Nobu is the best sushi in Vegas IMO (I didn't say Japanese because Raku is better).

It's not super amazing or anything, but it's worthy of its michelin star, which I can't say about any other sushi place in Vegas.

Almost every dish I've had at both Sen and Nobu is slightly better at Nobu. Also much better service + decor at Nobu. And in terms of originality, since Sen steals its menu from Nobu, it's pretty obvious where the nod goes there.

I was also super surprised by seeing Yellowtail on the list. I have eaten there twice, both within two months of its opening, so I'll give it another shot.

But when I ate there, it really felt like a terrible chef with great ingredients was trying to copy Nobu and failing hard at balancing the flavors. That said, all of the basic sashimi, and handrolls (with no fusion angle) were pretty good.

Doesn't really steal its menu. The chef at Sen created the menu at Nobu.

Ummm. Citation needed?

There are Nobu's around the world, and they all have extremely similar menus. Nobu Matsuhisa is behind the vast majority of the items. Perhaps you mean he put some final touches on the Vegas version of the menu?

the nobu in san diego is hands down the best i've been to. I don't think i'll be going to nobu vegas anymore. We have been 5 times in 5 trips and the last trip we showed up 15 minutes late for our reservation. They told us they couldn't give us a table and we could sit at a table by the bar. The bar tables are used for cocktails and we had a party of 4 *2 of which are big eaters*.. We sat down for 2 minutes and just told them we were leaving. The hostess was a real piece of work too. I wasn't about to drop 400-500 dollars on a 4 person meal at a table 1/3 standard size. So we actually went back to the bellagio and ate at jasmine. Jasmine which is chinese was a pleasant suprise by the way. If anyone is ever in san diego I would def. recc. nobu at the hardrock. The fried lobster dish might have been a special but it was great.

I'd rather eat at Kaizen than Burger Bar or Society. It's probably a stretch, but I don't think it's a very big one.

I was pleasantly surprised recently at Yellowtail. Some kobe beef mini-tacos appetizer might have been the best thing I've ever eaten in Vegas. Sushi was just fine if not superremarkable.

The chef at Sen is the former head chef of Nobu Las Vegas. Nobu Matsuhisa created the menu of all of the Nobu restaurants.

It might be a little unfair to say that Sen "steals" Nobu's menu. They do their own thing to a certain extent. Though in some cases (black cod lettuce wraps for instance), Sen really does just serve cheap knockoffs of Nobu dishes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobu_Matsuhisa

"Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa (松久 信幸 Matsuhisa Nobuyuki; born March 10, 1949) is a celebrity chef and restaurateur known for his fusion cuisine blending traditional Japanese dishes with South American (Peruvian and Argentine) ingredients. His signature dish is black cod in miso."

Unless you know something I don't, saying the chef from Sen created the menu at Nobu is ridiculous.

Guess I was exaggerated to by the staff. Wouldn't be the first time.

Regardless, Sen is still better.

I'm shocked that someone would say there's better sushi at Nobu than Okada if they'd had both.

General thoughts on Sirio? Consider that the GF lived in Italy for a year. She's not a big snob about Italian food, but still.

A step below Circo (same chef). Not terrible by any means, but for that price you can do better.

The foie gras + eel at Okada is absolutely amazing. I've only had about half of the "standard menu", so I can't speak for every dish, but that's the only thing I've had that stands over Nobu.

Nobu's fish quality in general is pretty similar, but their flavor blends are generally better. Nobu's tartars are better. I'm a huge sucker for new style sashimi. If we're factoring in hot dishes, the kobe tataki and various black cod dishes give Nobu the clear nod in my mind.

Forgetting Bar Masa for a second, Okada probably has the 2nd best sushi in Vegas.

Btw, to all the Kaizen, Naked Fish, and Sen lovers: I think Roku is easily better than all three, although you could argue the prices there are much less reasonable for certain items.

BTW, when I said Nobu is the best sushi in Vegas, I was completely forgetting about Bar Masa.

I have eaten at Masa NYC, and it ranks as the 3rd best meal I've ever had (Robuchon -> Urasawa -> Masa).

Reviews say the Vegas one is great, but overpriced and not quite as good as NYC.

Based on that, I'd have to assume Bar Masa is the best sushi in Vegas, even though I technically haven't been there yet.

