Eat the best seafood in Las Vegas at these amazing restaurants

Among all the magicians in Las Vegas, Dan Krohmer is one of the best. Behind a bland storefront, the chef who studied sushi in Japan and worked for Morimoto in Philadelphia serves brilliant seafood that’s transformed an average strip mall into a culinary hot spot and earned glowing praise all around town. Grab a couple counter seats and something special from the bar, then dig into whimsical dishes like French toast bites with caviar, blue crab hushpuppies, fresh sashimi and baller ceviche. The hard part is not ordering the whole menu.

When Milos opened at the Cosmopolitan in 2010, it brought something to the Strip we hadn’t even realized was missing: Greek seaside fare fresh from the Mediterranean and Aegean. That’s what you’ll find at Milos—meaty octopus with just the right char, Portuguese grilled sardines and freshly imported fish, cooked whole in a salt crust and finished with a drizzle of olive oil and a few capers. The three-course lunch special is a steal. Just be sure to pick the “real Greek yogurt” for dessert, which will completely overwhelm your taste buds.

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 opening chef of Kabuto. At Yui, Mizoguchi plays chef and choreographer for 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 and seafood you’ve never heard of—let alone tasted.

The San Francisco location of chef Michael Mina’s eponymous restaurant earned a Michelin star in 2017, and its Vegas sister is nothing to scoff at either. Here, Mina’s crew employs top notch ingredients like Santa Barbara spot prawns and Alaskan halibut to craft thoughtful dishes influenced by French and Japanese traditions. There’s no bad choice on this menu, but allow us to whisper these four glorious words: Maine lobster pot pie.

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. 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. But this culinary journey is worth it.

When chef Paul Bartolotta’s eponymous restaurant closed in this whimsical space along Wynn Esplanade, locals bemoaned the loss of a legendary restaurant. But in its place Mark LoRusso has created Costa di Mare, an eatery that hews closely to the concept Bartolotta established, namely fresh-as-it-gets seafood sourced straight from Italian waters. Order live langoustines, spider crab ravioli, a whole pink snapper or splurge on the James Beard House menu, a seven-course tour of oceanic flavors that chef LoRusso prepared at the New York landmark.

Set along the Wynn’s delightfully odd Lake of Dreams, where puppet and light shows are projected on a waterfall after sunset, chef David Walzog’s Lakeside is hard to define among restaurants devoted to specific regions, nations or even cities. At Lakeside, the common thread is simply seafood, prepared however the chef deems fit. There’s tuna sashimi with jalapeño and ponzu, charred octopus with Spanish chorizo and oven-roasted lobster with an array of optional sauces. For something special, consider the wild Hawaiian fish, caught sustainably using hook and line, proving that eating responsibly can be utterly delicious.

If this off-Strip casino isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you’re hungry, you don’t know the Oyster Bar. A Vegas institution, this tiny, 24-hour seafood counter slings steamers, gumbos and bouillabaisse to a handful of seats that generally stay filled round-the-clock. That means you’ll probably have to wait in line no matter what time you show up and that the signature pan roast of shrimp, crab and lobster can serve as your late night snack or breakfast of champions.

Is District One a seafood restaurant? Not exactly. Or rather, yes and. Yes, this Chinatown destination does oysters with a house special sauce of ponzu, tobiko and serrano. Yes, it serves sashimi tacos and whole grilled squid. Yes, chef Khai Vu prepares dishes that evoke his native Vietnam, like whole fried fish with pickled papaya and signature lobster pho, the crimson crustacean overflowing its bowl. But that’s not all. At District One, you’ll also find Asian fusion plates and meaty offerings—coconut pork belly, oxtail fried rice, clay pot chicken with Chinese sausage. Come with an open mind and an empty stomach, and you’ll be rewarded.

Thanks to Mexico’s thousands of miles of coast, seafood is a crucial part of the country’s cuisine. This East Las Vegas restaurant captures those flavors beautifully, from bright ceviches to spicy aguachiles to battered Baja fish tacos with a cabbage crunch. Start with fresh seafood marinated in lime then grab some shrimp or a steaming molcajete laden with octopus, crab legs and clams. Wash it all down with a cold Corona and picture yourself with your toes in the sand.

Lots of people serve shrimp and oysters on the Strip, but no one does it quite like Emeril. At the celebrity chef’s MGM Grand restaurant, those oysters come broiled with Creole herb butter or freshly shucked alongside watermelon mignonette, and the shrimp is stuffed with crab over black-eyed-pea succotash. It’s feel-good food without all the usual formality. Go ahead and lick your fingers.

Born in Miami Beach in 1913, the Las Vegas outpost of this Florida institution has a vast, something-for-everyone menu of steak, fish and fried chicken served in an old-school setting. But never mind all that, you’re here for the crabs—sweet, meaty stone crab specifically, harvested along the Florida coast and served boiled and chilled with butter and mustard sauce. Suck up the market price, order a mess of sides, grab your mallet and get cracking.