Here it is food fans: our inclusive, independent, infallible, indispensable, indomitable, inevitable, individual, incorruptible index of Las Vegas 50 most “essential” restaurants. It represents our educated opinion of the best food and restaurant experiences Las Vegas has to offer, in descending order of importance to our food scene.
Put another way, these are the restaurants I would take another food writer, gourmet, world-class chef, or ardent food fan to if they asked me to take them on the ultimate epicurean tour of Vegas, and we had a month to complete the task. (For those of you who are wondering: every one of these places has been visited multiple times by yours truly. Many of them have fed us at least a half a dozen times, and in ten of them we’ve eaten more meals than we can count.)
Readers of the last printed edition of this title, will notice that 21 of the 50 entries are new — that’s how much our food scene has changed since we released the 2013 edition in November, 2012. The year ahead may be a quieter one as far as new openings are concerned, but don’t bet on it.
There may finally be enough interest (and affluent warm bodies) downtown to finally give that area some traction in the finer foods department (thank you Kerry Simon), and the venerable Strip hotels are going to be upping their games now that some of their stores are starting to show their age (are you listening MGM and Caesars?) Smaller hotels with a few, top flight offerings seem to be the wave of the future (à la the SLS), although Resorts World might be a behemoth that changes the game the way the Bellagio did in 1998.
All of us at Eating Las Vegas hope this will be the start of a tradition — that of releasing our 50 Essential list every Nevada Day/Halloween. We will be updating some of the reviews throughout the year, and you can look forward to our “new look” Web site coming on-line within the month, which will make accessing the 50 Essential much easier, as well as all past and current content.
In the meantime we will continue to give you Las Vegas’s only erudite, incisive, unfettered and un-compromised opinions on its restaurant and dining scene….and never forget that we at ELV stand by our ELV Guarantee: All Opinions Right Or Your Money Back!
THE TOP 10
7. Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare
THE REST OF THE BEST
11. Yonaka
12. China Poblano
13. Julian Serrano
14. Sage
15. Allegro
16. China MaMa
17. Mizumi
18. Le Cirque
19. db Brasserie
20. Giada – The Restaurant (on Earth – The Planet)
21. Rose.Rabbit.Lie.
22. Yusho
23. Carson Kitchen
24. Spago
25. Lotus of Siam
26. Michael Mina
27. CUT
28. Bouchon
29. Bazaar Meat
30. Eiffel Tower Restaurant
31. Forte
32. Due Forni
33. Jaleo
34. Rao’s
35. District One
36. Chada Thai
37. Cleo
38. I-Naba
39. Sen of Japan
40. B&B Ristorante
41. Monta
42. Nakamura-Ya
43. Mint Indian Bistro
44. Marche Bacchus
45. Ku Noodle
46. El Sombrero
47. Desnudo Tacos/47.1 Rodeo Tacos Barbacoa estilo Hidalgo
48. Zen Japanese Curry
49. The Goodwich
50. Art of Flavors
Honorable mention: Delmonico; Chocolate & Spice Bakery; La Comida; Wing Lei, Botero; Katsuya by Starck; Honey Salt; Prime; Table 10; Mundo; Comme Ça; Top of the World; Aloha Speciaties; Soyo; O Face Doughnuts; Bin 702; Border Grill; Tacos El Gordo; Buddy V’s; Herbs & Rye.
