DJT's Sydney Jones Has Two Go-To Japanese Favorites

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.

Sydney Jones just joined Trump International as the executive sous chef in November, overseeing the hotel’s in-room dining, meetings and banquet facilities and DJT, the hotel's restaurant. The alum of the Four Seasons in Arizona, California and Atlanta for 10 years also worked at the two-Michelin star Charlie Trotter in Chicago and staged at Michelin-star Restaurant Gary Danko in San Francisco.

"Las Vegas has great diversity of cuisine and there are so many local spots that I like to frequent," he says. "What I love about these great restaurants is the simplicity of ingredients but the flavors are so predominant and consistent. I know I can go just for the same items and they are always delivering the best tasting dishes." Here he shares three of his favorites including a Japanese noodle house, a spectacular sushi restaurant and Neapolitan pizza.

Which restaurants do you turn to when you’re not working?
I-Naba Japanese Soba Noodle Restaurant, Settebello and Kabuto Edomae Sushi.

What dishes are most memorable?
At I-Naba, the hot nabeyaki udon with thinly sliced brisket and chicken "oysters" is great. I like to order a side of the tempura pumpkin. They have the best tempura in town. Also they have the coldest Saporro Black beer that is great on a hot LasVegas afternoon.

I am a huge fan of Settebello Pizzeria. I like to get the Insalata Grande and the pizza Capricciosa. They master the style of Neapolitan pizza. The pizza is always crispy and slightly charred on the crust and perfectly seasoned.

For a great dining experience my favorite is Kabuto Edomae Sushi. The yoroi omakase is by far the best in the city, There are around 20 seats in the total restaurant. What I love most about the experience is the "disciplined" Japanese-style service you can experience and watching the four omakase chefs presenting their craft. The chefs are extremely focused, serious and working together as a team with all their creations is amazing and rewarding as a chef to watch and experience. The grilled items with the Japanese hard wood charcoal brings great flavor to some of the courses and the fish is artistically presented and complex with creativity.