Here's a look at the best new Las Vegas restaurants, hotels, party rooms, corporate event venues, conference centers, and private rooms to open this winter. These new and renovated Las Vegas venues can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, meetings, business dinners, cocktail parties, conferences, weddings, and more.
Crush, a restaurant from the Morton Group, opened in December at MGM Grand. The 7,000-square-foot restaurant is divided into two rooms, a garden-like atrium that seats 130 and the 100-person main dining room, which has a separate private dining space for 40 guests. Each dining room has its own bar. The shared-plates menu includes dishes such as shrimp risotto, roasted cauliflower, and wood-fired pizzas.
Now hosting Britney Spears's “Britney: Piece of Me” show, the 7,000-seat theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino has been renovated and added new amenities. Now called the Axis at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, the theater has a new elliptical lobby with ambient lighting, a massive video and projection installation inside the theater, and a dance floor and V.I.P. table seating. Gensler helmed the renovation.
Chayo Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar opened New Year's Day at the Linq, the new restaurant, retail, and entertainment corridor between the Quad Resort & Casino and the Flamingo Las Vegas. The 14,000-square-foot space, spread over two floors, seats 320 and includes a 40-seat semiprivate dining room and a patio. Rounding out the experience is a DJ booth and a mechanical bull.
As part of the booming development downtown, the 629-room Downtown Grand Las Vegas hotel and casino opened late last year. With 33,000 square feet of meeting space, the hotel is suited for small and medium-sized events. Its 3,000-square-foot Grand Parlor accommodates as many as 200 guests. The property has more than 17 bars and restaurants and this spring will open Picnic, a 35,000-square-foot rooftop venue that includes an infinity pool, a full restaurant and bar, private cabanas, a fire pit, and a grass seating area.
M Resort Spa Casino has opened a contemporary Asian restaurant Jayde Fuzion, with an executive chef familiar to fans of Food Network's Restaurant Express. Seonkyoung Longest, who won the culinary reality show, has crafted a menu of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean small plates influenced by her Mississippi roots. The restaurant seats 150 and there is an 11-seat sushi bar and a 20-seat private dining room that overlooks the resort's pool piazza. The restaurant opened in December in the former Marinelli's Italian Restaurant space.
Madame Tussauds Las Vegas recently finished a renovation that includes the new Marvel 4-D theater. The 70-seat theater showcases superheroes from the comics brand including Captain America, Thor, Nick Fury, and Tony Stark.
Vdara Hotel & Spa has redesigned its meeting space. Called Silk Road, the 6,500-square-foot space opened in October and features floor-to-ceiling windows, a foyer, a prefunction area, and a breakout room. It hosts events for as many as 300 guests. The hotel is positioned as a boutique property that offers groups a non-gaming and nonsmoking environment.
Golden Gate Hotel & Casino debuted a revamped OneBar, a nightlife spot known for its bartenders—both the bikini-clad set and the entertaining flair bartenders. Following a recent redesign, the downtown bar added a large LED video screen and a permanent platform for its flair bartenders to perform. Another unique element: Drinks are chilled by an energy-conserving geothermal closed loop well system, which the hotel believes is the first for a Las Vegas casino property.
New from seasoned Las Vegas restaurateurs Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla is Stewart & Ogden, which opened in December at the new Downtown Grand Las Vegas hotel and casino. Billed as a "diner bistro," the restaurant serves fare such as an "over the top" mac 'n' cheese, steak frites, and spaghetti and meatballs. Located off the casino floor, the restaurant seats 76.
Newly opened Purple Zebra offers more than 30 daiquiri and frozen drink flavors—including nonalcoholic options—in a colorful self-serve boutique. The concept, part of the first phase of the Linq development, has guests choose from a selection of novelty glasses and fill them with their flavor of choice. It also has a candy bar. The 4,400-square-foot venue accommodates 200 for private events.
