Alan Yau, Bobby Flay and More Culinary Powerhouses Raise the Stakes in Vegas
Recent high-profile debuts in Vegas include some of the most delicious Chinese food the city has ever seen, pasta that’s worth a detour and a fresh take on the brasserie.
Read MoreThe Las Vegas dining landscape keeps evolving, with some of the world’s most prominent operators finding new ways to flex on and off the Strip. The year is still young, but the recent high-profile debuts in Vegas already include some of the most elegant and delicious Chinese food the city has ever seen, a fresh take on a brasserie, pasta that’s worth a detour and a vibrant casino-dining upgrade from two seasoned chefs. Here’s a look at the latest restaurants from Alan Yau, Bobby Flay, Marc Vetri, Michael Mina and Wolfgang Puck.
The Most Exciting New Restaurants in Las Vegas
Chyna Club
- 2777 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109
Jeffrey Soffer’s new Fontainebleau Las Vegas is where you’ll find the triumphant return of Alan Yau, the pioneering restaurateur who founded Hakkasan and Wagamama. With formidable executive chef Richard Chen (who previously ran Michelin-starred Wing Lei at Wynn Las Vegas) in the kitchen, Chyna Club serves succulent, roasted-to-order, expertly rendered Peking duck. Lobster Cantonese with wonton noodles is another truly crowd-pleasing dish, and the top-tier dim sum options here include prawn-and-pea-shoot dumplings. Sweet-corn soup, simultaneously comforting and luxurious, comes with a generous amount of stone crab and fish maw.
Bonus: Yau and Chen also have the more casual Washing Potato, with dim sum, Cantonese barbecue and noodles, next to Chyna Club.
Brasserie B
- 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Caesars Palace Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89109
You can tell Bobby Flay had a good time putting together the menu for Brasserie B, which excels at everything from bar snacks like wings and hot housemade potato chips with Roquefort sauce to Parisian-inspired entrées like perfectly cooked skate and three choices of steak frites. There’s seafood galore at this stylish restaurant, whether you want chilled selections, a hot appetizer that features a strikingly generous amount of out-of-the-shell king crab with mustard gratin, dover sole or lobster frites. For dessert, Flay is playing the brasserie classics with crepes, profiteroles and a chocolate soufflé.
This is a restaurant that straddles the line between Balthazar and Blue Ribbon, while still forging its own path. As usual, Flay (who also runs the adjacent Amalfi at Caesars Palace) understands how to create something that is familiar and transporting at the same time.
Fiorella Pasta Bar
- 6915 S Durango Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89148
Marc Vetri, who really might make the best Italian food in America, has opened a sit-down pasta bar nestled in the Eat Your Heart Out food hall at the new Durango resort. (This is Vetri’s latest partnership with off-Strip casino moguls Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta, who also maintain Osteria Fiorella at their Red Rock resort.) Standout dishes including habit-forming rigatoni with sausage ragu and sacchetti filled with lobster mousse. Order the mafaldine with short-rib ragu and you’ll get tender chunks of meat and a master class in the transformative power of slow cooking.
It’s worth noting that this food hall also pops off day and night with everything from an outpost of Oyster Bar (yes, the famous and perpetually busy Oyster Bar from Palace Station) to scenester-friendly, quick-service players like Prince Street Pizza, Irv’s Burgers and Uncle Paulie’s Deli.
Orla
- 3950 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89119
Inspired by his upbringing in Egypt and his love of Mediterranean markets and bazaars, the prolific Michael Mina has created a festive restaurant with hot and cold mezze, salt-baked fish, sizzling king crab and a charcoal-grilled kebab platter for two. There’s a frozen-yogurt sundae cart with 24-karat-gold honey, because Mina knows that Vegas dining should be a fun, interactive and over-the-top experience. This eatery is an exciting part of Mandalay Bay’s dining makeover.
Carama
- 3950 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89119
Another promising addition at Mandalay Bay is Carama, the new Italian restaurant from Wolfgang Puck. With an on-site salumeria and a menu featuring pizza, carpaccio, crudo, vitello tonnato and Caesar salad, there are plenty of ways to get your palate going before you indulge in pastas like rigatoni all’amatriciana and squid-ink chitarra with crab. Lobster risotto, porchetta Romana and grilled lamb chops are nice ways to fill out your feast.