Max Jacobson
Contributing Editor, Food
Contact: Email
Vegas Seven’s food critic started his career as a food journalist in Japan in the early ’80s. Since then, he has been a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and has written for a variety of national publications, such as Saveur and Gourmet. He's best known as an authority on Asian food, but he has rarely met a cuisine he doesn't like. He has covered the Vegas culinary scene since 2000.
Recent Articles
Diner's Notebook
Café Berlin impresses, and Simpo, Pop Up Pizza and Slice of Vegas settle in
May 17th, 2012
The James Beard Awards were held in New York on May 7, and even though Las Vegas restaurants were shut out, a few chefs with local connections did manage to win awards. But on the whole, we got screwed.
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And Everything Nice
Have your cake and pastry, too, as Megan Romano makes her next big move
May 17th, 2012
I’ve often groused about the dearth of breakfast options in town, but no longer. The east side has Bread & Butter, and now, the west side has Megan Romano’s Chocolate & Spice Bakery. Charlie Palmer’s loss is the local dining scene’s gain. We should all be so lucky.
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Diner's Notebook
Poolside brunch makes a splash, tony teppanyaki sizzles, and the art of breakfast
May 10th, 2012
Now that the weather has turned warm and seductive, the poolside-dining season is coming into full swing. Two of our coolest pools, those at the Palms and the Cosmopolitan, have terrific new dining options, and I’m fresh off experiencing both of them.
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Eat This Sushi Now!
Quick—before everyone finds out about Kabuto
May 10th, 2012
For the same amount you might pay at one of our many Taiwanese- and Korean-owned sushi bars—places that serve clots of improperly cooked rice, shaved, frozen fish and artificial wasabi squeezed out of a tube—you can eat at Kabuto, an 18-seat sushi-ya in China Town’s Seoul Plaza.
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Griddle Me This
Enormous, creative burgers and half-bottle wine specials? We’re in.
May 3rd, 2012
It’s too early to call Ray Nisi an empire builder, but he seems to be making a success of Bottles & Burgers in Tivoli Village, the most recently opened member of his Double Helix wine bar family. And lord knows this mall can use him.
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Diner's Notebook
Jasmine sounds the Khong, and Town Square gets more Fine fare
May 3rd, 2012
Bellagio’s Jasmine has a brand-new bright-red carpet, a new general manager (the affable, efficient Roberto Liendo, formerly of Michael Mina) and, best of all, a new chef, Singaporean Hiew Gun Khong.
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Diner's Notebook
Basking in Basque country, Wolfie gets an app and new tastes at Public House
April 26th, 2012
It is my great privilege to be writing this week’s notebook from Basque country in the south of France, where I am continuously enthralled by the local cuisine and products, the blue of the Atlantic and the friendliness of the Basque people.
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Get Behind the Wheel
Even with a little age on it, Morels is still ripe for cheese-lovers
April 19th, 2012
When Sal Casola and Chipper Pastron opened the first Morels in the Grove, a nouveau-swank Los Angeles mall and cinema complex, what everyone talked about was the cheese program, arguably the best that anyone had seen in L.A. Morels Las Vegas, which opened in 2008 in the Palazzo, treads a similar path.
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Diner's Notebook
Gordo moves in, another burger for your buns, and—BAM!—it’s soft-shell crab season
April 19th, 2012
Beef is again in the picture this week in a very big way. Surely the most anticipated restaurant opening of the spring is that of Gordon Ramsay Steak, opening at the Paris Las Vegas mid-May.
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Beyond Byblos
Slipping into spring’s al fresco dining is easy when Mediterranean is on the menu
April 12th, 2012
Khoury’s Mediterranean Restaurant may be our foremost Lebanese restaurant, though it insists it be called Mediterranean. That’s fair enough. Lebanon has, after all, the geography to make that claim, with a Mediterranean coastline, a warm climate and an abundance of olives, citrus and fresh vegetables.
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