Best Authentic Ethnic Restaurants

List Author: Banan
Description: OK, what I'm looking for here are quality AUTHENTIC ethnic restaurants -- no war su gai, General Tso's chicken, or California rolls here. I let my Taiwanese world-travelling friend tell what is authentic and what is Americanized. I admit the Americanized stuff is sometimes tastier for us Americans -- but not really authentic food.
  • Best Thai Food - The Lotus of Siam on East Sahara has not only been called the best Northern Thai food outside of Thailand, it also serves some of the spiciest food I’ve found. Nobody has ever accused me of being a whimp around hot food (I worked 3 years at the original BW3 and keep a bottle of Pure Cap handy), but even ordering the meal at 7 out of 10 spiciness resulted in extremely painful eating. It was great.
  • Best Dim Sum - For those who don’t know about dim sum, it is basically a Chinese way of having a meal. The servers roll around carts of small dishes to choose from and those chosen are shared by all at the table. Some of the different dishes include dumplings, rice noodles, meat balls, turnip mush (what I call it), stuffed lotus leaves, chicken feet (not my favorite), and custard tarts (my favorite).

    We found 2 great places in Vegas to get good authentic dim sum. The Cathay House on Spring Mountain (West of China Town) was suggested by several of the local Asians. It was very clean and the dim sum was fine. However, it tried to be too fancy for a dim sum place. Harbor Palace in China Town is our favorite. It isn’t as fancy as Cathay House and they have no custard tarts, but the quality of the food is top-notch. There was a line (take a number) to get seated but it was worth the wait.

  • Best Middle Eastern Food - Marrakech Restaurant on Paradise serves many authentic Moroccan dishes. You sit on pillows and eat with your hands. They even have belly dancers to entertain you.
  • Best Sushi - With about 150 sushi bars in Vegas, I looked on-line and decided to try the “top-rated” sushi place on several lists. Sushi House Manda has been serving sushi for over 20-years but is about 7 miles off the strip. I will admit many of the rolls and specialty offerings are very tasty here. However, the sushi wasn’t the freshest (probably a 7-out-of-10 on that scale) and the sushi offerings were not at all authentic. The all-you-can-eat-for-an-hour deal at just under $30 can make this place a good choice for any hungry sushi (and hot sauce) lovers.
  • Best Korean Barbeque - Ginseng Bar BQ has incredible Korean dishes and respectable kimchi. Best of all, it’s located right on the strip across from the Monte Carlo (look for the sign down an alleyway). It’s probably not the cheapest Korean food and I’ve been told there is no such thing as authentic Korean food in the US, but this place is worth checking out.
  • Honorable Mention: Best Klingon - OK, the resident Klingon assured me there were no Klingon dishes legal to serve in Vegas, but at least Quarks in the Hilton served a mean Klingon Blood wine.
  • Best Vegas food - There are several (ok, several hundred) new restaurants in Vegas, however few or none of them are authentic Vegas. Authentic Vegas food is cheap, good, and filling. Buffets qualify but they are rarely both cheap AND good.

    My pick goes to Golden Gate downtown. The 99 cent shrimp cocktails are actually good and nothing on their menu is expensive.

  • Best Vietnamese Noodles - Surprisingly, Pho’s in TI was not only tasty, but very authentic. I only wish they had warned me the curry chicken noodles was made with chicken on the bones (very authentic but not for every American).
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