Las Vegas does nothing in small measure. Six of the world’s largest hotels are in Las Vegas, for instance. MGM Grand (6,772 guest rooms) is the biggest hotel in all of America. As a Fodor’s travel guide put it, “Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world, where sleep is a mere inconvenience interrupting a continuous stream of fun and hedonism, and where everything is bigger, louder, flashier and trashier than anywhere else in the world.”
Jeff Maguire, a visiting Canadian writer, arrived recently, looked around and observed, “So much of Las Vegas falls under the heading ‘it has to be seen to be believed.’”
It should come as no surprise, then, that the city synonymous with excess has found yet another way to be completely over the top.
In Sin City, size definitely matters, especially when it comes to food. Now presenting…
Big. Outrageous. Desserts. Available today in the city dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure.
Planet Hollywood Resort
The signature over-indulgence at the resort’s Strip House, the Las Vegas rendition of an iconic New York steakhouse, is the 24-Layer Chocolate Cake (pictured above). It deconstructs to 12 layers of gooey chocolate cake, 11 layers of custardy chocolate filling, and a topping of semisweet French chocolate ganache. A single slice weighs in at 1.5 pounds. Order a whole cake for the table and you have 18 pounds of heaven. Food & Wine calls it one of America’s best chocolates cakes.
Encore at Wynn Las Vegas
Picture this. At your table at Andrea’s arrives a foot-high, cone-shaped devil’s-food-and-dark-rum mousse cake slathered in dark chocolate and slightly toasted meringue. It’s called the Mt. Fuji—fittingly, for this is an Asian-inspired, Forbes Four Star restaurant that overlooks the Encore Beach Club pool. Then comes the eruption. A server drizzles 151-proof rum over this sweet volcano and sets it on fire. The towering inferno costs $48 and serves 10.
MGM Grand
Joel Robuchon, the Frenchman named “Chef of the Century” by the guide Gault Millau, has a restaurant empire that spans three continents and a dozen cities. His eponymous Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand, the only restaurant on The Strip with three Michelin stars, features a $445 prix fixe menu that includes the sumptuous and spectacular looking mignardises (petit fours) cart. Incredible as it sounds, 40 different types of delectable sweets are made fresh daily. Go ahead, have all you want.
Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel and Casino
Another New York transplant, Carmine’s at the Forum Shops serves big, family-style Italian meals like mama—or maybe Cousin Carmine—used to make. Cibo in abbondanza! (Lotsa eats!) Just when you thought it was time to stop feedin’ your face, here comes the Titanic Sundae. It’s a dessert you can’t refuse—six grapefruit-sized scoops of ice cream atop a chocolate torte, loaded up with fruit, hot fudge, whipped cream and chocolate wafer straws.
The Venetian Las Vegas
Tao is a huge nightclub where Madonna and Bono have been sighted. It’s also a restaurant, Tao Asian Bistro, with cuisine from China, Japan and Thailand. A towering Buddha presides over diners, and there’s an infinity koi pool with waterfalls. As if this were not Vegas-y enough, dessert is the Giant Fortune Cookie, about six inches wide, filled with chocolate mousse and served with fruits and ice cream. Even the fortune inside reminds where you are (e.g., “You will find yourself dancing naked”).
