Las Vegas.

Book Joël Robuchon. It took two stars, the only two-star room in the whole four-state region, and it is the same dining room that held the only three stars this city has ever had. Eleazar Villanueva cooks it now and was a James Beard finalist in 2025 for what Janna Karel calls his spectacular tight-rope act of preserving the Robuchon's recipes exactly while still innovating. Truffled langoustine ravioli in a foie gras sauce, then a bread cart and a butter cart. I have not found a printed price; John Curtas, who has not been in years, puts dinner for two at something closer to a house payment.

Restaurant Guy Savoy publishes what it costs. Emmy Kasten prints the numbers: $455 a head for the seven-course menu, $755 with the premium wine pairing. It took one star in the same selection, having held two in the old city guide. Whatever else changes, the artichoke and black truffle soup arrives.

é by José Andrés holds the other one star and takes the most planning. Nine seats, two seatings a night, twenty to twenty-five courses at $325 a head, and Kasten says to reserve a month out to get your pick of the two. The door is inside Jaleo at The Cosmopolitan.

If the star matters less than the evening, Bouchon is in the guide too and costs a fraction of the others. Thomas Keller's roast chicken with bacon lardons, and the only room Curtas says routinely keeps boudin blanc and sweetbreads on the menu. He also ate the oysters straight after weeks in France and was disappointed, so order around them.

Yes, it is worth the drive, because most of the city's best rooms are off the Strip. Spring Mountain Road runs west from it through a corridor of strip malls that locals call Chinatown.

Start at ShangHai Taste for the dumplings. Johnathan L. Wright describes the engineering that makes them hard: handmade with a filling of ground pork and hot pork broth, delicate enough to finish in one bite, sturdy enough to bulge without bursting and spilling the contents. Several doors carry the name now, including branches in Los Angeles and Texas, and he says the snug Chinatown original is still the soul of it. Nicole Brisson of Brezza names this room and China Mama when she wants soup dumplings.

Then Sparrow + Wolf for dinner, which is sixty seats that smell of wood smoke. Brian Howard left the Strip casinos in 2017 to open it, and cooks modern American food through Thai, Vietnamese and Spanish dishes. Order the platter of six snacks, which Wright says carries wood-roasted Isaan Thai sausage, a dry-aged bluefin tuna taco and grilled oysters hit with sweet, citrusy kumquat Mae Ploy, then the bone marrow rice under Ibérico pork and sinigang clams, and lift the bowl to eat it. MICHELIN named it in the debut Southwest guide and Howard was a Beard nominee in 2026.

Partage is the surprise on the same road. Yuri Szarzewski rewrites a five, seven or nine-course French menu every month behind a Spring Mountain Road storefront. Read the kitchen's own dietary statement before booking, because it says plainly that it cannot do dairy free, vegan, vegetarian, celiac, or without onion or garlic.

And further out, Anima by EDO is worth the extra half hour. Curtas is blunt about the only thing wrong with it: there is nothing not to like about Anima except what a pain in the ass it is to get to.

Casa Playa is the booking to make first, and the menu is built for it. Janna Karel says what arrives when a group orders properly: a carnitas platter with handmade tortillas, poised for topping with roasted meat and flavorful crispy skin, smoked agave syrup, chipotle slaw, chile toreado, and charred cucumber salsa. Emmy Kasten frames the room the same way, as somewhere to go when you want margaritas at a group dinner that goes full glam, and there is a mezcal cocktail called Temple of Doom you can order as a pitcher. Sarah Thompson won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2026 for the cooking here.

Downtown, Esther's Kitchen does the same job for less. Kasten calls it great for a nice group dinner where you can pass around a bunch of plates. Build it on the sourdough: the sampler to start, with Calabrian salami, chili oil and anchovy butter, then a pizza or two on the same dough for the table. It took a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 Southwest guide, which Rebecca Roland explains as two courses and a glass of wine for about $50 before tax and tip. The room has moved into a bigger space, so a table is easier to get than its reputation suggests.

Take the group to Mott 32 when they want one dish to gather around. John Curtas is unambiguous that the Peking duck is the centerpiece of every meal here and it deserves to be, with skin having the bite-resistance of a thin potato chip. Dim sum and hand-pulled noodles fill the rest of the table. Know what you are booking: he calls it a huge, expensive, well-financed chain.

Tamba sits in an outdoor mall at Town Square between chain restaurants, and Anand Singh chars octopus on a tawa pan out of a josper oven. It was a James Beard nominee for Best New Restaurant in 2026.

Bouchon runs brunch from Thursday through the weekend in a high-ceilinged Venetian dining room, and Matthew Kang names what to order: crab eggs benedict, or a grilled wagyu rib-eye with eggs. It is Thomas Keller's bistro, the original of which opened in Yountville in the Napa Valley, and MICHELIN put it in the first American Southwest selection in August 2026. Johnathan L. Wright reports that the room was surprised.

Esther's Kitchen is the downtown version and it holds one dish back for this service. Emmy Kasten singles out the radiatore al limone with black garlic and notes it is only available at brunch, which makes the meal worth planning rather than defaulting into. Order the sourdough sampler alongside it.

I have not found a breakfast counter off the Strip worth sending you to. The honest answer to an early morning here is brunch.