What to eat in Las Vegas
Excess as cuisine — bargain shrimp cocktails, legendary buffets, and a late-night Thai joint that outcooks the Strip.
Five dishes. Zero regrets.
Shrimp cocktail
Tiny shrimp in a tulip glass with cocktail sauce — the original Vegas loss leader, 50 cents since 1959. Retro, unpretentious, and a symbol of old downtown Vegas.
Try it at: the Golden Gate's successor recipe at Saginaw's Delicatessen in Circa
Bacchanal Buffet
Not one dish but the Strip's legendary all-you-can-eat experience: crab legs, made-to-order ramen, prime rib, and hundreds of dishes in a Roman-palace dining room.
Try it at: Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace
Khao soi
Northern Thai coconut-curry noodle soup with crispy noodles on top — rich, warming, and regularly named one of the best Thai dishes in America, at a family-run Vegas institution.
Try it at: Lotus of Siam
Fried chicken and waffles
Towering sage-fried chicken stacked on fluffy waffles with maple syrup and fried leeks — a Man v. Food–famous plate the size of a hubcap, served around the clock.
Try it at: Hash House A Go Go
Spicy rigatoni vodka
Tube pasta slicked in a creamy, chili-flecked vodka sauce — a cult-favorite plate of comfort at one of the Strip's buzziest Italian rooms.
Try it at: Carbone at The Venetian
