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. Popular dishes among its frequent patrons include a half-ound burger and the dinner of smoked prime rib and lobster tail.

Perched on the 24th floor of Binion’s Gambling Hall on the Fremont Street Experience, the steakhouse hails back to 1965 when it was known as Top of the Mint, at what was once the Mint hotel tower. The steakhouse specializes in dry-aged steaks, slow-roasted prime rib, and poached lobster. And while the restaurant’s dining room still boasts vintage Vegas-style furnishings, the real showstopper is the view of Las Vegas that sparkle through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

All ladies receive a long-stemmed rise inside 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. A 28-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 pour from the robust wine list. For dessert, revive some old-school glamour 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 a 1933 Las Vegas home 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

Once a Las Vegas mainstay with seven locations and a rival to the Colonel’s original recipe, the Farm Basket fried chicken chain had been reduced to one single barn-like structure — until a second location opened in 2022 at Sahara Avenue and Nellis Boulevard. Arriving in 1977, Farm Basket is best known for its Great Gobbler sandwich, made with breaded turkey breast, Miracle Whip, and cranberry sauce. Tacos are dubbed Cluck e’ tos and farm fries come smothered in homemade gravy and topped with cheese. Operating under the radar, the local motto is “we don’t do a lot of flashy advertising or use silly gimmicks,” but a loyal following of clucker fans still secure the restaurant a loyal cult following, particularly among those who are shocked to rediscover it is still in business.

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 pool tables, nightly karaoke, and sticky floors.

The oldest steakhouse in the city of Las Vegas, active and expanding since 1958, the Golden Steer has hosted the famous and infamous from Elvis Presley to mobsters such as Tony “The Ant” Spilatro and created a favorite carnivore home for the Rat Pack. Inside the red leather and mahogany dining cocoon, find brass plaques celebrating their famed customers’ preferred booths. Prime aged beef is the draw, the table-side Caesar’s salad a tradition, and the not-for-the-faint-of-heart martinis a must.

Drop the Steak House at Circus Circus into any luxury Strip resort and it would still win rave reviews from local steak aficionados. But located in the dated 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.

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 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 pasta are stand-outs, with the bonus of regularly scheduled Vegas lounge-style entertainment.

Javier Barajas learned to cook when his grandparents, Timoteo and Ninfa, sent him to study at the seminary in Michoacan. There, he learned to cook from the nuns. In 1990, he opened his first Mexican restaurant, named for the beautiful state in Mexico. Hand-made tortillas and carnitas are the specialties here, but Barajas recommends his steak and lobster dishes. Now three outposts of the restaurant dot the Las Vegas Valley. This location on Desert Inn closed after a sinkhole engulfed the dining room in November 2020, but reopened with a complete makeover.

Kung Fu has been operating in Las Vegas since 1973, first at Third and Fremont Streets, 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.

Wolfgang Puck took a chance when he opened Spago in 1992 at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace 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.

Family owned since 1985, Gino and Rosalba Ferraro’s vision of an Italian restaurant and wine bar is now in the culinary hands of son Mimmo. Located opposite Virgin Hotels, Ferraro’s serves hard-to-find dishes such as tripe and rabbit for discerning diners. Homemade pastas, sausages, breads, and desserts are created on-site and the osso buco, the 30-year-old house specialty, is still created with the same care. And that’s not to mention the renowned wine list which spans more than 22,000 bottles.

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.

Since 1982 the Michael’s name has been synonymous with service and style. After departing the Barbary Coast, before it became the Cromwell, Michael’s resurrected as an intimate 50-seat room at the South Point, still treating everyone like a high roller, in a room of high-backed seats below a Tiffany sky light. Steak, seafood and table-side flourishes are the key, alongside specialties such as baked escargot, chateaubriand for two, and retro for dessert favorites, cherries jubilee and bananas Foster. Expect dinner to unfold as a leisurely many-hours affair.