Las Vegas is a city that rarely does anything quietly, and yet its most compelling transformation in recent years has been one of substance rather than noise. The arrival of Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the newest and tallest hotel on the Strip, has set a new standard for luxury accommodation in a city not previously short of ambition, and the dining scene surrounding it has followed suit with a collection of restaurants that would hold their own in any culinary capital in the world.
We spent four nights at Fontainebleau, eating our way through some of the finest food the city has to offer, exploring a casino floor of genuine style and scale, and returning each evening to rooms with floor-to-ceiling Strip views and a level of finish that made leaving them each morning a minor act of willpower. We also ventured beyond the property for what turned out to be the most memorable meal of the entire trip: an evening at COTE inside The Venetian Resort, the world’s only Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse, which delivered a dining experience that our entire group is still talking about.
Where to Stay
Las Vegas offers no shortage of places to rest your head, but Fontainebleau Las Vegas has, since opening in 2023, established itself as the clear benchmark for luxury accommodation on the Strip. The newest and tallest hotel in the city, its 3,644 rooms begin at a generous 488 square feet and rise through configurations of increasing ambition to the Fleur de Lis suites on the uppermost floors. With a MICHELIN key to its name, the first ever awarded to a Las Vegas hotel, and a collection of dining, wellness, and entertainment experiences that would justify a stay entirely on their own merits, it is, quite simply, the finest all-round luxury property the city currently offers.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Las Vegas Blvd
The newest and tallest hotel on the Strip, Fontainebleau Las Vegas opened in 2023 after one of the most anticipated developments in the city’s history, and it arrives with considerable conviction. The 67-storey tower houses 3,644 rooms, 32 restaurants and lounges, and 150,000 square feet of casino floor, yet what impresses most is not the scale but the coherence: this is a property that holds its ambition together with genuine style. Rooms are spacious and immaculately finished, beginning at 488 square feet, with floor-to-ceiling Strip views, exceptional sound insulation, and a level of in-room detail that reflects serious thought about what comfort actually requires. The VIP check-in experience, with champagne served in a private lounge and direct elevator access, sets the tone from the moment of arrival, and the staff throughout the property maintain a warmth and attentiveness that belies the size of the operation.
The dining collection is, by any measure, one of the strongest assembled under a single roof in Las Vegas. From the wood-fired Asian cooking at KYU, where a beef short rib and a tequila-based espresso martini rank among the finest versions of either we have encountered, to the glamorous Asian fusion at Komodo, the quietly exclusive Chyna Club, and the French Riviera ease of poolside brasserie La Côte, every meal across our four-night stay met a consistently high standard. The fitness centre, designed by Rockwell Group, is among the best hotel facilities of its kind, the casino is generous, modern, and well run, and the pool offering spans six acres with multiple distinct environments. Fontainebleau has earned its MICHELIN key, the first awarded to any Las Vegas hotel, and on the evidence of our stay, the recognition is entirely deserved.
Read about our full experience at Fontainebleau here.
Where to Dine
Las Vegas has always attracted serious restaurant talent, but the dining landscape has never looked quite like this. Across our stay, we ate at five restaurants that each deserved attention on their own terms: from poolside Mediterranean simplicity at La Côte to the wood-fired ambition of KYU, the glamorous Southeast Asian theatre of Komodo, the quietly exclusive Chinese cooking of Chyna Club, and an evening at COTE that delivered what our entire group agreed was one of the finest meals any of us had ever had.
La Côte
Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Perched on the third level of Fontainebleau Las Vegas, steps from the Oasis Pool, La Côte is one of those rare hotel restaurants that earns its reputation through the quality of what it puts on the table rather than the address it sits within. The space channels the relaxed elegance of a French Riviera brasserie with genuine conviction: open, airy, and beautifully appointed, with the pool and the Nevada sky forming a natural backdrop that makes the Strip feel very far away. Getting there requires a short escalator journey from the main floor, and that brief transition does something useful, stripping away the noise and energy of the casino before delivering you somewhere that feels, quite deliberately, like somewhere else.
