Despite being known as a transient town, Las Vegas welcomes transplants from all over the world, who often bring their food and culture with them. Many know Chinatown for its abundance of pan-Asian restaurants, but its home of Spring Valley as a whole can be seen as an international hub. This area of town is also home to a couple of blocks known as Little Ethiopia, which Clark County officially designated as a cultural district earlier this year. In a 2022 WalletHub report, Spring Valley ranked fifth among the most diverse areas of the country. And local ABC affiliate KTNV counted 120 different countries represented across Southern Nevada.
I grew up in this city teeming with international life, but in a fast food and TV dinner household. According to CNN, 37 percent of American adults consume fast food on any given day, myself included — suckered by convenience. In 2014, that began to change. That year, I traveled to southeast China. I took every local suggestion, dining from many a late-night pop-up food cart, yet didn’t know enough Mandarin to ask what I was eating. I hadn’t experienced anything like it, gastronomically speaking. Wood ear mushrooms, seafood hot pot, tender dumplings, congee — every bite was an unprocessed joy. I returned home with a craving for more.
This year, I put together a list of nations, the dishes for which they’re known, and where to find them in Las Vegas. And then, I set out to eat at all of them. On Instagram, I called my journey Around the World in Vegas.
If you look up the best restaurants in the city, you’ll find an array of French, Asian fusion, Spanish, Italian, and much more peppered along the Strip. I sought out smaller, family-owned businesses for my project. So far, I’ve found about 70 such restaurants, but the list is constantly evolving. As we make our way through the list, my dining partners and I have been learning from the food, why it’s become culturally significant, and how it’s come to represent a nation.
We’ve discovered that, through historical and geographical influence, global cuisines have a lot in common. Across the world you can find hearty stews, dumplings, rich spices, and filling staples. While many of the dishes appeared foreign to me, I found familiar flavors, styles, and techniques across the board.
This experience has opened my eyes — not just to world cuisine, but also to the rich cultures that make up our great city. I’ve been introduced to traditions I would not have known otherwise, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to learn as I taste. Travel is the best thing you can do to open your mind, but if you can’t always do that, see what’s around your own backyard.
While I’m still early in this journey, the following list features a few of the restaurants and dishes we’ve enjoyed the most.
*****
Mr. Tofu
Korean
4355 Spring Mountain Rd, Suite 104
Las Vegas, NV 89102
About 25,000 Koreans live in Las Vegas, according to the most recent U.S. Census, and their food can be found throughout town, including Chinatown and the nearby Korea Town Plaza. To try (for my first time) Korean cuisine, we were guided to Mr. Tofu. Our host for this meal was Sonja Swanson, lead producer of City Cast Las Vegas, who visits the restaurant frequently with her mother. She picks Mr. Tofu for the banchan, or small, salty, and savory side dishes that are shared by the table. Some restaurants place only a few, but here we had 15 options ranging from radish kimchi to acorn jelly.
Kimchi is arguably the most well-known Korean food, which is served in several varieties. Kimchi, Swanson explained, is made by fermenting vegetables in probiotic lactic acid bacteria, which eat the sugars in vegetables, then give kimchi its signature sour flavor and preserves the vegetable.
“Maybe it’s because we showed up on Sunday morning, but Mr. Tofu’s atmosphere was vibrant, with dozens of families laughing away,” says Lille Allen, my dining partner through this journey and one-third of the food blog Snack Report. “The food, particularly the banchan, matched the spirit.”
For our main dishes, we tried the haemul pajeon ($18.50), a scallion pancake made with a liberal mix of seafood, and bulgogi dulpan bibimbap ($26.95), or marinated beef with Korean barbecue sauce served in a hot stone plate with steamed rice, vegetables, and a fried egg. Swanson said bibimbap is usually presented in a bowl, but with the plate, there’s more surface area to crisp up the rice.
The star of the show for me was the jogi gui and soon tofu jjigae combo ($25.95), or grilled yellow croaker fish and a spicy soft tofu stew. Grilled fish is a staple of Korean cooking, and this one was mild, but savory. For the bubbling hot stew, Swanson showed us how you mix in a raw egg to add to the soft texture, which balances with the spice.
Calabash African Kitchen
West African
1750 S Rainbow Blvd
Suite 6-8, Las Vegas, NV 89146
Trying foods and cultures with which you’re unfamiliar for the first time can be intimidating. This is what led me to a YouTube search of “how to eat fufu?” (You can laugh at me for that.)
