In Las Vegas, Dinner and a Show Gets a New Definition

Why restaurants are taking live cooking demonstrations of fiery desserts, expensive steaks, and more to the table

In many ways, tableside service in Las Vegas restaurants is nothing new. For years, the Golden Steer steakhouse has blended egg yolks and anchovies into Caesar salad atop roving carts; servers at Joël Robuchon have pushed multi-tiered displays of flavored rolls and delicate desserts through its dining rooms. At destinations like Barry’s Downtown Prime and Wolfgang Puck’s Cut, diners can expect the old standby of the Old Fashioned cocktail poured at the head of the table rather than tucked away behind a bar.

But in the past year, Las Vegas restaurants have audaciously stepped up what one can expect from tableside service. By moving the preparations of fiery desserts, expensive steaks, and icy shellfish selections to the table, diners can have an intimate look at how food actually arrives on the plate. In true Vegas fashion, it often involves spectacle: While no Las Vegas tableside experience will outperform the strobe light and fog machine bonanza that is bottle service, restaurants are leaning into the trend — outfitting custom trolleys to rove through dining rooms.

Alon Shaya, the New Orleans-based chef behind the Safta 1964 residency inside Jardin, remembers a tableside service from 2016 at the now-closed Regional in West Palm Beach. “They had a tableside pimento cheese cart,” says Shaya. “It changed my perspective on what could be made tableside, what people wouldn’t expect.” It led to him developing a gelatin dessert, served with all the pomp of a wedding cake presentation. “I want to surprise people at the table,” says Shaya. “It was the perfect opportunity.”

Here are five standout dishes being prepared tableside in Las Vegas right now — including more still to come.

Jelleaux at Safta 1964

The spin-off of Shaya’s New Orleans restaurant, Saba, opened in February as an homage to the Las Vegas the chef’s grandmother may have driven to in the 1960s. Dinner features a generous salatim spread for diners to choose from, as well as larger format plates like crispy eggplant and pomegranate-braised lamb shank. One dessert option takes the form of Jelleaux service: Shaya’s reimagined Jell-O gets rolled out on a floral cart. Layers of red cherry, green lime, and creamy yogurt gelatin wobble and wiggle en route to the table before getting cut like cake slices and garnished. The move here is to order it dressed with whipped cream, toasted coconut, and ambrosia salad.

Safta 1964

Tableside Peach Melba at Four Sixes Ranch Steakhouse

Taylor Sheridan, the creator of Yellowstone, teams up again with Wynn Las Vegas for a steakhouse that opened earlier in September. The steakhouse custom-ordered carts with antlers for handles just for the occasion — used to spectacular effect in a dessert of peach melba. Peach slices and raspberries woosh under an open flame when deglazed with brandy, then are poured over a slightly savory version of a Yorkshire pudding with popovers, ice cream, and almond nougatine. “If there’s no interaction at a table, execution can be there but it can still feel stale,” says David Middleton, the steakhouse’s chef. “Diners are looking for something engaging.” The restaurant also serves two cocktails tableside and plans to ferry $1,000 Tomahawk steaks to the table where, upon arrival, 48 ounces of purebred wagyu will get hand-sliced and plated with bordelaise sauce and popovers filled with beef tallow and raclette cheese. “It adds another level of hospitality and something engaging,” Middleton says.

The Beef Case at Papi Steak

The Miami clubstaurant debuted along with the Fontainebleau in December 2023 and has since been slinging dozens of Beef Cases a week. Every time a 55-ounce Wagyu tomahawk is ordered, the restaurant cuts the lights, the DJ turns up the music, and the servers clamor around the table of the respective orderer for a presentation. The raw steak, nestled inside a glittering briefcase is escorted by fog machines and spotlights before heading back into the kitchen for cooking. “If I do a little show, people can swallow the price,” owner David “Papi” Einhorn said when Papi Steak opened. “I have to sell it for $1,000 or else I’m losing money.” It may sound silly — but it works. Stop in for dinner and witness an average of 20 sold nightly, with the front-of-house staff effectively making each recipient feel celebrated.

Gelato at Caramá

Wolfgang Puck closed his 24-year-old Lupo at Mandalay Bay in late 2023, replacing it with Caramá in February of this year. The Italian restaurant slings pizza, pastas, and steak. But a retro-style ice cream trolley is equally worthwhile. The green and white-striped trolley is often posted near the front of the restaurant, dispatched to serve creamy scoops of nutty pistachio and buttery vanilla ice cream in warm and crumbly cones that get made in-house.

Seafood trolleys at Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak

In October 2024, chef Michael Mina will open another Las Vegas restaurant. Bourbon Steak at Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas will incorporate trolley carts to present shellfish, caviar, and chocolate fondue to customers. A play on the classic Las Vegas seafood tower, turquoise trolleys laden with ice will ferry selections of prawns, lobster tails, and oysters to seated diners where servers can build them customized platters of shellfish with all the preferred accouterments.