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Lunar New Year arrives on February 1, and there couldn't be a better way to celebrate the Year of the Tiger than by sampling some of the best bite-sized Chinese food Las Vegas has to offer. We're talking about dumplings and dim sum. Steamed, fried, whatever you have in mind. There's no shortage of food to enjoy during a holiday that only seems to become more popular and relevant in Las Vegas each passing year. While Lunar New Year often comes with wishes of prosperity and good fortune—represented by gifts of money in red envelopes from parents to children—its foundation is based on family gatherings and festivities. "We like to take that time to get together, from the young to the elderly at home,” says Yen Truong, general manager of Red 8, stressing that her restaurant fosters an added sense of comfort and togetherness during the holiday. Here's the fun part: dim sum, dumplings, and other types of Asian cuisine are served in a variety of formats in Las Vegas, from fine dining on the Strip to casual cafes in Chinatown. So get familiar with these 15 restaurants—all ready to serve a robust meal to help you ring in the Year of the Tiger:
Din Tai Fung, a Tawainese chain with locations around the world, finally arrived in Las Vegas in 2020, taking over the old Aria Cafe space–a large,
expansive dining room with tall floor-to-ceiling windows. Soup dumplings are the specialty; hand-rolled, stuffed, and folded in front of customers from behind glass windows near the entrance. The kurobuta pork filling is delicious on its own, but feel free to enhance it with shaved truffles or a combination of blue and snow crab. The same pork is also used in the restaurant's wontons, drenched in a spicy chile sauce. The pork chop fried rice is another highlight, but save room for the
chocolate-filled dumpling dessert. Chef Kenny Chye has championed vegan cuisine for years in Las Vegas, frequently exploring new ways to prepare Asian cuisine with plant-based ingredients. His
latest concept, Chef Kenny's Vegan Dim Sum (west of the Strip on Flamingo Road) gives Chye a large dining room with an indoor gazebo and water feature to compliment an ambitious menu. Soy, tofu, fruits, and vegetables, including roots and mushrooms, are used in place of chicken, beef, pork and even shrimp, producing satisfying spins on har gau, potstickers, and other dim sum dishes without sacrificing flavor. A lineup of sushi rolls is nearly as good, especially a dragon roll that somehow still
works without any eel. An older, smaller restaurant, Chef Kenny's Asian Vegan Restaurant, is next to the Greenland Supermarket in the Koreatown shopping mall and serves a similar array of food. Available for Delivery/Takeout
Red 8 serves dim sum straight from the menu—all day, all night—inside a dining room of dramatic red and gold decor that feeds off
the energy of the Wynn's casino floor. The prices are noticeably higher than off-Strip restaurants, but you'll get exceptionally crafted recipes by Sandy Shi, the resort's head dim sum chef. Siu Mai (open-faced dumplings) come with traditional pork or abalone fresh from the shell. Like all Wynn restaurants, there is thoughtful consideration given to vegan dishes, so try the plant-based potstickers and jade mushroom dumplings naturally colored with spinach. At first glance, the dim sum selection
seems relatively small, but traditional favorites are seen throughout other parts of the menu (including five versions of congee—a rice porridge) along with elevated versions of Chinese staples like a Jidori take on General Tso's Chicken.
Ping Pang Pong has long been the best reason to visit the Gold Coast casino, which is geared toward locals, but just a mile west of the Strip.
The selection is deep and diverse, covering a variety of Chinese regions, from Cantonese-style BBQ to hearty portions of fried rice and crispy noodles. More than 80 traditional dim sum dishes are available from roaming carts (10 am–3 pm), but can also be ordered directly from the menu at a price that lands between $2.88 and $9.99 per dish. Ping Pang Pong serves dim sum at dinner too (with late-night hours stretching to 3 am), but the selection is more limited. Bites range from traditional Har
Gau (steamed shrimp dumplings) and Pickled Chicken Feet (which are more about the texture than the taste) to Five-Spice Roasted Duck wrapped in a lotus leaf. The family-owned restaurant has been around more than two decades, but has seen a few upgrades in recent years with stone lion (fu dog) statues, dark walnut decor, and silk lanterns that hang above the dining room, making it one of the more inviting off-Strip restaurants serving dim sum in Las Vegas.
