Win at the Tables by Dining at the Best New Las Vegas Restaurants
Las Vegas is in the middle of an over-the-top dining makeover, and the biggest players here aren’t content with just playing their greatest hits. This is a moment for making new memories. At Aria, London-born Gymkhana is serving beef for the first time, showcasing new dishes like a short rib pepper fry and wagyu keema naan alongside an exclusive-to-Vegas Goan lobster curry. At the Venetian, Korean steakhouse Cote has an expanded seafood section of its menu with oyster dynamite and lobster that eats like escargot. At Bellagio, Carbone Riviera dazzles with lobster polpette and shrimp Parm that are nods to the meatballs and veal Parm that helped turn Carbone into a global phenomenon.
There’s much more on the way with the forthcoming 2026 Las Vegas openings of Scott Sartiano’s Zero Bond and Sartiano’s Italian Steakhouse at Wynn, Kwame Onwuachi’s Maroon at Sahara, Gabriela Camara’s Cantina Contramar at Fontainebleau and Eugene Remm’s The Corner Store at a prime Strip location that will be announced soon. In the meantime, you can head to the Arts District for chips and caviar paired with tom kha fizzes at the Doberman Drawing Room, enjoy birria nachos from one of L.A.’s most beloved chefs and slices from a new-school New York icon at the Venetian’s Via Via Food Hall, or visit Caesars Palace for the red sauce and the decadent desserts at Stanton Social Italian.
Here are the best new places to eat and drink in Las Vegas at the beginning of what promises to be a delicious year.
The Most Exciting New Restaurants in Vegas
Gymkhana
- 3730 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109
The Las Vegas opening of Gymkhana, the only Indian restaurant in London with two Michelin stars, is a true game-changer. “It’s like the Indian Carbone,” a New York real estate mogul says as we discuss how posting an Instagram story from the Vegas Gymkhana resulted in DMs from globetrotting DJs, prominent chefs, crypto pioneers, a UFC ring girl and L.A. actors and models, who are all clamoring to eat at this hot spot inside the Aria casino-resort.
“This is the best lamb I’ve ever had,” a former food editor who’s now a caterer to the stars declares as she grabs another of Gymkhana’s signature tandoori lamb chops with her fingers. An Indian friend smiles widely as we cover our plates with juicy quail seekh kebabs and beautifully unctuous and intoxicatingly fragrant venison biryani. The butter chicken and the creamy black lentil dal make us want to eat more bread and rice. Only-in-Vegas dishes like the nicely spicy wagyu keema naan and luxurious Goan lobster curry (with meat pulled out of the claws and put into the head for an attractive and user-friendly presentation) are show-stoppers. Even if you’ve traversed the globe to drink clarified milk punch at famous cocktail bars, the pina col-lassi at Gymkhana might floor you. Desserts like gold leaf gulab jamun (fried milk dumplings with rose syrup) and the saffron pistachio ice cream falooda are resolutely Indian with the proper amount of Vegas-worthy spectacle.
JKS Restaurants, founded by siblings Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi, and MGM Resorts are clearly resetting the dining scene in Las Vegas with Gymkhana. Bold flavors, uncompromising cooking, family, heritage, pride, glitz, culture, new experiences. This is the intersection of all of it.
Carbone Riviera
- 3600 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109
We’ve eaten at Major Food Group’s new seafood wonderland as part of a large group and also as a two-top. Whether you go big here or prefer an intimate date, Mario Carbone’s restaurant, perched next to the Fountains of Bellagio, is a total spectacle.
Take a crew and feast on exquisitely plated whole sea bream crudo, whole king crab and two-pound lobster fettuccine. Or build a meal around what could very well become a new set of Carbone greatest hits. Bouncy lobster polpette fra diavolo and habit-forming jumbo shrimp Parm are terrific new-school nods at meatballs and veal Parm. Cappelini AOP with crab is simultaneously simple and splendid—one of the best pastas Major Food Group has ever created.
And if you do want the original greatest hit, you can, of course, order spicy rigatoni. For dessert, there’s a fruit platter that includes delightful sorbetti inside fruit, a spectacle in itself.
Cote
- 3355 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109
With stadium seating, a crow’s-nest DJ booth and VIP skyboxes, Simon Kim is blending galbi, jjigae and clubby vibes at his high-energy Korean steakhouse at the Venetian. Your best intro to the culinary world of Cote is the butcher’s feast that comes with four cuts of beef that are grilled at your table and served alongside banchan and stews. This is proper, elegant, excellent Korean barbecue.
There’s also a more extravagant steak omakase for even beefier baller meals. Or you can elevate your butcher’s feast, which starts with truffle-infused bone consommé and ends with soy-sauce-caramel-topped vanilla soft service, by adding A5 wagyu. We recommend getting oyster sotbat, a hearty, comforting and sumptuous rice pot, for some terrific surf with your turf. The steam from the sotbat and the sizzle of the steak cooking at your table is a wondrous combination at a restaurant that feels like a party.
Stanton Social Italian
- 3570 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109
Chef Chris Santos and Tao Group Hospitality have evolved their Stanton Social brand into a lively destination for red sauce, pasta and steaks at Caesars Palace. Garlic bread comes with flavor-packed arrabbiata sauce. Cavatelli is topped with crowd-pleasing wagyu Bolognese. Extra-crispy chicken Parm and a dry-aged ribeye (resting in a bath of French butter) are substantial main courses. A standout side of crispy eggplant comes with vodka sauce. For dessert, there’s limoncello tiramisu and a decadent “spumoni milkshake” that you cut with a knife. Enjoy the surprise.
Doberman Drawing Room
- 1025 S. 1st St., Las Vegas, NV 89101
This new Arts District cocktail destination from Ryan Doherty’s Corner Bar Management likes to take you around the world. The space feels like an old-world mansion (with vintage seating and the requisite cabinets of curios), but signature drinks like mixologist Juyoung Kang’s tom kha fizz and the Nine Countries cocktail that blends mezcal, honeydew, yuzu and green yuzu-koshō are thoroughly modern. The creativity extends to multicultural mocktails like the Lucky Buddha with green tea, Tajin, pineapple and yuzu.
The bar snacks here include an assortment of top-tier tinned seafood and kettle chips with sour cream and onion dip. This is off-Strip Vegas, a world away from overheated Strip nightlife, so maybe you want to linger and add an ounce of caviar to your chips and dip.
Via Via Food Hall
- 3355 S. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109
With its citrus adobo chicken tacos (on heirloom organic corn tortillas), birria nachos and specials like a wagyu crunchwrap, L.A. chef Ray Garcia’s B.S. Taqueria at the Venetian’s new food hall is the best casual Mexican-food option inside a Vegas casino. The Via Via food hall also dazzles with exemplary slices at Scarr’s Pizza, the hot chicken at Howlin’ Ray’s and the breakfast sandwiches at Turkey and the Wolf. Hot tip: Close Company, the cozy cocktail bar hidden inside the food hall, serves an espresso martini and tonic if you need a post-meal pick-me-up after Ivan Ramen’s mazemen or All’Antico Vinaio’s salumi-laden sandwiches.