12. CHINA POBLANO
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From the moment you glimpse the groovy-cool interior, you know you’re in for some mind-bending Chinese and Mexican food, provided by a mix-and-match menu created by Chef Jose Andrés. To be fair, José Can You See (Vegas)? comes around about as often as I go to Madrid these days, but give him a break. He’s got a restaurant empire to run, and run it well he does.
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11. YONAKA
Yonaka is the type of restaurant that couldn’t have existed in Las Vegas ten years ago.
Like all upscale Asian joints, it owes a debt of gratitude to 2013 Chef of the Year Mitsuo Endo for educating the minds and palates of the fledgling restaurant consumer. Without Raku paving the way six years ago, the appetite for intriguing Japanese food would remain but a tiny niche in our local food world. As it is, Yonaka took a page from Raku’s playbook, and tweaked it according to Ramir DeCastro’s own playful (and fruit-friendly) sensibilities – making Yonaka’s food even more fun and accessible than Raku’s.
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ELV note: Before we continue to list the Top 50 Essential Restaurants of Las Vegas, our staff suggested we say a few words about the standards and methodology we are employing.
Put another way, they suggested we give you a brief look into the palate-parsing predilections and prejudices of ELV, in order that you might suss some sense and sensibility out of our serialization of our fundamental foodie favorites.
TOP 10
The Top 10 are the ne plus ultra of restaurants in our humble burg. They are the elite, the best of the best. Food, service and decor on par with any great restaurant in America, with prices to match (except for Raku/Sweets Raku – which remain a flat-out bargain). To crack the Top 10, a restaurant must be consistently excellent, almost flawless for a substantial period of time — with technique and ingredients providing a world-class experience.
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