What and where to eat in Las Vegas

There was the old-school Vegas supper club, and now its modern incarnation is on steroids. Descend a double staircase into the dining room—much as you might have in the original Tropicana Club in Havana in the 1950s. Forty-foot-high brass palm trees soar to the ceiling; Champagne bottles await on ice, and velvet banquettes hold every luminary you can think of. Contemporary plays on Rat Pack-era supper club fare are the order of the night: beef Wellington, shellfish towers, and Baked Alaska. Dress up and splurge.

Address: Wynn Las Vegas, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Mott 32 arrived in Vegas after Vancouver and Hong Kong, and share signature dishes from Cantonese, Szechuan, and Beijing regional cuisine. But this soaring space is uniquely Vegas. Look for the table made of a vintage roulette wheel and the “Boom Boom Room,” a red private dining room with a huge feather chandelier. The classics here are a whole Alaskan king crab fried in garlic, BBQ Iberico pork buns, and 42-day applewood roasted Peking duck.

Address: The Palazzo at The Venetian Resort, 3325 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Imagine doing the most illicit thing: eating in the library. The Jacques Garcia-designed NoMad Library restaurant’s towering shelves of 25,000 books were a large part of the private collection of David Rockefeller. You’ll sink into velvet banquettes for classics like a towering grand plateau of fruits de mer, caviar, lobster thermidor, and the famous roast chicken stuffed with foie gras and black truffle.

Address: NoMad Las Vegas, 3772 Las Vegas Blvd. South

The red sauce Italian place in New York City’s Greenwich Village famous for its celebrity devotees, tableside Caesar, and vodka rigatoni, can also be found at Aria Resort & Casino. It is equally star-studded, difficult to secure, and a great place for people-watching. The veal Parmesan is crispy, the pastas are hearty, and it’s all served family style. Look for the Murano glass chandelier in the red room, commissioned for a 1960s Ferrari showroom.

Address: Aria Resort & Casino, 3730 Las Vegas Blvd. South

This first Chinese restaurant in North America to gain a Michelin star, Wing Lei has been designed to feel like a literal jewel box, and it looks into a little private garden whose monumental gold dragons protect century-old pomegranate trees. An Imperial Peking duck tasting menu serves the duck in five courses; and hits include three cup sea bass and Alaskan king crab with mango, avocado, and miso dressing. Practiced, unobtrusive service is on point.

Address: Wynn Las Vegas, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South

The Las Vegas showpiece of the late Joël Robuchon, named Chef of the Century by Gault Millau, is the kind of place people go on pilgrimage. The room, with its royal purple velvet chairs and soaring ceilings, was designed to feel like an Art Deco salon. The draw is Robuchon’s 16-course degustation menu which has varied from 16 to 18 courses, not including the bread made on premises, cheese cart, and mignardises. This Three Michelin Star restaurant is a bucket list experience for gourmands.

Address: MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd South

This temple for carnivores announces itself when you walk in. Antler chandeliers dangle over a room with hanging Iberico hams. In other words, this is likely not the place to bring your vegan friends. Start with a fatty, crunchy foie gras cotton candy pop. The fire pit turns out items like a Rosewood Texas ribeye of Wagyu and black angus for the table. Certified Kobe beef can be prepared tableside on an ishiyaki stone.

Address: 2535 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas

The rarefied Japanese restaurant at Wynn looks out at its own private 90-foot waterfall. Chef Min Kim’s jewel-like sushi and sashimi preparations are showstoppers. Fun fact: Kim imports the water from the rice fields in which his rice is grown in Japan to make sure it’s truly authentic. If you’re lucky, some of the seasonal specialties only he can find may be on the dessert menu, such as pure white strawberries that only grow a few weeks each year on one tiny farm.

