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.
Sushi Roku's Johnny Seo [Photo: Chelsea McManus]
Johnny Seo has the restaurant industry in his blood. From the time he was a child in Seoul, Korea, he worked in his father's restaurant. He worked his way up through the fine dining rooms at the Grand Hyatt, Inter-Continental hotel, first as a server and then as a manager at the Ritz-Carlton, Seoul. After six years in the industry, Seo was asked to open Navio restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay in California. Twelve years later, he moved to Vegas to become the general manager of Hyakumi Japanese Restaurant at Caesars Palace. Now he's in charge of Sushi Roku at the Forum Shops at Caesars. Here the general manager shares his favorite places to eat when he's not running the restaurant.
Where do you like to dine when you're not working at Sushi Roku?
Sunday brunch at Egg Works, Il Mulino at the Forum Shops at Caesars and Michael's Gourmet Room at South Point.
What dishes are most memorable?
At Egg Works, the fresh veggie skillet is my favorite. It comes with variety of vegetables with egg on it. The banana muffin is freshly baked and has good flavor. The blueberry pancake is great as well. Any breakfast restaurant with excellent pancakes is a great one for me. I usually evaluate breakfast restaurant by the quality of their pancakes. They must be brown on each side evenly, and the softness and moisture level must be perfect. Egg Works is where I go for breakfast almost every Sunday. Props to them for the speedy service and consistent coffee refills.
My favorite dishes at Il Mulino are the baked Italian sea bass and mushroom risotto. They serve whole sea bass and fillet the fish table side. They don't put too much butter in the risotto and it has a good mushroom flavor. They boast an Italian classic atmosphere and first class-service.
At Michael's, the best items are the premium quality aged beef, as well as all of their side dishes, which are good quality and the perfect size to share. I have very high standards for cooking temperature and order my steak medium rare, and they cook it perfectly all the time. They have a comfortable atmosphere and amazing service.
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· All Dining Confidentials [~ELV~]
