Cooking Show Star Martin Yan Takes to the Strip With Noodle-Pulling and Dancing Chefs

James Beard Award winner and public television star Martin Yan will debut his first Las Vegas restaurant, M.Y. Asia, on the Las Vegas Strip this spring. Set to open on March 13 at the newly rebranded Horseshoe Las Vegas, Yan’s restaurant will reflect his decades-long career and his extensive travels in a casual restaurant with a Pan-Asian menu.

Bronson Loftin

“Having traveled through Korea and Japan in the North, to Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam in the South, and through the many fabulous food meccas in China and all over Asia, allowed me to fill my culinary treasure chest with unique, colorful, authentic, and tasty dishes,” says Yan — who was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, and grew up in Hong Kong. Taking influence from a bevy of cultural cooking techniques, his menu will have dishes like an appetizer of Asian pickled vegetables, with Korean and Vietnamese-style kimchi. Lettuce cups are filled with shrimp and the M.Y. Asia dim sum sampler includes shiu mai, har gow, steamed BBQ pork bao, lotus leaf-wrapped rice, seafood dumplings, and farmer’s dumplings. Entrees include a Thai yellow coconut curry with chicken, mu shu pork tacos with hoisin sauce, a sizzling black pepper steak with mushrooms, and pan-seared Chilean sea bass in jasmine tea with a miso ginger honey glaze.

Yan stars in Yan Can Cook which, at more than 3,500 shows, is one of the longest-running cooking programs on the airwaves. The James Beard Foundation recognized him with an award for best television cooking show in 1994 and best television food journalism in 1996. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for his show in 1998 for best cooking show. He founded a chain of Yan Can Restaurants and the Yan Can International Cooking School in San Francisco and authored more than 30 cookbooks.

Bronson Loftin

M.Y. Asia will occupy a 5,300-square-foot space just off the casino floor with rich, deep tones and contemporary Asian murals and seating for 150. It will have an open kitchen from which diners can watch a chef hand-pull noodles and another chef perform changing face kung-fu dance several times a night. Visitors can also sit at the noodles bar or reserve the private dining room. Yan’s autograph books, cookware, and other merchandise will be available in a retail area. And for anyone ordering to-go, warmed lockers make for a no-contact pick-up.

The Lucky Bell Bar will become a late-night lounge vibe on the weekends, serving cocktails like the Kasama Mama with rum, ginger liqueur, fresh lime, and orgeat syrup. The M.Y. Paloma has tequila, yuzu liqueur, fresh lime sour, and sparkling pink grapefruit. And Lychee in Paradise combines vodka, elderflower liqueur, fresh lemon, juice, lychee juice, and Chandon Brut.

M.Y. Asia joins a slate of new happenings at the Horseshoe, previously Bally’s Casino. Blake Shelton’s four-story Ole Red is currently under construction in front of the property. And Jack Binion’s Steak recently opened last year.

Starting on March 13, M.Y. Asia will be open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m to 11 p.m. and Friday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. for lunch and dinner.