I eat out - a lot - and I have definitely eaten at some excellent restaurants. But Daniel Boulud has honestly provided me with the BEST dining experience of my life. Please, let me elaborate...\n\nFirst off, it's a beautiful restaurant...wonderful ambiance and decor, and if you sit outside - as we had the pleasure of doing - you will enjoy not only a fabulous waterfall/pond view, but various water and light shows once it's dark outside. They were spectacular!! Shows that I didn't have to pay for, especially in Vegas, are always a welcome surprise. Our waitress as well was simply smashing...she was so sweet to us and was the perfect waitress - attentive without hovering, and she laughed and joked with us during the meal. She was very easily one of the favorite parts of our evening!\n\nThe dining fabulousness began with the cocktails:\n  -  Basil Gimlet: soooo delicious, with a perfect balance of gin and basil; my friend who ordered this said it was easily his new favorite drink.\n  -  Hibiscus Highball: how can you NOT love drinks that come with crazy flowers in them?!? This one was particularly pretty and tasted like a fruity mojito - yum yum!\n  -  Berry Agave: This drink won the prize of the night; it was to DIE for! Yes, it was very fruity and girly, but the flavor was AMAZING...I wished I had ordered it, although I did enjoy my Highball.\n\nFor dinner, we started out with the Tomato Flatbread \u00e0 la Proven\u00e7ale, which was basically flatbread pizza with fontina cheese, all night tomato and parsley. It was very delicious; the flavors all worked wonderfully together and there was a decent amount of it, which was good for 5 people.\n\nFor our 1st course, two of my friends went with the escargots, which were Burgundy snails, chicken oyster and hazelnut sp\u00e4tzle. I'll admit, I'm not a huge snail fan, but I tried one (the dish comes with 8) and was pleasantly surprised - it was very good! Whatever it was covered with was fantastic, and while the texture isn't my favorite, it wasn't half bad. Go figure! My caesar salad wasn't anything too unexpected, but it did come with a little parmesan stick; very delicious.\n\nFor our main course, we got a variety of things, all of which did not disappoint, including:\n  -  Duo of Beef: the dynamic duo consisted of short ribs and filet, and as a beef lover, I was in pure ecstasy. The short ribs were probably my favorite of the two, but that's like saying that I love 2 million dollars more than 1 million dollars - I still LOVE the 1 million dollars. Jeeze Louise, they were amazing...I savored them as long as I possibly could, delighting in each scrumptious bite...I will always think with fond, warm memories of that beef. It came with some veggies and a fabulous sauce which complemented the beef very well.\n  -  Steak Frites: my friend who ordered this enjoyed it immensely...it was decently big (10 oz.), so she couldn't finish it all, but said it was great. I also took the liberty of sampling her French fries, and those too were fabulous...the sauce they came with was awesome! Some kind of aioli, I'm assuming, but whatever it was, it was good.\n  -  Duck: upon his first bite, my friend who ordered this said, \"if I were a duck, this is what I'd want to taste like.\" The duck was done 2 ways, and I must admit that the little tastes I got were divine, particularly the duck p\u00e2t\u00e9-like dish...I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I was a fan...and I don't really do duck all that much. However, if you're going to do it, this is the route to take.\n  -  Mussels: now THIS was quite the dish...they came in a big, black pot, and the thing was FULL...my friend who ordered them couldn't finish them without help. She did, however, very much enjoy whatever she was able to eat, but be forewarned...it's a big dish.\n\nFor our sides, we ordered the pommes pur\u00e9e (mashed potatoes), the glazed asparagus and the haricot verts (green beans), all of which were wonderful...done to perfections and polished off by all of us. The waitress told us that they fed about 2 people each, so we ordered 3 sides for 5 people.\n\nFor dessert, we ordered the Souffl\u00e9 du jour, the Chocolate Tarte and the Sherbets, all of which were a wonderful cap to the meal. The Souffl\u00e9 was raspberry and I literally could have eaten about three of them. The tarte was delicious as well, and very beautifully prepared/served. As for the sherbets, they were probably the most surprisingly good dessert of the three. I mean, it's sherbet...you don't typically tend to think of it as being too exciting, but the intensity of the three my friend ordered (pineapple, coconut and apricot) were really amazing, especially the apricot, which had a very nice punch of unexpected flavor. \n\nEverything was truly amazing. The food, the drinks, the service, the ambiance, the entertainment...from start to finish, I could not have asked for anything more. I know Vegas has a lot of options to choose from, but put Daniel Boulud on the top of the list.