As we were walking around, we saw some people taking Gondola rides around the little canals they also have inside the shopping area. The Hubby decided we should take a romantic Gondola ride before our dinner since neither of us had ever been on one. We had a shared ride with another nice couple from Utah. Our Gondolier was from Columbia. He had a very nice singing voice and even sang "Thats Amore" for us. It was really fun!
After our ride, we made our way over to The Paris Hotel for our dinner. Our reservations were at the Gordon Ramsey steakhouse inside The Paris.
We ate there a few years back on our last trip to Vegas and it was seriously THE BEST meal we have ever had! No joke, this pace is the best! WELL worth the money! So, when we decided to come out here, we knew we had to eat here for our anniversary.
We ended up being a bit early for our reservation, so we checked in and went inside and had a drink at the bar. As we were walking in I saw this man standing at the entrance and told The Hubby I was pretty sure it was the host of Who wants to be a millionaire. As soon as we sat down, I of course, googled him and sure enough Chris Harrison it was! Celebrity encounter #1 for this trip!
We were seated at our table shortly after. They put us on the second floor balcony at a small table and pointed out their unique light fixture in the center of the room. Its a neon light that is supposed to reflect the hand movements of Gordon Ramsey as he makes his famous Beef Wellington.
We started out our meal with Foie Gras appetizer. It came with some puffs filled with goat cheese. It was like butter! Delicious, duck flavored butter! Yum!
For our entrees, The Hubby got the Rib eye and I got the rib eye round which was AMAZING! Our waiter said it was the favorite and most recommended cut by all the employees. The Hubby even said that mine tasted better than his, which was still REALLY good! Not a drop of steak sauce required! Just delicious, melt in your mouth, tasty yummyness!
You order sides a la carte, and we went all out! We shared the fingerling potatoes which are cooked with truffle and Parmesan, and the steamed spinach. The Hubby had been eyeing the bone marrow side as well since neither of us had ever tried it. We decided to go ahead and give it a try. It was very good, but we preferred the Foie Gras over that type of organ type dish. All were soooo good!!
As we were wrapping up our meals, I got up to use the ladies room and the waiter told me he would escort me downstairs. When we started walking down, a lady in a chefs jacket started walking along with us. She turned to our waiter and said "I can go ahead and escort her down." My waiter told her that it was ok, he had to grab something downstairs and would take me. She turned back to me and said "Oh look we are fighting over you now. Enjoy your evening!" She carried on where she was going and the waiter turned to me and said "Do you know who that was?" I said no and he informed me it was Chef Christina Wilson, winner of season 10 of Hell's Kitchen! I totally made The Hubby jealous when I got back to the table! She actually ran into me again downstairs and jokingly asked if I would like to be escorted back up to my table. She was so nice! Apparently the winner of Hell's Kitchen gets to run this restaurant. Chef Wilson has apparently since been promoted and works directly with Gordon Ramsey, but still comes back to check in every once in a while. How cool!!
We did not get dessert the last time we came and decided to go for it this time! We got the Warm Toffee pudding. This came highly recommended by the staff and definitely did not disappoint! It was a sort of warm butter cake that was topped with warm British toffee syrup and served with a side of browned butter ice cream. I HIGHLY recommend this dessert! We ate every last bite! This was definitely just as awesome as it was last time! If you want a really nice, amazing, good to the last bite dinner, I highly recommend a stop here!
After dinner we went to cash in the Eiffel tower experience tickets The Hubby got on Groupon. Basically, you take an elevator up to the top of The Paris Eiffel tower and get to hang out on the observation deck. I was a little nervous, due to my fear of heights, but it was a fully enclosed observation deck and, really, how romantic! We made our way to the top and the view was spectacular!! Total 360 degree view of the city at night!
We, by chance, had timed it perfectly and even got to watch the Bellagio water fountain show from above! It was pretty beautiful!
Having never tried it in the daytime, I would still have to imagine that the night time view is the best. However, I would HIGHLY recommend grabbing yourself a cold water or two BEFORE you go up! It is really warm in Vegas and it is not air conditioned. Due to a minor, almost passing our experience I had waiting for the elevator to take us back down, TRUST ME-bring water! :) Other than that, it was a really cool thing to do! Note that the elevator only runs every 4 minutes so there is a bit of a wait to go back down.
We did some more walking around, sightseeing and people watching after. The next morning, The Hubby had looked up places that serve afternoon tea, one of y favorite things! How awesome?! So we headed over to the Ri Ra Irish pub at the Mandalay Bay shopping center.
It was neat! The pub decor was really awesome and pretty! We shared a pot of Barry's Gold tea. A very popular Irish black tea. It was good!
They brought over our tiered food tray. The bottom layer had Soda bread sandwiches with Irish cheddar, Egg salad, Cucumber and Ham and tomato. The cucumber and the egg were our favorites!
The middle layer had Raisin scones with freshly whipped cream and jam. The top had the desserts!! We split a Neapolitan, eclair, a fruit spiral pastry and a coconut macaroon. We both agreed that the Neapolitan was our favorite. I was so excited that we got to have Irish Afternoon tea!! AND The Hubby didn't hate it! Haha! It was a wonderful way to help celebrate our first, wonderful year of marriage together! I look forward to the rest of our lives of adventures together!!
