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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.
Kansas City native Tim Doolittle has been cooking up seasonal American cooking for more than 20 years. The chef de cuisine of Emeril Lagasse’s Table 10 at the Grand Canal Shoppes started his career cooking at EBT and the James Beard Award-winning American Restaurant in Kansas City and went on to work at City Tavern, Café Allegro and Stolen Grill. Then he headed to Las Vegas in 2007 to work in the kitchens of Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, starting at the now shuttered Postrio and later as chef de cuisine of Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at the MGM Grand. By 2010, Doolittle moved on to become chef de cuisine at the South Beach outpost of Emeril Lagasse’s flagship restaurant, Emeril’s Miami Beach at Loews, but he returned to Las Vegas in 2011 to head up Table 10. Here he talks about three of his favorite cheap eats restaurants as part of the Cheap Eats Week madness.
Which restaurants do you turn to for an inexpensive meal when you’re not working?
Chada Thai, Tacos El Gordo and The Goodwich.
What dishes are most memorable?
Tacos adobado at Tacos El Gordo.
At Chada I love the spicy rice with braised beef, topped with an egg. What’s not to like?
My favorite at The Goodwich is dependent on my mood. Everything is good (and cheap) so it hard to go wrong. It’s like "cheap eats" for beginners because you can’t mess it up.
Why do you enjoy going there?
I would still go to all these places even if they were double the price. It’s good, real food that is deeply connected to a culture, families, pride and years of refinement. That connection always produces the best food, best art, best music, etc.
