The Most-Anticipated Restaurant and Bar Openings This Winter in Las Vegas

Winter arrives in Las Vegas, and already the end of 2018 looks to be a big season for restaurant openings in Las Vegas. The cooler weather serves up 15 anticipated restaurant and bar openings all across Las Vegas. The Park MGM opens Best Friend from Roy Choi, Eataly, La La Noodle, and On the Record. The Venetian debuts The Factory Kitchen, while its neighbor the Palazzo brings Mott 32. A beloved Mexican restaurant returns, while a wine bar returns after a makeover.

Off the Strip brings a new Thai restaurant from Bank Atchawaran in Chinatown, two restaurants from Other Mama’s Dan Krohmer, an izakaya from the Bromberg brothers, and a barbecue restaurant from Michael Symon at the Palms.

Buckle up. Here’s a look at what’s on the horizon for restaurant and bar openings in winterl 2018-2019. See something missing? Drop it in the comments.

The Strip

Erin Perkins

Sadelle’s

Location: Bellagio

Projected Opening: Late December

Sadelle’s, the all-day restaurant and bakery, takes over the space overlooking for gardens and conservatory at the Bellagio in December.

Major Food Group, the company behind the Italian captain-service restaurant Carbone at Aria, brings this new restaurant that plans a little New York dazzle to go along with exclusives just for Vegas.

Sadelle’s plans to serve hand-rolled bagels in everything or salt that come out fresh from the oven on batons in place of bread service. Salmon and sturgeon towers replete with all the fixings including tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and capers draw crowds ogling their size. Chopped salads, fried chicken, sticky buns, sandwiches, and New York classics along with cheese blintzes, babkas, and an egg and cheese sandwich round out some of the fan favorites. The vintage-style restaurant even offers a weekend brunch.

• Bellagio Flips Its Cafe into a Bakery in December [ELV]

MGM Resorts International

Eataly

Location: Park MGM

Projected Opening: Dec.27

The 40,000-square-foot Eataly plans to make its much-anticipated debut at the front of the Park MGM on Dec. 27, and now comes word that the part restaurant, part retail shopping experience plans to stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This marks the first location to keep the doors opens around the clock. Initially, just counters that serve quick bites to eat and cocktails have the always-open sign on.

Among other firsts, a wine counter where customers can samples as many as 50 different varieties to help make a decision.

Eataly plans to offers a variety of restaurants serving Neapolitan pizza, pastas, and regional Italian street food at counter-service and full-service outlets.

Shoppers can also take cooking classes at the Las Vegas location at a chef’s table that sits in the middle of the store, as well as live demonstrations. Shoppers can also watch the team of bakers, mozzarella makers, pizzaioli, and pasta makers make their dishes.

• All Coverage of Eataly [ELV]

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Best Friend

Location: Park MGM

Projected Opening: Dec. 19

Chef Roy Choi will debut his first Las Vegas expansion at the Park MGM on Wednesday, Dec. 19.

Best Friend’s future serving hours will be nightly from 5 to 10 p.m., with no mention of the late-night dining menu Choi has previously hoped to unveil. Future chef-driven pop-up events are also still in the planning stage.

The self-described Korean barbecue joint merges Mexican influences, with a menu developed with Diego Echavarria, executive chef at Choi’s former dining outlets at the Line Hotel in Los Angeles.

Diners enter the restaurant through the Liquor Store bar and retail outlet, then enter what Choi calls a “barbecue restaurant or a dim sum parlor on a Sunday afternoon,” where “all your manners go to the wind and you’re licking your fingers and reaching across the table and talking with your mouth full.”

• All Coverage of Best Friend [ELV]

Park MGM

La La Noodle

Location: Park MGM

Projected Opening: Dec. 21

La La Noodle will begin serving a Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai menu in December. Customers will have a choice of dining at the long counter facing an open kitchen, in booths, or the light-filled dining areas. Executive chef Bill Chan, a 15-year veteran of The Grand Wok & Sushi Bar until the MGM Grand restaurant closed earlier this year, will oversee the noodle, seafood, meat, vegetable, and rice dishes. Inspired by the “Mandarin term for pulled — 拉 (pronounced lah)” La La will specialize in hand-pulled noodles, including familiar pork belly or chicken chow mein options, plus Hong Kong seafood crispy noodles prepared with shrimp, scallops and squid.

• All Coverage of La La Noodle [ELV]

Park MGM

On the Record

Location: Park MGM

Projected Opening: Dec. 28

Houston Hospitality’s On The Record plans to include karaoke once it opens this winter at the Park MGM.

