Vegas, ah Vegas! Surely the most vulgar, kitsch, camp and improbable city in the world. Surrounded by the Nevada desert, it’s a city of gamblers, stag and hen parties, conventions and conferences. A city of vast hotels, bling-laden stage shows, pensionable crooners ‘in residence’ and mind-boggling magicians. A city of easy drugs, easier hookers and limitless booze. A city of drag queens, hustlers and hoofers. A city of no clocks, no sleep and no shame. In short, a city to delight, tease and entrance.
Last year, Las Vegas welcomed more than 40 million visitors to its 150,000-plus hotel rooms (the MGM Grand is still the largest single-building hotel in the world, and 13 of the 20 largest hotels in the world are in Vegas) but folk didn’t just come for all the above: they came to eat and drink because Vegas is a gourmet’s paradise, with some of the most innovative cuisine and mixology you’ll ever see, plus some of the finest wines curated by the world’s greatest concentration of Master Sommeliers.
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The Michelin Guide doesn’t cover Vegas these days, but when last it did, there were sixteen restaurants within a few hundred yards of each other sharing 21 stars.
Just come and eat
This is where the likes of Joel Robuchon, Guy Savoy, Wolfgang Puck, Gordon Ramsay, Jean Georges Vongerichton, Julian Serrano, Michael Mina et al came to pitch camp, and I say forget the slots and the roulette wheels, Cirque de Soleil and the Blue Man Group, just come and eat.
The newest hotel in town is the Fontainebleau (pronounced Fountain-Blue) at the northern end of the Strip. It hasn’t even been open a year and yet its 2,000 rooms are all but fully booked. It’s a swanky spot and no mistake, more Wynn or Waldorf Astoria than Circus Circus or Flamingo.
Each hotel in Las Vegas is a self-contained town, with its own restaurants, bars, casinos, nightclubs, shops, theatres, pools and spas, all designed to keep you within its walls. They don’t want you spending money at one of their rivals. Some folk check in and never leave until it’s time to check out.
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The best places to eat in Las Vegas
With 30 restaurants and 8 bars and lounges, Fontainebleau is no exception. The pick of its offerings is Chyna Club which boasts the finest Chinese food you’re likely to see this side of Hong Kong, such as black cod and rice, Peking duck, soft shell crab, braised abalone along with, bizarrely, their signature starter of 5J Cinco Jotas Jamón de Bellota, hand-carved at the table.
As for Fontainbleau’s bars, check out Collins, one of Esquire’s 2024 Best Bars in America. Their Hotel Nacional Special cocktail is a thing of wonder – a variation on the Daiquiri made with Bacardi rum, Giffard’s Abricot de Roussillon liqueur, fresh pineapple juice, lime and cane sugar. And, to keep the rum theme going, follow this with a Royal Spy made from clarified milk punch, Mount Gay Black Barrel rum, lime, pineapple, cinnamon and milk. Crikey it’s good!
[See also: London restaurants win big in Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 2024]
If you manage to break free from Fontainebleau’s cosseting embrace, the easy option is to head for such Vegas staples as Restaurant de Joel Robuchon and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in the MGM Grand, Picasso in Bellagio, Restaurant Guy Savoy in Caesar’s Palace or Nobu at the Virgin Hotel.
But I suggest trying instead Wakuda in the Venetian. This is Japanese fine dining at its best. Chef Tetsuya Wakuda’s confit of ocean trout is apparently the most-photographed dish in the world and each exquisite dish that emerges from the kitchen, such as whole lobster tempura, sea bass miso, avocado carpaccio and king salmon truffle is indeed a picture. Darn tasty ones too.
LPM in The Cosmopolitan might be part of a chain (a rather chic chain, with outposts in London, Miami, Doha and Hong Kong) but its Mediterranean-influenced food is spot on with service to match. You’re not in Vegas here, you’re in Provence.
Esther’s Kitchen founded by James Tree in the heart of the Arts District beyond the Strip is the perfect brunch spot with a cocktail list to die for. Their What’s Up Doc? tequila, pineapple amaro, carrot and ginger libation promises improved vision, satisfaction and terminal happiness and is worth the trip alone, and the cauliflower with anchovy, chili, garlic and fried capers with meatball hoagies also slip down a treat.
[See also: ‘Heaven on Earth’: The Carnegie Club, the home-from-home you’ll never want to leave]
Down the road, Carson Kitchen’s farm to table ethos is similarly successful, with killer shrimp, devil’s eggs, pork belly and baked mac & cheese curing the most stubborn of hangovers.
As for the bars, the 22-guest maximum Laundry Room, The Lock in Horseshoe, where you crack a code to enter the speakeasy and Barber Shop Cuts & Cocktails in The Cosmopolitan, with a knock-three-times metal door and chic bar and stage behind it, are my picks of the pops.
I walked into Vegas and waddled out and can’t wait to go back.
