EATER Las Vegas Archives - Taste With The Eyes

Cocktails in the Las Vegas Subway?

Try a Smoky Dirty Martini!

It fits the mood…

A little while back I wrote about a fantastic dinner and the chef’s very clever Dirty Martini Salad at Diner Ross at The LINQ Hotel Las Vegas. What I neglected to share was how to get there… curiously, you must enter the diner only through a secret subway station entrance.

Sip delightful cocktails to the music and trippy sounds of an occasional train passing through the “tunnel” while awaiting your dinner reservation.

Inspired by the fabulous Dirty ol’ Martini served in the subway, here is my version:

A Smoky Dirty Martini

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Dirty Martini Salad

Diner Ross Dirty Martini Salad

🥬 🍸 🫒 Dirty Martini Salad 🫒 🍸 🥬

The annual 2024 Eater Las Vegas Awards celebrate the city’s top culinary achievements from the past year, spotlighting standout restaurants, late-night hang-outs, and bars that have made an impact on the local dining scene.

Diner Ross: Best New Las Vegas Restaurant 2024

Stepping into Diner Ross at the LINQ Hotel feels like entering a nostalgic dream of 1970s New York City. Past the glittering silver-tiled breezeway reminiscent of a disco ball, the restaurant charms with its retro aesthetic: orange booth seating, dusky green walls decorated with vintage album covers, and a staff dressed in paisley prints and jumpsuits. It’s a playful yet sophisticated take on themed dining.

While the design grabs your attention, it’s Chef Anna Altieri’s menu that truly shines. She reimagines comforting classics, starting with her signature popovers—fluffy delights served with butter and jam or elevated options like foie gras and caviar.

In addition to earning the title of Best New Restaurant, Diner Ross was just recently featured on Eater Vegas’s list of Where to Find the Best Salads in Las Vegas, thanks to the Chef’s Dirty Martini Salad. This dish layers bibb lettuce with martini olives, juniper, pimento, Roquefort cheese, and a touch of lemon for balance, offering a salad that’s as indulgent as its namesake cocktail. Pair it with an actual dirty martini for the full experience.

Diner Ross is more than a restaurant; it’s an experience that artfully blends nostalgic charm with modern culinary excellence. And it’s really fun!

Diner Ross Dirty Martini Salad

DIRTY MARTINI SALAD
bibb lettuce, martini olive, juniper, pimento. roquefort, lemon, chive

Diner Ross Las Vegas

Diner Ross and Dirty Martini Salad Recipe

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Crispy Duck Panang

We recently had an extraordinary dinner at their newly opened location in the Red Rock Casino…at what is widely agreed to be the best Thai restaurant in Las Vegas, Lotus of Siam.

Since 1999, Chef Saipin Chutima and her family have owned and operated this world-renowned restaurant. Chef Saipin’s cooking revolves around the Northern Thai recipes passed down from generations of her family. She received the coveted James Beard award for Southwest Region Chef in 2011.

Lotus of Siam’s 3rd location at Red Rock Casino Resort opened in November 2022, with Saipin’s daughter, Penny, at the helm. The design of the restaurant is casual yet breathtaking, and everything one would expect from a new Red Rock concept. Eater Vegas chose their Chiang Mai-inspired style as the Best Design of the Year.

The elevated food is obviously not your local hole-in-the-wall Thai menu (although there is nothing wrong with that!). And the award-winning wine list and service are impeccable. We enjoyed a bottle of the lovely HeavenSake with our meal.

We shared several dishes – all excellent – some highlights included Chilean Sea Bass with Sweet & Sour Sauce, Penny’s Ceviche, Garlic Prawns, and of course the Crispy Duck Panang.

By the way, their base sauce recipes are a secret. Only three people know the recipes according to Chef Saipin in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Craving the exotic flavors of Lotus’s stellar dish, I set out to create my own version of Crispy Duck Panang.

Lotus of Siam, Red Rock Casino

Crispy Duck Panang Recipe

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Brezza Las Vegas Style “Pan-Seared Fish”

Pan-Seared Fish
Black Rice, English Peas
Meyer Lemon Lobster Butter
Micro Greens

Black Cod, Black Rice

We loved it so much we cooked it twice. Once featuring Alaska Coho Salmon and once featuring Alaska Black Cod…with premium quality fish, a rich and tangy lobster butter sauce, earthy black rice, and plump sweet peas.

The inspiration for this striking colorful recipe came from a heavenly dinner we recently enjoyed at the new Brezza, located in Resorts World Las Vegas. We were quite impressed by the restaurant’s service and ambiance, pristine Tonno Carpaccio, and brilliant Tagliatelle Bolognese with its intriguing hint of cloves, but it was her Chilean Seabass special that we especially craved again and again.

EATER Las Vegas writes that the winners of the 2021 Eater Awards in Las Vegas comprise a diverse group of the finest and most interesting chefs, restaurants and bars in the city.

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Nashville Hot Chicken in Vegas

Slater's 50/50 Nashville Screamin’ Hot Chicken Sandwich — Slater’s 50/50 Nashville Screamin’ Hot Chicken Sandwich

Nashville Hot Chicken in Vegas

Last weekend my brother Don and nephew Stone came to town to watch the Chicago Bears play the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium. With the super popularity of Nashville Hot Chicken in Vegas, we thought it would be fun to do a “hot chicken tasting” the day before the game.

Belly Bombz Special Fried Chicken Sandwich Nashville Hot

We chose 5 popular restaurants off The Strip that serve Nashville Hot Chicken, all on the south end of Las Vegas. We ordered one sandwich, with a side, to split between the three of us. If there was a choice of degree of spiciness, we chose the medium spice to be consistent.

The sandwich was rated on a scale of 1 to 10 in five different categories: chicken, spices, bun, presentation, and toppings. At the end, we reviewed our ratings and we each gave the sandwiches an overall ranking.

Houston's Hot Chicken Sandwich — Houston’s Hot Chicken Sandwich

“If fried chicken lore is to be believed, Nashville hot chicken was created by a woman scorned. Sometime in the 1930s, there was a handsome man named Thornton Prince III living in Nashville. To put it in polite terms, Thornton was…active…on the dating scene — so active in fact that one of his girlfriends decided to seek revenge on his two-timing ways by cooking him some fried chicken with a little too much of a kick to it. The plan backfired; Thornton loved the chicken. And thus, Nashville hot chicken was born.” (from Eater Las Vegas)