Twin brothers Jonnie and Mark Houston take the karaoke element from their Los Angeles venues and add it to the nightclub, which opens on Dec. 28.

The 11,000-square-foot space includes three karaoke rooms accessed through a hidden passageway. Each room finds inspiration in the Houstons’ nostalgia-themed Los Angeles venues including Good Times at Davey Wayne’s with its ode to the 1970s, Break Room 86 and its nod to the 1980s, and Dirty Laundry, specializing in music from the 1990s.

That nostalgia touches all parts of On The Record with its modern speakeasy atmosphere. The nightclub, going in across the casino floor from the resort’s Park Theater, features a functioning record store entry, indoor and outdoor spaces, an outside double-decker bus DJ booth, a cocktail program, the intimate Record Parlor, and a hidden club experience.

• Park MGM Lands a Nightclub with Los Angeles DNA [ELV]

• The Park MGM’s Nightclub Plans a Hidden Speakeasy Inside [ELV]

• Everything To Know About the Park MGM and NoMad [ELV]

Venetian [Official Site]

Mott 32

Location: Palazzo

Projected Opening: Late December

global restaurateurs Maximal Concepts have taken an early step in acknowledging it will be importing its luxuriant Mott 32 concept to the Palazzo resort.

Famed for its Cantonese fine dining and dim sum, Matthew Wentworth Reid, Malcom George Wood, and Xuan Cheng Mu’s company is now promoting the Las Vegas restaurant as “coming soon,” joining an under construction Bangkok expansion.

Named after an address in New York’s Chinatown, the Hong Kong-based Joyce Wang Studio, the same award-winning design team behind Mott 32’s Hong Kong and Vancouver restaurants, will oversee the interior atmosphere.

Featuring a contemporary Cantonese, Beijing, and Sichuan-inspired menu, Mott 32 has become a must-visit destination for its cocktails, dim sum, and “signature” dishes including “barbecue Pluma Iberico pork with Yellow Mountain honey” and Peking duck that takes 48-hours of preparation before serving.

• All Coverage of Mott 32 [ELV]

Venetian

The Factory Kitchen

Location: Venetian

Projected Opening: Late December

The Factory Kitchen out of Los Angeles plans to debut a 152-seat trattoria-style Italian restaurant. Designed by architect Thomas Schlesser of Design Bureaux, restaurateur Matteo Ferdinandi and chef Angelo Auriana plan a December debut. The restaurant plans to be open for lunch and dinner, and the bar will provide its own separate menu. The entrance also opens up to the resort’s Restaurant Row pedestrian corridor that leads to the Palazzo. Ferdiandi and Auriana debuted the original Los Angeles restaurant in 2013, and are so far confirmed to be importing their mandilli di seta, or handkerchief pasta, and risotto.

• All Coverage of The Factory Kitchen [ELV]

Wynn

La Cave Wine & Food Hideaway

Location: Wynn Las Vegas

Projected Opening: Dec. 30

La Cave Wine & Food Hideaway closed in November for extensive remodeling of the 3,000-square-foot tapas restaurant with a front bar area, a wine cellar-inspired interior, and an extremely popular outdoor dining terrace, a favorite for Sunday brunch. The new upgrades allocate an estimated construction budget of $1.4 million to cover an interior remodel and also an unspecified “addition” to the restaurant.

• All Coverage of La Cave Food & Wine Hideaway [ELV]

Diablo’s Cantina

Location: Luxor

Projected Opening: Mid-December

The rowdy Mexican restaurant Diablo’s Cantina that used to sit at the front of the former Monte Carlo, now Park MGM, has a new home in Las Vegas. The restaurant takes over the Tacos & Tequila space at the Luxor. T&T, with its own menu of Mexican fare, closed on Nov. 25. Diablo’s Cantina closed last year in November to make way for the massive Eataly going into the front of the Park MGM.

• Diablo’s Cantina Returns to the Strip in December [ELV]

Sixth + Mill

Sixth + Mill

Location: Grand Canal Shoppes

Projected Opening: Winter

Matteo Ferdinandi, CEO of Factory Place Hospitality Group, and culinary director Angelo Auriana open The Factory Kitchen in December, but also plan to bring Sixth + Mill Pizzeria & Bar to the former Otto Enoteca space on St. Mark’s Square in the Grand Canal Shops.

Auriana already plans a menu the reflects his father’s home cooking, with dishes such as the pizza alla montanara, a fried dough topped with tomato sauce, and scamorza, a semi-soft white cheese traditionally served during special family gatherings. The gnocchi alla sorrentina, a hearty dish from Campania, features garlic-infused potato gnocchi with a tomato sauce, topped with mozzarella and basil.

