When I go to Vegas, the highlight of my trip is finding excellent things to eat. The last couple of trips have been downtown, and I have enjoyed highlight steakhouses like Barry’s Downtown Prime and Oscar’s. However, at some point in the trip I always need a change of pace. Last month we went to 8 East in Circa Las Vegas. That was a fantastic overall dining experience.
So let’s start with the basics. This hotel is inside Circa in downtown Las Vegas. Circa is directly on the Fremont Street Experience. To get to the restaurant, go upstairs to the second floor. It is well marked and should be easy to find. They have bar seating, and that seating was open for singles and couples when we went. Still, I would make reservations– particularly if you have a big group.
There weren’t a lot of negatives with this place. The dishes came out in a pretty random order, but… that may have been our fault. We were six grown men who shouldn’t have been let out of the house, and I am not sure we gave the waitstaff the best plan. We just kept ordering stuff, and they kept bringing it. Happily, many of the plates were built to share.
But what do I order at 8 East?
We had the popcorn chicken skin and the crispy pork belly bacon. Those were both great, but they definitely feel like an appetizer. Be sure to tell the server that you want them to come out first. We also ordered the beef carpaccio, which was nice since it came with a substantial salad on top. That was great to break up the fat, even though the beef carpaccio was a little overdone and didn’t fit perfectly with the overall theme of the place. That dish, however, was the only miss. That miss was a lot more like a strong foul ball than whiffing on a changeup.
You definitely want to try the fried rice. It was nothing like the cheap stuff you get at your local Chinese buffet. We got it both regular and with lobster. When you add a protein, it is absolutely a meal. A very large meal at that. The only dish we couldn’t really share was the ramen. That read as more of a beef noodle soup than a true ramen, but I kinda wanna go back and order it again.
Check out our video above, but yeah, this place is definitely worth checking out next time you are downtown.
About Author
