14 Best Bars in West Side, Las Vegas

This classic mid-century tiki bar might remind you of Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's. It's part of a crazy-busy strip mall in Chinatown, with a cocktail menu spilling over with nostalgic classics. Cautiously sip a Dole Soft Serve Float or jump into the deep end with a Blue Lagoon or Painkiller. Hop a rideshare back to your hotel after a Navy Grog with three rums. The roomy decor is full of surprises if you look around, including such treasures as an animatronic skeleton of the mythical privateer and legend behind The Golden Tiki, William Tobias Faulkner. A tiny stage and dance floor host occasional DJs and live bands. There's a happy hour from 4 to 7 pm, a limited food menu—mostly sliders and wings—and a Sunday "Captain's Brunch" with waffles and burritos.

At the Rhino, as everyone calls it, you can expect a veritable onslaught of gorgeous half-clad women and an international name brand trusted by both dancers and customers alike. The place got a late start in Vegas, but it grew fast, expanding its original space to more than 20,000 square feet in 2019. There's an adjoining shop for lingerie, sex toys, and various other implements of physical naughtiness. The Rhino is open 24 hours. While that's not an exclusive claim (and the question is always, Are there dancers in the afternoon?), it was early to the concept of food service, and is the rare strip club in the industrial corridor to offer food specials to drive daytime traffic, such as a beer/burger/fries combo for $5.

The builders of this club might have never anticipated the windfall headed its way in the form of Allegiant Stadium, which turns out to be within walking distance. Crazy Horse was already in the top tier of the local skin game. The name that stuck (after previous incarnations as Sin and the Penthouse Club) is an homage to the bygone Crazy Horse II, which long ruled in the industry's smaller more downscale era. This version now has a center stage in-the-round and the more typically plush trappings of the modern era, as well as a kitchen to serve up pizzas, appetizers, and even breakfast should you discover you spent the whole night there. Checking the website in advance might pay off with package deals that include limo transportation and drink credits.

Both the name and the scale of this one might be familiar to those who visit topless clubs in their home towns. Déjà Vu is part of a national chain, and the single-stage club is small compared to its increasingly grandiose competitors. But this branch reopened in early 2025 after a downtime for some sprucing up. It also stays competitive by charging a lower cover charge than the splashier clubs and is arguably within walking distance of the Strip—at least from the Fashion Show mall. The place is absolutely packed on Tuesday, when all drinks are $2.

You want Polynesian tiki-bar culture, Vegas-style? You want grass huts, carved wooden furniture, and cocktails such as the "Green Gasser," the "Thurston Howl," the "Lava Letch," and the "Bearded Clam"? You'll get it all here, and more, 24 hours a day in this small, windowless but thoroughly charming tiki bar that is utterly committed to its theme. The tiki mugs are all original, and if you love yours (and trust us, you will), there's a "merch hut" where you can buy one to bring the spirit of aloha home with you.

Perched atop the Palms, this apex of ultralounges was one of the first in Las Vegas to put a public area on top of a hotel tower to offer a glassed-in view of the city. Step outside and you'll find that the outdoor "Ghostdeck" is cantilevered over the side of the building, with a Plexiglas platform that allows revelers to look down 450 feet. For the views of the Strip skyline from the 55th floor alone, it's worth the effort. GhostBar usually opens by 9 pm, sometimes as early as 7 pm to let older folks have a gander before the younger club crowd moves in. Name DJs keep the latter hopping as the night goes on.

Classic cocktails are the name of the game at this bar off the Strip near Palace Station. Each cocktail comes with a story and quite a show while it's being made. Crack open the menu to learn the history behind each libation from the Prohibition era. This is the place to rub elbows with bartenders from other joints, who often visit when finished with their shifts on the Strip. An appetizer menu includes shrimp cocktails and mussels, and if you stay for dinner the kitchen under-promises and over-delivers on their claim to make "pretty good steaks."

