When you live in Las Vegas, visiting friends frequently ask, "What's your favorite restaurant?"…read moreIt's a tough question--Vegas has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to dining. But after about eight visits, Sparrow + Wolf has become my answer. The folks at Michelin seem to agree: they recently included it in their guide.
Like many of the best restaurants here, S+W is tucked into a corner of a nondescript strip mall in Chinatown, west of the Wynn. The dining room is small, dimly lit, and elegant without a hint of pretense. No tablecloths, just solid wood tables. The atmosphere feels more like a lively dinner party than a stuffy restaurant, and the focus is squarely on the food. It delivers.
Chef and owner Brian Howard's approach is modern American cooking with global influences, particularly Asian. Before you even walk in, the aroma of wood-fired cooking draws you toward the door like a siren song.
Sharing dishes is the best way to experience this place. The menu changes frequently, but there are a few dishes whose removal might inspire me to stage a protest outside. So I'm skipping down the menu to start with my favorite:
Bánh Cuốn ($21): Ground duck, wood ear mushrooms, and habanero wrapped in delicate rice sheets and served in a coconut sauce that will have you reaching for a spoon. Three pieces come to an order, but you can add a fourth. I love this dish so much that I frequently order it twice. It captures the care and attention to detail that make the food here so special.
Two of the "snacks" deserve particular mention:
Isaan Sausage ($7): Two slices of Thai fermented pork sausage made with garlic and rice, served with gem lettuce, perilla leaf, green mango, and nam pla (fish sauce). The sausage's tangy, slightly sour flavor makes for a terrific opening bite.
Wood-Roasted Dates ($7): Three dates on a skewer with lamb belly bacon, pistachio, goat cheese, Aleppo pepper, and honey. Sweet, salty, smoky, and rich--the perfect tease for the meal to come.
Another dish in the "don't ever take this off the menu" category is the Oxtail Hummus ($19), with crispy chickpeas, curry oil, and naan. A generous portion of meltingly tender oxtail sits in silky hummus. You'll want to put that naan to work and leave nothing behind.
Snapper Tostada ($26): Raw snapper tossed with salsa macha, fermented strawberry, and toasted sesame, served on a blue corn tostada. It reminded me of a Peruvian ceviche, with its own distinctive combination of flavors. Wonderful.
For larger plates, two stand out:
Coal-Roasted Dry-Aged Dorade ($65): Served with calamansi, serrano pepper, and koji butter, the whole fish arrives split and filleted. I'm running out of adjectives, so let's just call it somewhere beyond delicious.
Mishima Ranch Zabuton ($58): Steak lovers, this one is for you. Zabuton is a richly marbled shoulder cut prized for its tenderness and buttery flavor. Here, it's wood-roasted, served with puréed potatoes, and finished with a delicate Panang curry. I could not stop eating it.
Brian is also a sommelier, and the wine list is extensive and interesting. Refreshingly, the prices don't start at $150 and climb from there. There are plenty of excellent wines at reasonable prices. The cocktail menu changes regularly, too. One current standout is "Fat of the Land" ($19): Las Vegas Distillery gin, pandan, lime leaf, jasmine-steeped coconut milk, and melon. Oh, and this review will also serve as my request to bring back the "This is the Way" cocktail!
Then there's dessert. You have to try the Vietnamese Coffee--and no, it's not a drink. Coffee ice cream, Maracaibo crémeux, black Okinawa sugar, and condensed milk espuma. You'll be scraping the bottom of the dish to get every last bit.
The service is warm and welcoming, completing a meal that keeps me coming back.
If there were a sixth star, I'd leave it.
