3 Best Restaurants in Las Vegas, Nevada

James Beard Award–winning chef Shawn McClain has long had a presence on the Strip, but he ventured north for this restaurant that draws high energy from the live-action kitchen and pasta-making window. The menu is studded with familiar dishes with creative twists, like the antipasti of beets with agrodolce, grapefruit, and toasted hazelnuts, and lamb tartare with pickled eggplant and preserved lemon. A wood fire is employed for the likes of sea bream with lemon and capers, and pork Delmonico with black garlic and pickled radicchio; pizzas and pastas round things out. A four-course tasting menu—reasonably priced compared to most on the Strip—is served family-style.

It has a famous forebear known for a cocktail—Harry’s Bar in Venice, where the Bellini was created by Giuseppe Cipriani Sr. in 1948—but this intimate spot tucked away among the Wynn Plaza Shops, near the main gate, is worth seeking out for the food, too. Try a signature dish like beef tartare or carpaccio “alla Cipriani,” seafood or lamb chops from the Josper grill, or calves’ liver with fried polenta. Or splurge on the 28-ounce grilled wagyu tomahawk. There’s a daily menu at lunch, as well as à la carte selections.

A sister to The Factory Kitchen in Los Angeles, Matteo's has a relaxed, casual atmosphere, but there’s a serious emphasis on the northern Italian cuisine. Starters of a plancha-grilled cuttlefish salad with Calabrian crema, or a duo of seared and rolled foie gras, might be followed by handkerchief pasta with almond-basil pesto, slow-roasted pork belly with vegetables, or sea scallops with creamed sunchokes. Brunch from 10 to 2 Friday through Sunday features such dishes as eggs Benedict with olive toast and mortadella, or ricotta pancakes with blueberries and mascarpone crema, and there are lunch and children’s menus, plus a pre-theater three-course prix-fixe.