Max Jacobson
Contributing Editor, Food
Contact: Email
Vegas Seven’s food critic started his career as a food journalist in Japan in the early ’80s. Since then, he has been a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and has written for a variety of national publications, such as Saveur and Gourmet. He's best known as an authority on Asian food, but he has rarely met a cuisine he doesn't like. He has covered the Vegas culinary scene since 2000.
Recent Articles
Eastern Star Power
HK Star boosts Las Vegas’ Chinese culinary caché
October 20th, 2011
A huge wave of Chinese immigration moved into California’s San Gabriel Valley over the past three decades and has slowly spread east, to our desert shores. Authentic Chinese restaurants are part of the movement, with their bright lights, live fish tanks and shopping mall décor. HK Star—a large, boxy space where Chinese music videos play on TVs in all corners of the dining room—is our latest example.
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Los Antojos
October 13th, 2011
The best dishes here are posted on the wall in Spanish. And many customers, like the owners, are transplanted natives of Mexico City. Don’t miss consome loco, chicken rice soup slow-simmered with cilantro and onions.
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Best Food Court
Greenland Market
October 13th, 2011
In a Korean food court, you won’t find a Sbarro’s, Panda Express or Hot Dogs on a Stick. What you will find are kalbi (Korean-style barbecued short ribs redolent of sesame oil), meats griddled in an egg batter, chicken ginseng soup and jap chae (noodles sautéed with Korean spices).
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Joël Robuchon at the Mansion
October 13th, 2011
Well-known for labor-intensive and visually stunning dishes, and for his vast knowledge of food chemistry, Robuchon was voted Chef of the Century in a French poll. Are we even qualified to argue?
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Nam Kao Tod, at Lotus of Siam
October 13th, 2011
By now, even people in Tonopah know that Lotus is the most famous Thai restaurant in the United States. Saipin Chutima, the genius in the kitchen, is probably best known for her crispy rice salad, nam kao tod, arguably the best finger food dish on earth. It has bits of Thai sausage, roasted peanuts, lemon grass and amazingly crisp rice, plus a hint of hot chili. Kellogg’s couldn’t have imagined.
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Best Bakery
Patisserie Manon
October 13th, 2011
Jean-Paul Layden and his wife, Rachel, operate this gorgeous bakery and epicerie on upper Charleston, and you have to look hard on the Strip (at places such as Payard) to find pastries of comparable quality.
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Bon Breads
October 13th, 2011
Peruvian-born, San Francisco-trained Carlos Pereira has long been doing custom breads for top Strip restaurants. Now he also has a retail outlet at Town Square.
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Sambalatte
October 13th, 2011
Luiz Oliveira, a native of Brazil, grinds and brews coffee to order, using 100 percent Arabica beans from Rio Verde in Brazil, or those from exotic locales such as Guatemala, Sumatra and Ethiopia.
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Pad Kee Mao at Thai House
October 13th, 2011
This unheralded restaurant in the far corner of a shopping mall off Silverado Ranch Boulevard would have a national fan base if it were near the Strip.
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Best Bacon
North Country Smokehouse Bacon
October 13th, 2011
This meaty, smoky bacon—slow-cured with maple sugar in a New Hampshire smokehouse—surfaces in many Guia creations, and it’s the best bacon we’ve ever tasted. Take that, Nueske’s.
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