Address: Wynn Las Vegas, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Chef Tal Ronnen’s Los Angeles restaurant has been a draw for its vegan Mediterranean cuisine for years, and many credit him with mainstreaming vegan food (he has consulted for Vegas casinos for years). Now at Resorts World Las Vegas, no one misses the meat when there are creations like chestnut foie gras with a cabernet demi glace, eggplant skirt steak, and even hearty lasagna Bolognese, made completely meat-free.

Address: Resorts World Las Vegas, 3000 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Just a few minutes west of the Strip in Las Vegas’ Chinatown, this East Asian-inflected restaurant in a contemporary space with views of the Strip elevates vegetarian food in surprising ways. Dishes wind pink oyster and lion’s mane mushroom tempura are made with locally sourced mushrooms grown for their healing properties. And the uninitiated would never that a tangy lobster mango roll was made with heart of palm. Accompany your meal with innovative drinks whose spirits are sourced from small, family-run wineries and distilleries.

Address: 3545 S Decatur Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89103

There’s not just a spa in The Venetian—there’s an entire Canyon Ranch Spa so large you could use the hotel as your own destination escape. Truth & Tonic is truly vegan, with options like “Holy Trinity Tacos” made with grilled portobello and a roasted cauliflower Caesar salad you can order with options like soy chicken or organic tofu. For those struggling to find a quick healthy meal on the Strip: you can also order takeout.

Address: 3355 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas

A sunny, palm-filled atrium fronts a room of 16 live cooking stations and a colorful patisserie. Wynn serves its buffet dishes in small batches, and nothing sits on the buffet line for more than a couple of minutes. During brunch, you’ll find an eggs Benedict station, made-to-order omelets, brioche French toast, and a pancake in virtually every flavor. You might start dinner with jumbo shrimp, Jonah crab, and cracked crab legs then move on to sushi, charcuterie, Mexican street tacos, and pork belly fettuccine carbonara. Save room for tiny lemon meringue tarts, a huge selection of ice creams, and made-to-order crepes. Spare yourself the time standing in line here and pre-pay to gain priority entrance.

Address: 3131 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas

At Aria, an international lineup of nearly a dozen separate eateries serves everything from bagels and lox to Korean fried chicken. It’s all bold-faced players here, from London’s Judy Joo’s Seoul Bird to Wexler’s Deli from Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon’s Shalom Y’all. Super DJ Steve Aoki is so often in residence he’s become an honorary Las Vegan, so his pizza place, Pizzaoki, feels like a little slice of home.

Address: ARIA Resort & Casino, 3730 S Las Vegas Blvd

If a 25,000-square-foot buffet serving 600 people at a time sounds like a Vegas fever dream, you’re partly right. Bacchanal does indeed exist outside your imagination and, yes, it is that crowded. Hundreds of individually plated dishes range from Roman-style pizzas to Argentine parilla grilling and smoking meats over white oak.  Vietnamese, Laotian, and Filipino dishes are served next to made-to-order tacos, whole suckling pig, kalbi short ribs—the list goes on. For dessert, there are seemingly endless cupcake combinations and gelatos, but if you’re too tired to get up, one of the tableside carts will be by soon.

Address: 3570 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas

Like its counterparts around the world, Eataly sells specialty Italian products, but this location is dedicated to on-site tasting. Stroll around, taste some wine, and have dessert at the Nutella bar (yes, an entire bar dedicated to Nutella waffles, crepes, and cannolis). Or sit at the central La Pizza e La Pasta counter, where you can watch chefs create dishes from the pasta of Gragnano, Napoli alongside pizzaoli making authentic Neapolitan pizzas.

Address: Park MGM, 3770 S Las Vegas Blvd

This food tour started with an idea and has exploded into a full-blown movement. Book private tours, create big team-building experiences, or just tag along on a scheduled tour and meet like-minded foodies. You’ll stop in three prestigious restaurants and be treated to pre-selected dishes, all guided by a local insider. There are tours of the city’s Arts District, downtown, steakhouses, Chinatown favorites, and even a culinary trip that ends in a helicopter trip over the Strip at night.

