Las Vegas 2022: Where to Eat, Drink, and Play



Our expert guide to first-rate restaurants, bars, and adventures on and off the strip

Buffet at TAO beach club
The bounteous buffet at the TAO Beach Club

Another year, another JCK show in Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world.

After two years of drama surrounding COVID-19, there’s a sense that this year’s JCK will be a real return to the shows of old—great product and inspiring designs on the show floor by day, stellar restaurants and recreation around town by night.

True to form, in the 10 months since the last show, Las Vegas has added some legitimately cool and one-of-a-kind eateries, experiences, and attractions. Let the planning begin!

SushiSamba treebar
The Tree Bar at SushiSamba
The Venetian pool deck
The Venetian’s revamped pool deck
Derek Hough and Hailey Erbert dancing in No Limit
Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert strike a pose in No Limit.

Close to Home

As usual, the JCK and Luxury shows will be at The Venetian, which has added several attractions since we were all in town for last year’s event.

No. 1 on the list: the Tree Bar at SushiSamba in the Grand Canal Shoppes inside The Venetian. As the name suggests, the centerpiece of this bar is a tree sculpture designed with autumnal hues and sparkling lights. The bar has its own food menu of small plates, robata, and sashimi ceviche, and a full spate of cocktail options. It’s a great place to sit, snack, sip, and people-watch.

Spa food at Truth and Tonic at The Venetian
Healthful spa food at Truth & Tonic

The resort also recently unveiled a dramatic redesign of its pool deck, with a vibe that takes design cues from the Italian Riviera, including sculptural art pieces and quaint gardens, to provide the worldly look and feel of a European escape. (For you big spenders, there also are 10 amazing premium cabanas.)

Equally beautiful: the dancing (and, let’s be honest, the abs) of Derek Hough, the six-time Dancing With the Stars champ whose show, No Limit, runs through September in the Venetian’s Summit Showroom.

Estiatorio Milos, the exquisite Greek restaurant located in Restaurant Row, between The Venetian and The Palazzo (and directly across from the entrance to the convention area), still has the best lunch in town: $38 for a three-course meal that includes a starter, a main, and dessert.

Finally, the new-and-improved TAO Beach Dayclub is expected to be thumping.

Delilah supper club at Wynn
Delilah, Wynn’s art deco–styled supper club
Crossroads Kitchen stuffed zucchini blossoms
Stuffed zucchini blossoms at Crossroads Kitchen in Resorts World
Grasshopper Baked Alaska at Delilah
Grasshopper Baked Alaska at Delilah

New and Unique Places to Eat

Prior to the pandemic, just about all the best restaurants in Las Vegas were located off Las Vegas Boulevard (aka The Strip). While this is still true to some extent, overall the city’s dining scene has changed dramatically, and a handful of new Strip eateries are getting attention and accolades from those in the know.

Perfumed Stepford Wife cocktail at Delilah
The perfume-infused Stepford Wife cocktail at Delilah

At the top of this list: Crossroads Kitchen at Resorts World Las Vegas, just a short walk from The Venetian. Crossroads is a Los Angeles staple, and this iteration represents the first location outside SoCal. It also is the first fully plant-based fine-dining restaurant ever to open on the Las Vegas Strip. Founder and chef Tal Ronnen and executive chef Paul Zlatos run the kitchen here, serving the restaurant’s signature dishes, including stuffed zucchini blossoms, beet tartare, and house-made pastas such as tagliatelle Bolognese and fettuccine with truffles. The local menu features some items that are uniquely Vegas—plants dressed up to look like more than plants, in a sort of culinary sleight of hand.

(In case you’re wondering, the first fully vegan restaurant on The Strip opened in 2019; Truth & Tonic is located inside Canyon Ranch Spa at The Venetian, and currently is open for breakfast, lunch, and brunch.)

Superfrico clam pie at Cosmopolitan
Clam Pie at the Cosmopolitan’s Superfrico

Also new at Resorts World is Bar Zazu, a swanky and exclusive lounge from Nicole Brisson and her team at Brezza next door. Cocktails are the main attraction at Zazu—many feature freshly grown herbs and flowers. (Try the Isabella with Lunazul Blanco tequila, Aperol, lime, passion fruit, and mole spice.) The food is a close second; as basic as it might seem, the lightly battered and fried tempura broccolini is one of the best dishes anywhere in Las Vegas right now.

