Morimoto
Photograph: MGM Resorts
Photograph: MGM Resorts

The 13 best Japanese restaurants in Las Vegas

Wake up your taste buds with delectable omakase, ramen, gyoza and more at the best Japanese restaurants in Las Vegas

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It’s no secret that Las Vegas is full to the brim with seriously good food. But it’s not just the kind of burgers and shakes you find at the casinos; the City of Lights is home to cuisines from all over the world. 

And that means that there’s no shortage of really excellent Japanese restaurants. The selection here features everything from upscale to budget and traditional to modern, serving up sushi, yakitori, udon and more. If you’re craving it, Vegas has got it. Here are the best Japanese restaurants in the city. 

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Sarah Feldberg is a travel writer and Las Vegas expert. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. 

Best Japanese restaurants in Las Vegas

  • price 3 of 4

Chef Kaoru Azeuchi is quietly cooking some of the best Japanese food—scratch that, best food—in Las Vegas. Here, the veteran chef, who once served the island’s emperor, focuses on kaiseki dining, a Japanese tradition obsessed with seasonality where every bite of the ten-dish menu is inherently of the moment, made with ingredients only currently available. It’s a labor-intensive style of cooking that requires reservations at least three days in advance, but diners reap the rewards, embarking on an edible journey that’s fantastic and fleeting, a culinary revelation that changes with every visit.

  • Japanese
  • West of the Strip
  • price 2 of 4

This once under-the-radar Chinatown restaurant is hardly a secret anymore, but that hasn’t diminished its culinary prowess. Ten years after chef/owner Mitsuo Endo began serving silky homemade tofu and robata-grilled beef tendon to in-the-know locals and off-duty chefs, the six-time James Beard semifinalist izakaya is still just as relevant. And Raku stays open till 3am six nights a week, making it one of the city’s best destinations for a late-night bite.

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  • Japanese
  • price 4 of 4

If Jiro Dreams of Sushi is your favorite documentary, Yui Edomae Sushi might be your favorite restaurant. Here, the role of Jiro is played by chef Gen Mizoguchi, a master of fish and rice who helped introduce Las Vegas to traditional edomae sushi as the chef of a just-opened Kabuto. At Yui, Mizoguchi plays chef and choreographer to a brilliant parade of bites that progress over the course of an omakase tasting, from pickled items to grilled plates to gorgeously subtle sashimi and nigiri using fish you’ve never heard of before, for a meal you’ll never forget.

  • Japanese
  • West of the Strip
  • price 3 of 4

There are no rolls on the menu at this Chinatown sushi restaurant. No gyoza, no seaweed salad and—heaven forbid!—no spicy mayo. Kabuto serves omakase symphonies—multi-course tasting menus focused around lush slabs of super-fresh fish laid across perfectly seasoned sushi rice with perhaps a dab of soy here and there. That simplicity lets the ingredients sing and has earned the restaurant due acclaim. Reserve a seat at the counter and watch the chefs create your meal with a grace and precision that resembles performance art.

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  • price 4 of 4
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
This is our world now. A world where Vegas diners hankering for highly choreographed omakase tastings don’t have a single option but multiple restaurants to choose from, including this recent arrival adjacent to Yummy Sushi. While Kabuto and Yui embody traditional edomae experiences, at Kame things feel looser and more creative. There’s still fantastic seafood—Hokkaido hairy crabs, giant clams and cod sperm sac—but the chefs have a little more fun with their dishes, serving sea urchin in nori tacos and lobster claws in a bath of uni Sauvignon Blanc sauce. Those 16-ish courses don’t come cheap, however. Expect to spend at least $165 per person for this two-hour culinary epic.
  • price 3 of 4

Las Vegas waited years for the Iron Chef to open a restaurant on the Strip, and when Morimoto arrived at MGM Grand in 2016, he didn’t disappoint. Here, the ponytailed chef flexes multiple culinary muscles from sushi and steak to creative reinterpretations of Japanese classics, like tuna tartare arranged as an artist’s palette and gently smoked yellowtail “pastrami” with a dollop of creme fraiche. Pair your meal with something from the sake list or perhaps a wagyu Manhattan, made with—you guessed it—beef-infused whiskey.

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  • The Strip
  • price 3 of 4

Iconic chef Nobu Matsuhisa has long influenced Las Vegas through his Hard Rock Hotel restaurant, which produced some of the city’s top Japanese cooks. But today the best taste of Nobu is at Caesars Palace, where this expansive eatery attached to the first-ever Nobu Hotel delivers a wide array of Japanese fare. Supplement the signature miso black cod with a few pieces of sushi, rock shrimp tempura and perhaps an order of wagyu gyoza. The Nobu experience may no longer be revolutionary, but it’s reliably delicious.

  • Japanese
  • price 4 of 4

Hello, gorgeous. This jewel of a restaurant tucked into the Wynn is what happens when the same amount of consideration is given to both design and food. Here, guests dine alongside Japanese gardens complete with tranquil koi pond and a 90-foot waterfall. And that dramatic scenery is a fitting backdrop for chef Devin Hashimoto’s menu, which elevates the usual suspects to match the surroundings. That means Jidori chicken is cooked with black truffle teriyaki, beef tataki is made with prime NY strip and Mizumi is the perfect splurge for a Vegas vacation.

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  • Japanese
  • price 3 of 4

Where Kabuto and Yui approach sushi with almost religious reference, at KUMI has a little more fun with the raw fish-and-rice format. Try the Pop Rockin’ roll with spicy tuna, crab, salmon avocado and Pop Rocks or a crispy pork belly roll with Brussels sprouts coleslaw. The rest of the menu is equally playful, pairing Japanese eggplant with miso and mozzarella and yuzu kosho scallops with pancetta and truffle Parmesan.

  • price 3 of 4

Modern Japanese restaurants are hardly novel on the Strip (see: Mizumi, Kumi, Nobu, Morimoto), so when London-based Zuma announced an outpost inside the Cosmopolitan, it hardly registered as a game-changer. But if Zuma hasn’t redefined the category, it’s certainly established a niche within it, thanks to its elegant, wood-infused environment and its broad menu of well-crafted bites, from sea bass with yuzu, truffle and salmon roe to tempura lobster and robata-grilled pork ribs. Bring a few friends, order together and taste as much as you can.

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