Las Vegas is more than casinos, clubs and pools — spectacular dining abounds
(PLUS, A FEW BACKUPS)
It can be tough to secure a spot at the best tables in Sin City, but don’t despair — there are options
Las Vegas, city of sin. But it’s also a city of numbers.
Each year, more than 40 million people visit, bringing with them US$50 billion to spend at casinos, clubs and strip joints. But it’s not all sin that rakes it in — in recent years, an increasing portion of that pot is going toward Las Vegas’s now-world-class restaurant scene.
There’s a good news-bad news scenario. Bad news first: It’s undeniably hard to get seats at the most popular places, especially during prime convention time, like when the tech trade show CES hits town. (Chefs say that’s the busiest time of all.)
The good news: Every year, more exciting restaurants expand beyond the Strip, thanks in part to locally based businesses like Zappos that have re-energized different areas around the city.
And anyway in Vegas, there’s always someone who knows someone who can get you into a joint if you really want to go (or you can pay).
We have five restaurants to use your connections for, plus seven other spots off the Strip (some recommended by chefs like Mario Batali), that make for an excellent Plan B if you can’t get into his restaurant after all.
CARBONE
If there’s a place besides downtown Manhattan that has enough throwback attitude to evoke the glory days of Italian-American dining, where tuxedoed waiters tell bad jokes as they toss your caesar salad with garlic-bread croutons tableside, it’s Vegas. The second outpost of the cult restaurant from Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi channels the New York original, at least from the outside with a red neon sign in the Aria casino hallway. There’s also the signature favourites, like spicy rigatoni vodka (it’s under the macaroni section), and veal Parmesan. But it’s Vegas, so things are bigger: Here there are deep banquets, private dining and a larger menu, including dishes like bone-in New York Strip and a melt-in-yourmouth lasagna layered with delicate egg crepes and black truffles.
CARNEVINO
Vegas is a meat-loving town, with more steak houses than just about any other place on earth. One of the best is Carnevino, from Mario Batali, who opened it in the Palazzo at the Venetian back in 2008. Then, he could have simply rolled out an outpost of his renowned restaurant Babbo, but instead dreamt up a hearty diner’s Shangri-La, where you can eat both specially dry-aged, well-marbled steaks and amazing, gut-busting pastas. Not every notable Vegas restaurant is open for lunch, but Carnevino is; it serves a $65 martini lunch ($50 if you forgo the cocktail, but why?), with the choice of tagliatelle bolognese or filet mignon. There’s even a beef-tasting menu, which runs from carpaccio to rib-eye and ends with chocolate bacon cake.
LIBERTINE SOCIAL
When he opened his first Vegas restaurant, the excellent Sage at Aria, Shawn McClain relocated to Nevada. This marked a big change from the drive-by habits of other chefs. Maybe because the city is his home, McClain is treating his third restaurant, Libertine Social at Mandalay Bay, like a house party, with a vast range of snacks and spreads, from warm Dungeness crab dip to grilled-and-chilled prawns with chorizo vinaigrette to shaved country ham. The bar scene is great, too. Mixologist Tony AbouGamin has a selection of from-thefreezer shots and retro drinks such as Golden Cadillac and, yes, Sex on the Beach.
MORIMOTO LAS VEGAS
In October, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto opened his first restaurant in Vegas, at the MGM Grand ( he has almost a dozen locations worldwide, from New Delhi to Mexico City). In Vegas, the Nobu alum highlights his hybrid Japanese cooking like tuna pizza with anchovy aioli, and yellowtail pastrami — as well as a sushi selection that includes the very intricate, oft- Instagrammed Morimoto stained-glass rolls. But in the vast space he’s also introducing his first ever Teppan tables, where chefs griddle-cook ingredients like A-5 Japanese Wagyu (premium quality), which they turn into sukiyaki, served with a soft-poached Jidori egg (equally fancy). The Wagyu and other prestige cuts of meat are on display in a glass room alongside the Teppan tables for those who want to see their meal progress from start to finish.
As with steak houses, Vegas does multi-Michelin-starred restaurant experiences extremely well, sometimes even better than the original. On the list of the world’s top chef outposts in Vegas are Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace; Pierre Gagnaire at the Mandarin Oriental; and Joel Robuchon in the Mansion at the MGM Grand. In the marble-floored townhome, the chef offers a completely overthe-top 16-course prix fixe menu that begins with Osetra caviar and moves on to choices like foie gras and potato carpaccio covered with black truffles. All this comes at a cost: Eater’s Ryan Sutton says it might be the priciest restaurant in America, at $425, not including tax and tip. The less expensive option is L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, which features counter seating and steak tartare with fries.