In a modern restaurant with an al fresco rooftop and a rock and roll sensibility reminiscent of its founder, the late celebrity chef Kerry Simon, this downtown restaurant shakes up the menu seasonally, exploring new ways to play with comfort foods. Reliable mainstays include a cast iron skillet filled with sweet and smoky bacon jam and a slice of melted Havarti, ready to be scooped onto toasted slices of baguette. Perfectly cubed bites of pork belly are standouts in a pool of ocher buffalo sauce. And you can’t go wrong with the signature appetizer of crispy chicken skins with smoky honey.

Honey Salt on the west side could pass for the dining room at restaurateur Elizabeth Blau and chef Kim Canteenwalla’s home with its comfort foods and relaxing decor. Known for its farm-to-table-inspired cooking, favorites here include the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich and bacon grilled cheese for lunch and banana foster french toast with almond granola and chocolate pearls for brunch. Stop in during happy hour, when the chicken sandwich is available as a slider for $6. 

If the lines outside Tacos El Gordo are any indication, the wildly popular tacos are still one of the can’t-miss experiences in Las Vegas. What the cafeteria-style restaurant lacks in ambiance, it more than makes up for in flavor. Each of the Tijuana-style tacos here is bursting with spice and texture. Arrive hungry and sample a few varieties, each about $3.50, by queueing separately for each kind of meat. In one line, order carne asada. In another, ask for extra pineapple to go with the al pastor. Mulas, with cheese melted between the taco’s two corn tortillas are also worth ordering. Bring cash for tipping both at the counter when orders are placed and when paying.

Since taking over the kitchen at Main St. Provisions last year, chef Patrick Munster has effectively blended the restaurant’s comfort foods with his own point of view, introducing new steaks to the menu and exceptional takes on familiar comfort dishes like oven-roasted chicken with braised greens and creamy polenta. Standouts include a cut of duck breast resting on toasted farro and blackberry barbecue sauce, a plate of fry bread and dips — like that of savory white bean, and crisp and toothsome broccolini. The result is a thoroughly approachable restaurant, just right for the booming walkable neighborhood of the Arts District.

With barely-there lighting, red and black damask wallpaper, and a bar stocked with a veritable century’s worth of cocktail fixins, Nectaly Mendoza’s off-Strip steakhouse and bar feels at once like both a romantic date spot and 1920s speakeasy. Whether dining at a table or at the bar, the move here is to order steak. Happy hour runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and after midnight — though sometimes it’s all-day, which means your steaks, pork chops, and spicy mussels are likely to be half-priced no matter when you stop in. The cocktail menu here is broken up by decade so you can start with something like a gin-based Martinez from the Gothic Age, follow up with a Hemingway daiquiri from the Prohibition era, and enjoy a painkiller from the tiki boom with dessert. 

Despite the Steak House’s location within one of the least glamorous casinos on the Strip and its woefully uninspired name, The Steak House has endured as a popular restaurant in Las Vegas for more than 30 years — and rightfully so. Classic dishes include a stellar French onion soup, loaded with cheese and croutons and exceptionally prepared cuts of New York Strip, porterhouse, ribeye, filet mignon, and prime rib. The sweet smell of the mesquite grill wafts through the restaurant, as does the music of Frank Sinatra and his contemporaries. And with dark wood paneling, deep red banquettes, and the ambiance of the 54-year-old Circus Circus casino, it’s about as classic Vegas as it gets. 

Nicole Brisson, a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef Southwest, teamed up with Jason Rocheleau, an alum of Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, to open Brezza at Resorts World, an Eater Vegas 2022 Eater Award winner for Restaurant of the Year for its hand-made pasta, breezy dining room and fragrant pockets of cappellacci “oreganata.” The coastal Italian restaurant sits in the District, the 70,000-square-foot shopping center at the front of the resort facing Las Vegas Boulevard. The menu spans antipasti, fresh crudo, handmade pastas, and a Tuscan-style wood-fired grill, where sustainable seafood, dry-aged steaks, and  seasonal produce are all charred over white oak and olive branches.

