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It has been a tumultuous year in the world of Las Vegas restaurants. There were many closures (see sidebar on Page 35), but just as many openings. The upshot was a move toward casual and away from fine dining. Some chalk that up to the economy, but in my view, it’s more of a generational thing. We’re getting more American comfort-food spots such as Bread & Butter and the soon-to-open Honey Salt, while venerable neighborhood fine-dining restaurants are becoming extinct.
Las Vegas is turning Japanese, too. Recent openings include Nakamura-ya, the Tokyo-style Italian restaurant; Café de Japon, a coffee shop; I-naba, an L.A. import specializing in soba; and Ramen Sora, a rustic ramen house. Why now? Diners are becoming more eclectic in their tastes, and Japanese cuisine, which is light and exotic, is a perfect fit for their demands.
Some things never change, though. Beef is eternally what’s for dinner on the Strip, and four popular Strip steak houses surfaced in 2012: R Steaks at the Riviera, Center Cut at the Flamingo, Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas, and, last but not least, Old Homestead, a New York steak house dating from the late 19th century.
Old Homestead is in Caesars Palace, which has raised the stakes like no other property lately. Its new Central is our city’s first truly upscale 24/7 restaurant and is redefining that genre. The gigantic and incredible Bacchanal Buffet recently started serving, and just wait till the Nobu Tower opens in the spring. The Hard Rock Hotel is also trying to outdo itself, with the new Culinary Dropout, the Ainsworth and 35 Steaks + Martinis, which replaced the more staid Rare 120 awhile back.
More evidence that Las Vegas is constantly reinventing itself as a dining destination, one worth celebrating—as we’re doing now for the third consecutive year.
Our Critic's Final 'Gastropub' Plea
Best Restaurant (on Strip)
Joël Robuchon
October 11th, 2012
There is no equal on Las Vegas Boulevard or, for that matter, anywhere else in this country. A meal here is like a Beethoven symphony in four parts: carefully orchestrated, with an introduction, slow movement, scherzo and finale. Read more »
Best Restaurant (Off-Strip)
Kabuto
October 11th, 2012
There are more than 100 places to eat sushi in the Valley, but only a handful are any good. And this newcomer is the only one we know of that’s truly up to the standards of a deluxe Tokyo sushi restaurant. Read more »
Best Steak House
Cut
October 11th, 2012
It’s a steak house. What do I need a chef for?” Wolfgang Puck once remarked, while planning the original Cut in Beverly Hills. But the fact is, Cut has one, and his name is Matthew Hurley. Read more »
Best Seafood
Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare
October 11th, 2012
“I’ve never had a restaurant where I’ve had to do so little cooking,” uber-chef Paul Bartolotta told us recently. “Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare is all about sourcing ingredients.” Read more »
Best Thai
Penn’s Thai House
October 11th, 2012
Penn Amarapayark could be a superstar in this town were it not for her hell-and-gone location—east of Sunset Station, in a desolate mini-mall. She avoids the limelight but not the lime leaves, lemongrass or ka (galangal to us). Read more »
Best Chinese
Hong Kong Garden
October 11th, 2012
There’s an English menu above the cold station at this Chinese deli counter offering items such as goose intestine, pig’s ear marinated in sesame oil and chili, and five-spiced boiled peanuts that you won't be able to stop eating. Read more »
Best Chef (On Strip)
Devin Hashimoto at Mizumi
October 11th, 2012
When Steve Wynn’s inevitable break with investor Kazuo Okada became official, Okada restaurant was redesigned and reimagined, eventually emerging better than ever with a new name, Mizumi. Read more »
Best Chef (Off-Strip)
Daniel Coughlin at Le Thai
October 11th, 2012
The name might sound Irish, but Daniel Coughlin grew up with a Thai mother and grandmother in a restaurant family, and many of the recipes at Le Thai, his insanely popular downtown restaurant, are adaptations of food he grew up eating. Read more »
Best Dish
Squid Ink Pasta Carbonara at Valentino
October 11th, 2012
Chef Luciano Pellegrini makes this amazingly rich off-menu dish from scratch, using special Italian pasta flour from Pasini with 10 eggs per kilo of flour and three tablespoons of squid ink. Read more »
Best French
Guy Savoy
October 11th, 2012
If Robuchon is a classic design, then this restaurant—a mezzanine-level cathedral room by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who also did parts of the Louvre—is resolutely French. Read more »
Best Breakfast
The Maple Tree Café
October 11th, 2012
A few months ago, the breakfast nook at the original Maple Tree on Spring Mountain Road received a makeover, thanks to Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible. Read more »
Best Lunch
Estiatorio Milos
October 11th, 2012
This is our city’s best Greek restaurant—something no one disputes. But it’s also our most expensive one. Live seafood from the Aegean is a luxury, and simply put, not everyone can afford to eat dinner here. Read more »
Best Desserts
Bacchanal Buffet
October 11th, 2012
In the Vegas buffet culture, desserts are often an afterthought—after grazing on cuisine from five different countries, who really has room for confections? Well, you’re going to want to leave room at the Bacchanal Buffet. Read more »