It may have a plain exterior, but New Asian BBQ more
than makes up for the lack of curb appeal with slabs of char siu (roast pork) and BBQ ducks hang near a takeaway counter, marking the entrance to a dining room with long murals, large chandeliers, and splashes of red and gold colors. Dim sum is served all day, although only on carts during lunch. Pick straight off the menu for dinner. Whether it's fried pork wontons or eggplant stuffed with shrimp, consistency is the common theme. Each bite is packed with so much flavor, you hardly need to add a
splash of the house-made soy sauce. The restaurant makes its own sweet red vinegar too. Food is always at the right temperature (and if it's not, servers will volunteer to fetch a fresh version before it hits the table). Dinner service is more formal with an expansive menu (counting ten versions of Chow Fun alone), Peking Duck carved tableside, and live seafood dishes, including geoduck.
Come hungry and slurp down a basket of Xia Long Bao, the signature dish at Chef Jimmy Li's ShangHai Taste. The dumplings mix a flavorful broth with a
choice of fillings—pork, crab, shrimp or angus beef—with natural food colorings like carrot, bok choy, and squid ink used in the dough to help identify each one. Look at the kitchen window near the front entrance and you'll see the dumplings made by hand with a specific number of twists at the top. A wok-seared version—Sheng Jian—has a crispy bottom and mild flavor that pairs well with slippery, translucent bean noodles in a spicy beef curry soup. Overall, the restaurant's Shanghai cuisine tends
to be on the sweeter side and delivers on bright flavors with a bread-like wheat gluten dish and traditional pork spare ribs served in small nugget-like pieces. Just put down the chopsticks and chew the meat right off the bone.
Located inside the off-Strip Rio resort, KJ Dim Sum & Seafood is often overshadowed by Ping Pang Pong at
the neighboring Gold Coast, but offers a similar (albeit smaller) assortment of Chinese cuisine. You might also have better luck here scoring a table during busy hours. The dining room is easy to spot from the casino floor, thanks to a bright red gateway entrance, and has dim sum carts on patrol throughout lunch. The menus are simple, relying on brief descriptions in place of photos, so don't hesitate to quiz your server about the items as they pass by. There's a heavy focus on seafood, but all
the dim sum basics are covered, including dumplings, pork-filled buns, and steamed rice wrapped in lotus leaves.
Mott 32, initially conceptualized in Hong Kong, takes its
name from the address that kickstarted the original Chinatown in New York. Located in the Palazzo tower, the restaurant serves an elevated take on Chinese cuisine, focusing on Cantonese-style dishes in a stylish environment with hidden spaces and a series of semi-secluded dining rooms. The kitchen operates in view of customers with a busy wok station and a custom clay-brick oven for Peking Duck. Buried inside the menu is an exceptional lineup of inventive dim sum with Iberico pork making its way
into sugar-coated bao buns, soup dumplings (also available with a vegan substitute), and Siu Mai with black truffles and quail egg. Fried spring rolls come stuffed with mushrooms and roast duck. You'll pay more, but the rich combination of flavors, exceptional customer service, and killer cocktails are worth every penny.
Orchids Garden is an easy introduction to traditional dim sum. The restaurant has its own standalone building, modeled after traditional Asian
architecture, about four miles west of the Strip on Sahara Avenue. Carts are pushed throughout the dining room, serving a greatest hits of dim sum favorites, ranging from steamed shrimp dumplings and nibble-off-the-bone beef ribs to meat-filled BBQ buns and sesame balls filled with a choice of lotus or red bean paste. The servers aren't conversational, but ready to give descriptions in English or Chinese. Every item you pick earns a stamp on the check, which is totaled up at the
end.
Hong Kong Garden has a huge
selection of traditional Chinese cuisine—so huge, you'll have to juggle three different menus. One of them is dedicated to dim sum and each dish is accompanied by a photo and number, making it easy to sort things out and place an order while push carts remain on hiatus during the pandemic. It's actually quite convenient, and Kong Kong Garden is all about variety, whether you want to keep things simple with an assortment of dumplings and bao tze (stuffed buns) or get adventurous with Rainbow
Jellyfish or Beef Tripe. The baked egg custard cups may be the best in Chinatown. True to the restaurant's name, the dining room has tall wraparound windows that actually overlook a garden (well, a large tree in between buildings) with mountain views in the distance. Available for Delivery/Takeout
Hakkasan Restaurant has only gotten better recently, thanks to a few renovations carried out while temporarily closed during the pandemic.
