Rather, this list is about the best Las Vegas has to offer. This list isn’t about those restaurants, although you’ll find two stand-out buffets that deserved to be mentioned for their innovation and quality. The major exception here are the Vegas “locals casinos,” which tend to have higher quality food and beverage at lower prices than their tourist counterparts. Their quality of food is generally reflected in the quality of the property-cheap hotels have cheap food. To be sure, every hotel worth its casino has a coffee shop, steakhouse and buffet (except New York-New York and Venetian, which opened without buffets). The combination of these two events heralded the New Age of Las Vegas, and with its megaresorts and Broadway shows came a new focus on dining that had simply never existed before. And this would be the case until Steve Wynn raised the bar on luxury with the development of The Mirage, and Wolfgang Puck brought Spago to the newly opened Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. By and large, the food history of Las Vegas is one of culinary mediocrity, more famous for the dubious all-you-can-eat buffet than for anything suggesting a hint of haute. Even the new wave of star chefs has seen its own spectacular failure, with the closing of the poorly conceived Charlie Trotter’s at the MGM Grand.īut these restaurants were exceptions. Add the exquisite Palace Court and the theatrical Bacchanal to that list, two historic restaurants that recently fell to renovations at Caesars Palace. There was the beautiful Sabre Room at the Aladdin, the Regency Room at the Sands and the Monte Carlo Room at the Desert Inn. There were the blue martinis at the Sultan’s Table and the mermaid harpist at the Dome of the Sea, both at the Dunes. Restaurants that have since entered the realm of legend, alongside the hotels that exist only on postcards. Later on, surf-and-turf specials, two-buck steak dinners, prime rib buffets and 99-cent shrimp cocktails would be the extent of Vegas food marketing-and, indeed, those things are still available. One of the best known publicity photos from the bygone era shows a showgirl frying two eggs on the blistering Strip in the height of summer. Yet Vegas has always marketed its food, as much to draw attention to itself as to establish its inherent difference from the rest of America. No one came to Vegas to dine, unless it was comped, and then only to pass the time before getting back to those other tables.

The history of this desert playground is one of cheap rooms, cheap food and all-night stints at the craps tables. Let’s face it, Vegas is not a town built on foie gras. The 50 Best Casino Restaurants in Las VegasĮditorial Staff | Posted on Ap| By Adam Fine

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