Inspired by the "Ah Vegas life" thread and the locals who posted their hate of the strip in said thread(self included)... what are some restaurants, butchers, hole in the wall, etc etc places AWAAAAAAAY from the strip that you visit regularly/prefer/know where you can find a good deal or meal??  Looking to make a compilation thread if I can for the home team and maybe get a sticky  If you got places, post em. Haven't tried a spot but know of it, post it anyways and maybe someone can check it out if they're brave enough


South ??
Butcher, going to have to go with Butcher Block since its somewhat close to me. Haven't been there for a moment but usually their packages are a good deal and deli meat was even priced with most chains. http://www.thebutcherblocklv.com/home.php

South West ???

South East ??
For Italian, I gotta roll with Montesano's. Just plain good food to me, service is usually good, and cannoli. Can not forget about the cannoli....     http://montesanos.com/

Winco I guess?? Most times you can find a lot of variety there. I like it... but you do have to bag your stuff, I suggest double bagging.  http://wincofoods.com/supermarket/n-stephanie-street-henderson-nevada/

North ???
North West ???
North East ???
West ???
East ???

North:

SNS Diner, on Losee & Colton. A BBQ joint you can smell a block away.
808mixplate: Hawaiian/Asian food, plate lunches.

I always check out restaurants on Yelp

I haven't personally been to this one but my mom raves about john mulls get your deer/elk processed try some bbq exotic meats get your normal butcher shopping done.

I like cruising out to boulder city on friday/saturday nights sometimes catch a little live music at the Dillinger good burgers as well they have a burger with bacon and brisket on it and then you can go bar hopping, there's only like 4 bars in boulder city so you can do the whole circuit and still be good to drive home.

mcmullans is kinda sorta almost on the strip but they have a fantastic steak and mushroom pie and sometimes real good irish music

naked city pizza for a bills game and buffalo wings/ beef on weck

another one i still need to check out is rollin smoke bbq joint with jazz music

sumo sushi all you can eat sushi 20 for lunch 25 for dinner just tell bento to make you tasty stuff

Been hitting seranos mexican grill for lunch lately beats the snot out of any other sort of fresh mex/ mexican fast food I've had here

lucilles smoke house also has some decent bbq and some live music on the weekends but it's usually too crowded and loud for me when they have music

and then we have a pretty decent selection of breweries barleys isn't the greatest but a $10 prime rib and $5 growler refill or $5 for a big ass mug is a pretty sweet deal. bad beat, crafthaus, joseph james are all in the same small area bjs brewhouse, tenaya creek, somethings brewing, boulder dam brewing company

hot and juicy crawfish is a favorite for the gf nice live crawdads well seasoned and dumped on the table needs a little better drink selection but whatever

I was surprised to see the number of locals posting in that thread that don't really hit the hometown forum. It would be cool to get a few more posters in here and maybe be able to set up some shooting or hiking meetups or something.

Nora's for Italian
http://www.norascuisine.com/www/

Thai?  Nittaya's
http://www.nittayassecretkitchen.com/index2.php#/home/

oh I almost forgot go see my mom at the steak house in circus circus delicious dry aged steaks

Subscribed.


Oh, and I'm not a local, but I am a BBQ snob, and I highly recommend Rollin' Smoke BBQ. Anyone else been there?

Great place. SNS also has an active smoker, which you can smell from a block away. That's a nice thing to see driving up to a BBQ joint.

Oh, hell yes.

Northeast side.

USS Fish & Chips on Cheyenne and Las Vegas Blvd.
Excellent Korean food.

Ha! Never would have suspected that! Driven by there countless times.

Henderson: Mad Batter cafe on College and Horizon.  Biscuits and gravy.

One more vote for Noras

Du-pars on Fremont for late night pancakes

http://www.du-pars.com/

The rest of the food there is great too. The place is hidden inside the Golden Gate on Fremont

Henderson: Buddha Belly Deli, nice fusion place

Another vote for Nora's
Tom

SW -
tonaktsu kiyoshi - http://www.tonkatsukiyoshi.com/
    they serve house made panko breaded pork MMMmmm

Good fella Korean Bistro - http://www.yelp.com/biz/good-fella-korean-bistro-las-vegas-2
    great soon dubu (korean spicy tofu soup) and kalbi

Taco stand on trop and jones - only open fri sat and sun 5pm to when they close. Its in the spot where the rim shop is

Chinese - Yunan Garden -https://plus.google.com/114629337880479510428/about?gl=us&hl=en
    They are ranked top 100 chinese restaurants in the US. the dry pot is delicious. Kinda hard to find.

