The Japanese street food on the Las Vegas Strip

(Photo: Larry Olmsted for USA TODAY)

The scene: There is no shortage of Japanese food in Las Vegas, where every casino resort has at least one such eatery, along with plenty of options off the Strip. But there is nothing quite like Yusho, a spin-off of a Chicago-based restaurant group. The concept is claimed to be a celebration of Asian street food, and while this gets a bit lost in translation, Yusho does offer an innovative small-plate sampling approach,
serving many unique and traditional Japanese dishes less common in this country, albeit with a fair amount of creative license. It boasts a very different menu from its Japanese neighbors, done in a welcoming atmosphere without any of the pretense that typically accompanies such attempts at more authentic and less discovered specialties. This is a fun, lively and casual way to explore an entirely new side of Japanese dining.

The location is vital to this vibrant sensibility. Yusho is part of the recent redevelopment of the front of the Monte Carlo casino resort into a lively urban streetscape. This is turn is part of a bigger trend sweeping Las Vegas, which is suddenly embracing the outside with an al fresco sidewalk aesthetic. Up and down the Strip, open-air developments like LINQ, Grand Bazaar Shops and the under-construction The Park are inviting visitors to leave the dark vastness of the casinos, and Yusho is part of this movement. Parent MGM Resorts blew out the front of its adjacent New York New York and Monte Carlo hotels to add bars and restaurants right on Las Vegas Boulevard, and Yusho is one of several surrounding the new Monte Carlo Plaza in front of the casino, complete with fountains and used for everything from outdoor live music at night to morning public yoga classes. Yusho has outdoor seating and a portable bar, with entrances from both outside and inside the casino, making it an inviting destination for all visitors, not just Monte Carlo guests, a place to rest your feet and fill your belly during a Strip crawl.

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