It's a charming place that continues to be moody and romantic, with dark hallways twisting around intimate dining areas separated by Asian-inspired oak latticing. The restaurant complements its sister venue, Hakkasan Nightclub, but is much more than a pre-game spot, with an indulgent showcase of high-end Cantonese-inspired
cuisine, including Iberico pork in sweet and sour sauce or Wok-Fried Spicy Lobster. The dim sum dabbles in classic recipes, but finds even greater success when adding inventive touches. The seafood Har Gau, a favorite of head dim sum chef Waikee Choong, blends prawns and langoustines inside a handmade dough, forming a flavorful dumpling that's steamed and topped with Osetra caviar.
This residential-area offshoot by the owners of Orchids Garden has a relatively small dim-sum menu, but one that offers variety and is easy to navigate
for beginners. Each dish comes with a photo and is organized by price categories. Dumplings are well-represented, from shrimp, pork, or chicken Siu Mai to pan-fried veggie dumplings similar to crispy potstickers. Guangdong-inspired chiu-chow dumplings have a translucent corn dough that envelops their pork filling. And don't worry, the "shark fin" dumpling actually uses a meat substitute. Customers are often asked to order everything at once up front to avoid inconsistent waits, yet every dish is
flavorful and arrives at the right temperature. Available for Delivery/Takeout
One of the best restaurants in Chinatown, China
Mama balances a deep selection with fair prices and expert presentation. The diverse menu of Chinese cuisine has been streamlined a bit in recent years, but that's not a bad thing, since the best dishes (like the Dry Pepper Chicken, Hot and Sour Soup, and wontons in pepper sauce) all remain in place. But let's talk about dumplings. China Mama served steamed Xiao Long Bao pork dumplings long before the soup dumpling trend took off in Vegas and puts a cool twist on the concept with the big mouth
roll, which is almost like a pork and onion sandwich. Available for Delivery/Takeout
If you prefer a fine-dining alternative to Red 8 at the Wynn, Wing Lei is one of the most acclaimed Chinese restaurants in Las Vegas. It
earned a Michelin star (back in the days when Vegas was considered for that kind of stuff) and is currently the only Chinese restaurant in North America with a Forbes Five-Star rating. Executive chef Ming Yu's food represents a variety of regions—Cantonese, Szechuan, and more—inside an elegant dining room with high ceilings, golden tones, and windows that gaze out to mature pomegranate trees. Order a la carte or choose one of two tasting menus, including one built around Peking Duck as the main
course (carved tableside on a custom cart) with a decadent Duck and Foie Gras Siu Mai as an appetizer. The restaurant is famous for its dim sum brunch, which traditionally runs during the winter holidays and Lunar New Year, with items like Black Sea Moss, Golden Oyster Siu Mai, and Abalone Tarts offered for the latest edition.
Beijing Noodle No. 9 makes an immediate impression with a bright, pale dining room that includes oversized fish tanks and an
energetic open kitchen to view chef Li Yu and his team in action. Between steamed Pork and Shrimp Masago Siu Mai and mini wontons drizzled with unapologetically spicy Chengdu-style chili oil, dim sum is well-represented on the menu. Take things up a notch with Wagyu and scallion dumplings drenched in aged vinegar or a lobster-filled dumpling with XO sauce. If you just want a sample of what dim sum is all about at Caesars Palace, the recently renovated
Bacchanal Buffet is just a few steps away with a full station dedicated to the cuisine. Nosh down on all the BBQ pork buns, potstickers, and har gau you like (and come back for more). Rob Kachelriess has been writing about Las Vegas in Thrillist for more than eight years. His work has also appeared in Travel + Leisure, Trivago Magazine, Sophisticated Living, Modern Luxury, Leafly, Las Vegas Magazine, and other publications. It took him a while, but he's mastered his chopstick skills. Follow him on Twitter @rkachelriess. What is Chinese dim sum?Dim sum is a traditional Chinese meal made up of small plates of dumplings and other snack dishes and is usually accompanied by tea. Similar to the way that the Spanish eat tapas, the dishes are shared among family and friends. Typically dim sum is consumed during brunch hours — late morning to lunchtime.
How do you eat dim sum?Nibble, don't gobble. “It's better to take small bites rather than eat a whole piece of dim sum in one gulp. The flavors are enjoyed more when consumed slowly. With xiao long bao [delicate pork dumplings filled with a piping-hot broth], pick them up just a bit below the very tip, where the dumpling skin folds together.
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