Wakuda

Wakuda is two-Michelin-star chef Tetsuya Wakuda's first American restaurant — a 264-seat modern-Japanese homage to Tokyo's Golden Gai district, steps off the Palazzo lobby, built with 50 Eggs Hospitality. Time Out handed it a rare five-of-five; the room splits into main dining, a sushi bar, a Strip-view terrace, an eight-seat omakase chamber, and the Golden Gai cocktail bar tucked inside (which runs as its own destination).

The kitchen spans wagyu gyoza and shichimi-crusted duck through king-crab tempura and an Edomae-inflected sushi program, with two structured routes: the seasonal prix fixe around $120 — the accessible entry, welcome cocktail included — and the omakase room at roughly $500 a head, ten courses deep with rare whisky and sake pours, Thursday-Saturday at 5:00 and 7:30 only.

Realities: à la carte lands $120-250 a person and climbs politely forever, the 264-seat scale runs social-loud rather than temple-quiet, and the lobby-adjacent entrance carries foot-traffic hum. The terrace at sunset and the $120 prix fixe is the connoisseur's budget play; the omakase room is the occasion.