11 Best Restaurants in South Strip, Las Vegas

Top Chef star and James Beard Award–winning chef Tom Colicchio presides over this streamlined spot tucked into a corner of the MGM Grand’s Restaurant Row. The menu is as sophisticated as the surroundings, with an emphasis on top-shelf beef, including Japanese Certified A5 Wagyu as a rib eye or New York strip, plus domestic Wagyu, dry-aged and prime beef, and seafood, including lobster, diver scallops, and a tower. 

When "Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto opened his restaurant in what he proudly called "the most famous city in the world," it marked his first foray into teppanyaki, sure to be popular with conventioneers. There's also sushi and sashimi, of course, and some of his standards: braised black cod with a ginger-soy reduction, and tuna pizza with anchovy aioli, olives, and jalapeños. The menu includes oysters with foie gras and uni, as well as ishi yaki chashu bop and ishi yaki buri bop—pork or yellowtail-rich dishes cooked at your table in a hot stone bowl—plus a selection of steaks. It's all served in an expansive, streamlined spot on MGM Resort's restaurant row. 

With tufted leather banquettes, subdued lighting, and dark decor accents, Bavette's, inside Park MGM, offers a much stronger dose of Gallic flair than the typical Las Vegas steak house. The restaurant offers a full complement of popular steak cuts ranging from a 32-ounce wagyu Porterhouse to a 6-ounce filet mignon, as well as seafood, steakhouse sides and a few vegan selections. Following in the tradition of its Chicago progenitor, the bar pours classic cocktails and curates an international wine list. If you feel like getting cozy, the speakeasy-style lounge has an air of intimacy.

Renowned chef Michael Mina has added to his stable of Las Vegas restaurants with this intimate spot at the Four Seasons. Some of the dishes that made Mina famous are here—the lobster pot pie, his caviar "Twinkiee"—but as you’d expect the stars are the steaks. The list of offerings includes a filet mignon, wagyu rib cap, bone-in or boneless ribeye, as well as a hay-smoked and salt-baked bourbon-flamed tomahawk ribeye, if you’re feeling especially flush. Non-beef options include chicken, duck, and seafood.

Wolfgang Puck adds to his stable of Las Vegas restaurants with this Italian restaurant he has dedicated to his mother. With modern decor that utilizes some Renaissance styles, the restaurant celebrates the tradition of fine Italian cooking in such dishes such as grilled Spanish octopus with a tomato emulsion and purple potatoes, and grilled whole Branzino, not to mention a wide range of pastas and pizzas. Fresh black truffles are available on several dishes, and there’s a salumi bar, a selection of antipasti, as well as steaks and seafood. 

This credible remake of the famed 1927 Manhattan original offers an old-school carnivore experience inside the cleverly decorated New York–New York casino. The convivial tavern's walls are lined with black-and-white photos of sports stars, actors, and politicos, and the hardwood floors and tray ceilings transport guests directly to Gotham. You can admire the aged steaks in a big cooler visible from the cobblestone promenade near the entrance. The menu's refreshingly simple: pick your main dish (center-cut filet mignon, bison ribeye, and so on) and maybe add one of the six sauces (béarnaise, brandied peppercorn, blue cheese, among others) to accompany it.

Michael’s has long had the somewhat dubious distinction of being arguably the most expensive restaurant in Las Vegas; suffice it to say South Point owner Michael Gaughan knows how to treat his high rollers. That ladies’ menus don’t have prices (and you’ll have to hunt long, and probably in vain, to find them online) feels like more of a throwback than a misogynistic move. And throwbacks are what this menu is all about, with dishes like coquilles St. Jacques and shrimp, lobster, or lump crab cocktail to start, plus entrées of Chateaubriand, Dover sole, veal saltimbocca, and prime steaks. Service and decor are definitely on the elegant side. No children younger than 12 are allowed.

Culinary lion Alain Ducasse replaced his renowned Mix with the equally stunning Rivea, offering unparalleled views of the Strip and Riviera-style interpretations of his cuisine from the 64th floor of the W Las Vegas. It's suitably more casual fare, with options like paccheri pasta with braised short rib, and sautéed calamari and prawns with baby artichokes and radishes. Traditionalists will find comfort in dishes such as pepper-crusted bison tenderloin, or Alaskan wild halibut with braised Belgian endive. The five-course tasting menu includes a chef's-inspiration risotto. Try one of Ducasse's famous babas for dessert, but with a limoncello twist.

The butter finish that makes restaurant steaks so delectable is done with a particularly artistic flair at StripSteak, where James Beard Award–winning chef Michael Mina puts his modern touches on the traditional steak house with a wood-burning grill and butter-poaching method turning out numerous cuts of beef every night. The menu includes several large-format choices, such as a 36-ounce dry-aged Porterhouse or a 40-ounce tomahawk, either of which will serve two (or more), plus more manageable sizes and several Japanese A-5 wagyu cuts. Or try something classically Mina-quirky, such as the 16-ounce duck-fat prime rib with blue cheese popover and fresh horseradish, or a caviar jelly doughnut. There's an extensive raw bar, seafood towers, a trolley with liquid desserts, as well as a three-course tasting menu that touches on the chef's Egyptian roots.

Tender is the requisite steak house that every Las Vegas hotel-casino seems to have, but it sets itself slightly apart from the pack with such treatments for its wet- and dry-aged beef as butter-poaching (filet mignon, filet Oscar, surf and turf), a warm seafood platter for two, a coffee-rubbed New York strip and a whole list of "enhancements" that include seven sauces, or a trio of them. Fronted by a lounge that's open to the casino, the dining area is appropriately steakhouse-clubby, with lots of attention to detail in service and presentation.

Though a bit of a sleeper on the South Strip, Twin Creeks is a fairly budget-friendly steak house that’s become a favorite of locals since there are steak entrees under $50. All the beef is Certified Black Angus, in cuts including filets, rib eyes, porterhouses, and New York strips, as well as a 40-ounce tomahawk for two and prime rib in two sizes. Start with wagyu carpaccio or a grilled artichoke, then proceed to your favorite cut—or crab legs, rack of lamb, or house-made pierogies. The atmosphere is steakhouse-classy, complete with semi-circular tufted booths.