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
Max Jacobson
July 26th, 2012
We asked Vegas Seven’s food critic to line up his best foodie day. While he doesn’t subscribe to the age-old notion that one should have breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper, his fantasy eating trip didn’t end up far from that notion.
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Diner’s Notebook
Morton plants a flag downtown, and Las Vegas gets a custard cluster
July 26th, 2012
Mexican cooking meets American rock. How does that grab ya?
It bodes well for fans of the ever-livelier downtown food and bar scene, especially because the accomplished restaurateur Michael Morton of La Cave at the Wynn is behind the project.
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Diner’s Notebook
Fleur finds the sweet spot, Central is grillin’, and Milos makes a mean lamb
July 19th, 2012
Before I get into three interesting dinners I ate recently, just a few notices. First, if you haven’t already heard, Café Heidelberg, a German restaurant and market at 610 E. Sahara Avenue, shuttered earlier this month after a 40-year run. The owner lost her lease. Cafe Heidelberg wasn’t a gourmet restaurant, but it had a large local following. It’s a pity that we don’t always give our colorful ethnic restaurants enough support.
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High Fives All Around
Wine 5 Café creates African fusion that makes delicious sense for Las Vegas
July 19th, 2012
President Obama is a Luo, a member of a small minority in Kenya, which prompted a former Luo political prisoner Raila Odinga to quip bitterly, “America would have a Luo president before Kenya.”
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Diner’s Notebook
Michelin-quality Chinese, one hot Brazilian, and who moved our cheese?
July 12th, 2012
Hakkasan, a tony, upscale Chinese restaurant, is under construction at the MGM Grand, and if it debuts in December as planned, it is certain to be the splashiest restaurant opening on the Strip in 2012. Hakkasan, which first opened in London in 2001, is the first Chinese restaurant in Europe to garner a Michelin star and, today, the company already has outposts in New York and Miami with two more to come in L.A. and San Francisco. There will be a nightclub here in addition to the restaurant, with distinctive, luxurious chinoiserie decor—all 75,000 square feet of it.
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Market Fresh
New menus by a Stratta protégé make returning to Desert Shores a worthy detour
July 12th, 2012
Since acquiring Marché Bacchus five years ago, New Orleans natives Jeff and Rhonda Wyatt have steadily built their brand, and today it is as much a fine restaurant as boutique wine store, the original incarnation of the space.
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Right on ’Cue
Chuck Frommer opens Road Kill Grill—just in time to meat all of your summer barbecue needs
July 5th, 2012
Guy Fieri, host of the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and UNLV alumnus, may be more knowledgeable about what Las Vegas has to offer than any other national TV food host.
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Diner's Notebook
Ogden bids adieu, a new Thai try, and bacon is so over
July 5th, 2012
I had some of my best Las Vegas meals at Bradley Ogden in Caesars Palace, some of which occurred during what may have been the longest deathwatch ever on the Strip. But Ogden’s brilliant nearly 10-year run is over.
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Diner's Notebook
Quatro forni for Taylor, Wynn’s Switching it up, and we’re gonna need a bigger duck
June 28th, 2012
There’s a mixed bag to report this week, so let’s start with a few announcements. On July 1, foie gras from force-fed animals will officially be banned in California, per legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Will this lead to a run on the fatty duck or goose liver in the Silver State?
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Chasing Fireflies
John Simmons goes for the hat trick with the latest installment of his locals-favorite tapas joint
June 28th, 2012
It is 6 o’clock on a balmy Friday evening, and there’s an overflow crowd at the new Firefly near Anthem. The restaurant specializes in tapas, defined on its business card as “various small, savory dishes served as a snack or meal with beer, wine or sangria,” and everyone, it seems, is having the bacon-wrapped dates. Hey, we’re in the desert.
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