A Mario Acunto Neapolitan wood-fired oven that bakes the pizzas comes encased with refractory bricks that permit a thermal source of heat to provide consistency throughout the baking process. The restaurant also uses a traditional Italian spiral mixer to make the dough, which tends to be lighter.

• Southern Italian Pizzeria with LA DNA Heads to the Grand Canal Shoppes [ELV]

Water Grill [Official Site]

Water Grill

Location: Forum Shops at Caesars

Projected Opening: February 2019

Water Grill, the vaunted seafood restaurant out of Los Angeles, takes over the former Spago space at the Forum Shops at Caesars with a menu changing daily. A raw bar and chilled shellfish menu features Pacific and Eastern oysters, as well as clams, scallops, lobster, sea urchin, and crab.

Diners can watch dishes made in an exhibition kitchen that features large sea water tanks displaying the ever-changing menu of live fish and crustaceans. The lunch and dinner menus will feature more than a dozen varieties of fish options as well as a whole fish options with different preparation styles.

• Seafood Restaurant Water Grill Plans a 2019 Opening [ELV]

Westside

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Mabel’s BBQ

Location: Palms

Projected Opening: December

Celebrity chef Michael Symon out of Cleveland plans to debut Mabel’s BBQ right off the Palms casino floor along with a “Meateasy,” a secret room with space for 54 people and a menu of prime rib, Peking duck, grilled lobster, table-sized desserts, and a raw bar, a total of 12 items.

His barbecue features dishes such as smoked brisket and pork belly, served by the half pound, as well as sandwiches and sides. The Palms location will feature a back patio complete with games, local draft beers, and frozen cocktails. Also confirmed, a custom food truck, and space for live entertainment in the 9,183-square-foot space.

• All Coverage of Mabel’s BBQ [ELV]

Summerlin

Blue Ribbon

Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya

Location: Red Rock Resort

Projected Opening: Early 2019

Blue Ribbon’s Bruce and Eric Bromberg are ready to bring their sushi back to Las Vegas, this time with a twist.

The brothers, who are both chefs and co-founders of Blue Ribbon Restaurants in New York City, plan to open Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya in the former home of Libre Mexican Cantina, which closed at the end of June.

The Japanese-style tavern features a traditional sushi bar with indoor and outdoor seating. “Think happy hour, late-night dining and a comfortable welcoming atmosphere – with an array of small plates, allowing guests to taste a wide variety of items on the menu,” Bruce Bromberg says in a press statement.

Dishes include the brothers’ famous fried chicken with wasabi honey and a full sushi bar with fresh fish flown in daily from Japan.

• Blue Ribbon Brings Sushi Back to Las Vegas [ELV]

Chinatown

Lamaii

Location: Chinatown

Projected Opening: Dec. 27

Fans of Bank Atcharawan and his Thai food only need to wait until late December for him to get back in the Thai food game. Granted, Atcharawan already has Patio Desserts & Drinks, which he opened last April with its menu of Asian cakes, honey toast, and drinks, but now he plans to open Lamaii, a modern take on classic Thai food restaurant near Macy’s on Spring Mountain Road.

Atcharawan says the beverages focus on wine “with a large chunk of the list dedicated to Riesling, Champagne, and Chablis.”

• Bank Atcharawan Dives Back Into the Thai Restaurant Game [ELV]

Downtown

Le Monja and Hatsumi

Location: Fergusons Motel

Projected Opening: January 2019

Daniel Krohmer of Other Mama fame opens two new restaurants in Fergusons Motel — Le Monja, a Mexican restaurant with a fish market feel, and Hatsumi, a Japanese robata-style restaurant, by the beginning of the year.

Le Monja relies more on coastal seafood with low prices, with fewer burritos and tacos and more ceviches. Hatsumi features a Japanese charcoal-burning grill with sashimi and a late-night tasting menu.

• Downtown Las Vegas Lands Two New Restaurants by the End of 2018 [ELV]

Foursquare

Eataly

3770 South Las Vegas Boulevard, , NV 89109 (702) 730-7617 Visit Website

The Factory Kitchen

3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas, NV 89109 Visit Website

Foursquare

Mott 32

3325 Las Vegas Blvd. S. , Las Vegas, NV 89109

Best Friend

3770 South Las Vegas Boulevard, , NV 89109 (702) 730-6770 Visit Website

Mabel’s BBQ

4321 Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89103

On The Record

3770 South Las Vegas Boulevard, , NV 89109 (702) 730-6773 Visit Website