbarstore.com/pages/locations#!las-vegas

 

Din Tai Fung

Honestly, this is my second time I've ever had Din Tai Fung.

Last time was in Australia.  Not that they don't have it in the States, just not near by or easy to get to.

Their famous window, showing you that your food is being made.

Ordering system is the good o' Chinese way of marking what you want.  The server does come back and give you some introduction and explanations of the dishes.  They can also recommend what the popular dishes are and what is in the dish. 

We started with Noodles with sesame sauce, it has a nice flavor to it.  Not spicy at all.  

Of course, we have to order what they're known for.  The Xiao Long Bao.  We have 3 kinds here: the original pork, pork and crab, and lobster.  All of the fillings are great, the soup does come out as you bite into it.  I will say that I didn't like that the skin was dry.  I liked the filling and flavors, the skin disappointed me there. 

p.s. we ordered some sting beans with garlic for good measure. 

We got the Shrimp & Pork shu mai - it came out in the shape of a mini volcano.  Not bad. 

Pork steamed bun was not what we expected, however.  And we should've listened to our server.  We were hoping it's the dim sum kind of pork buns, but instead, they put in pork sausage as the filling. Don't get me wrong, the sausage by itself can well stand on its own, but inside the bun, it changes the flavor.  I don't need a think bun for that. Kinda disappointed not having the char siu flavor of sweet bbq that get soaked up by the bun.  The sauce here is really from the sausage. 

This Din Tai Fung is super fancy because it's inside Aria.  Since Aria is new, it's spiffy and very 'club' feel.  Though you can see on your way to the front door the diners have a grand o' space to enjoy the dumpling.  The entrance to the restaurant is all the way inside the casino past the ice cream, pastry, and coffee before the restaurant's entrance.  

As all sit-down restaurants that are not buffet goes, make a reservation ahead of time.  Otherwise, you can always try your luck, after all: you are in Vegas.

Din Tai Fung

3730 S. Las Vegas Blvd

Las Vegas, NV 89158

702-590-8650

https://dintaifungusa.com/us/locations/las-vegas.html

 

Hello Kitty Cafe

We were in the mall, yes in Vegas, and was looking for a shop, but to my surprised, I saw a Hello Kitty Cafe.

Truth be told, this is not my first visit to Hello Kitty Cafe. Or visiting to the LV location.  Just that the last time I was there, there was only 1, and that was in front of Park MGM.  To my delight, there's one inside the Fashion Show mall too!

As you can imagine: all things Kitty!

Even the tables and seating area are HK deco to the max!  Kawaii!

Of course, I got some merch and some treats.  

First, got me a Thai Iced tea, that was nice and easy.  Not super sweet and definitely the flavor of normal Thai tea.  But nice and easy just for walking around.

Then I got a Hello Kitty Strawberry Pastry.  I won't lie, it's hard to bite into Hello Kitty's face, but small sacrifices, I'm happy to make. 

Now, I do appreciate that they are baked daily, the pastry is fresh and the jam is not overly sweet.  Her bow is a fondant, so I just spared the bow.  

This was a nice surprise, I didn't know there's one inside the mall.  Nor would I normally go to the mall when I'm in Vegas, just that we have an appointment in one of the shops.  But this is so cool.  We were actually looking at a directory, and as all malls have this space between escalators.  Who knew that they squeezed a Hello Kitty shop right there!  It was pretty neat, and unexpecting.  Also a great use for the space, as you can see, they have little nooks and crannies for more HK decor.  It was a fans' dream!

 As I mentioned earlier, I've always known there's a location in the Park in front of Park MGM.  Been there couple of times, and as we walked by, I took pics there too.  The merch are the same, and the seating there is outdoors.  But it's still cooler to go the full fledge cafe with all the cute decor.

Hello Kitty Cafe

inside Fashion Show

3200 S. Las Vegas Blvd

Las Vegas, NV 89109

https://www.sanrio.com/blogs/hellokittycafe/hello-kitty-cafe-at-fashion-show-las-vegas

 

Mon Ami Gabi

Came to Vegas for a girls trip.

First thing we did after dropping off bags, is to go grab brunch.

Even though they serve brunch, the brunch menu wasn't big, mostly lunch offerings.  Since I forgot about the time difference is 2 hrs instead of 1, I was starving by the time we arrived.  

Nonetheless, we got some coffee, some mimosa, and some brunch food.  I got the corn beef hash with poached eggs, and potato.  I just love to break the egg and mesh everything together.  All nice and gooey.  The bread they have comes with jelly and butter, but no fear, I ate those too.  I told you I was hungry.

The corn beef hash is done well and the potato seasoned very complimentary together.  Definitely filling for a meal.  The bread was a nice add, but didn't need it.  Just needed the carb for walking around.

Service is great, but let me tell you, if you don't have a reservation, which seems to be the theme for this trip, you'd be waiting for 20-40 minutes.  Trust me, your few minutes online is well worth your time.  We pretty much walked straight in.

Mon Ami Gabi

inside Paris Las Vegas

3655 S. Las Vegas Blvd

Las Vegas, NV 

702-944-4224

https://www.monamigabi.com/

 

Brian's Bitchin' Bakery

Ya'll know how much of a Tiramisu person that I am.

So when Brian pushed the Tiramisu Flight, it's like a holiday in a box.  I forgot to take a pic of the box, I was too eager and started to dig in.  It came with 4 slices and each has different flavors. 

First up, Gingerbread Latte.  You can even see the little gingerbread person on there.  It's a tad spiced than I liked, probably wouldn't mind more gingerbready-ness.  It has spiced espresso soaked lady fingers, gingerbread brown sugar mascarpone cream, and gingerbread cookie, and cocoa powder on top.  It was nice, again, he always get the texture just right.

Next up, Pandan Espresso.  Seemingly conflicting flavors, but he makes it work.  It has Vietnamese coffee soaked lady fingers (gives that moisture and texture), pandan vanilla mascarpone cream, Biscoff cookie crumble (and who doesn't like Biscoff), with a bit of salted coconut cream.  

I'm typically not a coconut cream person, but this combo works.  Well, first off, coconut cream and pandan are like peanut butter and jelly, they go together.  It's a can't-go-wrong combo.  But, the Biscoff gave it a different spin and hit the taste buds just right.

One of my favs: Thai Tea Tiramisu.  Thai Tea soaked lady fingers, with Thai Tea mascarpone cream and Thai Tea dust.  I know sounds like a lot of Thai Tea, but it works between the layers.  Trust me on this one.

Last but not least, new flavor, it's Hong Kong Milk Tea.  That one was lighter in flavor than I had expected.  It has Black tea soaked lady fingers, Hong Kong milk tea mascarpone cream, and cocoa dust on top.  I will say, HK Milk tea is not easy to make as a drink.  Little to say in a different medium.  I think it's do-able, but this one needs a little tweak.

Of course, I cannot walk away without getting some cookies.  This time, they are doing mini cookies, which is great for parties.  Since they're individually wrapped.

I picked Earl Grey Lavender Blueberry, one of my favorite flavors of theirs. 

Maple Pear Pecan, that just sounded interesting.

To be honest, I tasted maple and pecan, and not much pear.  But the pecan tasted like it's been mapled and sweetened that way.

Mexican Hot Chocolate, is one of my other favs.

The cookie really makes you feel like. you're having a hot chocolate with cinnamon and spices, and then a bit of marshmallow to top you off.  Like a hot cocoa wrapped you up.  So nice!

I know he's working on new flavors for the upcoming month, especially for Lunar New Year.  Don't miss out.

Brian's Bitchin' Bakery

https://briansbitchinbakery.com/