Sin City is home to a lot of restaurants and bars, but there are tons of hidden gems that the majority of Las Vegans aren't unearthing. To help guide us to these potential discoveries, we've enlisted some of our city's food players to share their recommendations for a weekly feature dubbed Dining Confidential.
Devin Hashimoto [Photo: Wynn Las Vegas]
It’s a big week for Devin Hashimoto. His renovated Mizumi opens this Friday at Wynn Las Vegas. The executive chef moved over to Wazuzu at Encore Las Vegas while the former Okada space went through its changes into a more feminine restaurant. This week, he gets to reveal new dishes on the Japanese menu. Here, the Hawaiian native shares his favorite places to dine when he’s not in the kitchen.
Where do you enjoy eating when you’re not working at your own restaurant?
Island Flavor — Hawaiian restaurant
Pho So 1 — pho noodles
Hot and Juicy Crawfish
What dishes are most memorable?
At Island Flavor, their Loco Moco is the bomb. [It’s a] large hamburger patty served on top of steamed rice, topped with an over easy egg and covered with brown gravy.
At Pho So 1, their combination pho is awesome, rice noodles, broth, beef brisket, well-done beef flank beef ball, beef tendon, tripe, rare steak, bean sprouts, Thai basil and jalapeño.
At Hot and Juicy, I usually get several pounds of the shrimp and Dungeness crab legs with the smoked sausage with their special garlic sauce.
Why do you enjoy going there?
Working in the restaurant business, especially on the Strip, when you go out to eat, you want to just relax and eat great food in a casual setting. And those restaurants offer that feel.
Island Flavor is simply island style, run by a family from the Big Island of Hawaii. Their entire menu is awesome. It makes me homesick every time I go there.
Of all the pho restaurants in town, I’ve grown to like Pho So 1 the best, simply because their broth has great flavor, the service is fast, food is great and the ice coffee is awesome as well!
And Hot and Juicy Crawfish is just plain old fun! Great shrimp and crab, addicting sauce and just a fun atmosphere!
I gotta give props to my wife Donna, who cooks me and our boys, Dylan, Dallas and Donavin, amazing Korean food when I’m at home. From homemade kimchi to seafood buchinge to kalbi gim! So when we go out to eat, Korean is off the list and we try to go places where it’s fast, with great food and kid friendly!
· All Coverage of Mizumi [~ELV~]
· All Dining Confidentials [~ELV~]
