It is totally possible to not spend any time on the Vegas strip and still have an incredible trip to Vegas! We wanted to get some great mountain biking in, and stayed in Henderson, which is just southwest of Vegas by about 20 minutes. This is growing suburban community, with incredible trail access, great coffee and food, and just a really pleasant place to be! While slightly more random than Park City, this trip made me feel like I could live in Henderson at some point!
Maybe coming from Utah most recently has my coffee expectations tempered, but one of the first things I loved about the Vegas area was the amount of amazing cofffee shops there are! As a coffee lover, and coffee shop admirer, I was in total bliss with the coffee scene in this part of Nevada. So much so, that I don't even know where to begin to quite convey my love for the coffee in this area! Check out my coffee post for the best coffee shops in the area!
Location: Chinatown, 4480 Spring Mountain Rd. Suite 100 Las Vegas NV 89102
For a super fun and delicious dinner, head to Chinatown's Sparrow+Wolf for Mediterranean/American fusion with a possibility of a chef's tasting menu option. This is a great place to share multiple plates, and to try a variety of menu dishes. We started out with Jasmine's sourdough and cultured butter, which was absolute;ly amazing. There really is nothing better than starting a meal with fresh, hot bread, and if it is sourdough bread, it is top notch. Each order of sourdough is a tiny boule, and it tastes as amazing as it looks.
The best dish was the muhammara dip with pita, and the tangy pomegranate red pepper sauce is just so good. I have since tried recreating this dip at home, and while I have come close, I am still missing some of the incredible spices Sparrow+Wolf uses.
The japanase sweet potato with ume creme fraiche sauce was also amazing, and totally unexpected. Slightly spicy, slightly sweet, slightly creamy, and super hot sweet potato was a fun flavor explosion, and very fun to try.
The best protein packed dish was the pan roasted cod with pumpkin miso honey, kabocha squash, and grilled shishito peppers. The cod was cooked perfectly, tasted super buttery and the salty sweet miso sauce was incredible. I love when I order fish and it has no fishy taste to it, and this was one of the best tasting pieces of fish I have tried. I would definitely order this again, and also try other fish dishes that pop up on the menu. One of the cool things about Sparrow+Wolf is that the menu changes seasonally, and you can stay up to date on all their offerings via their Instagram.
Of course, we had to end the delicious dinner (even though we were stuffed!) with trying two desserts. Our nice waiter recommended the Japanase Milk Bread Honey toast served with fruit and vanilla ice cream. He told us that this type of toast is common in Chinatown, but Sparrow+Wolf does theirs differently, and it really is the best in town. We also ordered the caramelized banana split with peanut butter and miso ice cream with a black sesame chocolate sauce. The toast looked gigantic but was much lighter and super tasty, and the banana split had a slightly salty taste with a nice chocolate sauce, and we were happy with both! If you just go with one dessert, definitely go for the toast- it also varies with what fruit is in season, so this makes it a really fun option!
Location: 3570 Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas NV 89109
Sushi is probably my favorite type of food to go out to eat, and of course, I had to try Nobu while in Vegas. We live with so many Californians, and they always talk about Nobu's sushi, and so I was stoked to try the Vegas Nobu. One of the first things that I feel is important to know about this restaurant is that it is in Caesar's Palace and next to the casino, so the restaurant smells like smoke. I was definitely sad and off put by this, as smoke gives me a major headache, but fortunately the sushi was really good. I don't recommend the tacos, as they are super expensive and only one bite! A very expensive one bite of food that simply is not worth it. Everything else was delicious though, and worth a fun sushi experience night!
Location: 5611 S. Valley View Blvd Las Vegas NV 89118
The very last place we tried was Jessie Rae's BBQ, and we stopped here to pick up some BBQ for the road trip home. I just got fries and brisket, and really wasn't expecting much, but it ended up being some of the best BBQ I have had! And I did spend 3 years in North Carolina, so I know a thing or two about good BBQ. I can't wait to go back for a BBQ fix on the next trip!
