If you want to find Creole cooking on the Strip, get yourself a reservation at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House. Celebrity chef Lagasse’s venue is one of the most revered restaurants in Las Vegas, and features those Creole and Louisiana flavors prominently.
Beautiful amber hues punctuate the dining room, and the bar is an art piece all on its own. For your dinner, drinks are a good idea—try the smoked maple margarita, a fragrant sip with Montezuma blanco tequila, barrel-smoked maple syrup, orange liqueur, and lemon and lime juice. Other great options include Emeril’s strawberry lemonade, which gets a kick from Burnett’s citrus vodka, and the Original Sazerac, a classic New Orleans cocktail, here with Branson Phantom cognac, Peychaud’s Bitters and Pernod absinthe.
Although you’ll find plenty on the menu other than seafood, it’s seafood that’s the star in all the menu sections. For your appetizers, try Emeril’s New Orleans barbecue shrimp, slathered in sauce and served with a rosemary biscuit, or the Spanish octopus a la plancha with hummus and olive salad. Follow that up with gumbo, rich with andouille sausage, shrimp and okra.
You can indulge in fresh oysters with cucumber and seaweed mignonette and habanero pepper water; Alaskan king crab legs; Creole boiled gulf shrimp cocktail; and Hawaiian ahi poke. If you want to try it all, get the chef’s chilled seafood selection, featuring Maine lobster tail, Alaskan king crab legs, Creole boiled shrimp and oysters in two sizes.
One of Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House signature dishes hasn’t really waned in popularity since being introduced—the Creole seafood boil features andouille sausage, mussels, clams, jumbo shrimp, corn cobettes and potatoes anointed in Creole garlic butter. Ora King salmon, cedar plank grilled trout, Mediterranean sea bass and the Carolina Gold jambalaya with jumbo Gulf shrimp and andouille sausage (Carolina Gold is a vaunted rice) also make the cut. Plus, you can choose from other fish and seafood, depending on what’s the freshest option available.
There are traditional entrées, too: Creole buttermilk fried chicken; a Creekstone Farms prime ribeye steak; the surf and turf, with a 6-ounce Creekstone farms filet and Maine lobster tail; or the decadent Japanese A5 Wagyu filet mignon. Classic sides include mac and cheese, amped up with white cheddar and Gouda, Anson Mills creamy grits, and sautéed mushrooms. Crab, lobster, Gulf shrimp and scallops are available as add-ons to your entrées.
But possibly the best reason to dine at an Emeril Lagasse restaurant comes in a triangular form—Emeril’s banana cream pie is covered in chocolate shavings and caramel sauce. Really, it’s lucky that you aren’t presented with the dessert menu first. Otherwise, who would ever make it to an entrée?
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Summer Supper Series
Take advantage of a stellar prix fixe menu featuring wine partnerships with different winemakers each month. This month, enjoy Evenstad Reserve brut among others, plus items like Pacific halibut and crispy pork belly. Cost is $155 per person plus tax and gratuity. Call for reservations.
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