Table 21 at VOLT

I was lucky enough to get 4 reservations to Table 21 at VOLT in early November. The hard part was waiting until January 25th to go!
As most of you know, VOLT is Bryan Voltaggio’s restaurant. He appeared on season 6 of Top Chef: Las Vegas. He was runner up to his brother, Michael.
Table 21 is the chef’s table where you get 21 courses that you get to watch as they prepare them in the kitchen.
Unfortunately, the night we went, Bryan was in INDIA. It was my early birthday dinner so I was pretty disappointed. Although, the food didn’t disappoint :)

Drink menu at the bar

We had some sparkly before being seated

And here is Table 21. Literally right next to the kitchen. It’s crazy how quiet the kitchen was. They were really professional and there wasn’t yelling, pots banging, or anything.

These were 2 of the guys in front of us the entire night at the cold station.

Liquid nitrogen!

Me & Jason

Jeff & Wendy

Course 1: chips and dip; anchovy, lobster, Greek yogurt, caviar

Course 2: beet foie, citrus

Course 3: mock oyster salsify, oyster leaf, malt vinegar

Course 4: kampachi blood orange, fennel, yuzu, ginger

Course 5: celeriac nasturtium, mustard, ruby grapefruit

Course 6: buratta kale, hazelnuts, lemon, quail eggs

Course 7: ravioli yellowfoot chanterelle, ash, parsley root

Course 8: oyster smoked potato, black truffle, bacon

Course 9: turbot hubbard squash, brussels sprouts, radish

Course 10: lobster cauliflower, smoked raisins, vadouvan

Course 11: maitake steel cut oats, sea greens, yeast

Course 12: venison horseradish, apple, green soy

Course 13: squab parsnip, dates, groats

Course 14: salsify quince, country ham, hazelnuts

Course 15: chestnut vidalia onion, celery, port

Course 16: foie coconut, coffee, chocolate

Course 17: pork shoulder, cipollini onion, sunchoke, braised cabbage

Course 18: lamb, crab apple, dandelion, black walnut granola

Course 19: banana, black sesame, coconut, pineapple

Course 20: peppermint white chocolate, eggnog, gingerbread

Course 21: chocolate and pecan ice cream

Course 22: chocolate truffle, candies, and macarons

They gave you a “thank you” gift and the menu of what you just ate.

This was what was inside the thank you box.

Ya know, chump change..

Us at the end of dinner :)

Overall, great dinner experience. My favorite dish was course 7 and my least favorite was course 5. There were a lot of deconstructed dishes, such as course 8. It tasted like a loaded baked potato soup. With course 2, Wendy and I asked one of the guys at the cold station if we could just take the entire bottle of their foie gras sauce. It was so good. The servers were professional. They seemed a little flustered at first. Might be because the group of 4 that was supposed to make up the other half of Table 21 were 2 hours LATE. Everytime you got up to use the restroom, they’d refold your napkin & reset your place setting. Also, you got new forks, knives, and spoons every dish.

Oh, I should mention that we all thought “psh, 21 courses, this is gonna be easy” cause of how small the bites were going to be. Um, after the 11th or so dish, we were strugs. Haha, and we all barely ate lunch! Another thing I should mention, if you can find a group of 8 people to commit and take up the entire Table 21, do it. It’s better than sitting with 4 other random people who decide to show up 2 hours late and are drunk and obnoxious. Seriously, who comes to spend $150+ and is barely a foodie? It was so annoying. They came 2 hours late and so all the chefs had to start from course 1 with them and the guys were like “oh foam? what is that?” and when asked if they had dietary restrictions, one of the guys said, “well, I don’t like beans.” ARE YOU FOR REAL?! Ugh, so that was the only annoying part of the night. I actually once said out loud to them “wow, can you talk louder?” and that hushed them up a bit.

With all that aside, I’d definitely come here again, whether it be Table 21 (it’s $150/person) or just the regular restaurant. I just hope next time, Bryan is actually there ;)

Here’s the link to the restaurant where you can make reservations for regular dining/seating or find out more information. Reservations for Table 21 are taken by phone between the hours of 9am-6pm.