Best Restaurant Design
Tetsu
October 11th, 2012
This new restaurant makes phenomenal use of a space that formerly housed Shaboo in BarMasa. Creative Design Architecture of Las Vegas essentially converted the room to a teppan bar by means of four blackjack-style tables, two communal teppan grills and a produce table that serves as a centerpiece. Read more »
Best Service
Old Homestead
October 11th, 2012
No, you’re not experiencing déjà vu—the reason the service staff at Old Homestead looks familiar is because they’ve likely served you before, just in other upscale restaurants in Caesars Palace, such as Nero's (the classic steak house that occupied the space before Old Homestead) and the recently shuttered Bradley Ogden. Read more »
Best New Restaurant
Gordon Ramsay Steak
October 11th, 2012
We were all excited when the peripatetic TV chef decided to open his first Las Vegas outpost. Now he’s doing a gastropub in the old Bradley Ogden space at Caesars Palace and has plans to open a third restaurant, Flame Burger, in Planet Hollywood. Read more »
Best Croissant
Bonjour Bakery
October 11th, 2012
It’s close to impossible to find a great croissant these days, and not just in Las Vegas. Most of the ones you eat in Paris taste like cardboard, and the ones at Starbucks are beneath contempt. Read more »
Best Buffet
Wicked Spoon
October 11th, 2012
It’s too soon to say whether the new Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars will unseat Wicked Spoon (now a two-time winner of this category) from its perch. Read more »
Best Gateway Offal
Bone Marrow
October 11th, 2012
While many other cultures embrace the variety meats that include tripe, sweetbreads and liver, Americans often cringe at the thought of eating the nasty bits known as offal (and yet we eagerly eat hot dogs—go figure). Read more »
Best Lowbrow Dive Dish
Steamed Chicken Chinese Sausage Rice Bowl at Big Wong
October 11th, 2012
The newly renamed Tokyo Plaza, formerly Seoul Plaza, is famous with foodies for Raku and Monta, the ramen joint. But the place we frequent more is Big Wong, where Brooklyn-style Chinese food is served. Read more »
Best Outside-the-Box Dinner
Wine 5 Café
October 11th, 2012
How many cities can boast having a Kenyan restaurant? Wine 5 Café probably wouldn’t call itself that—the menu covers all kinds of cultures, including American and Italian. Read more »
Fanciest Fried Chicken
Buttermilk Fried Chicken at Bouchon
October 11th, 2012
We asked renowned chef Thomas Keller why he doesn’t put his chicken permanently on the menu at Bouchon. “It’s not really a bistro dish,” he replied. Read more »
Green Thumb Award
Mark LoRusso at Botero
October 11th, 2012
The top chefs at Wynn do vegetarian and vegan dishes to please the boss, but chef Mark LoRusso’s contributions are original in the extreme. Read more »
Best New Bacon
Guanciale
October 11th, 2012
Bacon is smothering us! It’s showing up everywhere, even in martinis and cupcakes. Enough is enough. We’ve got a new love, and its name is guanciale. Read more »
Best Unheralded Ethnic Cuisine
Peruvian
October 11th, 2012
The cuisine of Peru has many influences—Spanish, African, Chinese and Japanese, among them—making it a (perhaps the) compelling cuisine of the early 21st century. Read more »
Best Free Thing
Amuse-Bouche Drinks at Sage and Sirio
October 11th, 2012
Few things set the scene for an extraordinary dining experience quite like the amuse-bouche, usually a single perfect bite, compliments of the chef. Adopting the custom recently are Sirio and Sage in Aria, which offer guests dining at the bar a complimentary amuse-bouche aperitif. Read more »
Best Brunch
Border Grill
October 11th, 2012
In a city famous for brunch, choosing one might seem a tad arbitrary. We adore, for example, chef Carlos Guía’s Cajun-tinged brunch at Wynn’s The Country Club, and the dim-sum fusion with Western breakfast fare at the Fountains Brunch in Bellagio’s Jasmine. Read more »
Best Barista
Jonah Vongdala at Social House
October 11th, 2012
Tall, dark and strong is how we like our drinks. Mustachioed and ice-pick-wielding is how we like our mixologists. But sober and wise is how we like our baristas—coffee is no laughing matter! Read more »
Cheese of the Moment
Burrata at Allegro
October 11th, 2012
Chef Enzo Febbraro isn’t about to give up his secret family recipe or technique for the burrata he makes daily at Allegro at 5 p.m. (just in time for dinner service). Read more »
Best New Pizzeria
Dom Demarco’s Pizzeria & Bar
October 11th, 2012
For years, Dom Demarco, owner and chef of the Brooklyn institution that sometimes has three-hour lines, turned down offers to produce his famous pies outside of New York City. Read more »
Most Dynamic Restaurant
Comme Ça
October 11th, 2012
This wunderkind of the Strip dining scene constantly refreshes its special menu concepts while maintaining a high level of execution for its classic brasserie cuisine. Read more »
Best Reason to Get Messy
The Boiling Crab
October 11th, 2012
The seafood chain from California specializes in the ultimate in casual dining: eating with your hands and wearing a bib. There’s more than just crab at the Boiling Crab. Read more »
The Mixology Awards
October 11th, 2012
Best Mustache, Best New Trend, Best New Cocktail Category, Best Property Beverage Program and Best New Spirit Read more »
Rest(aurant) in Peace ...
October 11th, 2012
Seablue, Bradley Ogden, Little Buddha and Cathay House, Okada, Switch, Les Artistes and Stratta. Read more »