The menu is rooted in Mediterranean simplicity and handled with confidence. A Caesar salad with baby gem, endive, parmesan, and garlic crouton was precise and well-balanced, while a grilled vegetable sandwich on focaccia with red pepper hummus demonstrated a kitchen that takes its ingredients seriously regardless of the occasion. The cocktail programme, however, is what lingers longest in the memory. The Pink Flamingo, built on Código Reposado tequila with Aperol, lime, and watermelon, and the Spicy Aphrodite, a Thai chilli and mango Collins with Herradura Silver, are among the finest poolside drinks we have encountered anywhere. For those staying at the hotel, an early visit to La Côte is not merely recommended; it sets a tone for the entire stay.
Read the full article here.
Komodo
Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Komodo is the kind of restaurant that Las Vegas promises more often than it delivers: genuinely glamorous, properly energetic, and underpinned by cooking that would hold its own in any major city in the world. Situated within Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the Southeast Asian fusion restaurant draws on the regional flavours and culinary traditions of its reference points with a confidence and inventiveness that makes for a compelling evening from start to finish. The room is visually striking, the atmosphere on a busy evening borders on electric, and the crowd that fills it has clearly made a deliberate choice about where to spend its night. What distinguishes Komodo from so many restaurants that lean on spectacle is that the kitchen more than justifies the setting.
The shared plates format rewards an adventurous approach to ordering, and we would encourage it without reservation. Wagyu beef dim sum with chilli ponzu was precise and beautifully balanced, the lobster dynamite with crispy rice and sriracha managed to be simultaneously indulgent and refined, and the Dragon maki, built around tempura shrimp, crab, pickled daikon, and tobiko, was the standout of an evening that had no weak moments. The service was informed, warm, and well paced across a busy room, and the cocktail programme demonstrated the same considered approach to flavour as the food. Komodo is, by some distance, one of the finest dining experiences Fontainebleau has to offer, and that, given the competition on the same property, is no faint praise.
Read our in-depth review of Komodo here.
Chyna Club
Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Tucked alongside the casino floor at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Chyna Club operates with a quiet confidence that makes it one of the most rewarding discoveries on the property. The room is intimate and beautifully considered, with warm lighting, rich materials, and an atmosphere that feels deliberately removed from the broader energy of the hotel. It is the kind of restaurant that fills its tables through reputation rather than visibility, and the clientele reflects that: a crowd that has made a deliberate choice to be there and is entirely focused on the experience in front of them. The transition from the casino floor to the composed calm of the dining room is more dramatic than the physical distance between them suggests, and it sets the tone for an evening that consistently delivers.
The cooking is where Chyna Club makes its most compelling case. A crispy sliced chicken with black vinegar, honey-chile sauce, julienned ginger, and toasted sesame achieved a balance of texture and opposing flavour that was, simply, one of the best dishes we ate during our entire stay. A three-cup Chilean sea bass with sweet garlic soy, oyster mushrooms, and scallion was impeccably timed and deeply satisfying, demonstrating a kitchen that treats its ingredients with genuine respect. Scallop fried rice with egg whites rounded out the meal with a lightness and a quiet confidence that made it far more than an afterthought. The service throughout was warm, knowledgeable, and well paced. Chyna Club is, by some distance, one of Fontainebleau’s best-kept secrets, and one we would return to without hesitation.
Find out more in our review of Chyna Club here.
KYU
Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Positioned near the main entrance to Fontainebleau Las Vegas, KYU is the kind of restaurant that rewards those who look beyond its accessible location to discover what the kitchen is genuinely capable of. Built around an open wood-fired kitchen, the restaurant draws on the global culinary travels of its team to produce a menu of interpretive Asian cooking that is confident, focused, and consistently impressive. The room is spacious and well laid out, with generous table spacing that encourages the kind of unhurried, convivial meal the shared plates format is designed for, and an atmosphere that manages to be simultaneously relaxed and animated. The scent of wood smoke that greets you on arrival turns out to be an entirely accurate promise of what follows.
The cooking across our visit reached its peak with a smoked and wood-fired beef short rib with black shichimi pepper and sweet soy that ranks, without qualification, among the finest versions of the dish we have encountered anywhere. Pork belly bao buns with chipotle and yuzu pickles opened proceedings with precision and real depth of flavour, and a Thai rice stone pot with king crab demonstrated a kitchen equally capable of delicacy as it is of bold, fire-driven cooking. The Good Morning, Vietnam espresso martini, built on 818 blanco tequila and Vietnamese cold brew, deserves a mention in its own right as one of the most accomplished drinks we have been served in any restaurant setting. The service throughout was warm, knowledgeable, and well paced. KYU is, by any measure, a destination restaurant that happens to sit inside a hotel, and it more than earns that distinction.
