An Exploration of Asian Food in Vegas

Las Vegas has an interesting relationship with food. For the longest time, it was known for its crazy cheap all-you-can-eat buffets, meals that were heavily subsidized by the gambling at the associated casinos.

But then the seedy, rougher Vegas started to change. Cirque du Soleil appeared, A-list performers set up permanent shop at casinos, and more and more family-friendly shows came onto the scene. Before long, people were coming to Vegas not to gamble, but to enjoy all these other forms of entertainment. And these other people really enjoyed good food.

The Strip began exploding with a new genre of high-class, celebrity chef restaurants. Wolfgang Puck started it all, taking a risk with the Strip by opening a second location of his flagship restaurant Spago at Caesar’s Palace in 1992. His success caused others to come. Now, Las Vegas has become one of the best places to sample food from celebrity chefs and top restaurants around the US.

Although buffets are still a signature item, they have gone up in price and offer much more luxurious items like king crab legs, wagyu beef, sushi, and elegant French pastries.

More recently, the casinos have started modifying things to suite the multitudes of Asians who visit every year. In the past five years, I’ve seen more and more places make a huge splash during Lunar New Year - elaborate casino decorations, special meals, you name it. A lot of luxury stores now have staff who speak Mandarin Chinese as well.

It is against this background that I visited Las Vegas about a month ago to explore the Asian food in Vegas. Although it’s probably true that Vegas was not historically known for its Asian food, things have changed a lot in the past decade. Many Asians has chosen to settle or retire in Las Vegas instead of staying in California, mostly due the lower housing costs. Las Vegas has a vibrant Chinatown, and there are even popular California chains like Ranch 99 Supermarket, Tea Station (Ten Ren Tea Shop) and Sam Woo’s, just to name a few.

Furthermore, the Strip has exploded with numerous Asian restaurants. Although I have visited a few in my previous trips to Vegas (most notably Lotus of Siam, Lee's Sandwiches, and Beijing Noodle No. 9), I had never fully explored the wide range of Asian food that Las Vegas has to offer.

Four days is nearly not enough time (even with two lunches and a dinner every day!), but Bryan and I managed to experience a really interesting cross section of the Asian food scene in Vegas during our last trip (thanks to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for setting it up for us!).

Here's a sneak peek at the places we visited. I will most certainly follow up with more detailed post about many of the restaurants listed below.

We arrived on our first day to Red Rock Casino and Resort, a gorgeously appointed casino located just 5 minutes from the entrance of the beautiful Red Rock Canyon (where we took our 10th anniversary wedding photos!). The rooms were really, really nice (heh, the above pictured room is not my room, but it's one of the super nice suites that they offer).

After arriving, we headed down to 8 Noodle Bar, an Asian fusion noodle restaurant located right inside Red Rock Casino and Resort, for a late lunch. 8 Noodle Bar is led by Chef Andy Vu, and include noodle dishes from Japan, China, Vietnam, and Thailand.

I'll be sharing a lot more about Red Rock Casino and Resort, including the noodle dishes at 8 Noodle Bar, the surprisingly excellent poolside dishes, and the stunning suites and butler service that the resort offers. [Update: full post here]

For dinner our first night, we enjoyed a feast at Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill at the Cosmopolitan. Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill is part of a larger restaurant group called Blue Ribbon that's been around for over 20 years with all sorts of different restaurants concepts (a French brasserie, bakery, fried chicken joint, and even a bowling alley!). There are two other locations the "Sushi Bar & Grill", including Los Angeles and New York.

We enjoyed phenomenal food, including gorgeous Kagoshima Wagyu beef, interesting Japanese appetizers, and very enjoyable omakase called "Toshi's Choice." More details forthcoming in a future post. [Update: full post here]

The next morning, we headed over to the Hard Rock Café to have lunch at Fu Asian Kitchen. We met Tony, the general manager, whose mother is the chef of the restaurant. The family has been in the restaurant business for decades. They started by serving Chinese food for years near the airport at a restaurant called Mayflower. They experimented with Asian fusion for a few years before spending several years at a restaurant called Woo at the Palazzo.

A couple years ago, the Hard Rock Cafe reached out to them specifically because it thought they would be able to create dishes that would straddle multiple audiences: they could reach the Chinese that were traveling to Vegas with authentic Chinese food as well as offer more typical "Americanized" Chinese food for the hotel guests.

We tried a number of dishes. Certain classic Asian dishes, like the Hong Kong Style Noodles or the Green Bean with XO Sauce were solid, executed well, and tasted authentic. The Grilled Tenderloin of Beef with Spicy Fu Sauce ($29) used excellent quality beef that was cooked perfectly (see photo above!) and served with a slightly sweet Mongolian-inspired sauce. The Quesadilla of Roast Duck, Hoisin, and Goat Cheese was definitely unique to the restaurant and was really tasty. Deep fried and breaded items, like the Japanese-style Calamari or the Honey Walnut Shrimp were a bit heavy on the batter for my taste, though the flavors were fine.

I actually loved the dessert, a Chocolate Oreo Beignet, which was phenomenal. It's amazing how soft and cake-like an Oreo cookie becomes once you deep-fry it!