That's interesting you say that. I haven't eaten sushi that much in Vegas as I've always had the perception (mistaken or otherwise) that it's generally going to be at least a little inferior to the sushi in LA, where I live. So I read all the raves about those three places you mention above and then that you think Roku is better than all of them, and I trust your food sense. But I also think that Roku here in LA is pretty ordinary, so I wonder if it's that much better in Vegas or if those other places are that mediocre.

I guess the question is, how high is the bar set for sushi in Vegas compared to other places? Obv. not talking about the super high-end places, but more of the upper-middle class like the ones cited here.

What's your pick for best Italian on the strip? I've been to the Batali places and was adequately whelmed, but not overwhelmed. Bartolotta's one place I know I would like to get to as soon as I'm comfortable spending that kind of dough.

Vegas food in general blows LA out of the water.

Sushi, however, is one giant exception.

There are tons of locations in LA where you can get sushi that is half the price and twice as good as Sen, Naked fish, etc.

Roku is certainly not anywhere near the top of LA sushi, but it's pretty good. It's on par with Katana which is owned by the same company.

Zo, Urasawa, Asenebo, Katsuya (valley at least), Nozawa, etc. all certainly blow Roku out of the water.

If the criteria is "best Italian" (specifying because overall I like Carnevino better than B&B for example):

Bartalotta > B&B > Carnevino > Circo > Valentino > Sirio > Mortarano's

Bartalotta is mostly seafood, (most of which is from the Mediterranean, prepared in an Italian style), so you could argue that it's not what most people refer to when they casually say "Italian food".

B&B of course has a very traditional menu that seems exotic to most Americans. It's not Americanized at all as far as I can tell.

Prob forgetting a few, but it's late and I gotta go to sleeeeep.

I've never been to Nove Italiano btw, but am somewhat excited to try it now that I see it on the top 50.

Bartolotta really is that good. It might be my favorite restaurant in Vegas. Robuchon and Guy Savoy are more dramatic and awe inspiring, but if I want to spend less than 4 hours on a meal, Bartolotta is my #1.

Agree with all of this, except for the inclusion of Martorano on a list of best Italian places, even at the very bottom.

Martorano might be the worst food, of any variety, that I've ever paid more than 30 dollars to eat.

I would for sure go to Enoteca San Marco, The Pasta Shop, cheap Italian delis like Cugino's or Rocco's, Rao's, or even a crappy chain like Maggiano's, over Martorano. Even if the food were tolerable, the giant monitors showing clips from gangster movies alternated with blaring top 40 music and actual ****ing disco balls and strobe lights would make going to Martorano a miserable experience.

edit: My girlfriend just saw this post and reminded me about a meal we had at Ferraro's on Flamingo. It cost more than $30 per person and was even worse than Martorano. They also had a magician performing during dinner, followed by a lounge singer who couldn't hit a note

Doesn't "americanized italian food" normally just stand for "lower quality of ingredients and more fat"? Don't want to hate, but that's my experience with lower level italian food i've eaten in the US.

I've been to Italy >20 times in my life (not too hard, Europe is small) and my understanding of traditional italian food is: fresh ingredients, no dinner without pasta, nothing too fancy. Which I personally prefer over the french cuisine, which often tries to be as fancy as possible.

Well you can have upscale americanized italian food so the "lower quality of ingredients" isn't neccesarily true.

But in general americanized anything tends to be heavier and more fatty and thus the heaviness sometimes masks the freshness of ingredients.

How can Il Mulino not make the list of best Italian on the strip?

Updating list to include restaurants I forgot about:


Bartalotta > B&B > Carnevino > Circo > Enoteca San Marco > Valentino > Pasta Shop > Sirio > Il Mulino >>> Mortarano's


Certainly not saying Mortarano's is ever worth going to. The atmosphere is so terrible that I hope I never return, but the food is probably slightly better than a Maggiano's IMO.

On my list 5-9 are all pretty close.


It can mean those things. It can mean "less scary ingredients" like liver, intestine, birds that aren't chicken, etc. It also means less tomato sauce and a bigger variety of flavors and sauces.

Errr, the second half of that = more Americanized. Too late to edit.

When you guys say kaizen, are you talking about kaizen across from HR? I liked it, but didn't stand out the way you all describe it. Thought the rolls with sauce were heavy handed in the sauce.