Las Vegas Dining

For the international palate

If your taste buds cry out for an international flavor or you want to taste some masterpiece you've just heard about, Vegas is the place to make your wish come true, with cuisines from Europe to the Pacific Rim. Here are just a few.

Twist by Pierre Gagnaire
3752 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
866-588-6210

Twist by Pierre Gagnaire is the famed Michelin 3-star chef's only restaurant in the United States. It's billed as a traditional French cuisine with modern interpretations, but it's more like you'll "drop your fork," it's so good. The menu includes such specialties as foie gras velouté with burgundy snails, escargot soup made in a celery rémoulade, glenmorangie perfumed ginger bread, duck confit and red port sautéed shallots, not to mention Mediterranean Loup de Mer and Twist's signature soup Zezette. Twist also showcases the finest cuts of meat, including the Californian Wagyu beef filet, Nebraska prime rib eye and Pennsylvania veal chop, that are prepared with a European flair.

Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare
Wynn Las Vegas
3131 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
702-770-3463

No list is complete without this great Italian seafood restaurant. Chef Paul Bartolotta was twice honored with the James Beard Foundation award. He serves up fresh Mediterranean seafood flown in from Italy. You can choose silver-flecked sea bream, spiny scorpion fish, glistening snapper octopus and other denizens of the deep that were swimming off the Ligurian coast just two nights earlier. Any fish can be grilled or roasted, and every choice is a good one.

Pearl
3799 Las Vegas Blvd S.
702-891-7380

An array of great choices highlights this Cantonese/Shanghai cuisine experience. Among its signature dishes: spider prawn dumplings, crispy garlic chicken and fire-roasted Mongolian beef. Or take a dive and try Australian lobster, fresh water sand goby or Santa Barbara spotted prawns.

Aburiya Raku
5030 W. Spring Mountain Rd.
702-367-3511

Tucked in a strip mall on Spring Mountain Road, the heart of Vegas's Chinatown, Raku focuses on charcoal-grilled meats and vegetables. Check out the daily chalkboard of hearty Japanese soul food offerings, including pristine fried prawns, house-made tofu, poached egg with Santa Barbara sea urchin, and silky custard with foie.