Every city needs a good diner, and the Peppermill with its neighboring Fireside Lounge, all wrapped in neon nostalgia on the north Strip, fulfills that need. The 14-page menu runs the gamut from omelets and French toast to burgers and steaks. And atmosphere is available in spades — from the mirrored walls to the indoor artificial trees to the shakers of pretty rainbow sprinkles available at every table. No trip here is complete without a trip to the Fireside Lounge with its kitschy fire pit, enormous cocktails with equally proportioned bendy straws, and electric pink, blue, and violet decor.

Kaoru Azeuchi was tapped as a finalist for a James Beard Award this year for his intricate dishes and thoughtfully coursed menus at Kaiseki Yuzu. Inside the open kitchen and at the sushi bar, Azeuchi specializes in omakase dinners that highlight technique and ingredients with ornate presentations and artful slices of sashimi. Seasonal fish is handpicked for every service. Azeuchi wraps seared king mackerel in lettuce and layers it with caviar and uni sauce. He grills A5 wagyu steak ribeye and plates it with winter truffles, foie gras, and vegetables.

Mizumi at Wynn Las Vegas boasts Michelin star chops with Min Kim at the helm serving ocean-fresh sushi, sashimi, and modern Japanese specialties. The decadent room bedecked in red overlooks a 90-foot waterfall and Japanese gardens, with a separate teppanyaki experience. Some of Kim’s dishes include delicately seasoned sashimi plated with hand-cut leaves and edible flowers, certified Kobe beef seared tableside, and a yuzu and passionfruit souffle with elderflower. Request patio dining or, for a truly memorable night, a table on the floating pagoda.

The long-awaited Delilah, the breathtaking supper club from H.Wood Group at Wynn Las Vegas, features a two-level space with lavish chandeliers, a fireplace, and entertainers dancing alongside a live jazz band. Executive chef Josh Smith’s take on refined American fare includes Wagyu beef Wellington, a reinvented — and high-end — chicken TV dinner, and Dover sole fish and chips with pommes soufflé. The decadence extends to the desserts, where a strawberry shortcake baked Alaska leads the way.

Every chef in town stops by Mitsuo Endo’s tiny restaurant in Chinatown for small-portioned Japanese robata dishes cooked over a charcoal grill. Diners can order a variety of items since most start at $3, or try the omakase with a flight of food chosen by the chef for $75 to $100. Inside the moody restaurant with sleek metallic details, order the agedashi tofu with salmon roe and a vinegary dipping sauce. The green tea soba noodles with poached egg and bonito flakes are texturally satisfying and the hot skewered yellowtail is seasoned in all the right ways.

Colin Fukunaga’s Japanese-influenced burgers, which gained something of a cult following when only available by food truck, now have a permanent home in Chinatown and in the southwest. Located in what used to be a Taco Bell (the 90s-style kind with the three archways), the counter-service restaurant has been retrofitted with a red and gray color palette and graphic stickers. Visitors should try the namesake FukuBurger, aka the “Lucky” burger, with an all-beef patty with American cheese topped with lettuce, tomato, onions, wasabi mayo, and fuku sauce.

Chef Brian Howard opened Sparrow & Wolf in 2017, in the early days of an ongoing trend in which on-Strip talent exits the casinos and strikes out on their own in Las Vegas neighborhoods. Emerging in a neighborhood best known for its exceptional Asian restaurants, the Chinatown bar and restaurant serves modern American fare that leans into the fine-dining techniques Howard picked up working in on-Strip restaurants like Comme Ça, Alizé, and Bouchon. Inside, servers flit around the dimly lit dining room ferrying dishes like oxtail hummus and tortellini birria drenched in goat consomme, as well as cocktails infused with brûléed pineapple or garnished with fried mushroom. And Howard’s take on the northern Vietnamese bánh cuốn, a dish of savory duck, fresh basil, and black rice roll, is at once sweet, spicy, and bright. Put your trust in the tasting menu, which opens with oysters and Japanese milk bread and ends with a chocolate espresso flan — each course paired with a wine from a small producer you’ve likely never heard of.

