Question of the Day - 11 February 2026

"Asian" food is a tall order, seeing as how you're talking about literally hundreds of distinct regional styles throughout East, Southeast, South, Central, and West Asia.

You've got your Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian, Indian, and Chinese, which itself has "Eight Great Traditions" (Sichuan, Cantonese, Hunan, Min, and four others), along with Central Asia's Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, and Tajik, and don't get us started about Indian (and Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Nepalese), which constitutes an entire Asian subcontinent. 

Las Vegas doesn't have all that variety, of course, so we'll stick to the big five: Thai, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese. 

First on the list, by far, is Lotus of Siam. It's certainly our favorite. It's been called the best Thai restaurant not only in Las Vegas, but also the entire United States. We're not qualified to comment on the latter claim, but we do agree with the former. We should say that a newish Thai restaurant, Blue Orchid, could be a contender, at least for second best; we ate there recently and our review will be posted soon.

As for Chinese, we're partial to Wing Lei, as long as price is no object. It’s received 5 Diamonds from AAA, 5 Stars from Forbes, and was the first Chinese restaurant in North America to earn a Michelin Star. Plus, it's at the Wynn, so you know it's great. We also like Ping Pang Pong at the Gold Coast, Shang Artisan Noodle on W. Flamingo, China Mama in Chinatown, and a great new dim sum place, Nom Wah, at the Resort at Summerlin (formerly Rampart). We haven't tried it, but we hear very good things about Big Dan Shanxi Taste in Chinatown; it placed #61 on Yelp's Best Chinese Restaurants in the U.S. last year.  

For Korean, our number-one choice is the (inappropriately named) Tofu Hut in Chinatown, where we've been eating for 18 years after it was recommended to us by a Korean friend who said it was the best. Another Korean BBQ that caught our attention is Hobak, also in Chinatown, where the K-pop superstar group BTS ate every night when they performed in Las Vegas. A third good one in the vicinity is Honey Pig, a year older than Tofu Hut. 

Similarly, our go-to Vietnamese place is Pho Vietnam in the original Chinatown Plaza, where we've been eating since both opened way back in 1995 and it hasn't failed to satisfy in more than 30 years. Pho Kim Long nearby is our late-night play, open till 2:30 a.m. (and the name has always amused us). The Black Sheep, way out on Warm Springs Rd., has won numerous awards, including Eater Vegas' Restaurant of the Year in 2017; its owner and chef, Jamie Tran, made two appearances on the Bravo show "Top Chef."

For Japanese, our choice is Raku in Chinatown. (It's also a favorite of John Curtas, author of our Eating Las Vegas series.) It has more than 2,000 Yelp reviews with a total of 4.4 stars. Another good one is Wakuda at Palazzo; chef Tetsuya Wakuda is a Michelin two-star recipient. Of course, it's very high end, as much French as Japanese, so get ready to pay to eat there.  

Finally, we toyed with adding Filipino food, but we admit we're not the biggest fans of this cuisine, so we don't eat at these restaurants. The last time was at Pepita's Kitchen, one of the counters at Famous Foods Street Eats at Resorts World, but it closed in 2021, shortly after it opened. If anyone has a suggestion for good food from the Philippines in Las Vegas, we're all ears.

And please, let us hear about your favorite Thai, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese places as well.