ELV note: This review appears in today’s Las Vegas Weekly. Click here to read it in its original format, or continue below, to enjoy the prolific, profound prose, for which ELV is known, plus Beverly Poppe’s propitious pics.

Tired of the same old Korean food? Bored with bibimbap (rice and vegetables in a stone pot)? Jaundiced about jjigae (soup with vegetables)? Had it with haejangguk (meat soup with veggies)? Then consider heading to South Rainbow Boulevard at Robindale, where Soyo Barstaurant will set you up with some good ol’ chicken wings, Korean-style.

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ELV note: This is the same review which appears midway through the Las Vegas Weekly article posted below. We thought we’d make it a little easier to read by giving it its own space. Kanpai!

Masa Takayama and Drew Terp

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Masa Takayama and Drew Terp

It is simply the most extraordinary Japanese food Las Vegas has ever witnessed. From the pristine quality to the precise presentations, Bar Masa is a restaurant no Japanese food aficionado can afford to miss.

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ELV Note: The Las Vegas Weekly’s exploration of all things sushi hits the newsstands today, so we thought we’d give you a peak at some tasty snaps from our interview with Bar Masa’s Drew Terp, followed by the Weekly article(s) outlining the best sushi in town, according to Brock Radke, Jim Begley, and you know who. (ELV tip: After Bar Masa, Shibuya and Sen of Japan, everyone else is an also-ran. ELV tip #2: Anyone who eats all-you-can-eat sushi should have their head examined. ELV Tip #3: Scroll down to Terp’s Tips if you want to raise your sushi game and stop eating it like a girlie-man.)

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THE NEIGHBORHOOD JOINT

Sen of Japan (8480 W. Desert Inn Road, 871-7781) Sen, as it’s known to regulars, is a west-side staple and, unequivocally, the best “accessible” sushi in town. It’s cheaper than Bar Masa, Nobu and Roku but more expensive than your standard neighborhood joint. Don’t let that dissuade you; you will walk—or waddle—away feeling the experience was well worth the cost.

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BRATALIAN Brings Authentic Italian-American to Henderson

If Italian food has indeed conquered the world, as John Mariani maintains in his new book, it was Italian-American cuisine that first stormed the beaches of country after country with its irresistible flavors. (more…)

ELV note: This article appears in today’s Las Vegas Weekly, and you can access the original by clicking on the title below.

In Jose Andres’ hands, small plates get big treatment

One need look no further than the crowds at Jaleo in the Cosmopolitan any night of the week to see that this casual, small-plates, share-and-share-alike restaurant has captured the zeitgeist of how people are eating out these days. Traditional three-course meals might still have their place, but communal dining, Spanish-style, is about as hot as it gets, and no chef is hotter that José Andrés. Which means no restaurant in Vegas is busier right now than Jaleo (HA-lay-o = merriment and/or festivity in Spanish).

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Sometimes, some tasty snaps are worth a thousand words. – ELV

In honor of ELV’s review of Jaleo in this week’s Las Vegas Weekly, we thought a posting of the dishes he’s enjoyed during his last two dinners here would be a nice way to stimulate your appetite — both for Jaleo’s food and the article being published tomorrow.

Dinner #1

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Dinner #2

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To read about these dishes, in all their Asturian, Catalan and Valencian glory, go to www.lasvegasweekly.com tomorrow after 5 pm, or pick up this week’s Weekly at any number of locations all over town, starting Thursday morning.

JALEO

In The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino

3708 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.698.7950

http://www.jaleo.com/index.php/contact/las_vegas

The protege in Robuchon’s kitchen

The Chef of the Century’s name is above the door, but this is the guy who’s really cooking dinner

“French chefs are so well trained, they don’t know how not to make it right.” – Laurent Tourondel

I first met Steve Benjamin in January 2005, shortly after Joël Robuchon had opened his two stunning restaurants at the MGM Grand. Benjamin was pointed out to me as the fellow who would be taking over executive chef duties at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, once Robuchon and his Parisian team were satisfied that this second installment of J.R.’s restaurant empire was performing up to Chef of the Century standards. (more…)

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In honor of L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Executive Chef Steve Benjamin being profiled in this Thursday’s Las Vegas Weekly, we thought we’d post some tasty snaps of his fabulous food.

And tell you he was named after Steve McQueen.

Just thought you’d like to know.

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As you know, ELV and his staff are more than a little disdainful about Greek restaurant food. From coast to coast, it is relentlessly mediocre, boring and trite….and almost always tastes the same. Whether you’re in a Greek diner in Connecticut, or another hackneyed, blue and white-decorated “classic” restaurant, it’s a lead-pipe cinch you’re going to get the same twenty recipes overcooked exactly the same way. (Greek restaurants never met an overcooked piece of fish or meat they didn’t love.)

The reason for this is because, like Indian and Mexican food, the cooks of these cuisines have been, by and large, from the lower socio-economic stratum of their home countries. They came to America to survive and prosper, but not necessarily to create or strictly follow the tenants of the cuisine they remember. In such a way did the doner kebab become that hideous gyro meat featured in Greek joints from Bangor to Malibu, and sorry souvlakis the food Americans most associate with the birthplace of Western civilization.

All of this is about to change. The minute it opens in the Cosmo on December, 15th, Estiatorio Milos will be the best Greek restaurant in Las Vegas, and probably the second best Greek restaurant in the country….right behind the original Milos in Manhattan…and most probably the third best Greek restaurant on the North American continent…. right behind the New York location and the original in Montreal.

Our interview with Spiliadis will appear in next week’s Las Vegas Weekly, but in the meantime, we thought you’d like to see where a couple of Greek gods (with loads of major hair) had lunch when the aforesaid interview was taking place. Why at MOzen, of course…where we chowed down on Indian (dots, not feathers) food, of course.

Turns out Costas is something of a connoisseur of Indian food, and like ELV, considers the tandoori, butter chicken and assorted other highly spiced fare at MOzen to be some of the best he’s ever eaten. It all went down beautifully with one of the great food-focused conversations we’ve ever had, and ended with a tiny sampling of Gianni Santin’s pristine desserts — that were so good we almost forgot about how great Greek food is about to get around here.

ESTIATORIO MILOS

In The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino

3708 Las Vegas, Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.698.7930

www.estiatoriomilos.com