dining
Eat this town! From Centennial Hills to Downtown to Green Valley and beyond, these are the places (and the plates) we’ve been eating lately — and we recommend you give them a taste, too. (Contributors: Jim Begley, John Hardin, Max Jacobson, Andrew Kiraly, Al Mancini, Danielle McCrea, Brock Radke)
Cent ral Big Wong Eating at Big Wong, a hole-in-the-wall in our expansive Chinatown neighborhood, is like eating at the house of some longtime family friends — no frills, just simple, great food. Hoi Nam Chicken is the epitome of that vibe, a huge plate of tender, juicy, stewed chicken (complete with skin and other odd but delicious parts) served with a pile of white rice and soy and ginger-chili sauces for a dipping extravaganza. It’s an utterly satisfying, ridiculously cheap meal, following in our Chinatown traditions. BR 5040 Spring Mountain Road, 368-6808
Eat Natalie Young’s menu is filled with simply prepared, classic comfort dishes. The chicken-fried steak may be one of the best dishes I’ve had all year. (Health food this is not, but I can think of few tastier ways to go out.) Smothered in robust gravy, the lightly battered and freshly fried steak arrives at your table piping hot. Young’s huevos motuleños — a Yucatanese breakfast dish with black beans, tortillas and plantains — have gotten more press and, while they’re good, they’re no chicken-fried steak. If you live downtown, this is likely already your favorite breakfast/lunch joint. If you’re in the suburbs, it’s worth the jaunt. JB 707 Carson Ave., 534-1515, eatdowntownlv. com
Las Famosas de Jose Sixteen ounces of chicken breast, cheese, beans, tomatoes, avocado, jalapeño peppers and lettuce sandwiched between two humongous slices of fried bread make up Le Titanic, una torta gigante or, as I like to call it, A REALLY BIG SANDWICH (technical specs: 12 inches long by 5 inches wide by 4 inches thick). But the novelty of its size isn’t a mere gimmick; on top of that, the ingredients are fresh, making for a gloriously juicy monster. Add in some of owner Fernando Rojas’ homemade, secret recipe salsa and you, sir, have got yourself a sandwich (A REALLY BIG SANDWICH). I recommend sharing — with up to 3 people. But if you’re broke and starving, Rojas will buy you and your friends’ meals if you can gobble up the five pound La Paquita in less than 15 minutes. DM 2635 E. Tropicana Ave., 450-2444
Fogo de Chão Several churrascarias or Brazilian steakhouses
68 | Desert
Companion | AUGUST 2013
Shore is good: Eat’s shrimp and grits
have popped up in recent years, but at Fogo de Chão, though the concept isn’t any different — rapid-fire meat delivery that you can’t possibly keep up with — the service and quality is impressive. “Churrascaria” means barbecue in Portuguese. And when you go for barbecue, you want to eat too much of different kinds of meats. Fogo de Chão is a great place to do that. The “picanha,” or garlicky top sirloin, is the best cut, the perfect blend of buttery texture and beefy taste (especially when you get a slice with fatty, charred crust on one side). The lamb chops are perfect. The linguica sausage is nicely spiced, and even the beef ribs are tender and full of flavor. The side dishes of caramelized bananas and crispy polenta cakes are hard to stop eating,
too. It’s hard to criticize what seems like a gimmicky restaurant when the food is this good. BR 360 E. Flamingo Road, 431-4500, fogodechao. com
Forte Forte doesn’t serve just a single type of ethnic cuisine. Rather, it’s an amalgamation of some unique types of cooking available in Las Vegas. The sign on the door calls it a European tapas restaurant — and there are plenty of traditional Spanish tapas available. But Bulgarian-born Nina Manchev has also brought the recipes of her native country — and Russia, Georgia and Croatia — to the west side of town. And she’s tapped her well-traveled father Stephan to oversee the
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SABIN ORR