The measure of any American city as a dining destination these days is as tied up with the quality of its ethnic restaurants as it is with the high-end, gastronomic temples here that are getting the lion's share of ink in the national print media.
Vegas may not yet have a New York City's Flushing or Jackson Heights, neighborhoods where you eat knishes, Afghani rice pilaf and a funky goat stew from Jamaica in three adjacent storefronts, and we certainly lack the voyage of discovery provided by Haitian and Latino restaurants that predominate in a city like Miami.
In fact, we are still decades behind being able to offer the Pacific Rim buzz of a Sawtelle Boulevard in Los Angeles, a slice of Tokyo that happened to drop in on that city's Westside. But we are finally beginning to hold our own in the amazing universe of ethnic dining, as this list of great, low-cost eateries amply illustrates.
Lotus of Siam
935 E. Sahara Ave. 735-3033
Ever since Gourmet Magazine called this modest place "the best Thai restaurant in the United States," it's been swathed in controversy. The thing is, though, almost everyone who comes in the evening (not at lunch, when the kitchen is preoccupied with a pleasantly generic buffet) is blown away by Saipin Chutima's Northern Thai fare; crispy rice and sour sausage salad, beef jerky, country sausages and fragrant hot pots, food as far from Bangkok stir-fry as the Gulf of Thailand is from Lake Mead.
Inka Si Senor
2797 Maryland Parkway. 731-0286
It was Peru, not Mexico, that gave the world the well-known raw fish cocktail ceviche. And the Inka Si Senor restaurant chain, which started in Lima, Peru's capital, serves a mixed ceviche chock-full of shrimp, scallops and mahi mahi bathed in a tangy vinegar marinade; it's worth the trip. Delicious chaufas, fried-rice dishes that fuse Chinese influences with South American sensibility, and the piquant chicken dish aji de gallina, are estimable as well.
Alborz Mediterranean Grill
3111 S. Valley View Blvd. 248-4412
It's too bad the owners of this little Persian gem, the only Vegas restaurant giving proper acquittal to this sumptuous cuisine, feel compelled to use a Mediterranean descriptor, since Iran is a long way from that body of water. But if it's kababs or exotically perfumed rice casseroles you crave, this is the place to eat them. Daily specials like fesenjon (chicken with walnut pomegranate sauce) or softball-size kofte tabrizi (meatballs with dates and almonds) are simply amazing.
Fausto's Mex-Grill
2654 Horizon Ridge Parkway. 617-2246
The raison d'etre at Fausto's, for me at least, is the $1.99 sope, a fat, grilled corn cake onto which a pile of spicy barbecued pork or chicken is dumped along with shredded cotija cheese, lettuce and a drizzle of red sauce. But the huevos rancheros, eaten at all hours of the morning, and the garlickly shrimps al ajo, served with Mexican rice and beans, are each in their own ways the ne plus ultra of down-home Mexican in Vegas. The tortillas ain't bad, either.
Gandhi
4080 Paradise Road. 734-0094
On almost any given Sunday, or during the week at lunchtime, you can see a large number of our city's Indian populace chowing down on the buffet at Gandhi, a veggie extravaganza where occasional lamb and chicken curries make guest appearances. What makes this buffet good is its sheer diversity—south Indian dishes like the flying saucer-shaped rice cakes, idlies, eaten with a tamarind lentil broth called sambar; garbanzo bean-flour curry from west India; and a giddy, full-blown array of heartier north Indian vegetable stews.
China A Go-Go
75 S. Valle Verde Drive, Henderson. 407-5180
This unsung storefront, in which a gaggle of chefs try manfully to stay ahead of the huge number of take-out orders, is probably my favorite Chinese restaurant in town. Portions are enormous, and dishes, mom-and-pop stuff like kung pao chicken or mouthwatering rice noodles stir-fried with beef, black beans and bean sprouts, are done with consummate skill. The sautéed green beans, when available, are a revelation.
City Lights Bistro
4850 W. Flamingo Road. 222-4344
Las Vegas remains in sore need of an upscale Greek joint serving fresh fish and the Olympic glories of this underappreciated cuisine, but for now, this is the best Greek food we've got. Michael Karafantis, an old pro who has done several restaurants here, is cooking with gas, stuff like egg lemon soup, a terrific moussaka, some of the meatiest and most flavorful lamb chops around, and baklava that would make a black-veiled grandmother weep for joy.
