What to Eat in Las Vegas, Dish by Dish

Somewhere between the slot machines and the fountains, Las Vegas became a genuine food capital. The world's most famous chefs all planted flags on the Strip, and the city's 24-hour metabolism means the eating never stops. Here is Vegas, dish by dish.

Key facts

• Where the food lives: the Strip's casino resorts, downtown's Fremont East, and the celebrated Chinatown corridor a few minutes west of the Strip
• Best value hours: lunch menus at dinner-famous restaurants; late-night happy hours
• Reservations: essential for marquee restaurants, often weeks ahead for weekend nights
• What it costs: prices swing wildly with conventions and fight weekends — check ahead

The steak dinner, the founding food

Before the celebrity chefs, Vegas meant steak — and it still does it better than almost anywhere. Every major resort keeps a temple to beef: prime cuts, tableside theater, martinis with proper heft. Old-school steakhouses off the Strip trade on decades of mob-era lore, while the modern rooms at the big resorts (Peter Luger's Vegas outpost at Caesars Palace among the newer arrivals) push dry-aging to art. Order the bone-in ribeye, split a mountain of fries, and settle in — a proper Vegas steak dinner is a show with no ticket required.

The shrimp cocktail

Vegas's most storied cheap bite: downtown casinos made the 99-cent shrimp cocktail a loss-leader legend in the mid-20th century, and versions of the tradition survive around Fremont Street. The price has crept up over the decades, but a cold tulip glass of shrimp in horseradish-hot sauce remains the correct way to start a downtown night.

The buffet, perfected

The all-you-can-eat buffet was practically invented here, and its highest form is the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace — routinely cited among the best buffets in the world, with hundreds of dishes across live-fire stations, seafood on ice, and pastry rooms. Buffets took a hit in recent years and fewer remain, so check current hours; the survivors, like the Wynn's, compete on quality rather than sheer tonnage now. Go hungry, go early, pace yourself.

The tasting menu at the top

Vegas holds some of the most decorated dining rooms in America. Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand has long been the city's pinnacle of French haute cuisine, and nearly every famous name in world gastronomy — Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen at Caesars, José Andrés, Nobu, Guy Savoy among them — keeps a flagship on the Strip. If you splurge once in Vegas, this is where. Book far ahead and check dress codes.

Late-night noodles in Chinatown

Locals will tell you the best eating in Vegas is a short ride west of the Strip, in the sprawling Chinatown corridor: hand-pulled noodles, Sichuan grills, izakayas, and dim sum, many kitchens open deep into the night. It is the antidote to resort pricing and the chefs' own after-shift canteen.

The secret slice

Vegas loves a hidden door: the famously unmarked late-night pizza counter tucked upstairs at The Cosmopolitan is an open secret worth the hunt after midnight — follow the record-lined hallway.

Tip: Eat your splurge dinner early in the trip while your budget and palate are fresh, hit a buffet at lunch when prices typically drop, and save one night for Chinatown — the taxi fare is small and the payoff is the best-value meal in Nevada.