Opened in the early 1980s, Piero’s serves the same simple categories it has since the beginning: antipasti, pasta, entrees, and dolci. They’re not setting things on fire here, there are no dancing girls—it’s simply a traditional Italian joint that doesn’t need to shake things up. It has its own history with the Rat Pack, politicians, mobsters, and more recently, red sauce-loving regular locals. Think thick veal chops, meatballs, linguine and clams (Sinatra’s favorite), and you get the idea.

Address: ​​355 Convention Center Drive

Blink and you’ll miss its location in an aging strip mall on Sahara Ave. That’s part of the appeal of The Golden Steer, which has been serving prime rib since 1958 to regulars that have included Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony “The Ant” Spilotro, and others. The menu here is no-nonsense, a traditional steakhouse: iceberg wedge salad, lobster tail, prime rib, porterhouse, and a baked potato that claims to be Vegas’ largest. Wash it down as our former mayor, mob defense attorney Oscar Goodman, might have during a client lunch with Spilotro: with a couple of ice-cold martinis.

Address: 308 W. Sahara Ave.

This low-décor, high-flavor taco outpost serves Tijuana tacos to everyone from nearby courthouse workers to late-night partiers (it’s open until 4 am on weekends). You can order tacos with around 10 different meats, from spicy pork adobada to buche (pork stomach) to the more approachable suadero (beef brisket). All come with a choice of fresh salsas, guacamole, and other toppings.

Address: 3041 Las Vegas Blvd South

If you have never visited a blinged-out Jewish delicatessen, this is your opportunity. Up front, bakery and deli shelves are piled with bagels, meats, pastries like hamantaschen and babka, and local cult favorite Pink Box Doughnuts. On the suitably long menu, you’ll find sandwiches and omelets cheekily named after local luminaries. Portions are huge, servers are fun, the mid-mod décor is bright, and there’s often a crooner singing Sinatra.

Address: 252 Convention Center Dr.

This New York City original favorite brunch spot got supersized to 10,000 square feet when it opened in Bellagio. Ask for a table with a view of the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. This room is all robin’s egg blue ceilings and emerald sofas, beachy pink shell chairs, and palm trees in a cheerful room dedicated to tiered platters of smoked fish and bagels, cheese blintzes, sticky buns, and challah French toast. Think New York by way of Palm Beach.

Address: Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd South

Wolfgang Puck’s Spago has held court in Las Vegas since 1992, which in Vegas time is about a century, and got a location upgrade when it moved to Bellagio. Ask for a table outside, and you’ll virtually feel the mist from the fountains. All the classics are here: Chinois Chicken Salad, seafood towers, smoked salmon pizza with dill cream and red onions, and brunch dishes like blueberry ricotta pancakes and brioche French toast.

Address: Bellagio Las Vegas, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South

The desert’s punishing heat can sometimes only be helped with a heaping frozen custard from Luv-It Frozen Custard, which has been serving it to lines and lines of people from a little Downtown shack since 1973. The local favorite is the Western sundae: custard topped with hot fudge, caramel, pecans, and a cherry.

Las Vegas, of course, did not invent Beef Wellington, an English filet en croute, which predates the founding of our city by at least a century. Las Vegas can convincingly claim to have perfected it, though, and it’s a crowd-pleaser to seek out at Hell’s Kitchen, Delilah, and Mon Ami Gabi.

Las Vegas restaurants and bakeries will gladly stack their crispy rolled pastries full of ricotta cream against any in Little Italy or Philadelphia. Find great cannoli at Allegro in Wynn, Carlo’s Bakery at The Venetian, or Eataly Las Vegas.

This historic treat is served piled in a dessert glass and topped with spicy cocktail sauce. You’ll find a throwback cocktail at Saginaw’s Delicatessen at Circa, the Palace Station Oyster Bar (a local classic), Bavette’s Steakhouse & Bar, and essentially any steakhouse in town.