A couple hours later, we arrived at our second lunch at Dragon Noodle Company at the Monte Carlo, a restaurant specializing in "traditional Hong Kong-style Chinese food and sushi". We enjoyed several recommended favorites like the Hong Kong Chow Mein Noodles with Seafood (quite tasty!), a really elegant Wonton Soup that was both light and flavorful at the same time, Potstickers, and Kung Pao Chicken.

Overall I thought the food was quite good. I was especially impressed with the flavor of the broth in the wonton soup. I also really enjoyed the Hong Kong chow mein noodles with seafood (comfort food that hits the spot). We didn't have stomach space to try any sushi, but they do have a decently-sized sushi menu that includes both classic nigiri and sashimi as well as pretty creative rolls.

That night for dinner, we went to Aria and had dinner at a traditional high-end Chinese restaurant called Blossom.

There are very few places in the U.S. that serve super high-end Chinese (most people associate Chinese food with cheap food, unfortunately).

It was fascinating to experience the white glove treatment and to taste some really unique and authentic flavors. I will share a lot more about our meal at Blossom in a subsequent post [update: full post here].

That evening, we went to downtown Las Vegas to the Fremont Street Experience. It's a crazy, covered area anchored by a couple casinos and lined with shops, entertainment, and all sorts of activity. While we were there, we saw live comedians, a rock concert, people zip-lining, and all sorts of street acts. It was loud, colorful, and a total sensory overload! [Update: detailed post here]

The next morning, we headed out bright and early to catch a hike at the nearby Red Rock Canyon before lunch (and before the sun got too hot!). The best way to get there is to rent a car (~$50/day). Conveniently, Red Rock Casino & Resort has a rental car agency on site. 
Other modes of getting there are tricky or expensive. Taxis hate driving there (and they definitely won't be picking people up from the park). Cell reception is spotty, so it's hard to know if you can book a taxi or Uber on the way back. Private cars/limos are very expensive ($150 round trip), though they are comfortable and work quite well.

For lunch, we had a double tasting of Thai food in Vegas. I'll share more about my whole experience in a different post, but here's the summary.

We started at the nationally recognized Lotus of Siam, an excellent Thai restaurant that serves all sorts of Thai food, but specializes in Northern Thai dishes. They also have a phenomenal wine list, especially their selection of German rieslings (which goes especially well with spicy Thai food!).

We also had a  second "lunch" at Le Thai, a much more casual and less expensive Thai restaurant located in downtown Las Vegas. Le Thai opened during the recession of 2008 when many businesses were abandoning storefronts due to the bad economy. Le Thai took advantage of some government incentives, took the risk, and opened up in the city. It's done great ever since.

For dinner that night, we headed over to Caesar's Palace to check out the new Mr. Chow that just opened. The original location is in Los Angeles. I remember mostly hearing about celebrities in Hollywood being spotted there, since it seems to be a popular destination in Beverly Hills. The space was stunning, and the food was actually very good.

I'll share in a later post much more details about all the food we had [update! here's the link to that post]. In general, the flavors were excellent, the portions were reasonably small (and therefore it was a bit pricy), and the service was very good. I can see why celebrities who want good Chinese food would flock here versus trying to navigate the streets of Chinatown!

The next day, we headed over the the Fashion Show Mall, which is at the north end of the Strip right across the street from the Wynn. Bryan and I always like to try to spend a few hours shopping there whenever we visit Las Vegas. There are a ton of really great shops, and typically we go right in the middle of the winter when there are some really good sales going on.

We stopped by Kona Grill, a chain originally from Phoenix, Arizona that serves a variety of cuisines all bound together by the single concept of "made from scratch." The portion sizes are huge (think Cheesecake Factory), and there's a huge variety of dishes, like salads, various meat dishes, pastas, pizzas, and a full sushi bar.

Our last dinner in Vegas was at Tao Asian Bistro at the Venetian. This restaurant is also associated with a very popular nightclub that typically has long lines. One benefit of eating at the restaurant (on the weekend) is that you don't have to wait in line to enter the nightclub.

We came on a Monday, so the nightclub wasn't open that night. Nevertheless, the place was packed with diners. The food at Tao is very good, we were really really impressed. We ordered all sorts of stuff, from a whole fried fish and a traditional Peking duck to Chilean sea bass appetizers and much, much more. I will also share many more photos from that meal in a subsequent post {update, link to full post}.

It was really fun exploring a pretty diverse cross section of Asian food in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, we did not have as much of an opportunity to explore off-strip, like Chinatown, for instance. Nevertheless, it was interesting to sample across the spectrum, everything from the fast casual Vietnamese take-out place Le Thai to a traditional high-end Chinese restaurant like Blossom, and many restaurants in between.

In general, I think the overall quality of Asian food in Las Vegas is very high. Yes, the prices can be significantly higher on the Strip, but at least in general quality is good. Some of my favorite food memories from the trip include the Crispy Duck and Nam Kao Tod (crispy rice with sour sausage) at Lotus of Siam, the Thai-style fried rice from Tao Asian Bistro, the green prawns from Mr. Chow, the traditional Chinese herb soup from Blossom, the Oreo Beignets from Fu Asian Kitchen, and the wonton soup from Dragon Noodle Bar.

Stay tuned as I develop this series by diving a bit deeper into the meals we had at some of the restaurants listed above!

{Update: all posts in this series}

Disclaimer
This trip (food, lodging, transportation) was sponsored by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. I was not paid to write this post or any other post in this series. All opinions are my own.