Rick Moonen Shares His Favorite Restaurants in Las Vegas

The chef behind RM Seafood and Rx Boiler Room has some fun places to dine

By Susan Stapleton Sep 26, 2016, 2:00p

Sin City is home to a lot of restaurants and bars, but there are tons of hidden gems that the majority of Las Vegans aren’t unearthing. To help guide us to these potential discoveries, we’ve enlisted some of our city’s food players to share their recommendations for a feature dubbed Dining Confidential.

Rick Moonen debuted Rx Boiler Room at Mandalay Place, taking over his former RM Seafoodupstairs space, back in 2013. The proponent of sustainable fishing and seafood graduated first in his class from the Culinary Institute of America in 1978 and hasn’t stopped since. His career took him to Manhattan’s La Cote Basque, Le Cirque, Le Relais, Century Café and Chelsea Centralbefore coming on board at The Water Club. After six years, he ventured out on his own as the executive chef and partner at Oceana and later helped create Molyvos, a Greek fish house. He opened RM in New York and decided to move the restaurant west to the desert in 2005, becoming part of the culinary scene here in Las Vegas with his venerable RM Seafood. He is a frequent Top Chef judge and Top Chef Masters runner up.

On Thursday, Oct. 13, Moonen create a feast for the Scleroderma Research Foundation’s Cool Comedy-Hot Cuisine event at Brooklyn Bowl at The Linq with Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, along with chef Hubert Keller, as well as comedian host Bill Bellamy, Rick and Corey Harrison from television’s Pawn Stars and pastry chef Keris Kuwana from Yardbird Southern & Bar with the Neon Trees entertaining. Here Moonen shares many of his favorite places to eat at any time of day in Las Vegas.

Where do you like to go for breakfast? What’s so perfect about that setting and what do you like to order?
Most recent awesome breakfast was at Della’s Kitchen in the Delano. Their huevos rancheros are killer. Super fresh ingredients, simple but it really hit the spot. Sit in a booth and all your troubles will soon be gone.

What about lunch? Any power lunch places you must try in Las Vegas? What’s appropriate about the setting and what do you like to order
Joe’s Stone Crab… It just screams place to meet to seal the deal. #tradition #machomenu #holdcourt #lunchcocktails #signhere

You’re headed out to dinner in Las Vegas. Where do you like to go? What do you order?
I love to dine out in Las Vegas. Where I choose to go depends on many factors. I usually try something different as much as I can. I recently had an amazing experience at Kame on Lake Mead Boulevard. I had the omakase with sake pairing and we were first introduced to our next course while it was still alive…super cool and no endangered species courses…my kind of perfect dinner.

Do you have a favorite spot for cocktails in Las Vegas?
For a serious cocktail you have no other choice of, besides my joint, Herbs and Rye. This is the cathedral of spirits and they are total cocktail geeks. I love it!

READ MORE: http://vegas.eater.com/2016/9/26/13051662/rick-moonen-favorite-restaurants-las-vegas