Las Vegas travel guide
Is Las Vegas Actually a Ghost Town Right Now? We Went to Check
Everyone kept telling us nobody's going to Vegas right now, so we went back after more than a year away to see for ourselves whether the strip had actually emptied out.
Where we ate.
MIU Japanese BBQ & Sushi
3943 Spring Mountain Rd, Las VegasAll-you-can-eat Japanese BBQ and sushi
Get: Ribeye, bone-in short rib, kalbi, katsu, and their house chili
Our first time staying at Resorts World, and we got a room for $99 a night with resort fees waived, on the strip, which felt genuinely rare. The kalbi marinade is noticeably more garlicky than the Korean version, which checks out since this is a Japanese restaurant. The ribeye and bone-in short rib were the standouts of an otherwise solid $33.95-per-person AYCE spread; worth ordering those early since they're popular.
Zippy's South Eastern
9570 S Eastern Ave, Las VegasHawaiian comfort food
Get: Malasada (Portuguese-style donut) and a custard pie
It genuinely felt like being back in Hawaii. The malasada came out as a chewy, sugar-coated fried dough, as satisfying as any fresh donut we've had, and the custard pie jiggled like a giant Portuguese egg tart or flan.
Swig
1160 E Silverado Ranch Blvd Suite 100, Las VegasUtah-founded dirty soda fountain
Get: A Coke Zero "dirty soda" with peach syrup, coconut cream, and pineapple
A Utah soda-fountain chain built around the fact that Mormons don't drink coffee, so they've turned soda into an art form instead. The peach-coconut-pineapple Coke Zero didn't taste much like Coke Zero at all by the time everything was mixed in, more like its own fruity thing entirely.
Dimsumlicious
5700 Spring Mountain Rd Unit A, Las VegasDim sum, off the strip
Get: Shumai, fish-filet rice roll, and a sesame-bun basket
The kind of small, mom-and-pop spot playing Cantonese music that makes a place feel legit, run by what looked like a son-and-mother team. The shumai was some of the bounciest we've had, and the fish-filet rice roll was a first for both of us.
Phin Smith
7208 S Jones Blvd #101, Las VegasVietnamese coffee chain
Get: A banana coffee
A well-known Vietnamese coffee chain, and a genuinely unique setup: they let you taste a drink before you commit to buying it, and if you don't like it after, they'll swap it for something else. The banana coffee tasted like banana milk, not overly strong, good for the drive back. There's already a location in Orange County, but that's a much longer drive for us than Vegas is.
Good to know before you go
- We got a much lower Strip room rate than expected; the going theory is fewer people are visiting Vegas right now, which works in visitors' favor on hotel pricing.
- Resorts World's gym was, hands down, the nicest gym of any hotel we stayed at on this trip.