The Hottest New Restaurants in Las Vegas, April 2023

Ojos Locos, a breastaurant chain that has been described as “Mexican Hooters” is now open in North Las Vegas, with an adjacent hotel and casino. The restaurant was founded by restaurateurs including Randy DeWitt, the owner of the parent company that previously founded fellow breastaurant, Twin Peaks. It offers Mexican and Latin American fare like ceviche, elote, and tacos, as well as buffalo chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, and boneless wings.

The latest food hall to open in the Las Vegas Valley is located downtown, inside the Fremont Hotel and Casino. It has a combination of national and local restaurant brands including Steak ‘n Shake, Huey Magoo’s, Roli Roti, Craftkitchen, Tomo Noodles, and Dunkin’. The biggest get for the food hall may be that of Craftkitchen. It has been a popular brunch spot since it opened in Henderson seven years ago. While one can fill up on dishes like chilaquiles, chicken Caprese sandwiches, and breakfast burritos, the primary appeal is Blinn’s pastries.

Executive Chefs Isidro Marquez-Castillo’s and Daniel Arias introduce a refined vision of regional Mexican cuisines through small plates, tostadas, tacos, and entrees. The cocktail menu leams toward tequilas, with food and drink available into late night. Look up to see the pink monkey dangling from an oversized disco ball in the rafters.

Red Rock Resorts debuted two new restaurants, Naxos Taverna and Kallisto Oyster Bar at Naxos. Naxos Taverna boasts an open kitchen where guests can watch the preparation of whole fish, like that of lavraki and skorpina. The adjacent oyster bar has 25 types of fish and several varieties of oysters, other seafood specialties, and a pan roast at an intimate 13-seat bar.

Jenny Chai, who opened Mr. BBQ in December, has debuted her dessert and tea restaurant. Both inside and on the sweetly decorated patio, find mochi doughnuts and boba tea.

The first of chef and restaurateur Eyal Shani’s two Las Vegas restaurants is open at the Venetian Resort with a menu of dishes served both in and out of a pita. The quick service restaurant offers pitas like the “best bolognese spaghetti in town” with beef ragu and spaghetti or a minute steak pita with tahini, tomato salsa, and spicy green peppers. Other menu options include the bag of green beans, served cold and crunchy with olive oil, lemon, salt, and garlic.

Chef Chris Santos’s spin-off of his famed New York steakhouse Stanton Social is now open at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. The velvety and gem-toned restaurant boasts made-for-Instagram plates of microgreen-sprinkled bone marrow, heaping bowls of lobster macaroni and cheese, and tomahawk steaks suspended by fairy lights and set aflame were paraded through the chandelier-lit dining room.

The new burger joint inside Absinthe’s Green Fairy Garden opens an hour before showtime to serve a tight menu of burgers, vegan burgers, and tots.

James Beard Award winner and public television star Martin Yan debuted his first Las Vegas restaurant, M.Y. Asia, on the Las Vegas Strip. Yan’s restaurant reflects his decades-long career and his extensive travels in a casual restaurant with a Pan-Asian menu that offers Thai yellow coconut curry with chicken, mu shu pork tacos with hoisin sauce, a sizzling black pepper steak with mushrooms, and pan-seared Chilean sea bass in jasmine tea with a miso ginger honey glaze.

With nine restaurant stalls, and another two on the way, this new on-Strip food hall is now open. Start with breakfast sandwiches from Egghead, try Steve Aoki’s pizza, or indulge in diner fare from Lola’s Burgers, Israeli bites from Shalom Y’all, and Korean street food from Seoul Bird.

The food hall quietly debuted a new speakeasy tucked away behind a modest doughnut shop. Behind the cappuccino maker is a door that leads to Easy’s. The velvet-draped lounge is home to live music, swanky furnishings, and showstopping cocktails dripping with fog and made for sharing.

The new restaurant and store are the work of Patrick Littlejohn, the 15-year general manager of Il Mulino, and Le Petit Café & Bakery’s Emily Palmer. The restaurant offers coffee and pastries, quiche, crepes, and cold-pressed juices. Its lunch menu has paninis, salads, and Neopolitan-style pizza. The market sells products such as fresh bread, eggs, and fruit as well as imported mozzarella, Tomahawk steaks, foie gras, and truffles.

Henderson’s newest dining option, Azzurra Cucina Italiana, introduces familiar Italian fare to Water Street in Downtown Henderson. Reviving some of the dishes from the now-shuttered Bratalian Neapolitan Cantina, where Alessandra Madeira was chef de cuisine and her husband, Walter Ciccone, was general manager, the husband-wife duo are working together again in a new restaurant that serves penne alla vodka, grilled octopus, caprese salad, and gnocchi bolognese.