Modern — and even modernist — French fare gets pride of place at Partage, a partnership from the French trio chef Yuri Szarzewski, pastry chef Vincent Pellerin, and manager Nicolas Kalpokdjian. Szarzewski’s three-, five-, and seven-course tasting menus rotate seasonally, but consistently offer dishes prepared with equal parts technique and whimsy. Duck breast is plated with vibrant yellow sweet potato puree, lobster carpaccio comes with a quenelle of icy mango sorbet, and high-pigment flavorful sauces color in the negative space between slices of white fish. 

This late-night izakaya hot spot begins with a feast for the eyes: concise descriptions of hamachi sashimi, bowls of udon noodles swirled in broth, and tangy fried chicken are scrawled onto pieces of paper in both Japanese and English and pasted above tables, around the bar, and behind the host stand. The specialties are listed along with reference photos and prices — usually around $3 to $7 — and span tender slices of raw fish from the restaurant’s sushi bar to heavier plates of smoky grilled squid, fluffy crab fried rice, and deep-fried agedashi tofu that go just right with a night of drinking. The move here is to order several dishes to share — evidenced by seating options that include a large communal table at the front and tatami floor-level seating at the rear for private groups. Save room for honey toast, an eye-catching loaf of toasted, buttered white bread with ice cream, fruit, and drizzles of thick honey. 

Chef Gina Marinelli’s Eater Award-winning restaurant in Summerlin, La Strega, brings an ever-changing menu of dishes from across Italy. Marinelli draws on traditions she learned from her grandparents, who hail from Lake Como and Sicily. The Peruvian Bay scallops are deftly seared and plated with smoky pearls of trout roe while the bucatini is perfectly balanced with spicy jalapeno pesto and sweet kernels of corn. Complete with a dining room and lounge decked in sage and clay color tones and mid-century modern-style lamps, it’s the ideal spot to dine out in Summerlin.

A killer raw bar and innovative cocktails greet diners at Other Mama on the west side across from Desert Breeze Park. The tight menu includes oyster specials, ceviches and sushi, and larger options like Japanese fried chicken, miso ribs, and kimchi fried rice, all served in a low-key setting with a bar overlooking the cooking action. The industry favorite restaurant offers a fairly modest interior, but the deviled eggs topped with crispy oysters and French toast caviar do all the heavy lifting.

Costas Spiliadis’ Greek restaurant re-emerged on the Las Vegas Strip last year, opening with its signature fish market display, open kitchen, and yogurt room at the Venetian Resort. Estiatorio Milos flies in its fish daily from the Mediterranean and presents them on ice for patrons to choose from. Selections are usually prepared one of three ways: baked whole in sea salt, charcoal-grilled with olive oil, lemon juice, and capers, or served sashimi-style. The result is a practice in simplicity, with flaky, tender pieces of fish intermingled with salt and citrus.

Though the aesthetic is more modern and there is a kitschy view of Vegas’s Eiffel Tower, the cuisine at Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace is identical to its Parisian counterpart. The most traditional — and pricey — presentations of French cooking are found here; the restaurant’s cellar contains more wine than the rest of the hotel combined. Must-orders include the artichoke soup with black truffles and Colors of Caviar arranged with caviar gelée at the bottom, a caviar cream in the middle and, on the top, pure caviar. Leave plenty of room for the bread cart.

Revered Lotus of Siam serves chef and owner Saipan Chutima’s northern Thai cuisine, including a menu of Thai-style stews and coconut-less curries, all served with a spice level of 1 to 10. Diners should start with nam-prik-ong, a red chili dip, then try a roasted duck curry, garlic prawns, or thum-ka-noon with its mix of pork, jackfruit, tomato, and spices. The exceptional wine menu of sweet Gewürztraminers and Rieslings cut the heat. 