Creator and chef of Calabash, Oulay Ceesay Fisher, has expertly brought some of her Gambian homeland to a cozy corner in a Spring Valley strip mall. She says the restaurant is a 22-year-old dream that was realized in February 2022.
“My clientele is very diverse, and we truly have been a melting pot. The African diaspora in Las Vegas have a beautiful place to eat authentic food that provides that sense of home away from home,” she says. “There is no simplicity in West African food, but freshness of ingredients is the key element that makes the Senegambian cuisine flavorful and unique.”
We tried the red snapper with jollof rice ($25), the latter being the national dish of Nigeria, and red stew, or “chu” with fufu ($23). Fufu is a starchy side meant to be eaten with stews. We also sampled the maafe, or peanut stew, a Senegambian must-have. For an appetizer, we tried the black-eyed pea fritters ($10). Don’t go looking for the signature black eye, like I did, because the peas are peeled in this appetizer.
Fisher also recommended the slow-cooked oxtail stew with fufu, their spicy and exotic egusi soup, and stuffed fataya pies.
Forte Tapas
Eastern European
4180 S Rainbow Blvd Suite 806,
Las Vegas, NV 89103
Forte Tapas is a gem for those looking for European comfort food. Bulgarian-born owner Nina Manchev offers a variety of dishes you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else in town.
Banichka ($10-13), a spiral filo dough pastry with a savory filling, is well-known in Bulgaria. The dough is crisp and fluffy, and the spiced meat filling will have you drooling. It’s served with lutenitsa, a delicious Bulgarian spread made from red peppers.
Borscht ($10) can be served hot or cold, and it’s hot at Forte. The broth is fragrant and flavorful, packing a punch of color, and each bite is hearty with beets, potatoes, and a pop of dill. UNESCO considers borscht “part of the fabric of Ukrainian society, cultural heritage, identity and tradition.” In 2022, the organization listed it as a heritage tradition “in need of urgent safeguarding” because of the Russian invasion.
For Uzbekistan’s famous dish, I tried Forte’s chicken kabob with plov ($18). Plov is an Uzbeki-style rice pilaf. Served with fresh tomatoes and marinated chicken breast, this feels like an elevated classic, but comforting in its similarities to dishes around the world.
Mi Carboncito Peruvian Food
Peruvian
6679 Smoke Ranch Rd,
Las Vegas, NV 89108
One of our favorite meals so far took place at Mi Carboncito, an entirely unassuming establishment on the northwest side of town. Peruvian food exemplifies the melting pot better than most countries, taking influences from around the world.
The first dish we ate was lomo saltado ($19), a plate of sirloin steak sauteed with onions and tomatoes and served with French fries and rice. Lomo saltado is the most common dish representing Cantonese influence in the region, known as chifa cuisine.
Piqueo el Carboncito ($25) includes one papa a la huancaina, four choros a la chalaca, four chicharrones de pescado, four chicharrones de calamar. Translated: boiled potatoes in a spicy-sweet sauce (though this one was more sweet than spicy), Peruvian-style mussels, fried fish, and calamari. If trying one dish at Mi Carboncito, we recommend this one for its variety of flavors and textures.
Ceviche de camarones ($23), or shrimp cooked in fresh lemon juice, is served raw and topped with fresh red onion. Ceviche can be found in almost every coastal Peruvian restaurant, and it’s usually served with choclo serrano (similar to corn) and cancha (similar to corn nuts). That’s the case here, creating an interesting balance.
“Listen, I’ve had enough ceviche in a lifetime to keep anyone satisfied,” Allen says. “Yet, Mi Carboncito’s is unmatched. Served within minutes in the late summer in Las Vegas, Mi Carboncito’s take on the classic Peruvian dish is so refreshing it’s almost divine.”
We paired this with chicha morada ($3), or a purple corn drink known for its sweetness, then topped off the meal with helado de lucuma, an ice cream made from fruit that tastes like caramel.
Hafez Persian Cuisine
Persian
3900 W Spring Mountain Rd,
Las Vegas, NV 89102
This beautiful family-owned restaurant in Chinatown serves a variety of Persian cuisine, and here we found a well-known dish of Iran: ghormeh sabzi. The main dish ($19.50) is described as a “fresh herbed stew sauteed along with chunks of beef and kidney beans, then cooked down with dried lime … topped with saffron-flavored basmati rice.”