Read our full review of KYU Las Vegas here.
COTE Las Vegas
The Venetian Resort
COTE Las Vegas is, without qualification, one of the finest steak experiences we have encountered anywhere in the world, and we say that having visited the brand’s Michelin-starred Miami location with expectations already set at a considerable height. The fourth outpost of Simon Kim’s Korean steakhouse concept, situated within The Venetian Resort, occupies 17,000 square feet of David Rockwell-designed space arranged in a concentric, amphitheatre-like configuration of emerald-green leather banquettes surrounding a central bar. It is a stunning room: dark, warm, and theatrically alive, with a resident DJ providing a soundtrack that animates the space without ever overwhelming the conversation at the table. We visited for a celebration with our closest friends, and the evening delivered so comprehensively on every measure that the consensus around the table was unanimous: the best meal any of us had ever had.
The Butcher’s Feast is the way to experience COTE, and we would recommend it without reservation for any group with an appetite for serious beef and a willingness to surrender to the format. Four cuts of USDA Prime and American Wagyu beef, sourced from the restaurant’s in-house dry ageing room and cooked live at the table on smokeless in-table grills by a server of exceptional skill, arrived in sequence with banchan, a savory egg soufflé, spicy kimchi and doen-jang stews, and a vanilla soft serve with soy sauce caramel that was, in its quiet way, as memorable as anything that preceded it. Each cut offered a distinct and compelling flavour profile, and reaching a consensus on a favourite proved impossible across the table. The COTE Fashioned, built on Suntory Toki whisky with oleo-saccharum and aromatic bitters, became the cocktail of the evening by some distance. COTE Las Vegas is a restaurant that justifies any occasion you bring to it, and then surpasses it.
Read our full review of COTE here.
Where to visit
From the glowing curve of the Sphere to the red sandstone of Red Rock Canyon, the smart visitor knows where to spend their hours. This short guide gathers the addresses worth the detour, where design, dining and the wider desert all earn their place on the itinerary. Las Vegas has quietly grown up. The spectacle remains, but alongside it sits a layer of polish that makes the city worth a few considered days rather than a single restless night. What follows are the stops that reward the trip.
The Sphere
The newest landmark on the skyline is also the most arresting. Standing 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, it is the largest spherical structure in the world, its exterior wrapped in 580,000 square feet of programmable LED that shifts from a giant eyeball to a glowing moon after dark. Inside, an 18,600-seat auditorium curves around a 16K wraparound screen, paired with an audio system tuned so finely that most of it sits hidden behind the display. Book a concert residency or a screening of Postcard from Earth and the effect is hard to forget.
Bellagio fountains
A short walk along the Strip brings one of the city’s enduring set pieces. The fountains perform across an eight-acre lake, choreographed to music and lit so that water rises in time with the score. Step inside afterwards for the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, replanted with the seasons, and the Gallery of Fine Art beyond it. The display costs nothing to watch, which only adds to the appeal.
Red Rock Canyon
The desert is closer than most expect. Seventeen miles west of the Strip lies a conservation area of roughly 198,000 acres, its red and cream sandstone cliffs rising sharply from the Mojave floor. A 13-mile one-way scenic loop threads past the best of it, with marked trailheads for hikes that range from a gentle hour to a full day. Timed-entry reservations apply between October and May, so plan the morning accordingly.
Grand Canyon by air
The grandest excursion takes to the sky. Helicopters depart the Strip for the canyon’s West Rim, trading the city’s lights for one of the most striking views on the continent within a single morning. Many tours descend to the canyon floor for a champagne stop before the return leg. It is the kind of half-day that quietly justifies the whole trip.
O by Cirque du Soleil
The most accomplished show in town has held its place at the Bellagio since 1998. Performed in and around a pool holding some 1.5 million gallons of water, it blends acrobatics, synchronised swimming and diving in a purpose-built theatre where the stage shifts between solid and liquid in moments. The effect is theatrical in the truest sense, and the front rows reward the splurge. Tickets sell quickly, so secure seats before arrival.