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. Know a chef who wants to share some top dining spots? The tipline is open.
Carson Kitchen's executive chef Matt Andrews was born and raised in a small town about 40 minutes outside of Napa Valley, Calif. His earliest inspiration came from working the farm fields with his grandfather and then helping his grandmother prepare big lunches with the ingredients in the kitchen.
After graduating from California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Andrews earned an internship with Simon LA and eventually moved to Las Vegas to work at Simon Restaurant & Lounge at Palms Place for three years. This year, after working with Kerry Simon for seven years, he landed at the rock and roll chef's newest restaurant. Here he shares a must-try burger joint, a sushi restaurant his girlfriend recommended and a Japanese steakhouse with a late-night happy hour.
Which restaurants do you turn to when you're not working?
1. Bachi Burger
2. Sumo Sushi
3. Musashi Japanese Steakhouse
What dishes are most memorable?
1. "The Lonely Bird" is pretty much the only burger I've ever eaten at Bachi because it's just that good! The best ground turkey/chicken burger I've had in Vegas.
2. Sumo Sushi is all you can eat and has one of my favorite rolls, which is called "Something Wrong 69." It's made with soft shell crab, avocado and ahi tuna on the inside, topped with salmon and finished with a drizzle of ponzu and togarashi.
3. The fried rice with yum yum sauce is pretty ridiculous at Musashi Japanese Steakhouse. Then you add the steak and shrimp teppanyaki style and its game over.
Why do you enjoy going there?
1. Bachi Burger was my first "must-try" burger spot when moving to Vegas, and I've been going back regularly ever since.
2. My girlfriend introduced me to this sushi spot as one of her favorites and it has quickly become one of mine. The lady who runs the front counter is so sweet and always takes great care of us. The sushi is fresh and delicious.
3. If you're looking for a great late-night happy hour from midnight to 3 a.m., Musashi is the spot. You get lunch pricing on teppanyaki and they also have a sushi bar on the other side of the restaurant. The staff is very friendly and it's visited by a lot of us in the industry.
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