While every bite of this stew is out of this world, the beef is especially tender and almost floral. The lime really makes it pop against the earthy feel of the herbs and warmth of the kidney beans. The portion was big enough for four to share. On Hafez’s website, they say this dish is unique among Iranians since it’s one of only a few foods that hasn’t changed over time. Not only can you find details of each dish on its website, but you can also find a list of ingredients and the recipes.
“Hafez Persian Cuisine’s flavors came in combinations I could have never imagined,” Allen says. “The beef alone was akin to a religious experience. Each bite released a beautiful fragrance, a complex note of flowers and fresh spices to which words can do no justice.”
The Codfather
English
2895 N Green Valley Pkwy,
Henderson, NV 89014
“If there is one iconic dish that the U.K. is known for around the world, it is fish and chips!” So says The Codfather in Henderson. According to them, 382 million portions are served every year by restaurants specializing in the dish, or chippys. The earliest known shops were opened in the 1860s by Eastern European Jewish immigrants, but the combo was around for decades prior to that.
If you’re a British expat searching for a taste of home, this is it. The small shop arrived on Green Valley Parkway near Sunset Road compliments of Sheffield owner Glynn Bramhall. What brought him to Las Vegas? He worked as a chef for touring bands and musicians, and eventually met his to-be-wife in a European Cirque du Soleil show.
He moved here in 2011, and in his early days of living in Las Vegas, he said he didn’t see any fish and chips shops like back in England. “It’s the niche everyone looks for,” he says.
“Bringing a little bit of the U.K. to America and it being accepted … how much people love fish and chips, it really surprised me,” Bramhall says. “A great comfort food for everyone young and old.”
We tried the haddock and chips ($17.50), a battered sausage ($4.95), and added mushy peas and curry ($2.50 each). Don’t skip his delicious curry!
Allen turned me on to this place, saying, “The Codfather had my heart the moment I heard its name. My family has been frequenting this establishment for a few years. We always come in search of the perfect comfort food, and it never disappoints.”
Jumpa Lao Thai Bistro
Laotian and Thai
4105 W Sahara Ave,
Las Vegas, NV 89102
Las Vegas is absolutely spoiled for Thai food, so the national dish of neighboring Laos, larb (sometimes spelled laab or laap), was not completely unfamiliar to me.
First up was larb with duck ($17.95), which comes with a choice of meat, Thai herbs, rice powder, mint, and lime juice. The flavors in the larb with duck were divine. The duck was crisp, and using the lettuce leaves helped cut the heat a bit. Larb can be widely varied, containing any meat and served hot or sometimes raw. Khamphay Inthisorn wrote on LaoFood.org that the meat salad is traditionally a lucky food, and during the New Year, eating this dish on day one of the three-day celebration can bring food fortune for the year.
We also tried the thousand-year pad ka pow ($19.95), a similar Thai-style dish served with century eggs, which come from Chinese cuisine. A century egg is a far cry from a fried one, but damn if it isn’t tasty. A clay mixture transforms the egg over weeks into a dark gray yolk with jelly-like whites.
Red Rice
Chamorro (Guam)
9400 S Eastern Ave Suite 106a,
Las Vegas, NV 89123
Red Rice comes to us by way of Guam, a small island in the Pacific. The casual family-owned eatery on the border of Henderson has been serving Chamorro food since 2015. In 2017, the Guam Liberation Committee of Las Vegas honored owners Frank and Carmen Tenorio for their “dedicated community service and promotion of the Chamorro people, culture and traditions …”
Our main dish was the hafa adai plate ($19.95), which comes with two scoops of red rice with chicken kelaguen, barbecue chicken, barbecue pork spare rib, empanada, and one side (cucumber and daigo kimchi).
Hafa adai (pronounced “half-a-day”) means “hello” in the native language of Indigenous Chamorro people in Guam and the Mariana Islands. The foundation of the plate is the namesake red rice, which takes its color from achiote seeds. Both the chicken and spare rib were juicy with a perfect char. Kelaguen is similar to ceviche, marinated in citrus and hot peppers; we ordered the shrimp, which was on special, and the chicken (chopped and cooked) came on the side with the meal — both incredibly flavorful.
“Red Rice’s barbecue chicken is my new go-to for a quick meal, in true Las Vegas fashion, the kind you have in your car after a long workday,” Allen says. “That’s the level of comfort Red Rice provides.”
