Review of Eating Las Vegas 2012

Title:

Eating Las Vegas 2012: The 50 Essential Restaurants

Author:

John Curtas, Max Jacobson, Al Mancini

Publisher:

Huntington Press

Date:

2012

ISBN:

1-935396-49-8

Pages:

191

Price:

$12.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@jetcafe.org

December 27, 2012

Last summer I reviewed the first edition of Eating Las Vegas, released in 2010. At the time, I said that it was the best Las Vegas restaurant guide. There were several things I think the book could have done better, but overall I thought it did an outstanding job of exposing the reader to the best that the Las Vegas food scene had to offer. Allow me to go one by one through my criticisms of this first edition so we can see how they are addressed in the second.

The first question I asked was, why the book needed to be in such a small format? While the 2012 edition is still pocket sized, it's a little bigger than the 2010 version, This doesn't change the size of the pictures in the book, but I believe the size change is a positive with no down sides.

The second issue I brought up was the overrepresentation of both French restaurants and those on the Strip, and the lack of mention of any downtown dining options. In the recent edition, the number of French restaurants in the top 50 went from eleven to eight. We also have our first "Essential 50" entry from downtown, and in the "Additional Recommendations" section, we have a list of downtown recommendations.

Generally, the "Additional Recommendations" list has been expanded, and even with the larger format, the overall page count increased from 150 to 191 pages. My biggest gripe with the 2010 edition was that I just wanted "more", and we get more in the 2012 version. Moreover, the two entries on the Essential 50 list that I found most difficult to justify have been supplanted on the current list.

Frankly, it's almost as if the authors read my review (and my mind) and chose to address every single objection I had to the first edition. I already thought that the 2010 version was the best Las Vegas restaurant guide, and basically, in every way I think the 2012 version is just better. Congratulations to the authors for improving something that was already something special. Given that I already had given the 2010 edition a strong recommendation, how can I fail to sing the praises of the new and improved version?

The one remaining question that needs to be addressed is whether the new edition is so much better that those who have the 2010 version need to upgrade. Two years later, seven of the top ten are the same, and, by my quick count, 37 of the top 50 remain unchanged. So, there's significant turnover. Further, despite the book's expansion, the list price remains unchanged at a very reasonable $12.95. In my opinion, those who are carefully tuned in to the Las Vegas restaurant scene will likely want to upgrade, while those who approach it less seriously can probably stand to wait until the inevitable next edition. As for those of you who have an interest in the Las Vegas food scene who do not own the first edition, you're missing something worthwhile.

Capsule:

The 2010 edition of Eating Las Vegas immediately became the best restaurant guide ever written about the Las Vegas food scene. The 2012 edition is better in every way. Not everyone who bought the 2010 edition will need to upgrade this time around, but there are enough changes and improvements that many of those who bought the first edition will want this revision. This is an excellent guide, and I recommend it highly.