Anima by EDO
Oscar Amador cooks Barcelona on West Russell Road, half an hour southwest of the Strip.
Why go
Amador opened Anima in 2022 with his business partners, and it is the larger of the two rooms he runs.13 Johnathan L. Wright describes a menu that changes often and keeps reaching outward from Spain: pani puri stuffed with payoyo cheese and draped with striploin carpaccio: crisp, creamy, salty,
and salmon a la plancha brightened with a tart calamansi vinaigrette.1 John Curtas puts the room in the city's Spanish history, which is a history of rooms that did not last: Spanish food may have had its day in Vegas (both Pamplona and Jamon Jamon flamed out on west Sahara, despite paying almost nothing in rent), but both of Oscar Amador Edo's restaurants (Anima and EDO -its smaller-bore/bigger sister) have kept the Iberian flame alive with some of the best cooking you'll find, this side of Madrid.
3 Amador was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Chef in 2024, and MICHELIN put the room in its first American Southwest selection in August 2026.52
Order this / avoid
- Order: the cauliflower. Wright:
Garlic confit and lovage pesto (like celery with oomph) make cauliflower distinctive.
1 - Order: the pani puri, which is the dish that shows what the kitchen does with a form that is not Spanish at all.1
- Order: the smoked hamachi and the cured meats, with a Negroni, which is what Nicole Brisson has when she eats here.4
- Avoid: planning it for a night without a car. It is in the southwest valley and the Strip is a long way off.3
What locals & experts say
- John Curtas, Eating Las Vegas: The 52 Essential Restaurants (2023):
The food, the wine, the service, the cocktails, the pasta, the tapas….there is nothing not to like about Anima except what a pain in the ass it is to get to.
3 - Johnathan L. Wright, Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Locals leave their neighborhoods (and visitors leave the Strip) for a frequently changing menu that laces together the cooking of Barcelona with international forays.
1 - Nicole Brisson of Brezza, naming her current favorite:
Smoked hamachi, Spanish-style cured meats, and a stiff Negroni at Anima by Edo.
4
Good to know
- There is a smaller sibling, EDO, which Curtas calls the smaller-bore, bigger sister.3
- MICHELIN named this room in its first American Southwest selection in August 2026, the guide's first Las Vegas ratings since its 2008-09 city guide.2
Verdict
should-visit — Oscar Amador cooks Barcelona in a suite on West Russell Road, and the drive out is the only argument anyone makes against it. Wright's plates are the ones to want: cauliflower under garlic confit and lovage pesto, pani puri stuffed with payoyo and draped with striploin carpaccio. Nicole Brisson eats here on her own time and orders the smoked hamachi and a Negroni. MICHELIN put it in the first Southwest guide and Amador was a Beard Outstanding Chef semifinalist in 2024.