How to Eat Like Royalty in Vegas Without Breaking the Bank

Vegas eats will go as baller as your credit limit and personal threshold will allow. It's REAL easy to rack up a quadruple-digit tab for two at places like Nobu and Joël Robuchon at the Mansion. But dining out in Vegas doesn't have to be an exercise in buyer's remorse (… and guilt… and regret…). While the days of the $9.99 prime rib dinner have almost entirely gone the way of the Riviera -- and by that we mean ceremoniously blown up -- you can still find great dining deals that will satisfy all your major Vegas food group cravings (i.e., buffets, steakhouses, 24-hour joints) both on and off the Strip.

Mostly off, though. Deal with that now. Download the Uber and Lyft apps and accept the fact that it's either pay the hefty tourist tax for dining out on the Strip or venture out into the sprawling strip malls of the surrounding Vegas metro area to explore the much cheaper -- and in many cases, also better -- locals joints.

The buffet is to Vegas what BBQ is to Austin and pizza-by-the-slice is to Manhattan: ubiquitous and practically synonymous with the city itself. There are many good buffets here. There are, however, not many great buffets, especially when you calculate cost against value. Now, if you really want to go all-out on a buffet, do so with the Sterling Brunch at Bally's and eat your weight in lobster tails washed down with bottomless bottles of Perrier-Jouët. But if you're not trying to be so spendy-spendy -- save it for the slots! -- yet still want a variety of tasty food at affordable prices, give one of these a shot.

There are so many steakhouses in Las Vegas. SO many. And they are as diverse and varied as the hordes of tourists on the Strip on a Saturday night. From the old-school, Rat Pack-style steakhouses (where the Rat Pack actually once hung out) to the even flashier, even spendier Strip steakhouses like Carnevino and Craftsteak where the per-person check average is probably north of $200, Vegas has a steakhouse for all tastes and all "tastes." But you don't have to blow your entire Fun Fund on one meal to enjoy a good steak in this town, and these places are proof.

The popularity of sushi in Vegas is a bit of an enigma, what with it being a city in the middle of the desert and all, where fish do not live, because it's the desert. But! Since there is no accounting for good taste or good judgment, especially as far as ANYTHING in Las Vegas is concerned, sushi is a thing here, including cheap all-you-can-eats. They sure aren't Nobu, but they'll scratch the spicy tuna itch.

Mexican food on the Strip is mostly garbage. And not, like, kitschy Tex-Mex/Taco Bell "this is disgusting but it's SO GOOD" garbage, but like, "I just paid $18 for two bland-AF chicken tacos and why is there an entertainment fee added to my bill?" garbage. Lucky for us, and also you, Las Vegas has a large Latino population, and they know what's up for tasty tacos, at prices that actually make sense. 

Did you know that Las Vegas has one of the best Chinatowns in North America? No, you didn't, because you only think about yourself. Well, it does, and places like Abriya Raku and Chada Thai/Chada Street deserve your time and money while you're here. But if you're aiming for more fast-casual and/or cheap, you'll be quite happy with these upper-end-of-the-cheap-spectrum joints.

If you're doing Vegas right, then at some point you are going to need to eat at 4am, when the regular restaurants have all closed up for the night. You will not be alone; in fact, you might have an even longer wait to get into one of these spots than you did to get into the club. But these places are the go-to's of all the go-to's (and if you happen to be sober-ish at any of them after 2am, the people-watching is world-class).

Vegas is quite possibly the world capital of brunch, not that anyone ever gives it credit. Now, as the world capital of brunch, Vegas has every type of brunch, particularly the boozy brunch and ESPECIALLY the party brunch. You can brunch however you see fit -- we're not your parents and aren't here to tell you what to do, except that when you brunch it should damn sure be with some bottomless mimosas.

Las Vegas is the Noah's Ark of celebrity-chef restaurants, and most of them are very, VERY, veryveryveryvery expensive. Unless it's, like, Guy Fieri's joint. (Which is still more expensive than it has any right to be.) It's not so much that you can do a celebrity-chef joint "cheaply," because you can't, but all things being relative these places are more cheap than their significantly more expensive counterparts.

At some point, a slice of pizza in Vegas will be the best thing you've ever tasted. Because at some point you will find yourself up way too late, with way too much liquor in your belly, jonesing for a slice. And pizza, like sex, always scratches a particular itch at 2am. Whatever your preference for pie, Vegas has imported it. New York style, Chicago style, super-fancy gourmet foo-foo California style, Neapolitan style, Sicilian style, even Detroit-style pizza. These joints are as close to Vegas originals as you'll find, and they have a bit of a cult following (as well as late hours because, again, 2am is closer than you think).

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