Pizza my dear - great deep dish,. 5 lbs of pizzs

heres a thread on it as well.

http://www.nevadashooters.com/showthread.php?t=60848

Tried SNS last night.  Good cuts of meat, but just bland and no smoke flavor except for the beans.  I'll stick with Mull's road kill grill, better flavor and larger portions.

I would recommend Saffron for Indian food.

K, here we go:

Mexican
Tacos el gordo -- best god damn tejay style street tacos in Vegas. The one on charlston is usually slammed so I normally do the one on Craig rd. Try the pastor. Mmm

Viva zapatas -- best selection across the board of Mexican dishes I've found. Many different kinds of chicken moles and i haven't found one I didn't like. The Chile Colorado, steak picado, pollo en pipian, and the shrimp ceviche are all my favorites.

Lieticias Mexican cocina -- really great selection of different dishes. They do their sauces excellently and have some interesting dishes I haven't seen elsewhere like borracho.

Mundo -- its located at the base of that giant world market furniture building. The best stuff they have is mostly seafood, but it is very good. A little pricey though.

fun foodie places and fusion
Carson's kitchen -- this is an excellent fusion restaurant. I think I've had nearly everything on the menu at this point and can't think of anything I didn't like. The chicken skins, rainbow cauliflower, and beef Wellington empenada are my favorites.

Skinny fats -- this restaurant takes an interesting approach in that each dish has a "skinny" (healthy) and a "fun" (over the top) version. It's worth googling their menu because it changes often. Don't be dissuaded by the healthy dishes as they are very tasty still. A fun date is to go and each order the different version and split them and compare.

BBQ
Rolling smoke -- after my favorite BBQ place closed down (buzzs BBQ) I went in search and found rolling smoke. It is excellent! The brisket and ribs are my favs.

Road kill grille -- I'm heading more and more about this place and I'm dying to try it. Based on what the people I trust have told me it is excellent.

Lucille's -- same as road kill

Japanese (sushi and standard faire)
Ichiza -- basically a Japanese bar. Has a wide variety of stuff from sushi, to ramen, even salmon and tuna collar. I almost always get the tuna collar (hamachi kama) and mix up the other main course trying new stuff. Really great place. Very popular. Try the desert toast dish. It's amazing. Very fun atmosphere as well.

Yonaka modern Japanese -- absolutely without a boubt the best quality fish I've tried anywhere in town. Their sashimi is thick and easily the best I've had in Vegas. It's even served on a bed of shaved ice.. Mmm They have a huge variety of dishes and we have tried a bunch and all of them were great. Try the "chocolate 10 ways" desert, its soo good.

Osakas -- the one of west charlston is the one you want to go to. The other is a different kid of the original owner and is not as good. Mostly take people here for teppan or habachi. Fun dining experience and teriyaki stuff is a pretty safe for non-adventurous eaters. The show they do while cooking is fun. I don't know how their chefs have all 10 fingers.

Doh -- japanese sushi and tapas. Excellent quality food, really unique blend of Japanese and tapas. Unlike many tapas and fusion places this is one that is very reasonably priced.

Goyemon -- my favorite all you can eat sushi place. 24$ all you can eat and good quality fish and great roll selection. Very popular.

Sushi fever -- another great all you can eat. Close if not as good as goyemon.

Bocho -- a new place downtown on carson and 3rd by the same owner as le Thai. Excellent food, but a little more expensive due to the lack of an all you can eat. I love hamachi kama and found theirs a little lacking. But the yellowtail ceviche and a lot of the other fusion type stuff is great.

Japanese ramen
Jinya ramen bar -- my favorite. While I like the gyoza a little better at sora, theirs is still good. Their ramen stock and noodles (esp the thin noodle) are better then sora.

