3 Over-the-Top New Restaurants Opening on the Las Vegas Strip This Week

A new caviar bar, a retro-style Italian hot spot, and a celebrity chef steakhouse hit the Strip this week

December again proves to be a busy time of year for Las Vegas’s culinary scene. Earlier this month, three celebrities opened their restaurants in one star-studded weekend when pastry chef Dominique Ansel debuted his new bakery, country singer Jason Aldean opened his Kitchen and Bar, and Lisa Vanderpump introduced a third glam night spot.

This week, the opening fest continues, with chef Michael Mina debuting his sixth Las Vegas restaurant — and his second new Vegas restaurant this year. Caesars Palace is scheduling a timely opening of a caviar bar and music venue just weeks before New Year’s Eve. And Tao Group will soon introduce a new candy and retro-themed restaurant at Planet Hollywood. Here are three restaurant openings with eye-catching designs and over-the-top menus that should not be missed this week.

Caspian’s Cocktails and Caviar

Caspian’s Cocktails and Caviar at Caesars Palace replaces Cleopatra’s Barge lounge with a sleek new entry equal parts glossy European caviar bar and technicolor live music lounge. The front of Caspian’s will be an 1,100-square-foot caviar bar where up to 50 guests can order potato latkes, waffles, and Pringles chips with caviar toppings and sides. Decorated in tones of black and white, the bar will be stocked with top-shelf alcohol for pouring dirty martinis with caviar-stuffed green olives and cocktails, like the “Fig”ure of Your Imagination with bourbon, Cointreau, fig jam, and honey.

Sporting an Art Deco design, the venue is stuffed with oversized couches in vibrant upholstery tucked behind the bar. Here, Ben Carey of Savage Garden and Lifehouse oversees a lineup of musicians who will perform Tuesdays through Saturdays. And a live band will back karaoke nights on Thursdays. The lounge, as well as the bar, will serve food and drinks like the extravagant Full Boat — a table service of 20 ounces of Imperial Golden Osetra caviar and a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne.

Caspian’s Cocktails and Caviar opens Friday, December 20. The cocktail lounge at Caspian’s will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, with the kitchen closing at 10 p.m. The live music speakeasy will be open from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Reservations can be made online.

Celano Design Studio Co.

Caramella

Caramella continues one of Las Vegas’s favorite new trends by keeping things retro at a new restaurant and candy shop that overlooks the Las Vegas Strip from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Opening tomorrow, Tao’s eighth Las Vegas restaurant takes inspiration from 1970s Italy. Walking inside, a Murano glass chandelier floats over a velvet-covered entryway, the dining room decorated with backlit onyx walls and gleaming finishes.

A candy shop stocked with Italian treats sits at the center of the restaurant, with a secret door within giving way to a wallpaper-swaddled lounge with a mirrored DJ booth. Tao’s culinary officer, Ralph Scamardella, who also helms the kitchens at Stanton Social Prime and Lavo Italian Restaurant, designed a menu that skews glamorous Italian. Think blue crab malfadine with lemon and toasted breadcrumbs or cavatelli bolognese with ground veal. Other dishes will include bone marrow surf and turf with rock shrimp drizzled in garlic butter, and a wagyu beef tartare with a fried egg. For cocktails, the La Granita is cool and fruity with tequila, orangecello, and prosecco. And the signature dessert is a tart with dark chocolate custard and salted caramel.

Caramella is on the mezzanine level of Planet Hollywood next to the Criss Angel Theater. The restaurant opens on Friday, December 20 and will serve from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. nightly. The lounge is open from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., Thursday through Sunday.

Tao Group Hospitality

Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak

Chef Michael Mina opened a Vegas outpost of his Bourbon Steak restaurant on Tuesday, December 17 at the the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas. Fresh off opening Orla at the Mandalay Bay in January, the new steakhouse is Mina’s 11th — with locations in California, New York, and other states.

In lieu of bread service, dinner service at the steakhouse begins with complimentary duck-fat fries with pastrami spice for the table. Steak here takes the form of 14-ounce New York strips and 20-ounce bone-in ribeyes. The wood-fired grill also cooks A5 striploin from Japan and a petit filet mignon from Australia. But the showstopper is a Vegas exclusive — a salt-baked and hay-smoked dry-aged tomahawk served tableside and accompanied by steak sauce, black truffle butter, or red wine demi-glace. Truffle macaroni and cheese, pastrami-spiced wagyu short rib, and spinach souffle round out the menu.

Trolley carts will rove through a dining room designed with peacock feather tones and golden arches to serve flambéed chocolate fondue desserts. Beneath a gold ceiling, the cocktail bar pours drinks like a martini with yuzu, vodka, and gin — and the Moondance mixing bourbon, elderflower, pear brandy, and pomegranate. And more than 400 bottles including 12-liter bottles from Napa Valley cult Cabernets and Super Tuscans from Italy comprise the wine list.

Bourbon Steak is open for dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and the lounge is open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. with late-night hours to be announced in early 2025.