A Taste of Indonesia
5700 W. Spring Mountain Road. 365-0888
This is our only Indonesian restaurant, and it has gotten progressively better since it opened early last year. Rijstaffel, in which more than a dozen little dishes are served with rice, can be ordered in advance, and is a wonderful way to experience this exotic cuisine. Just a few dishes not to miss include: rendang, which is beef slowly reduced in coconut milk and hot spice; mortabak, a rolled, stuffed pancake; and nasi rames, a plate of cooked rice surrounded by chicken chili, a spiced egg, salad dressed in a sweet peanut sauce, and a few other delicacies.
El Coqui
2210 Paradise Road. 737-1868
This new entry bills itself as a Caribbean place, but we know better. El Coqui actually specializes in the little known, but almost fantastically complex cuisine of the island of Puerto Rico, which includes dishes like mofongos, bacalaitos, pastellitos and pernil. Want to know what kind of fare this refers to? Read my Taste column next Thursday for a full review. Or take my word for it and go now.
Chalow Kabab
6420 Pecos Road. 433-8517
We actually do have Afghani cuisine here, and the place to eat some is a tiny steam-table restaurant on the corner of Pecos and Sunset. You'll choose a pair of dishes to go with basmati rice: a tender, pan-fried chicken cutlet; borani bademjan, eggplant stewed with onion, tomato and spice; or choices that vary daily. Make sure not to miss bulani, which is pan-fried dough filled with spiced ground beef and mushrooms, or fragrant lamb shank.
Korea Garden
4355 Spring Mountain Road. 383-3392
Many of our Korean restaurants are housed in the dingy Commercial Center of Sahara (also home to Lotus of Siam), and virtually all of them serve a cookie-cutter menu of barbecue and soup dishes common to Korean restaurants in this country. But this one is a clean, cheery upstairs haunt, and the food feels cleaner as well, especially mandu guk, a rustic soup stocked with meat-filled dumplings, and dolsot bibimbap, a pot of crunchy baked rice in which colorful raw veggies, a pile of chopped beef and a fried egg are in residence.
Magura
1305 Vegas Valley Drive. 693-6699
Hey, a Bulgarian restaurant in Vegas. Even greater LA doesn't have one. And what's more, it's good, a dark, ethnic haunt joined at the hip with a pizza place also called Magura. The dishes to order here are tarator, a cool cucumber, walnut yogurt soup; pan-fried red peppers stuffed with Kashkaval cheese, sort of a Slavic chile relleno; and the sausage and white-bean casserole, which pops up on the menu from time to time. At the finish, there is grappa from Bulgaria, which goes down like a firefight.
Pho Kim Long
4023 Spring Mountain Road. 220-3613
Pho (pronounced it "fuh") is a meal-in-a-bowl Vietnamese dish that is not only a national obsession in that country, but practically de rigueur among the terminally hip in towns like Oakland, Pittsburgh and Seattle. Start with a beefy broth made by reducing bones and leftovers in a giant kettle, and when the soup's ready, throw in rice noodles, various cuts of beef like brisket, flank steak, tendon or tripe, a dictionary's worth of condiments, fresh herbs and three or four bottles of sauce. Five dollars does it.
Esmeralda's Cafe
1000 E. Charleston Blvd. 388-1404
Salvadorean cuisine is often lumped with that of Mexico. It shouldn't be. It's mild and sweet, not wickedly spicy, and more Caribbean than anything. Pupusas are a way of life—stuffed pockets of masa dough with fillings like pork crackling or a flower bud called loroco—and the pollo encebollado here, which is chicken with onion and green pepper in a red sauce, is to die for. If you insist, though, the restaurant has a page of Mexican dishes for the unenlightened.
Togoshi Ramen
855 E. Twain Ave. 737-7003
Ramen—long wheat-based noodles slurped from a garlicky broth—were immortalized in the film Tampopo and soon became part of the national dining lexicon thanks to dirt cheap, dried packages of the stuff sold from 99-cent stores to every supermarket chain from here to Timbuktu. But the real version, done in many incarnations in this little Japanese dive, is addictively good, cheap and filling, especially ramen with big slices of pork, or mapo ramen, in which the soup is filled with tofu and spicy meat sauce.