The Best Restaurants in Las Vegas

When James Beard Award–nominated chefs Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla got tired of working kitchens down on the Las Vegas Strip, they retreated to Summerlin and opened Honey Salt. The restaurant has become a favorite among locals, and a destination eatery for visitors as well. The fare is mostly Mediterranean-influenced, with shareable small plates, but it includes spins on American classics such as a buttermilk-fried-chicken sandwich. Blau’s Caesar salad (with chopped kale and a black garlic dressing) is also is pretty famous. One of the most flavorful options also is the simplest: cast-iron-griddled Idaho trout with cauliflower couscous, pine nuts, and watercress.

Chef José Andrés celebrates carnivores at this one-of-a-kind Philippe Starck–designed restaurant in SLS Las Vegas. As the name suggests, meat plays a role on nearly every plate here. A classic beef tartare is accompanied by a little skillet of Parker House rolls, and a bison carpaccio is served Buffalo-style with celery, blue cheese, and hot sauce. There are caviar flights and tiny sandwiches that amount to nothing more than bites. Among the many main courses available—rack of New Zealand lamb, chateaubriand, grilled octopus—the most famous dish is a suckling pig prepared in a Spanish cazuela so the skin gets crispy and the meat tender. For all the focus on flesh, there’s a surprising number of salads and vegetable dishes.

For 20 years now, the Spring Mountain corridor north of the Las Vegas Strip has been a hotbed of hot pots—and every other Asian dish under the desert sun. When celebs such as Anthony Bourdain and Penn Jillette raved about the real-deal northern Thai cuisine at Lotus of Siam, chowhounds followed. Tell your friends you’re finally making the trip out to the strip mall and they’ll tell you to avoid the items you can order from the takeout joint at home: no pad thai, no chicken satay. They’re right. Dive into the last page of the menu, the one about dishes from Northern Thailand, then entrust your tastebuds to the award-winning hands of Chef Saipin Chutima and try her larb or the jackfruit curry, anything with ground pork sausage, the khao soi (egg noodles and meat in a coconut curry sauce), the nam prik ong (a chunky mix of pork, tomato, and red chili, served with lettuce and raw vegetables), or the whole fish with chilis. The food is spicy, yes, and the afterburn is serious, but the depth of flavor is sublime enough to make you weep with regret the next time you have to call your local takeout place for delivery.

I’ve eaten at Yellowtail more times than I can count. It is my absolute favorite food (and it’s extremely close to Bellagio’s north valet, so I can wear my very highest heels). Before you even look at a menu, order the tuna pizza—trust me. Then dig into the tastiest carpaccio starters, delicious crab hand rolls, and a variety of sushi, including one made with Pop Rocks. Akira Back recently opened a second restaurant, Kumi, at Mandalay Bay, so now there are two hot spots to pay homage to my favorite chef in Vegas.

Art isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Vegas unless you’re familiar with the term kitsch. However, Sin City has always looked to please almost every palate and many impressive art exhibitions and theatre are proving to be a worthy alternative to the neon lights of the slots. You may head to old Vegas for a cheap dinner and a show but have you ever thought of dinner and a Picasso? At Picasso in the Bellagio Hotel & Casino, you can dine beneath the original paintings by Picasso himself. It’ll certainly cost you at Julian Serrano’s restaurant and you may even feel as though you end up paying for one of the masterpieces upon the wall but the food and service are memorable. Try to get a table near the windows or outside on the patio for a view of the fountains. Can’t afford an entire meal but love Picasso? Head to the bar for a drink.

Of course there is no shortage of great food in Las Vegas, but this place is different. First of all it is not on The Strip, so it is not accessible unless you know about it. It’s in a strip mall in an area with a lot of other Asian restaurants, including an exceptional noodle shop next door called Monta Ramen. You must make a reservation at Raku—walk-ins are impossible and I saw them turn countless people away. Every dish will blow you away. I have traveled a lot to Tokyo, and I love it, but this is the best Japanese food I have ever eaten, and is worth tearing yourself from The Strip to experience.

New York cult classic Momofuku made the transcontinental jump when it opened its first western outpost in the Cosmopolitan in late 2016. Today, the restaurant’s constantly evolving Asian-themed menu features steamed buns, noodles, meat, and seafood. Chef David Chang also serves up whimsical plays on age-old classics such as fried chicken and caviar, and a spicy cod hot pot. Next door, at a lounge area dubbed Peach Bar, Chang proffers ramen and small plates, as well as wine specials after midnight. Decor inside the restaurant is sparse and modern, and includes a mural by artist David Choe depicting Chang’s dogs and his own. Both because the restaurant is still fairly new and because Chang is such a celebrity, wait times for tables during regular hours can get pretty long, so book ahead.

Similar to the original L’Atelier in Paris and the other “workshop” in Tokyo, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon at the MGM Casino is a must-try spot for anyone who admires this Michelin-starred, Chef-of-the-Century-titled French master Joel Robuchon. You can eat at tables, but the best seat in the house is at the counter where you can watch the ballet the chefs and sous-chefs dance to make delicious food look equally as gorgeous to the eyes. It is a bit of a splurge, but with any luck at the tables, you can win yourself the cash needed to have this luxury meal.

