The city’s oldest restaurant, Bob Taylor’s Original Ranch House literally saw the growth of Las Vegas creep up to its once under-developed location. Since 1955, the cowboy-themed former home has welcomed guests with Western decor including a collection of spurs owned by Hollywood cowboys, mountain views, and the sight, smell, and char of an open mesquite grill. The bar is as popular as the restaurant and the Cajun shrimp scampi now has a following to match the repeat visits fans of serious beef eating.

All ladies receive a long-stemmed rose and it’s a Continental menu with table-side flair for everyone at the subterranean Hugo’s Cellar, a jewel of Fremont Street and host Four Queens. Since 1976, the cellar has delivered a Strip-style gourmet room to downtown. Hugo’s table-side salad accompanies each entree and hands-on touches pepper the food presentation, including the visuals of a duckling anise flambé. Twenty-eight day aged Black Angus beef competes on the menu with popular seafood dishes such as the go-to lobster and can be paired with a robust wine list. For dessert, revive some old-school glamor with a fiery presentation of bananas Foster or cherries jubilee for two.

A home-cooked Italian meal has been on offer inside Chicago Joe’s since 1975, when an actual 1933 Las Vegas residence was converted into a restaurant. Once a favorite of the mob connected, it still attracts a steady stream of neighboring lawyers and legal staff for lunch and dinner in the cozy and quirky decorated domicile, lit by year round Christmas decorations. Italian classics on the menu include stuffed artichokes, baked clams, pasta with snails and eggplant parmigiana. The house specialty chicken Angelo with pasta is sautéed with artichokes, butter, and mushrooms

You be might headed to the Hush Puppy, but it’s probably catfish on your mind at this 7,700-square-foot dinner-only institution in business since 1975. Despite the limited hours, the Hush Puppy draws a busy repeat clientele, whether served inside the rustic Western interior or using the handy drive-thru. House specialties include frogs legs, seafood gumbo with turkey sausage, snow crab, char-broiled chicken, and themed all-you-can-eat specials. Alligator po-boys are available for the adventurous and the restaurant warns you could possibly be “blessed with a pearl in the fried oysters. This will bring you good luck, but be careful not to break a tooth.” Also at 1820 N. Nellis Boulevard.

When Rinaldo Dean Bartolomucci opened his eponymous Dino’s in 1962, the appeal was cold beer, pinball, pool, souvenirs, and the welcome promise of air conditioning. More than half a century later, the still family-run business has kept its humble roots, but gained a reputation as the best dive bar and karaoke showcase in town. “Getting Las Vegas drunk since 1962” is the motto and bartenders run a monthly contest for the “Drunk of the Month.” An unpretentious and welcome atmosphere is matched by the interior decor, complete with 50-cent pool.

Drop The Steak House at Circus Circus into any luxury Strip resort and it would still win raves from local steak aficionados. But located in the anachronistic kid-friendly circus-themed casino, it remains a culinary surprise. Expect an upscale, old school steak joint with top-tier quality service and mesquite charcoal broiled specials, cooking 21-day aged beef on display in a glass-enclosed aging room. Serving since 1982, the red leather booths, brass, and sheened wood decor feel a world away from the rest of the aging resort and with a shorter menu than many steak restaurants, it allows a focus on the bedrock staples of steaks, prime rib, lobster, and crab legs. Experts know to arrive via the check-in desk entrance, rather than approach through the boisterous casino floor.

Since 1972, the Peppermill has been serving coffee shop staples in overly generous portions at hometown prices. But the interior design of fake cherry blossom trees and dayglo-hues has pushed the restaurant into legend status. The bonus to diner is the Fireside Lounge, the kitschiest cocktail lair in the city with a sunken fire pit, retina warping cotton candy tinted neon, and the tipples such as the gi-normous Scorpion cocktail with booze for a family of four. While a must-visit for tourists, the Peppermill’s fervent local and celebrity fans are a testament to the diner’s core dining and drinking wares.

The original Piero’s was born 1982 and quickly became a regular haunt for the Rat Pack demi-monde, politicians, celebrities, and local wise guys. It moved to its current location in 1987, close to the expense account flush registrants at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Famed for its role in the 1995 movie Casino and even more so for its osso buco, the on-point attentive staff overseen by the Glusman family now serves generations of returning diners, yet still treats first-time visitors like family. Stone crab and pastas are stand-outs, with the bonus of regularly scheduled Vegas lounge-style entertainment.

Kung Fu has been operating in Las Vegas since 1973, first at Third and Fremont and then in 1982 inside the current Plaza Hotel, a pioneer in introducing Thai cuisine to the city. Since 1993 the family-run business operated in Chinatown, boasting hundreds of dishes on the menu, from familiar Americanized versions of Chinese lunch specials to an extensive Thai roster running to dozens of choices, amplified with optional heat to match.

Only a block from the Strip, but a cultural world away, Battista’s Hole In The Wall Italian restaurant is crammed with eccentric decor, from Vegas memorabilia to an Alaskan moose head named “Moooosolini” and the all-important wall-mounted menu. Dinner specials always come equipped with house wine, minestrone soup or Italian salad, garlic bread, a pasta side, and homemade cappuccino. Battista Locatelli created the restaurant in 1970, luring a celebrity clientele, before the casual friendly service, generous serving of Italian staples and a value menu became a fixture for drawing untold tourists that one block east of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Wolfgang Puck took a chance when he opened Spago in 1992 at the Forum Shops at Caesars in the midst of the National Finals Rodeo. He recalls when cowboys sauntered up to the pass to pick up their food, not the type of service the chef had in mind. But once Spago caught on, he ushered in the era of celebrity chefs in Las Vegas, introducing the city and its tourists to his California-inspired dishes, including his smoked salmon pizza, a riff on bagels and lox with dill cream, red onion, and salmon pearls. As if Spago couldn’t get better, it did, moving into the Bellagio in 2018 with stunning views of the Fountains at Bellagio.

Hard to imagine, but Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House at the MGM Grand opened in 1995. The sprucing of the decor hides the longevity, but superstar chef Emeril Lagasse brings oysters and fresh fish to the desert for almost as long as Wolfgang Puck has labored to encourage the arrival of celebrity chefs. From the beginning, Lagasse sought to capture the local dining crowd to join the steady stream tourists caught in the resort’s net. Not yet a television phenom, his Essence of Emeril Food Network show was gaining traction leading to him operating four Las Vegas restaurants. Signature New New Orleans dishes at the MGM Grand include barbecued shrimp, sweet barbecued Atlantic salmon, pecan-crusted Texas redfish, and New Orleans cedar campfire rib-eye steak.

Since 1949, Bootlegger Bistro dished out southern Italian fare using the original recipes of chef Maria Perry. The restaurant features live music along with house specialties such as bistecca alla griglia, lasagna made from Maria’s original recipe, linguini alla vongole with chopped clams, and Maria’s saltimbocca, rolled and filled with Genoa salami and cheese in Italian egg batter sautéed in wine mushroom sauce. Pick a chicken breast or milk-fed veal.