New restaurants are also on the menu at Wynn and Encore Las Vegas (even closer to The Venetian!). At Wynn, Delilah replicates a supper club from yesteryear, complete with an art deco vibe and food options that include beef Wellington, shrimp Louie, and more. At Encore, Casa Playa serves up a modern spin on classic Mexican food. Resident mixology guru Mariena Mercer Boarini has crafted special cocktail menus for both spots; be sure to try the drinks with edible perfume (yes, really).

Finally, the dining experience at Superfrico inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas mixes traditional Italian-American dishes such as chicken Parmesan with all sorts of modern art and performance art. This space comprises a series of smaller rooms mocked up to play out like self-contained worlds. The Artery offers a dining room filled with Technicolor art, while The Studio brings a deejay spinning as diners sit down for a meal or grab a drink at the bar. The Ski Lodge, designed to emulate an après-ski cocktail bar, features a fireplace and a picture window overlooking winter skiing destinations. The Bottle-O sells house-blended and -bottled cocktail flasks and small-batch beverages in a gift-shop setting.

Burlesque show at Rated Red
The very 2022 burlesque show Rated Red

All Art, All the Time

We mentioned AREA15 last year. Since then, the art and entertainment destination has added more features, and some already have achieved must-see status.

Care Bear Stare boozy slushie at Emporium Arcade AREA15
The Care Bear Stare, one of the boozy slushies at Emporium Arcade at AREA15

Lost Spirits, for example, is a cross between a distillery tour, Burning Man, vaudeville, and Disneyland—a wacky experience that includes real-life performers, state-of-the-art spirits processing, and sets that rival the kind of stuff you’d find backstage at the Metropolitan Opera. Guests taste five kinds of rum; the two-hour tour begins with a rickshaw ride and ends in a “submarine” with “wildlife” passing by outside. Inside tip: Ticket confirmations warn guests not to pregame. For the sake of your shoes, do not ignore these warnings.

Liftoff, which opened in February, is an aeronaut-themed, 16-seat bar that takes drinkers 115 feet into the sky and keeps them there for seven minutes before bringing them down to Earth.

For those who want to mix sex with art, Rated Red is a new spin on burlesque—one that includes men, women, and nonbinary individuals, and plays with gender in a way that is positive, sultry, and utterly fantastical.

Of course, other attractions at AREA15 include Omega Mart, an interactive supermarket and playground from Meow Wolf; Wink World, a series of infinity rooms from Chris Wink, one of the founders of Blue Man Group; and Emporium, a rollicking arcade and sports bar that features original graffiti from 12 local artists.

The AR VR exhibit at Arcadia Earth
A scene from the AR/VR exhibit Arcadia Earth

Virtual Tours

Vegas wouldn’t be Vegas without over-the-top experiences, and two new augmented-reality attractions on the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard fit this bill.

Arcadia Earth teaches about climate change and comprises 14 walk-through galleries that depict various aspects of life on Earth. The exhibit is a mix of augmented reality, virtual reality, and projection mapping. At one moment, in a room that mimics life underwater, you feel as if you’re being circled by sharks.

The other immersive exhibit, FlyOver Las Vegas, incorporates the same technology used in Disneyland’s Soarin’ Around the World attraction to take guests on a feet-dangling, IMAX-style “flightseeing” tour of the American West. At various points in the FlyOver ride, you feel a shock of cold air and a refreshing mist.

Visiting Las Vegas always has been a sensory experience. Now that just means something more.

Top: The high-flying Liftoff at AREA15

(Arcadia Earth: David Mitchell; No Limit: PGPhoto.Info; TAO Beach Club: Shane O’Neal; Stepford Wife, Baked Alaska: Bill Milne (2); Truth & Tonic: Key Lime Photography; Venetian pool deck: Goat Rodeo Productions/Thomas Hart Shelby; Delilah interior: Robert Miller; squash blossoms: Crossroads; clam pie: Mark Mediana; Isabella: Sabin Orr)

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