Following a two-year hiatus, chef Marc Vetri’s Vetri Cucina is again open atop the Palms Casino. It’s hard to rival the view that looks out over the Las Vegas Strip from the main dining room, but Vetri does so with just-made pastas like a silky chestnut fettuccine with boar ragu and cocoa, and entrees like supple roasted hen married with prosciutto and foie gras. The restaurant is small — just 75 seats — but charming and sunfilled, just right for dining on rustic Italian while live music plays.

While José Andrés finally brought his divine tapas and paellas to Vegas, it’s é by José Andrés inside Jaleo at the Cosmopolitan that stands out for its creative tasting menu set before a vibrant red backdrop. Diners must make reservations far in advance to nab one of the eight seats for this exclusive multi-course meal. The menu, assembled in front of customers with tweezers and dry ice, changes constantly; one night may include scallop with black truffle, the next a literal bag of wild mushrooms, and another may feature foie gras encased in a cotton candy dumpling, a sprinkle doughnut or a slice of Wonder Bread.

Michael Mina’s French bistro inside Aria serves comfort food including loup de mer and black cod bouillabaisse in a handsome room with subway tiles and rich woods. Even the cocktails here tout the eccentricities of Paris, paying homage to the classics such as the Sidecar from Harry’s Bar and Serendipity from Bar Hemingway, all with their own twists. Brunch here — with dishes like garlicky escargot and croque madame — is also a must.

The Aria location of the decadent Italian-American restaurant Carbone features captains serving dishes tableside and seductive red velvet booths set in a circle so everyone has a view of the dining room drama. Lobster fra diavolo, chicken scarpariello, veal Parmesan, and spicy rigatoni are just some of the folkloric dishes here, but octopus pizzaiolo and pickled cauliflower are worth considering. Daring diners can put themselves in the captain’s hands ​​— that is, if money is no object.

With a flair for the dramatic, chef and partner Oscar Amador has built a menu of inventive and playful dishes at this southwest Las Vegas restaurant. The team behind Edo Gastro Tapas and Wine harnesses flavors from Catalonia, Asia, Sicily, and beyond to prepare tapas like the Kaluga caviar and eggs, served inside eggshells, and the fig salad, arranged symmetrically with peach wedges and swirls of prosciutto, nestled among autumnal leaf-shaped wafers. Leave the decision-making to the kitchen and request the tasting menu.

Tucked away inside a strip mall in Henderson, this compact restaurant of just eight tables serves dishes influenced by the cuisines found in Guatemala, where Aroma chef Steve Kestler grew up, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. In the open kitchen, Kestler, who previously worked at EDO Tapas & Wine and Bazaar Meat, prepares Guatemalan-style enchiladas that combine pickled beets, Kobe beef picadillo, and salty cotija cheese onto crunchy tostadas. Here, thick slabs of tender pork belly nestle into tacos with pico de gallo, pickled onions, and guacamole, while the Gaucho sandwich marries deftly grilled New York steak with a verdant chimichurri sauce. Altogether, Aroma marks an exciting entrant to Henderson’s casual dining scene, and with arguably some of the best tacos found in Southern Nevada, Aroma proves that Hendersonites need not travel far to find a stellar taco plate.

Eater Award-winning restaurant the Black Sheep, helmed by an equally celebrated chef Jamie Tran (and contestant on Top Chef Portland), brings daring Vietnamese comfort food to the southwest. Tran’s early years at DB Brasserie and Aureole guide her cuisine that adds a French touch to dishes like slow-braised short ribs, Vietnamese spring rolls, and salmon skin tacos. Don’t miss out on the grilled Spanish octopus with black sesame seeds and toothsome asparagus spears. The room’s slate gray palette lets the food speak for itself.