Location: 5030 Spring Mountain Rd. Las Vegas NV 89146
For an omekase/Japanese tapas experience, head back to Chinatown to check out Raku. It is located in the corner of a strip mall, and is a tiny restaurant. While other yelpers shared our experience of calling in for a reservation and the call going straight to a full voicemail, we took a chance on a Monday night by getting to Raku as soon as the dinner service opened. We got there at 5:45, and we could see the employees getting ready, so we walked across the strip mall to the sister restaurant, Raku Sweets, to check out their dessert menu. We grabbed a a framboise cake, which was a chocolate and rasberry mousse layered cake topped with fresh raspberries and raspberry puree. This was really good, and the perfect little snack to eat in line when we walked back over to Raku. We were able to snag a tiny table for two, and were so happy it worked out for us to dine there! The food was as beautifully prepared as the dishes it was served on, and it really was a wonderful all-around dining experience. We started out with the Sashimi salad with Blue Fin Tuna, and it was a surprisingly large bowl of spinach leaves, a fruity dressing, soy sauce, Blue Fin Tuna, and fried onions. Super fresh tasting, and one of the largest salads and sashimi dishes I have had! Next up was the miso soup, which was also delicious. Most restaurants in Vegas are super air conditioned, so it is always nice to have at least one warm dish during dinner! This miso soup had nice large tofu cubes and chestnut mushrooms, in addition to the subtley sweek and smokey broth. I have only had duck recently in my life, and one restaurant reviewer said he normally doesn't like duck, but ended up ordering 3 duck skewers, so we decided to give it a try. The great part about Raku is that everything is so small, that you can try multiple things, and this duck skewer was only $5, so it made for an easy decision to give it a try. It was super good! My favorite skewer of the evening was the kobe beef with wasabi horseradish, and the wasabi horseradish was absolutely incredible, and the beef was so tender. I was happy we got two of these skewers so we each could have one for ourself! The only skewer we ordered that we would not get again, was the yellowtail. This might have been the first time I had grilled yellowtail (usually I get it in sushi and sashimi) but it was very dry and had a slightly fishy taste to it, so I would pass on this one. We ordered a special, which was a pan seared Sea Bass filet, and it was super good! We were able to try the seven spice mix blend, the matcha salt, and the chili soaked in sake that comes at each table, with the fish. It was very fun to try! The last dish we had was the green tea soba noodles with a poached egg. This had a very fishy taste (probably coming from the seaweed) and was also bland. Would definitely not recommend this one. But please check this restaurant out if you are in Vegas- the whole experience was really fun, and being able to try so many little dishes is wonderful!
Location: Boulevard Tower 3708 Las Vegas Blvd S. Level 2 Las Vegas NV 89109
A restaurant that got us pretty excited was China Poblano. At first we thought this was an Asian/Mexican fusion, but really the restaurant utilizes three kitchens to make both Asian and Mexican food. Still really good, but definitely not a fusion of dishes as initially expected. It was fun to get some of my favorite foods from both cuisines in one meal! We started out with the quesabirria, which was a lamb/beef filled mini quesadilla with a great consomme dipping sauce. We then tried the traditional bbq pork bao and the mushroom dumplings, and these we both incredible, but mushroom dumplings were the highlight of the evening. These dumplings are served with a spicy garlic sauce, and it pairs so well with the earthy mushroom filling. They are also perfectly bite sized and delicious! We also tried the carne asada with homemade corn tortillas and a spicy salsa. The salsa and tortillas were super good, but unfortunately the steak was pretty chewy, so it made the dish slightly less appealing. The last dish we tried was the 20 vegetable fried rice. It was topped with microgreens, and all the colorful vegetables, including the purple cauliflower, made for a very aesthetically pleasing dish. If you are a vegetarian, this is the perfect item to order! Another star of the evening was the mango sticky rice for dessert. This was a unique take on the traditional mango sticky rice, by using puffed rice instead of regular rice, whip cream instead of condensed milk, and a coconut sorbet layered throughout, topped with lime zest. The lime was a great addition, the cruncy rice added great texture to the airy whipped cream, and the cold coconut sorbet and mango chunks on the bottom were really good! Definitely a fun and light way to end the meal!
Location: Caesars Palace, 3570 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109
This last trip, April 2023, we finally got to try the much anticipated Dominque Ansel! I was even more excited when it was discovered that the cronut of the month was a passionfruit matcha! Super tasty! Also had to get a few of the incredible other delicacies! This place is super instagrammable, beautiful, and the monthly and seasonal rotations of desserts makes it worth a stop any time you find yourself in Las Vegas! In addition to getting a couple of the April cronuts, we also tried the Four Leaf Clover (chocolate, hazelnut and coffee flavors), the Goldfish (calamansi, mango, passionfruit and coconut flavors), and the passionfruit macarons. The Goldfish and Four Leaf Clover were my favorite, and it was fun to try an authentic Dominque Ansel cronut for the first time!
