Every large downtown casino has a steakhouse, and most of them are old enough to have regulars who have been coming for decades. The genre is the one dining format downtown has never let go of: dark rooms, tableside service, a short wine list heavy on California cabernet, and a strip steak as the center of the menu. Six of them sit within four blocks of one another.
Hugo’s Cellar, Four Queens
Hugo’s Cellar is below the casino floor at the Four Queens, reached by a staircase from the lobby, and has operated since 1977. It is the most ritualized of the downtown rooms: every woman is handed a long-stemmed rose on arrival, the salad is built tableside from a cart, and dessert comes with a plate of chocolate-dipped fruit whether or not dessert was ordered. The menu is the traditional one, with the duck and the rack of lamb as long-standing alternatives to the steaks. Jackets are not required and have not been for years, but the room is formal by downtown standards. Reservations are necessary on weekends.
Top of Binion’s Steakhouse
Binion’s steakhouse is on the 24th floor of the hotel tower, which otherwise has been closed since 2009. The elevator from the casino floor goes directly there. The room faces north and west over Fremont Street and the canopy, and the window tables are the reason to book: there is no higher dining room downtown. The restaurant dates from the Horseshoe years and has been renovated without being modernized. The steaks are the point; the chicken-fried lobster is the menu’s one eccentricity and has a following.
Vic & Anthony’s, Golden Nugget
Vic & Anthony’s opened in 2004, the year before Landry’s bought the Golden Nugget, and is the Landry’s steakhouse brand’s flagship outside Houston. It is the largest and most expensive of the downtown rooms, with a dry-aged program and a wine list that runs well beyond the others. The room is off the Golden Nugget’s main casino floor near the Carson Street entrance.
Oscar’s, Plaza
Oscar’s opened in 2011 in the glass dome at the front of the Plaza, overlooking the head of Fremont Street. It is named for Oscar Goodman, the former defense lawyer and three-term mayor of Las Vegas, who is a partner in the restaurant and appears there regularly. The theme is Goodman’s own: the menu names its cuts for his former clients and associates, and the bar is positioned as a martini room. The view down the canopy from the dome is the best from any restaurant on the street.
Barry’s Downtown Prime, Circa
Barry’s opened with Circa in 2020 and is the newest. The chef and partner is Barry Dakake, formerly of N9NE at the Palms, and the room is the most contemporary of the six, with a lounge and a large bar. The menu runs to the wagyu and tomahawk end of the format. It is the only downtown steakhouse that draws a significant Strip crowd on its own.
Triple George Grill, Downtown Grand
Triple George opened in 2005 on Third Street, before the Downtown Grand replaced the Lady Luck around it, and was absorbed into the hotel in 2013. It is styled as a San Francisco grill, with booths, a long bar, and a menu that is as much seafood and chops as steak. It is the one of the six that functions as a neighborhood restaurant, with a weekday lunch trade from the courthouse and city hall nearby.
Also
The Golden Gate’s Du-par’s, the El Cortez’s Siegel’s 1941, and the Fremont’s Second Street Grill are not steakhouses, but each serves a steak and has the same clientele on a cheaper night. The Golden Steer, on Sahara Avenue, is the oldest steakhouse in the city, but it is three miles from Fremont Street and is a different article.