The late porn mogul Larry Flynt’s name is displayed prominently on this massive (70,000-square-foot) three-story den of iniquity, allowing the whole second floor to be a VIP area with sky boxes. The main floor, lined with discretely curtained lap-dance areas, has a circular main stage, a pod stage, and even two (covered) dancers on top of the main bar top. There’s an attached Hustler Hollywood store with all manner of exotic clothing and sundry sexual accessories. The high-profile location—it's right alongside Interstate 15 with its name in giant lights—may also help explain cover charges around $50 a person. Thursdays through Saturdays find the Kings of Hustler male revue up on the third floor, where "girls night out" parties can watch male dancers. The rooftop hosts the Terrace Mediterranean restaurant and dance club action with DJs. The club has been offering shuttle rides to nearby pro hockey and football games, and drink bargains to entice early arrivals before 9 pm. 

Strip-club old-timers will remember this location as Cheetah's (featured in that pinnacle of late-20th-century cinematic excellence Showgirls). It has now adopted a niche approach, catering to those who like their dancers with Latina spice.

Tucked into a grungy strip mall behind Blueberry Hill diner lies a real treat, a dedicated jazz club, which is rare enough in Las Vegas, but even more valuable for folks who want to hear live music before the late evening: the bands start at 7 pm nightly (Thursday–Monday). The club caters to its performers, with a stage spanning the width of one wall and a real grand piano for musicians, who often play on nights off from their "real" jobs on the Strip. The food menu leans heavy on sushi, so those who come hungry or aren’t fans of sushi might want to dine elsewhere. A $25 minimum ($40 on weekends) can be applied to both drinks and food. Lately, Maxan has also been opening for lunch, without the live music.

This festive room with an "outdoor piazza" vibe is a worthy Italian restaurant in its own right (it has family ties to Nora's a block or so away). But what really sets it apart is the live entertainment on weekends. The place turns into more of a cabaret, starting after the dinner rush at 8:30 pm. The house songstress is co-owner Naomi Mauro, but likeminded jazz vocalists and trios round out the calendar.

For decades the home of off-Strip rock and blues, this Las Vegas institution lies tucked away in an office park so bland as to be invisible by day. Its fortunes have risen and fallen over the years, but the place is riding high enough now that it has a second location Downtown, inside the Plaza. Once a pitch-black joint where you could choke on cigarette smoke, The Sand Dollar is lighter and brighter these days, with a friendly center bar separating the “pool table side” from the “music side.” The music gets going at 10 pm and the bands vary by genre, but the larger umbrella is the “Austin sound” of rootsy blues and rock. Good pizza helps soak up the craft cocktails and beer.

Sapphire is billed as "the world's largest gentlemen's club," and until willing volunteers comb the globe to verify the claim, there's no disputing it here. After all, Sapphire was once a gym, which explains the 70,000-square-foot sprawl and the adjacent swimming pool, which operates seasonally as Sapphire Day Club (it's not topless, but there's plenty of indoor-outdoor commerce if you find a dancer you like outside working on her tan). There are no bargains here beyond the usual free-transportation and VIP-upgrade promotions, but the sheer spectacle when you first walk in may well justify the inflated drink prices and $50 cover. The adjacent El Dorado Cantina shares an owner and many customers but is a worthy enough 24-hour Mexican restaurant in its own right. Resorts World is now across the street and has brought a crosswalk and traffic light to the intersection just across from the club at Industrial Road—an addition only more likely to keep Sapphire at the top of the jiggle-joint heap.

Great views of the city have returned with this indoor/outdoor club 51 floors atop the Rio. Reopening in early 2025 after a long closure, it was unclear if VooDoo would again become a nightlife option for slightly older patrons or those less enthralled with the EDM/DJ culture of the Strip nightclubs, as it was pre-pandemic. The revived lounge shares its space with the VooDoo Steak restaurant and focuses on specialty cocktails—anyone up for a Cursed Cachaca?—and "shareable punchbowls." The lounge opens at 9 pm, with the restaurant opening at 5 pm for those seeking a sundown view and (on select days) a happy hour.