Ramen sora -- very good! I like their gyoza the best. They will do pan friend or deep fried on request.

Monta -- another good ramen spot. Place near Henderson as well as spring mtn.

A few others and ll find the name of and add. One had 5 or 6 types of shio stock. Another had some interesting like shio with black sesame oil.

Vietnamese / Pho
Pho so 1 -- my favorite! Has a good selection of non-pho Vietnamese dishes. I get mixed opinions from some Vietnamese friends but some also really like it.

Pho Kim long -- the best 24hr pho place I've found. Place is jam packed at 3am on a sat or Sunday after the clubs let out.

Man I know I'm forgetting a bunch... I'm a bad judge of pho I'll admit though. I like it all and its a hard dish to really screw up.

Korean
Hwora -- pretty new place but its the best damn Korean BBQ hands down. Better then Korean garden, honey pig, or sura. Like all new restaurants I hope they stay this good because its my goto now.

Tofu hut -- ya seriously. half of the dinibg room is tofu only seating (which is always empty because the entire other half is a Korean BBQ... Lol) . so dumb. But the food is really really good. The bulgogi is as good as hwora. Tofu hut is unfortunately almost always packed and has a wait. It used to be my go to be ayse it and hwora are very close in taste. But tofu hut would have a 10m to 1hr wait depending on time of night and day. Again the stupid dining room layout causes this.

Chinese (Cantonese / Hong Kong)
Going to preface the Chinese stuff a little, American Chinese is barely chinese food. These aren't so much "beef and bell pepper" places as they are places for the local Chinese community to get closer to authentic regional style dishes. Some of these places will not have English menus or if you dont speak the manguage they will give you essentially the white people menu (I've had it happen) which is the McChinese food crap. lol so I'll point those out that aren't English friendly to the best of my memory. But some do have pictures and brief English descriptions and usually the wait staff will speak enough English to help give a better description of the dish. A mandarin speaking guide will be a big help obviously.

Wendy's noodle cafe -- wow. So many good things here. I really love a spicy seafood soup she does and the Singapore street noodle. Pretty English friendly.

The noodle man -- hand cut authentic noodles. This place is awesome and is very English friendly.

Hong Kong tasty garden -- very good! Very popular even late at night but not so much a table is a problem. Menu had brief English descriptions but not many pictures.

Chinese (South western: Hunan, yunan, & Sichuan)
Same thing i prefaced the previous section with and the added warning of spicey food ahead. These provinces use a small black peppercorn known as Sichuan pepper. To most people the first time they eat it has a lavender taste and will tend to supplant many other favors except for other 'hot' spices. Pick the peppercorns out and be careful not to eat them. They are very strong.

Yunan tasty garden - hmthis used to be a place called 1900 but changed owner recently. Google maps still has 1900 but its really this yunan place now. Anyways, its very good. It is probably the best Sichuan style hot pot place I've tried. My girlfriend is from Chengdu and has been my guide to authentic chinese and she absolutely loves this place. Menu is somewhat English friendly. The hot pot ingredient bar where you pick ingredients doesn't require the menu or to speak the language.

Sichuan express -- this place used to be crap, then they hired the chef from a very good Sichuan restaurant and changed overnight. Food is great but menu isn't very English friendly. If you do go there is a dish with small strips of lamb skewered on a toothpick and covered in cumin. Awesome.

Shannxi -- its on spring mtn at Decatur. It's very good.

Yunan garden -- this place will have tourist busses pull up full of Chinese tourists and is rarely not busy. That usually tells you all you need to know when it comes to authentic Chinese. The last time I was there the menu was not very English friendly though. It's tucked back behind spring mtn by mayweathers gym (don't hold that aginst them)

Typing on a phone so I'll continue in a few more posts

Thai

Archi's Thai bistro -- one of my favorites. At one point in time I went here 3-4 times a week so at this point I've tried nearly everything on their menu. My favorites are the rad na, red and yellow curry, pad ke mow, and seafood Tom yum.

Le Thai -- located near Fremont it is one of the newer downtown foodie places that popped up in the last 5-6 yrs. It is an excellent eatery and is commonly very busy. So its best to call ahead if you're bringing a party. Try the awesome noodle or the 3 color curry.

