Nobu Matsuhisa’s international empire of Japanese eating places—which now counts greater than 50 places, from Perth to Cairo to Ibiza—depends on devoted business execs like Jennifer Chow, who leads the kitchen at Nobu Las Vegas in Caesars Palace. Not solely does she maintain down some 700 covers an evening; she additionally manages room service for the Nobu “hotel-within-a-hotel” upstairs. “Typically you don’t wish to depart your resort to get good meals,” she says. “Right here, you’ll be able to have top-tier sushi in your room if you need.”
Nobu can chalk up a lot of its success to a gradual stream of crowd-pleasing dishes and ideas, which is why Chow is targeted on remaking the restaurant’s storied teppanyaki program. “Too typically individuals go into hibachi considering they’re simply going to get all their meals put onto one plate and dip it into some sauces. I wished to enhance on that—all individually plated, individually sauced,” she says. “You continue to get all of the enjoyable, you continue to get all of the jokes—however we’ve actually elevated the meals.”
When she’s off the clock, Chow is as more likely to be grabbing a stuffed-to-the-gills sandwich from a strip mall as she is to be savoring caviar at a flowery bar after midnight. She enjoys that distinction: “For the individuals who dwell right here, there’s an actual small city really feel—however with the meals and facilities of an even bigger place.”
“I’m not a giant breakfast particular person—by no means have been—however you’ve bought to like an excellent diner,” Chow says. That’s precisely what you’ll discover at Mr. Mama’s, a 12-minute drive from the Strip, the place you’ll discover quintessential takes on greasy spoon classics resembling biscuits smothered in sausage gravy, breakfast burritos filled with crispy hash browns, and made-in-house corned beef. Chow says the proof of the spot’s diner bonafides is within the servingware—and the service. “You recognize that thicker-rimmed sort of espresso cup? They’ve these,” she says. “You’re taking one sip, they usually’re like, ‘Would you want some extra?’”
“I used to be born and raised in Hawai‘i, and if I’m on my strategy to work and I’m hungry, I’m stopping by to get me a plate lunch,” Chow says. Las Vegas is usually known as the “Ninth Island” as a result of so many Hawaiians have made the desert their house, and you will discover specialties of the fiftieth state—together with by-the-pound poke—at this informal spot. Chow’s go-tos are the garlic hen and loco moco, an old-school Hawaiian egg-topped hamburger patty smothered in gravy over rice.
Chow comes right here for the most effective banh mi-style sandwiches on the town. The “basic” packs in six completely different meats and chilly cuts, plus a beneficiant bundle of greens and contemporary herbs. To take a deeper dive into the restaurant’s Cambodian roots, attempt a lotus root salad or an invigoratingly spicy hen curry.
Chow is all concerning the superlative gelato and fennel and grilled artichoke salad at this outpost of the celebrated Los Angeles restaurant by Evan Funke. However the true raptures begin when Chow describes La Mortazza, a calzone of kinds filled with ricotta, pistachios, and a beneficiant assemblage of mortadella florets. The final time she ordered it, she “requested for a field instantly,” since packing it up was the one strategy to cease herself from consuming all of it in a single go.
Chow labored at this steakhouse when she was an up-and-comer, and now she goes again as a buyer to admire the theatrical displays of rigorously sourced cuts of beef. “At Nobu, we wish to showcase the ingredient for what it’s. All the things else is there to boost it,” she says. “You discover that very same ethos at Bazaar. I’m doing it with fish, they usually’re doing it with meat.”
This off-strip watering gap is the proper place to cease in for a thoughtfully made cocktail on the later aspect. That’s why it has change into a “staple” for business individuals, based on Chow. Her common order is the Bee’s Knees, an fragrant concoction of gin and honey.
Half cabaret, half uncooked bar, this venue is steps away from Nobu at Caesars Palace. It’s a perfect spot to take an evening from zero to 60 after a shift, says Chow: “A midnight caviar bump? Can’t go incorrect.”
Typically you’re within the temper for an excellent dive bar, and this one checks all of the bins: nice music, chilly beer, righteous neon. However not like your common shot-and-beer purveyor, the Arduous Hat Lounge serves a mighty good smashburger—as Chow places it, “like, truly good.” For her, the meals is the primary draw: “I’m going for the burger. The drink is a bonus.”
