Whether you’re dining on dumplings for the traditional brunch, a big satisfying lunch or an early supper, tremendous dim sum is abundant in the Las Vegas Valley and seems to grow in popularity every year.
There has always been a vast selection of Chinese cuisine inside Las Vegas resorts and out in the neighborhoods but this specialty is truly blossoming these days.
At the Gold Coast just off the Strip, Ping Pang Pong (702.247.8136) has long been recognized as one of the city’s dim sum institutions. The expansive, bustling dining room feels like a traditional dim sum parlor and the speedy service keeps things flowing. While the menu of Chinese favorites stretches well beyond dim sum, this is one of the best places for memorable bites like deep-fried shrimp balls, softshell crab wrapped in rice paper, pork pot stickers and more.
Just across the street at the Rio, KJ Dim Sum & Seafood (702.777.2333) is another longtime favorite for locals and tourists, a restaurant that got its start in the Las Vegas Chinatown District before expanding with this dynamic dining room just across from the Carnival World Buffet. Authentic noodle and dumpling dishes are the centerpieces of the all-day menu, and you won’t want to miss the crystal shrimp har gow or pork siu mai.
On the Strip, the Palazzo’s gorgeous Mott 32 (702.607.3232) is another refined Chinese restaurant that just happens to serve some of the tastiest dim sum dishes anywhere. The overall menu embraces the flavors of Hong Kong, but the dumplings you need to eat are the Shanghai-style hot and sour Iberico pork soup dumplings, a masterpiece of a morsel. Wild mushroom and water chestnut dumplings and sugar-coated and baked pork buns are definitely worth your time as well.
Din Tai Fung (702.590.8650) is a household name in the dim sum game at the global level, with dozens of locations in the U.S. and across Asia, Australia and the U.K. Its lone Las Vegas location is a crisp and cool restaurant at Aria, where friends and families gather to share bamboo steamers full of those Shanghainese soup dumplings, aka xiao long bao, as well as spicy pork or chicken wontons, vegan dumplings in bright green wrappers, steamed buns and expertly stir-fried greens like bok choy, broccoli and mustard greens. It’s a delightful dining experience that finally found a proper home on the Strip.
The newest dim sum destination in Las Vegas is on West Flamingo Road and it comes from veteran chef Kenny Chye, a culinary artist who continues to create the blueprint for vegan Chinese dining in Las Vegas. After successfully launching several different restaurant concepts in recent years, he just opened Chef Kenny’s Vegan Dim Sum (702.251.3920), where all those familiar flavors and dishes come to life minus the meat.
Chye crafts his own blends of meat substitutes from soy, vegetables and other plant-based ingredients to create brilliant renditions of siu mai, har gow, sesame balls, pan-fried chive cakes and other dim sum items that will fool you into thinking you’re eating pork, shrimp, chicken and beef. But it’s not about tricks at this cozy new eatery; it’s all about a delicious dim sum experience that will leave all cravings satisfied.
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