Lotus of Siam -- many locals call this the best Thai in las Vegas and I can't disagree that it is very very good. Their menu is the largest of the Thai places I've been to and everything I have tried has been great. It's one of those old Vegas places that has pictures of celebrity's from all over the world dining there

Chada thai -- this restaurant was started by the gentleman who picked wines for lotus for around 10 years when he decided he wanted to go out on his own. The food quality is excellent. I think they have the best Tom kha I've ever had.

Nittayas -- I hear so much about this place but I have yet to try it.

Indian
Mint Indian bistro -- my favorite by far. Great menu selection of northern, southern, vegetarian, and halal offerings. The biggest difference in quality is the meat is mostly halal and a slightly higher grade then most other places. It's a small thing but it makes them stand out.

Saffron -- I couldn't believe how good this place was. I grew up driving past it for 10 years before finally trying it. Wow. What a mistake waiting that long. It's terrific! On par with Mount Everest. If you're in the northwest definitely check it out

My Everest inda cusine -- another good spot. It's good but the other two I listed before are slightly better.

One last one:
Ko-mex -- Korean Mexican fusion. Bulgogi burritos... It works so well together.

Annndd...


Budda belly is on my must try list after seeing the menu

 
This man knows good food.


Also, Mastrioni's for the best Eggplant Parm I've ever had.  The marinara is amazing. http://www.mastrionis.com/

Try this place:

http://www.barforte.com/about/

A hole in the wall, but great food.  Try the Bulgarian bean salad...

.

thanks guys. will be down there next week.  Now i have some new places to try !!!

One of, if not the best Lunches for the $ in the Vegas valley:

What:  Seafood Jambalaya Lunch Special
Where:  Texas Station Oyster Bar
When: Every day from when they open to 4pm
Cost: $6.99

Jambalaya is normally like a $20 dish almost everywhere around the valley & is here at night. This is a place myself and some of my coworkers hit probably on average 3 times a month now.  

ETA: Their Manhattan & New England Clam Chowder is normally pretty decent as well.

The adobada burrito at Phat Phranks on Decatur and sunset is delicious.

Bachi burger

Warm Springs and Bermuda Asian fusion burgers. Very tasty, get the oxtail fries.

Windmill and Bermuda

Great list LVMike, I just tried Carson today--the Cuban sandwich. Excellent, and the best tater tots I've had!

Meh, close enough.

Great Links on Craig and Jones.

ar15.com delivers again.

Burgers - Pit Stop in Boulder City.

Fair. Not what they use to be 20+ yrs ago.

:It's funny you say that.
My mom went there a couple of weeks ago.
She said the burger didn't taste the same and was very dry. Also the fries were greasy.

You're right they were better 20 years ago. I think beef tasted better back then.

I remember when the Pit Stop was on the highway in the old Arctic Circle building. Where the auction lot is now.

Went to the Whist in the District last week for Sunday brunch,
Small but good menu pancakes and such.
I had the duck hash and the endless bloody mary that you can make yourself.
The hash was duck meat with potatoes and peppers with an over easy egg.

Not a place I'd go everyday as it's pretty spendy, but it was a nice place for a special occasion.

My friends wife goes there and says the lunch menu is very good and reasonable,

I love that place. The area in general has some really good places. Supposed to be a Pho place opening 3rd and Bonneville. "Le Pho" so I wonder if its Le Thais and Bochos owner...

If your ever down in Southern Highlands,

Spaghetti Western
Little hole in the wall, family is Italian, never had a bad dish.

Barcelona Tapas
again, never had a dish I wasn't happy with. And they have all you can eat tapas

Found another Mexican place downtown thats good, El Sombrero.
A lot of their stuff is more on the 'creamy' side using a lot of cheese and sour creme. I don't know if thats a regional thing or something but they have some other offerings that arent that style (which I prefer) like Black Ink Squid which was really good.

Tried another place that was really good. It's called Inyo. It is kind of like a Japanese tapas place but they have some other stuff like korean and thai chicken wings. They had a bunch of Japanese beers I had never had and the food was really good.
Inyo google maps

ETA: the Japanese street corn (miso corn on the cob) is amazingly good.