Armed with a menu that reads like an all-star roster of French cuisine (seared foie gras lyonnaise, bone marrow en persillade, halibut Véronique), chef Michael Mina is able to transport diners to Paris at Bardot. He also prepares four different cuts of steak, and dishes them up with a variety of traditional French sauces such as béarnaise and bordelaise. The wine menu is French as well, with an extensive selection of whites, reds, and champagnes. Before or after dinner, spend some time at the hand-hewn wooden bar. The service is exceptional, too, with white-jacketed waiters dashing to and fro. Vive Bardot!

This bustling Chinese restaurant inside the Gold Coast Casino specializes in dim sum; definitely sample the almond shrimp balls, and the steamed pastry pockets with barbecued pork filling are a treat you’ll remember forever. For dessert, the kitchen serves coconut-filled sweet buns that would stand up against some of Hong Kong’s best. In addition to the traditional dim sum experience, Ping Pang Pong also offers a full complement of stand-alone dishes. Foodies from all over the world have flocked to the award-winning “P3" for years.

Masaharu Morimoto has seen a lot of success since his days on Iron Chef. The Japanese star has restaurants in more than two dozen American cities, and this outpost inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is among the biggest of the bunch. Whimsy and creativity dominate the menus—there’s a whiskey-infused Wagyu beef, yellowtail prepared like pastrami, and a dish called Duck Duck Goose that includes duck-meatball soup, duck fried rice, and a gooseberry compote. The restaurant also has teppanyaki tables where chefs can cook right in front of guests. The space itself is modern and stark, with giant photographs adorning the walls and sushi and beef bars that open to the dining room. You might even spot Morimoto himself—he spends at least a week or two here every month.

Italian food is the specialty at this restaurant at the Four Seasons, with house-made pastas and braised meats from chef Antonio Minichiello stealing the show. Though the dining room is stylish, the best tables are outside on the veranda—as the name suggests. The brunch features fresh cold-pressed juice and, on weekends, a doughnut-making machine. There’s also an afternoon tea service from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. that includes scones with cream and lemon curd and a variety of finger sandwiches. For those who prefer cocktails, the evening happy hour is surprisingly affordable.

Della’s, the breakfast-and-lunch-only restaurant at the Delano Las Vegas, prides itself on sourcing ingredients from local farmers and growers—yes, they really exist in the middle of the Nevada desert. The menu has options that can satisfy diners with all sorts of dietary restrictions: vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian, and more. For breakfast, you can taste the difference that comes with farm-fresh produce, especially in the egg dishes. At lunchtime, the off-menu ramen bowl features a savory mushroom broth with a pork shank, house-fermented cabbage, and a slow-poached egg. Della’s is also one of the only places on the Strip where you can get cold-pressed juice made to order. The overarching commitment to sustainability extends beyond the menu: Glasses here are created from recycled liquor bottles from Vegas clubs.

The Italian food here is great—items such as veal Parmesan, chicken scarpariello, and pork meatballs taste like your nonna made them, and the appetizer of baked clams transports diners from the center of the Las Vegas Strip to New York’s Little Italy. But the real showstopper is the tableside service, which is one part hospitality and one part entertainment. Order a Caesar salad, for instance, and one of the servers—they’re called “captains” here, by the way—wheels over a cart to whip up the salad and dressing right before your eyes. Care for a rum drink? A captain will walk the rum cart over and create one at the table. If the old-school food doesn’t win you over at Carbone, the atmosphere will; the tufted private banquettes evoke hard-core Rat Pack vibes.

When the Caesars Palace outpost of Mr. Chow opened in 2016, it was the iconic restaurant’s first foray into Sin City. As at its other locations, Mr. Chow here spotlights cuisine from Beijing, and makes presentation into a spectacle: Guests enter the restaurant through private elevators; there’s a champagne cart, multiple tableside preparations, and a subdued choreography when serving certain dishes. (The famous Beijing Duck, of course, comes with lots of fanfare.) The food is outrageously expensive, but that’s part of the allure; when you come to Mr. Chow, the memorable experience, with a side of celebrity-spotting, somehow makes up for the price.

Wing Lei was the first Chinese restaurant in the United States to receive a Michelin star, and this upscale eatery still is going strong. Chef Ming Yu’s menu mixes Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Sichuan flavors. Perhaps the most famous dish of all is the tableside-carved Imperial Peking Duck, which is both tender and crispy. Other entrées celebrate tradition but offer a new focus, like the wok-fried Maine lobster. Even the tea selection is exquisite—Jasmine Pearl and Tung Ting Oolong are among the varieties typically found only in China. The dining room is a sight to behold: The gold-and-red space draws inspiration from elements of classical Chinese architecture. The restaurant also has a view of a private garden with pomegranate trees and a golden dragon.